Coco & Breezy tell C.J. about their Gaga & Beyonce connections

A couple days before their in-store appearance and pop-up shop at Minneapolis' Studiiyo23 on Thursday, eyewear-designing twins Coco & Breezy got interviewed for C.J.'s Star Tribune column today, revealing how they got their shades on Lady Gaga and Beyonce:

Photo: Allen Cooley

Coco said they have no idea where Gaga got a pair of the dark glasses they make, which are being sold through their online store and in boutiques all over the world, as in Japan, Germany, France and Bermuda. But Breezy said they recognized a pair of their dark glasses on Gaga, in the quick scene where the egregiously dramatic singer is holding a piano keyboard in her "Marry the Night" video. (I'll take Breezy's word for this since I can't stand to watch Gaga.)

The designing twins know exactly how Beyonce got hip to their eyewear, and it's some memory.

"We've been good friends with Beyonce's stylist for two years, but we never asked about Beyonce. About six months ago," Coco said, "he wanted to put Beyonce in one of our bracelets for a video they were doing. He told her about our brand, and wanted us because the whole style of it [her video] was [Coco and Breezy] fashion inspired. Six hours before the [shoot for another video] we got a phone call: Beyonce wants you guys on set. Can you guys make it?

"I was like, 'Oh, my God! Yes! We can make it!' Beyonce sent a car to come and pick us up and we spent like the whole day with her," said Coco. "She's so humble, so sweet."

Via C.J. for Star Tribune
Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

Lady Gaga wrote X-mas track in Minnesota

Lady Gaga just revealed on Twitter that her to-be-released-at-midnight-tonight X-mas track was penned while she was on her "Monster Ball" tour bus in St. Paul back in August 2010, around the same time she infamously was captured in the Turf Club's photobooth. Listen to the track here:



Also on Twitter, Gaga says that it's not the same song as the just-leaked track "Take You Out," which you can listen to here:

Via @ladygaga
Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

Lady Gaga & Polaroid unveil new digital camera sunglasses

Lady Gaga, who was named Creative Director of the Minnesota-based Polaroid company in 2010, unveiled some pretty sweet new shades last week in Las Vegas. The sunglasses take digital photos and video. Pretty cool!

via MNSpeak



Submitted by @TheIverson

Top local viral videos of 2010

It's been a big year for viral videos. And some of the videos that made us either LOL or OMG came with some local flavor. So we've rounded up the funniest, most-viewed and (of course) LOL/OMG-worthy videos of the year, in order of number of views. (What the hell, everyone else is doing it.)

Honorable Mention: Kanye West Rapping on a Plane
Just a few short hours after doing an intimate meet-and-greet and listening party in the Twin Cities, Kanye West decided to perform an impromptu show aboard his flight from Minneapolis to New York City on Delta. Watch him do a medley of "The Good Life" and "Gold Digger" via Hollywood Life. (Number of views info not available.)


10. Max Sparber's "Ballad of Steven Slater"
When news of disgruntled JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater going ballastic on a rude passenger got out back in August, local songwriter and scribe Max Sparber offered his take with his "Ballad of Steven Slater." Another guy then added music and made a video, which later wound up on various news programs including CNN's Situation Room, garnering about 3,500 hits.

9. Brawl at TC Hip Hop Awards
The annual Twin Cities Hip Hop Awards at First Avenue turned violent this year - onstage, no less. With bar stools. It's crazy enough to have gotten over 21,000 hits since it went online back in January.

8. Gigamesh's "Double Rainbow" Remix
The epic double rainbow meme last July got a local twist when former Minneapolis DJ/producer (now based out of Miami) Gigamesh offered his totally danceable remix, nabbing over 27,000 hits.

7. Lady Gaga Flash Mob
When Lady Gaga did a two-night show at the Xcel in August, she made the local news after showing up to the Turf Club (and we posted exclusive pix). But the local Gaga-related video that went viral was the "Bad Romance"-performing Flash Mob that hit Nicollet Mall, getting over 38,000 hits.

6. GAYNGS Prom
Another big LOL/OMG story this year was the GAYNGS Prom at First Avenue, unparalleled in its sheer epicness. There was a balloon drop, show-goers dressed to the hilt in prom gear, the premier performance by the local supergroup (and also the biggest GAYNGS lineup they've ever had hit the stage). Oh, and Prince showed up. A bunch of videos were subsequently uploaded - including local filmmaker Isaac Gale's live video that got over 38,000 hits - but the most noteworthy was Pitchfork's:

5. "Empire State of Mind" Twin Cities Spoof
St. Cloud video makers Afternoon D Light are behind this Twin Cities take on Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind," which has over 300,000 hits. If you can get past the lo-fi video quality and weak singing/rapping, there are classic references to black ice, Herb Brooks, and Joe Maurer. (Okay, this is technically from December 2009, but deal with it.)

