Lady Gaga changd my life . . .

I always respected Gaga's extraordinary visual imagination and songwriting abilities, but this performance doubled my admiration for her. It shows off her voice, performance skills, piano playing, and rock 'n roll attitude. As a singer in training, I'm wowed by anyone who sounds good live and it was nice to see her performing at her instrument without all the potentially distracting clothes and dancers and sets, etc. She's so skilled at putting on a spectacle that I think it sometimes distracts from her sheer musicianship.

As far as the rock 'n roll attitude, there are very few who can pull this off. It's a spiritual orientation and a powerful, devil-may-care charisma that few possess. No woman has ever nailed it to my satisfaction with the exception of Alanis Morisette. So big props to Gaga for taking us to that place . . .

Oh yeah ... I switched from piano to guitar some years ago feeling that the piano didn't let me "rock out" enough . . . but there was something about this performance that made me want to revive the piano playing again.

Thank you for inspiring me, Miss Gaga!

My VMA votes . . . .

It's that magical time of year again, MTV's Video Music Awards are just around the corner. Here's my picks:

1) Best Female: Taylor Swift, "You Belong to Me"

2) Best Hip-Hop: Eminem, "We Made You"

3) Best Male: Eminem, "We Made You"

4) Best New Artist: Lady Gaga, "Poker Face"

5) Best Pop: Lady Gaga, "Poker Face"

6) Best Rock: Green Day, "21 Guns"

7) Breakthrough Video: Gnarls Barkly, "Who's Gonna Save My Soul"

8) Best Video (that should have won a Moonman): Beastie Boys, "Sabotage"

Crossing my fingers!

Vote here:

http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2009/categories.jhtml