Gaga does drag. Beyonce is preggers. And Britney is outdone by a bunch of pre-teens in her own tribute. I keed! I keed! Don't get your panties all tied up til the world ends. The MTV 2011 VMA's didn't deliver too much punch this year, but we saw some deserving nominees walk home with a few D-List Moonmen trophies. We also saw a few people who got recognized for being douchebags, all of them coincidentally having penises. Let's face it . . . men have no place in the music industry right now unless collaborating with a female artist or having a voice that naturally sings in the female register. A character known as "Tyler the Creator" who is famed for eating and throwing up a cockroach in a video and then "hanging himself" was voted Artist of the Year. He is also known for homophobic slurs in his lyrics so that's absolutely fantastic. . .

Gaga took home awards for Best Female Video and Best Video With A Message for "Born This Way." Brintey won Best Pop Video with "Til The World Ends" and Nicki Minaj got Best Hip-Hop Video. Katy Perry's "Firework" took Video of the Year which makes me happy since that song has such a terrific message as well. The rest do not matter.

You can catch some of the top performances below including Gaga/"Colderone"'s opening, Adele, Chris Brown's fabulous lip-synch dance (the performance really is quite nice,) Britney's tribute, Beyonce serving it, and Bruno Mars's tribute to the late Amy Winehouse.

And just to clarify one more time, if you are someone who identifies as "queer" and you can't respect Lady Gaga's attempt to bend gender norms in front of millions of people, you don't understand much about yourself. If you can't understand what that means, you need to start asking some questions about your culture. You don't have to like it, but you will respect it or just go ahead and lump yourself with the billions of people who desire and expect a heteronormative world that doesn't have to experience queer identity in society.



Over and Out,
CampusQueer

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Ding-a-ling. School is back in session. I for one am as excited as a Christmas goose for my final year of undergrad. No matter how you are facing this fall semester, CQ is here with the best way to destress during your break between Biology 101 and Mixology 516. Online Shopping. Yes gurl, it's one click away to get your retail therapy fix. And here's the kicker; they are designer sale websites that are all the craze these days. The four I recommend today are Gilt Groupe, RueLala, Hautelook, and Fab. All feature daily sales for huge discounts on terrific pieces to pick up your wardrobe or spice up your interiors. If any of them spark your interest, all you have to do is click on the photo and you will be directed to my personal invite page to get you signed up and hopefully get me a credit. Oh, you weren't expecting shameless promotion for my own benefit. When will you learn? Some sites do offer us both a little fun money though in the process. I hope some of you get to shopping and give me a little catwalk werk of your purchases. Now get to class you ole whoopherschnapper you.

Summer is coming to a blazing end. Literally it's been so hot my lady bits have melted off. With the end of summer comes so many things in Tuscaloosa, AL. It marks the arrival of football season, the begin of my LAST year at UA, and the mass influx of students either returning or moving here for their first time. To the upperclassmen, you have an idea of what you're doing. Today I'm talking to our incoming freshmen should they have already found the CQ.

I remember that first day on campus. My mother came along to get me in the door. My two best friends were there the entire weekend because they didn't want to leave me. And I got so amazingly wasted off Captain Morgan that I now reserve Captain + Coke as my true party drink. It's not a thing anyone can really prepare you for, but here are a few tips and tweets for moving to campus that should get you on your way.
 

1. You're going to need to go shopping. Of course you're going to need essentials like garbage bins, cleaning materials, poptarts, whatever. If you can avoid it, do not go to Target on the first weekend. Dear Gaga, the lines go around the entire store and it is a madhouse. Figure out what your moving plan is and how much room in the car you have to spare. Don't let the excitement get the best of you. Those lines can suck it.


2. Be careful if you drink in your dorm. Figure out if your RA and your roommates are cool first. Some RAs are just douchebags who think their sole job is to enforce morality and academic aptitude in their dorm. They are douches. Don't allow beer cans or liquor bottles to stack up anywhere in the common areas. Keep them hidden. Keep your door locked and always inspect the peephole before opening. Loud music will bring them to you faster so monitor how loud Lady Gaga is. And if you don't recognize someone at the door, immediately have everyone store their drinks either in a bathroom area or locked in someone's room.



3. Beware of the gimmicks. UA is full of them. There are several events that are apart of Week of Welcome and the rest of you college career that you should do, but more often than not they are just stupid. Don't let them put stars in your eyes with a DJ and free shirts. But by all means go and see what I mean.

4. Meeting your roommates if you did random assignment is awkward. Establish communication with them, go eat at Lakeside or the Ferg together. But I warn you to not make them your immediate friend base that you do everything with. You will eventually not like at least one or all of them. And if you are closeted, be careful how you interact with them. Don't allow yourself to be even more in the closet than you already were. This is a time for growth.


5. Design. Bring some life to that communist cubicle of a dorm. Get a tension rod and some curtains at Targeet. IKEA has great, cheap decorative pieces to liven up the space. Those walls need lots of love too. Artwork is necessary and readily available. Be sure to get those Command Hooks. And if nothing else, by all means you must get alternative lighting in there! GET LIGHTING! Those fluorescent lights will drive you to the brink of insanity. Get a lamp or two (once again IKEA is a great stop for that) with some low watt bulbs (15-45) to bring some softer lighting to your space.

 Now that doesn't nearly cover it. That's just all I care to spend my time on. The rest is all discovery. Life on campus can be nothing short of incredible. My life changed forever since I first stepped into Lakeside West three years ago. Yours will too, wherever you are placed. Welcome to the University of Alabama.

Over and Out,
CampusQueer