4. Jeremy Messersmith's "Tatooiine" video
Another music-related video to get over 225,000 hits is the Star Wars-inspired "Tatooine" by local singer-songwriter Jeremy Messersmith. The video, created by filmmaker/animator, Eric Power, wraps up the Star Wars trilogy via paper cut outs. The video was quickly picked up by just about every cool blog out there, including Wired, Nylon, and New York Magazine, among others.

3. "Minnesota Gurls"
Coming in at over 1,400,000 hits was the Minnesota-made video, "Minnesota Gurls," inspired by Katy Perry's summer hit "California Gurls." The autotune singing is sort of unlistenable and the video quality is poor, but they get credit for lyrics that name-drop Grain Belt, lutefisk and 10,000 lakes and expound the virtues of "waterproof boots with flannel on top."

2. Randy Moss Remixed in "One Clap"
Former Viking Randy Moss is known as much for his skills on the field as for his narcissistic, hilarious, Kanye West-esque quotes. In October, NYC/LA-based DJ Steve Porter compiled his best lines and remixed them into a seriously catchy video, "One Clap," right as it was announced that Moss was returning to the Vikings. That move lasted only a week before Moss was fired, but this video will last into infamy. It was aired on NFL Sunday Countdown and became an instant viral hit, garnering over a whopping 2,590,000 hits.

1. Metrodome Collapse
Closing off a year of Vikings drama was the truly epic Metrodome collapse earlier this month. The pillowy roof of the Dome collapsed under the heavy snow of the #blizzard #snowpocalypse #whateveryouwanttocallit and got a staggering 5,000,000 hits. Luckily, Fox News was there with a camera on the ready after getting a tip that the Dome was leaking.

Last Gaga post...we swear

Some familiar faces pop up in the fun Fox News clip about Gaga's visit to the Turf Club!



Extra: Want to see l'etoile's pix from the show? Click here for our recap!
submitted by @letoilemagazine

Gaga Goes to Eden

As one of the local Twitterers just said: REALLY?

Update: We got a confirmation: Gaga was indeed at D'Amico last night. Also, Prince gets takeout 2-3 times a week. That's your random Prince fact of the day.

Submitted by @marrina.

Lady Gaga hangs out at the Turf Club

We got a text message from our BFF Susannah Dodge who was drinkin' at the near-empty Turf around 12:30am Tuesday night. Lady Gaga had rolled up in an Escalade with a small entourage and had taken a seat at the bar.

After we tweeted Susannah's news, the word spread like wildfire, and by 1am a gaggle of hipsters hit up the Turf to seek face time with the Lady herself - and they succeeded! Sources report that Gaga (who by numerous accounts, was "drunk" - though we take that to possibly just mean "Gaga") was soon dancing around in a bra-top and hot pants, and pausing to take pics with peeps in the Turf's photo booth. Nice!

Well, it's 4am and no one's manage to scan and upload pix of themselves with Gagz, as far as we can find, so we'll just wait to post more as they surface on Wednesday. In the meantime, take note of @daviss' twitpic of the Lady exiting through the back door of the Turf Club. If you've got pix, send 'em to us at omg@letoilemagazine.com with a link or just repost the link via our comments section.

A few choice tweets:

@emmamplsart made Xcel's personal gift to Gaga!

UPDATE: Here's a photo booth pic of Gaga with some peeps at the Turf!


UPDATE: Perez Hilton posted about it today too, and included the above pic of @thebitchelor and friends. No LOL/OMG link though. Bah. We'll get famous yet.

Submitted by @letoilemagazine

Gaga does Yoga

Tricia Khutoretsky was gettin' her yoga on today at CorePower on Washington when in walks the one and only Lady Gaga! Read all about it below!

Click to enlarge

Submitted by @letoilemagazine

Lady Gaga takes over the Twin Cities Tweet beat

Are you getting jazzed about Lady Gaga's sold-out show tonight at Xcel? We know we are! We'll be live-Tweeting all night @letoilemagazine. Here's what you all are talking about:

Jessica Damsgard uploads a pic of Lady Gaga's tour bus.

