Remember that song that told us what the world needs now is “love, sweet love” of which there is “just too little of”? Well, I suspect that most people have no idea what I’m talking about, given that people seemingly everywhere crave conflict, especially when politicians and dictators openly seek division amongst the populace for their own self-aggrandizement.
But hey, we can always
escape from the real world and listen to a good song, because music, according
to Psychology Today, “brings people together” and “promotes trust, empathy and
relief from stress.” Note that words like “love” and “peace” are not mentioned.
I recall I was working a job when I got tired of listening to the hip-hop
and what passes for pop “music” people have been listening for the past 20-odd years (showing my age), and suggested trying out an
“oldies” station playing late Seventies and Eighties songs. After about ten
minutes someone complained they had enough of listening to “love songs” and it was
back to that grating sound of computerized noise and the auto-tuned “singing” of self-obsession.
I think about when exactly people stopped singing about love and peace; in 1990, Cher told us that there was “Not Enough Love and Understanding.” Didn’t help, but she tried again in 1995 with “Not Enough Love in the World.” That single didn’t even crack the Billboard Hot 100; but stuff like that was passe by then when people started seeing themselves as the only charity case they knew. By 1995, people thought Alanis Morissette was “deep”; go figure.
So much for love and peace. A long time ago when I was living in Sacramento, working a swing-shift job to pay for a rented room that right across the street from the Mall in front of the California state capitol building, and during the day attending what was then local version of the California State University (now called Sacramento State), taking master degree-level courses. I recall one Saturday morning I was leaving for somewhere and the neighbor across the hall came out and told me that some guy had been banging on my door making threats about how I better not make someone sad again. I must have been in the shower when he came by.
Who had I made so “sad” that someone wanted to beat me up over it? I didn’t “hang out” with anyone, and I didn’t have time for it anyways. I scraped the bottom of my mind for some clue about what this was about, but then I remembered something that had happened the previous Thursday. I was in a class that had something to do with society and communications, and the instructor was a big Madonna fan, and gushed how she had become a “role model” for girls about taking control of their sexuality and using it to empower themselves. Oh god, I remember thinking; not one these people. I mean, wasn't Barbara Stanwyck doing that in the Pre-Code days? The discussion came around to about nobody had ever done this before Madonna.
I have some knowledge about popular music pre-Madonna, I suggested that Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby” in its X-rated form was pretty racy (so was “I Feel Love”). No, that didn’t count because it something that was happening to her. End of discussion. Well, “no” I said, Sylvia’s 1973 hit “Pillow Talk”—which she wrote and failed to convince Al Green to record—sure sounded to me like she was trying to force herself on a bashful “boy.” Oh, and what about Fancy's "Touch Me," or their cover of "Wild Thing" with a former Penthouse Pet "breathing" the lyrics?
Well, you know how it is with these feminist-types: they get all discombobulated with when confronted with facts that upset their narrative, although I admit that Madonna did make this into a career rather than just a one-shot.
Anyways, apparently one of my classmates (there was only five or six in the class)—probably the white dude who purposely insulted the black student in a wheelchair with the unnecessary comment that he didn’t like feeling “guilty” about not giving assistance to disabled people in restrooms—apparently found my address in a phone book or a student register and hunted me down. I suspect he had second thoughts about it later, because he pretended nothing happened the next time we were in class.
OK, so let’s talk about Madonna, who for some strange reason saw fit to release a YouTube video a few weeks ago to grace us with her peculiar brand of wisdom. First let me say that I’m not a Madonna-disliker, like Todd in the Shadows seems to be here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCMNzdm_RKo whose one-hit wonder and “trainwreckords” videos are pretty cool. Madonna seems to have been around forever, but the reality is that her period of chart significance was from 1985 to 1991, when 10 of her 12 number one hits on the Hot 100 charted. She’s had plenty of hits on the dance charts since then, but people don’t go to clubs to dance to those songs much anymore.
OK, if I tolerate Madonna it is not her as a person, because I think she is full of shit most of the time. I can listen to her Eighties hits without being tempted to hit the “skip” button, and she has a brand and knows how to sell it even at her currently advanced age. Sure she is a narcissist, but there are narcissists who are more tolerable than others; while you have narcissists like Taylor Swift who “writes” songs that you won’t remember the next day, and sells herself by saying “look at me, don’t I look sexy?” while laying there like a log, you have another narcissist like Madonna who says “Fuck that—I am sexy” and does moves in concerts that you normally see on the stage of a strip club.
Madonna has been selling sex ever since the Blonde Ambition Tour (and even before that, when as a college student she did several nude photo shoots), and she delivers what the fans want to see in her concerts. The documentary Truth or Dare was shot during the Blonde Ambition tour; after watching it, I have to say Julie Brown’s Dare to be Truthful parody of it was spot-on. A concert video of that particular tour has never been officially released on disc, although the Madonna Store (I had to get special “permission” to enter the sacred sanctuary) sells over-priced BD-R and DVD-R versions of what appears to be from a television broadcast, and probably sourced from a streaming service.
