Important Al Interviews/reviews.

[HalifaxKat]

These 3 articles got me thinking all sorts of questions...

1) Did Lady Gaga ever fire that manager or scale back his position at all? I mean, he demonstrated such a mind-blowingly poor sense of judgment!!!
2) That Marketing article was brilliant (OK, that wasn't a question).
3) "Air-grinding" is not a word I use every day, but that's certainly what it is in WBUL! OK, I guess my actual question belongs in another thread...

Still thinking about that Marketing article. Al has been so smart in his career. Wonder how much evolved naturally and how much was planned or carefully crafted.

[Wizzerkat]

1. I highly doubt Gaga did anything regarding the manager. Managers get TONS of requests for their client's time every day. This time he made a mistake but in the grand scheme of mistakes, this is realistically a pretty small one.

2. Loved the marketing article. I think Al has been so successful because he has done things the smart way. He could have gone the route of those who end up on bad VH1 reality shows and such, but he hasn't. Especially with his chosen career, this could have happened easily.

[minnick27]

I doubt the manager was fired. The whole story is fishy to me. It's the same manager Nelly had when al did the Hot in Here parody, so he was familiar with the process. It just seems strange that he would have Al do all this stuff and not present it to Lady Gaga. And IMO it does put his job at risk, if he is passing on something that is sure to make her money without her knowledge, what else is he not presenting to her? It would put serious doubt in my mind if I was her. Maybe he felt it did nothing to help Nelly, so why would it help her? Still made Al go through alot of hoops. I do kind of think that she said all those things, and then when Al posted it anyway she figured she may as well do it. Not saying al bullied her, she just had a change of heart when she saw the reaction to it.

[algonacchick]

OK, so we've got confirmation that he eats cheese and, in a pinch, recycled cardboard at airports (lol!), but no confirmation as to whether he eats anything besides cheese that contains animal products (like milk chocolate, ice cream... boysenberry yogurt...)

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever had boysenberry yogurt. Or boysenberries, for that matter.

I was under the impression that he does eat dairy now at Suzanne's request, so I'm thinking any dairy would fit under that category. I heard she wanted him to get more calcium. I certainly hope he eats milk chocolate, or all that candy I've been making him has been going to waste. He's never told me to stop or not to give it to him...I dunno.

[Orthography Enthusiast]

These 3 articles got me thinking all sorts of questions...

1) Did Lady Gaga ever fire that manager or scale back his position at all? I mean, he demonstrated such a mind-blowingly poor sense of judgment!!!
2) That Marketing article was brilliant (OK, that wasn't a question).
3) "Air-grinding" is not a word I use every day, but that's certainly what it is in WBUL! OK, I guess my actual question belongs in another thread...

Still thinking about that Marketing article. Al has been so smart in his career. Wonder how much evolved naturally and how much was planned or carefully crafted.

No, Troy Carter is still Lady Gaga's business manager. According to this article, he says their relationship is 95-5. She makes 95 percent of the creative decisions and he makes 5 percent (I guess Al narrowly escaped being a 5-percenter), while he makes 95 percent of the financial decisions, which I'm sure he's much better at. Or not. (perhaps they should adopt Al's Jedi mind-trick while filming videos-- he maintains mental discipline by imagining dollar bills flying out the windows).

Air-grinded sounds grammatically infelicitous, even though it is a pretty accurate description. OTOH, "air-ground" sounds like something that would be done at Starbucks.

My own guess is that Al's career just evolved, not much planning (it's not like you can really plan a show-business career anyway, there are too many unknown factors). I think he just started with a solid sense of his own musical & comedic sensibility, a belief in treating people decently, a strong disposition toward frugality, and a willingness to be open to possibilities... and this is what happened.

I notice that the marketing article now has comments from Ludovica, Patti (thanks, Patti! ) and now me. All the Usual Suspects showed up.

[TMBJon]

According to this article, he says their relationship is 95-5. She makes 95 percent of the creative decisions and he makes 5 percent (I guess Al narrowly escaped being a 5-percenter), while he makes 95 percent of the financial decisions, which I'm sure he's much better at.

Over forty two percent of parody-related decisions are made by the top five percent! We are the 95!!!

[algonacchick]

I notice that the marketing article now has comments from Ludovica, Patti (thanks, Patti! ) and now me. All the Usual Suspects showed up.

You're welcome, Helen. Your comment is not up yet, but I'l check back later.

[Orthography Enthusiast]

I doubt the manager was fired. The whole story is fishy to me. It's the same manager Nelly had when al did the Hot in Here parody, so he was familiar with the process. It just seems strange that he would have Al do all this stuff and not present it to Lady Gaga.

I'm sorry to say, it sounds fishy to me too. And even more so when you consider the way that Lady Gaga shut down Lady Goo Goo. I really think it was the groundswell of support for Al that did the trick. It's one thing to turn down somebody who wants to make fun of you, even in the good-spirited way that Al generally does, but it's a whole other thing to turn down that person and realize that your decision is turning you into a humorless Bad Sport in the eyes of more people than you ever imagined. I think she changed her mind because she realized that her image-protection strategy had backfired.

[Orthography Enthusiast]

Your comment is not up yet, but I'l check back later.

It's up now.

[algonacchick]

What a nice comment, and how lucky you've met Al's old A & R guy *excuse my ignorance, but who would that be?* Am I blanking, or should I know this? Anyway, it looks like your comment was appreciated.