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GAGA…I was up bright and early this morning in order to find the five or six hours needed to go through Emily Herbert’s biography of Stefanie Germanotta aka Lady Gaga. I had a number of questions I wanted answered about the pop phenomenon, particularly after a recent Neil Strauss piece in Rolling Stone seemed, to these jaded eyes, to be indicative of a bit of myth making (I was also struggling with just how impressive she was as a performer ie how could a 24 year old have such a commanding presence?)

Assertions of poverty and living in “cockroach” infested apartments seem hard to square with the fact she attended a high school, Convent of the Sacred Heart (with Paris Hilton), that charged 30k a year in tuition fees. Also, Germanotta had attended the prestigious and expensive Tisch School of the Arts (Angelina Jolie, Woody Allen etc) and these playgrounds of the rich and elite hardly seem consistent with her tale of impoverishment.

The book, “Behind the Fame”, is the standard “quickie”, a rubbish collection of facts gleamed from various articles and interviews, but it does serve to give at least a quick overview of GaGa’s life.

Her father, a successful entrepreneur, was also a failed musician and he initiated a learning process with the young GaGa that emphasized the need to master the basics and also certainly rewarded her ardent pursuit of musical interests. The young Stefanie was taught piano from the age of four and was exposed to the absolute best in terms of her education, scholastic and artistic. She can compare the chord progression in Bach to her work on The Fame and not leave you giggling. This grounding is what separates her from most pop star wannabees.

At the age of 14 she began performing in jazz clubs in New York, on open mic nights, always with her mother by her side. The strength of her stage presence and ability to handle a crowd likely grows from exposure to non-receptive and occasionally hostile audiences throughout her formative years. GaGa also began writing her own material at this age and, before hitting 15, was committed to achieving success in popular music. The tools and support were both available and accessible based on a receptive and committed family, and due to the singers own ambitions and desires.

At 17 GaGa drops out of Tisch, a massive blow to her parents, and does, indeed, head out on her own (remarkably similar to Madonna, who turned her back on a Dance scholarship from the University of Michigan in order to initiate her foray into pop music). She becomes estranged from her parents. GaGa, in order to support herself, begins burlesque dancing and develops a massive cocaine addiction. Charmingly, she enjoys using drugs alone and always to (uh oh) The Cure. (stop - and I wonder why I felt this incredible connection to her - start).

During her travels in the New York underground she falls in love with gay culture and the underground clubs. She develops her theories of “performance art” while working the clubs and playing with various bands (You Tube has a treasure trove of her early performances, including a romping version of Led Zeppelin’s D’yer Maker). Early performances of unreleased songs are fascinating. She is a brunette, with none of the rock star accoutrements, but remarkably sincere and appealing.

She creates an act supported and guided by the outrageous Lady Starlight. The hair goes platinum and the pants disappear. Gradually she meets and impresses the quartet that will put her on the path to fame; the aforementioned Lady Starlight, Red One, Rob Fusari and Akon. Each greased the wheel and aided and assisted her climb. That it happened so quickly (”Just Dance” was released in 2008, when she was 22) is a testament to both her uncanny song writing skills and her disciplined workaholic approach.

She kicked drugs (hopefully not The Cure though) and reconciled with her parents.

It’s a very impressive story and one that, based on her training (Outliers, anyone? She easily had her 10,000 hours, the amount Malcolm Gladwell asserts is required before you master your field, completed before she hit twenty), her innate talent, ambition and work ethic, she stands as a virtual certainty to be the driving force in pop for the next decade.

My questions were answered and my cynicism punctured. The things we can accomplish when we get up a bit early on a Saturday, eh?

Lady GaGa encountered poverty as the result of personal decisions which lead to estrangement from her family and substance abuse issues but also intense creative growth. Her stories of meagre resources are based on fact. Her overpowering stage presence can be traced back to the backbreaking hours she put in performing in the New York clubs while honing and creating both her material and her image.

PUG LIFE…it’s a done deal; Antonio Margarito will challenge Manny Pacquiao on Nov 13^th , almost certainly in Las Vegas (if Margarito is not licensed in Sin City, then the fight will be moved to Mexico. That’s a threat. Las Vegas, anxious for the money that accompanies a PacMan extravaganza, will promptly reinstate the sleazy Margarito and the fight will proceed). Here’s the skinny; Arum has promotional control of Margarito and thus controls both fighters in this scrap. It’s why he did not consider boxers who would have made the night memorable - fighters like Marcos Maidana, Timothy Bradley, Andre Berto or Devon Alexander. Those top contenders are not Top Rank fighters and thus would have cut the pie for an impossibly greedy Bob Arum…

…this fight deserves recognition as one of the grossest and most despicable moments in the history of the sport. Margarito should be in a prison cell, not in the ring with the best fighter in the world. Since his drubbing at the hands of Shane Mosley, Margarito has served a suspension and fought just once, a bout where he looked utterly shot….

…how good is Antonio Margarito? Who can say? If, as is likely, he fought for a good part of his career with plaster inserts, then it is entirely possible that he is as limited as his last two fights indicate. So not only is it a seedy and squalid event, it also promises a lousy fight. People, you have to draw a line somewhere. There has to be some level of moral accountability. This is a fight that must be avoided if only to send a message of some sort to Arum and his ilk that there must be a modicum of decency and integrity if the sport is to continue…

…the internet is rattling with variations of this theme; if boxing and horse racing seem utterly incapable of producing the matches that fans want (in this case Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather and Rachel Alexandra vs. Zenyatta), then what is the point and purpose of their existence? Both have endeavoured to insult and degrade their fans and, ultimately, the diminished financial returns will prove monumental. As a fan of both, traditionally my two favourite sports, I’m just at a loss over the events of 2010. I’m disgusted with the self serving rhetoric, the lack of awareness of a greater communal good, the pervasive greed and the unfiltered filth of the sports main players. It’s just gross. It’s gross being a boxing fan and a horse racing fan in North America in the 21^st century…