OK, I admit it, I purchased the BD-R version of Blonde Ambition Tour, and it could look a lot better with the bit rate at least 50 percent lower than what would be considered the bottom standard for studio releases. However, I suspect that since the Blu-ray was clearly not from an HD source and was up-scaled, the people who put this out realized that upping the bit-rate any more would create even less detail, especially in the medium shots. Nevertheless, this performance has the right combination of familiar hits and in-your-face sexuality to be the best Madonna concert video out there, in my opinion:
As can be judged from her later concert releases on disc, such as from the Confessions, Sticky and Sweet, and Rebel Heart tours, as she got older, her shows tended to become even more racy. It isn’t just because she may be self-conscious about her age, but because, well, she admits that “sex” is her “drug” of choice, and she doesn’t mind playing sexual games with her audience. That’s pretty much the “evolution” of Madonna: from a relatively brief stint as a musical artist to a performance artist. Not that this isn’t something to judge her too harshly on, quite the contrary; you see a lot of superstar acts who haven’t even had hits in 50 years drawing devoted crowds.
The difference is that Madonna still has her pretensions, as Todd in the Shadows showed us in his overview of Madonna’s pretentious American Life, which demonstrated that there were limits to Madonna’s desire to “shock,” and when it all comes right down to it, her's is the only life that really matters, despite what she might want you think from the content of her music videos.
In the meantime, she’s apparently given up on winning that acting Oscar, which she should have done after Desperately Seeking Susan, since the only other “memorable” film she’s done is Body of Evidence, for reasons that have nothing to do with her acting ability. Her last major screen role was in the remake of the Lina Wertmuller film Swept Away, which was predictably swept into the dustbin by film critics who noted that the original film’s principle dynamic, between socialist ideology and society’s privileged class, was ditched in the remake as between an unlikable bitch (Madonna) and the servant who was going to show her who was the “man” once they were marooned on the island.
Not that Madonna has given up on her dream for Oscar gold; she is currently set to direct her own biopic, although there have been a few snags, such as finding a “suitable” actress to play the lead role who can sing, dance and (unlike Madonna herself) act. According to OK! Magazine,
Madonna’s been given almost total power when it comes to her upcoming biopic, but an insider says her diva demands and see-saw decision-making could spell disaster…While the mom of six is still set to direct, "this project has been in development for two years and it's not even close to getting off the ground," scoffs the insider. "It's baffling that Madonna can't get her act together either — and worse, she’s making it torture for everyone else.”
Madonna apparently is having a
problem “conceiving” what kind of movie she wants to make, rejecting one
screenplay as being too “straightforward” and trying out one that is more “artsy.”
One suspects that a straightforward biopic would require her to reveal details of
her life she would prefer not to; but critics may not be open to a sanitized
version of someone’s life with no dramatic impact. Ray Charles knew this, and he was adamant that the
film Ray would be a “warts and all”
biopic, and the result was that Jamie Foxx won an Oscar for his performance in
the lead role.
Not everyone is a Madonna, but
like Taylor Swift she allows praise to get to her head, especially when it is
the relative-to-what kind. She’s been told by her most rabid fans and feminist
academics that she is an “icon” and has been in the vanguard of societal
change, although I kind of doubt that was anything more than a passing fad,
since the MeToo movement and cancel culture suggests that most women haven’t
followed her lead in at least one respect; as we will learn, Madonna actually likes sex, knows what she wants and she'll let you know when she's ready. There's no does she or doesn't she "confusion."
Madonna seems convinced that her life and career are Oscar-winning material; she may be right, but the direction she seems to want to go with the film is more about her “art” than about her “life,” which suggests that her version of the facts of her life are not exactly the same as how an objective observer of her life (or even her "art") would interpret them. OK! Magazine continues:
“Madonna has put everything in her music career on hold to completely focus for the next year making her upcoming biopic the perfect Oscar movie,” an insider revealed last year. “In Madonna's mind, she has accomplished everything to the highest standard aside from film. She knows that directing her biopic could be her last chance for Oscar gold" the source dished of the pop superstar's passion project. “She plans on throwing the most epic Oscar Party next year to make sure she charms the voters for the following year when her film will be eligible," the insider spilled. “She’s pulling out all the stops and will use every ounce of her power to make it happen."
I think that if anything is going to wreck this film it is that Madonna is directing this, and her only major directing credit was for her 2011 film on Wallis Simpson. W.E., which received a 12 percent "rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes. Madonna once claimed that she was the “reincarnation” of Simpson; I don’t know if this was before or after she did some more reading and discovered that Simpson and Edward were Nazi sympathizers and hobnobbed with Hitler and his cronies, but living in a country estate in the UK certainly gets to some people’s already over-swollen heads.