Cute/Yum!

If you're dressed up you'll want to get you photo taken by Vita.mn main man Caros Gonzalez!

Not weird at all!

Holy cats - 27 semis?!

A perfect match to the ladyslipper jacket @emmamplsart is making for Gaga!

But wait, have there been any Gaga sightings yet??

Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

Lady Gaga flashmob descends upon Nicollet Mall

On Saturday night at 9:30 p.m., a flashmob of people doing the Lady Gaga dance from "Bad Romance" descended upon Nicollet Mall near Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis, just outside the WCCO-TV headquarters.

UPDATE: Higher-quality video was just uploaded by @kraabel.



See video below, or click here for WCCO's video broadcast another view of the mob (not embeddable).

Via Jessica Damsgard on Facebook

Submitted by @jahnapeloquin

Local fashion designer Emma Berg making Xcel's gift for Lady Gaga

The Xcel Energy Center usually gives its visiting celebs and performers a Wild hockey jersey or something similar, but in the case of Lady Gaga, they've gotten a bit more creative!

The Xcel has commissioned local fashion designer Emma Berg to create a custom, one-of-a-kind fashion piece for the pop icon and we can't think of a better match. Berg's own distinctive, over the top personal style and mad skillz as a fashion designer make her a natural choice for such a project. She's of course keeping the design deets under wraps, but shot out a little hint via Facebook today:

A look from Emma Berg's Spring/Summer 2010 line / Photo by Emily Utne

Emma Berg in her own design at Glamorama / Photo by Emily Utne for City Pages

Gaga plays two shows at the Xcel on August 30th & 31st. Wanna go? Tix available here.

Submitted by @letoilemagazine

Oh my Gaga!

City Pages @gimme_noise tweeted some very exciting news this morning! The one and only LADY GAGA will be playing a show on August 30th at the Xcel Energy Center! Deets are scant thus far, but Xcel has the confirmation on their site already. We're already planning our outfits.

If you haven't watched Gaga's crazy new vid for "Telephone" yet, watch it now!



Submitted by @letoilemagazine

Gaga in MN?

A certain photo posted by Lady Gaga herself created some local Twitter buzz this morning. It was announced two days ago that Gaga will be Polaroid's new creative director and inventor of specialty products. What that means is still completely unclear and Polaroid company has not been sharing any additional details except that "new products by Lady Gaga will hit retail shelves starting in late 2010". Gaga, however, decided to tease us a bit by posting a picture of her new business card on Twitter:


Let me point out the obvious: the card has a MN address. Tom Petters apparently bought Polaroid in 2005 and incorporated it within his Petters Group Worldwide holding company, headquartered in Minnetonka, though we hear Polarioid was eventually sold to another buyer (Hello, Petters scandal).

Anyhoo, should we start the Gaga Stalker site now or later?


Submitted by @marrina.

Lolly Pop vs. Lady Gaga

Local electro-pop cutie, Brooke Aldridge aka LollyPop, is making some pretty choice accusations against Pop sensation Lady Gaga. Aldridge claims that Gaga has been ripping her off for quite some time now, and the local musician finally feels she has enough evidence to blow the whistle.

Aldridge compares a 2007 Lollypop performance at the Triple Rock to Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" video, saying "Tell me the guys backing her in the vid aren't a souped up version of The Couture Club (but on crack/a funding we never had)"


She also claims "She's [Gaga] also using our marketing motif for the Monster Ball Tour, calling it 'The World's first ever Electro-Pop Opera.' We certainly weren't presumptuous or not well enough versed in music history to use "world's first", but if you look at our album as well as tour press releases and press from that time, the wording's "Electro-Pop Operetta"

To make matters stranger, Aldridge has members of famed local funk band, The Time, on her side. She says in her press release, "The Time + Prince camp agree (ironic for her since she's fan, which is probably how this all started)- the evidence is clear. Again, don't get me wrong, I do think she's a wonderful performer- I would never take that from her, but facts are facts. "

She also states that Monte (of The Time), Morris Hayes, and Matt Fink are compiling press statements about the situation and that the Prince camp is donating studio time for her to record a song about the situation.

Not much discussion seems to have surfaced on the internetz yet, but Aldridge has put up a Facebook page entitled "LOLLY POP HAS BEEN KNICKED BY LADY GAGA" that makes numerous comparisons to back up her theory.

What say you? Wingnut or Victim?

submitted by @letoilemagazine