Her songwriting is better than you'd think

Houston brought into Lady Gaga's world — buckle up for the spectacle

Lady Gaga brings her "Monster Ball Tour" to Houston on Sunday and Monday at theToyota Center.
It's Lady Gaga's world and Houston is living it for the next two nights.
From the video "Telephone," directed by Jonas Aklerlund
The Lady is a natural-born performer.

Lady Gaga ... Lady Gaga. .. the name rings a bell, but I just can't put my finger on it.

Oh wait, isn't she the lady shaking her ridiculously fashioned money-maker on MTV, VH1, E, TMZ and a couple other television acronyms I can't immediately recall every time I flip through the channels? And isn't she the heavily-produced, reverb-drenched voice I hear every time I get into my car and turn on the radio?

This Gaga-mania has gotten out of control, but it has made Houston the nexus of the pop culture world for the next couple days.

Those looking to absorb a true rock n' roll icon, whose name and songs will live forever in annals of music history, headed down to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Saturday to catch former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant.

But if you want to be part of the zeitgeist when the most popular, stylish, flamboyant and overtly-sexual diva of this millennium comes to Houston ... Gaga is your girl and this Sunday and Monday at the Toyota Center will be hotter and sassier than Hollywood and Miami Beach combined.

Two years ago nobody knew what a Lady Gaga was. The little girl born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta wasn't known far beyond the New York City club scene.

(As a fellow Italian-American, I have to say that it's a crime that she dumped that beautiful, vowel-filled moniker in favor of a title consisting of baby speak. Somewhere in Manhattan her old school Italian-American father is crying in his cannoli about that choice).

That all changed in August of 2008 when Gaga's debut album, The Fame, raced to the top of the charts around Europe, Canada and the United States (it actually peaked at No. 2 on Billboard 200 here in the U.S.) on the strength of electric pop singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face."

Her first national tour cemented her as Madonna 2.0.

Gaga's mix of catchy singles, avant-garde fashion and penchant for straddling the line between provocative and pornographic in her videos and magazine shoots made her a tabloid sensation.

More importantly, last year's follow-up album, The Fame Monster, demonstrated that Ms. Gaga has some musical and songwriting chops hidden underneath her selectively-placed feathers and sequins. Top-charting aerobic club-hops like "Bad Romance" are balanced with piano ballads like the strangely exotic and Latin-leaning "Alejandro."

For the moment it seems that Gaga will draw a throng wherever she goes while every song she releases climbs over the back of her last single to get to No. 1.

In other words, it's Gaga's world at the moment.

But for two night's she's inviting us to visit it. It might be worth the price of admission just to catch the spectacle of it all.

Sunday & Monday

Lady Gaga, 8 p.m. at Toyota Center

Tickets: $49.50-$175

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On the move

2 Houston suburbs roll onto top-15 spots on U-Haul’s list of growing cities

Sienna Plantation Running Path in Missouri City

Photo Courtesy Missouri City

Folks are making a run to Missouri City.

More movers hauled their belongings to Texas than any other state last year. And those headed to the Greater Houston area were mostly pointed toward Missouri City and Conroe, according to a new study.

In its recently released annual growth report, U-Haul ranks Missouri City and Conroe at No. 13 and No. 19, respectively among U.S. cities with the most inbound moves via U-Haul trucks in 2022. Richardson was the only other Texas cities to make the list coming in at No. 15.

Texas ranks No. 1 overall as the state with the most in-bound moves using U-Haul trucks. This is the second year in a row and the fifth year since 2016 that Texas has earned the distinction.

“The 2022 trends in migration followed very similar patterns to 2021 with Texas, Florida, the Carolinas and the Southwest continuing to see solid growth,” U-Haul international president John Taylor says in a news release. “We still have areas with strong demand for one-way rentals. While overall migration in 2021 was record-breaking, we continue to experience significant customer demand to move out of some geographic areas to destinations at the top of our growth list.”

U-Haul determines the top 25 cities by analyzing more than 2 million one-way U-Haul transactions over the calendar year. Then the company calculated the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a specific area versus departing from that area. The top U-Haul growth states are determined the same way.

The studies note that U-Haul migration trends do not directly correlate to population or economic growth — but they are an “effective gauge” of how well cities and states are attracting and maintaining residents.

Missouri City is known for its convenient location only minutes from downtown Houston. The city’s proximity to major freeways, rail lines, the Port of Houston, and Bush and Hobby Airports links its businesses with customers “around the nation and the world,” per its website.

The No. 19-ranked city of Conroe is “the perfect blend of starry nights and city lights,” according to the Visit Conroe website. Conroe offers plenty of outdoor activities, as it is bordered by Lake Conroe, Sam Houston National Forest and W. Goodrich Jones State Forest. But it also has a busy downtown area with breweries, theaters, shopping and live music.

To view U-Haul’s full growth cities report, click here.

Growth Richardson Uhaul rankings

Her songwriting is better than you'd think

Houston brought into Lady Gaga's world — buckle up for the spectacle

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On the move

2 Houston suburbs roll onto top-15 spots on U-Haul’s list of growing cities

CultureMap Emails Are Awesome
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