OK, so now we are going to talk about that YouTube video, entitled “50 Questions With Madonna” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDgDMC4orNw&t=1s as if we don’t know enough about what she thinks, and to be frank here “more” is definitely less. Madonna certainly has plenty of smarty-pants comments to make in response to “dumb” questions. First thing we notice is that Madonna doesn’t look or act like someone who is 64-years-old, here sitting on her throne:
She has railed against “ageism,” but one gets the impression that she doesn’t want to age “gracefully.” She looks 25, sometimes sounds like she’s 15, and she definitely looks like she is ready for some “young” action. According to the U.S. on-line edition of The Sun,
Madonna has never admitted to having work done on her face, but it is highly suspected she has had collagen implants, Botox, and facial peels. Closer Magazine columnist, Amar Suchde, told Glowday.com she believes Madge has had numerous cosmetic surgeries on her face. She said, "I'd say Madonna has definitely had some skin boosters to improve her skin quality, something like Profhilo, or perhaps laser treatments."She's definitely looked after her skin which is making her look younger - these skin treatments avoid that crepey skin look people tend to get when they lose collagen and elastin in their face, as they age."
Madonna is also said have had work done on her buttocks to fill out the saggy spots. Anyways, if Paul McCartney can do a video responding to common Beatles queries from Google searches, Madonna can one-up him by forcing an interviewer to follow her around so that she can show off her huge estate, which certainly looks like it is furnished for just one occupant, suggesting that all that space is going to waste to serve the self-aggrandizement of that occupant.
Madonna, when she is not in a question-answering mood, may appear to be down-to-earth, but when she has something to say its earth-to-Madonna time. Your guess is as good as mine as what she is intending here, so here goes question-and-deep thought time:
Recommended reading?: “Have you read my (decades-out-of-print) SEX book?” (if you are curious, there are free PDF downloads of it available).
What is something you’ve learned or wisdom that you can share with the rest of the world? “None of this is real.” I doubt that she really believes this, but then again, when you eventually pass away, it probably wouldn’t be real to you by then anyways.
Greatest guilty pleasure? “Sex.” You can tell by her refusal to age “gracefully” that looking “sexy” is important to her; she’s not going to have sex with “old” guys.
What’s your zodiac sign? “Sex.” You have to admire her boldness.
What’s your favorite obsession? “Sex.” See, I told you.
What decision you made that wasn’t maybe the best idea? “Getting married.” One suspects that trying to be monogamous is a real bummer for someone obsessed with “sex.”
What’s type of music do you listen to? “I listen to good music.” Very enlightening. I wonder if we have the same notion of what “good” music is.
What would be
something people would be surprised to learn about you? “That I hate being asked questions.” The follow-up question should have been "So why are you doing this?"
If you can only wear one thing for the rest of your life, what would that be? “My 24-carat gold vibrator necklace.” By now you can tell that this is either not serious or she is poking fun at the people actually listening to this; she is, after all, incapable of true self-deprecation.
Madonna then passes out carrots to her stable of horses. I wonder if she actually rides them.
Your biggest pet peeve? “Lazy people.” I can hear that, at least.
Her “mentors” are a bunch of people you never heard of. They are probably people she just read something about and they served to "confirm" her own self-obsessions (although probably not about sex).
What makes you feel powerful? “Eight hours of sleep.” I hear that too, but is she really just being facetious rather than “honest”? When she sees all those people in the arena salivating over her, or is living in the UK in a huge house, it isn’t hard to believe that these are the things that makes her feel “powerful.”
What is your motto for life? “Don’t look at the queen.” Or something; closed captioning would have helped.
What would you name your alter ego? Did she say “Marilyn Manson”?
What would she be doing if she hadn’t gone into music? “Be a school teacher.” O--K.
What would you say if you met yourself from the future right now? “Don’t take any of this seriously.” Hmm.
When asked if it is hard to find inspiration in a world different from the world she started in, she says something about if one remains curious they will always find inspiration. That is the one genuinely deep thing she said in the entire interview.
What is the most outrageous rumor you’ve every heard about yourself? “I don’t know what you’re talking about. There are never any rumors about me.”
What keeps you going? “Sex.”
What’s the secret to your success? “Sex” She’s probably not being facetious there, to be honest.
That’s a wrap. At the end of the Blonde Ambition concert video, Madonna admits that she is “nothing” without her cast of supporting characters and staff. You could also add that it was the fans who made her rich and famous, but then again people who knew her as a teenager thought she always acted like a superstar. Would the world be any different without Madonna? No, but give Madonna her due: it would be a less interesting world without her.
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