tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70589207261826690282024-02-07T02:45:45.430+00:00marc andrewswriter/pop historian/photojournalistmarc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.comBlogger633125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-43892579295255841802022-12-07T18:40:00.004+00:002022-12-07T18:40:54.661+00:00The Ten Best Queer Albums of 2022 (posted on www.dnamagazine.com.au)<p><a href="https://www.dnamagazine.com.au/dna-counts-down-the-ten-best-queer-albums-of-2022/" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://www.dnamagazine.com.au/dna-counts-down-the-ten-best-queer-albums-of-2022/" target="_blank">DNA Magazine story link</a></p><p>Here's my list of the ten best queer albums of 2022 (with Honey Dijon's late coming dance extravaganza "Black Girl Magic" getting an honourable mention too) that's now up on DNA magazine's website (and free to read for everyone). Hurrah!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_p8u8tiZM9_Jb7xsNJDXof9K-s7krFlcblayAjHvhINIFXao-frt1txCpUYfHn7XHYDkUM6r73gzsmM1ryR2cH24elRg8rfctzNr4uaPStk6dui56CuNXfYhSy-fegjKtFE1K8qJpHLMB3P9Tdr29k7MulCepKt1zfZqhKI9fo5UgpxSnyhdOWnu/s2048/Screenshot%202022-12-07%20at%2018.36.29.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1406" data-original-width="2048" height="437" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_p8u8tiZM9_Jb7xsNJDXof9K-s7krFlcblayAjHvhINIFXao-frt1txCpUYfHn7XHYDkUM6r73gzsmM1ryR2cH24elRg8rfctzNr4uaPStk6dui56CuNXfYhSy-fegjKtFE1K8qJpHLMB3P9Tdr29k7MulCepKt1zfZqhKI9fo5UgpxSnyhdOWnu/w699-h437/Screenshot%202022-12-07%20at%2018.36.29.png" width="699" /></a></div><br /><p></p>marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-77376331163574232662022-09-30T21:22:00.005+01:002022-10-01T13:42:03.103+01:00Does "Sex" still matter? Madonna's 1992 "coffeetable porn" book at 30!<h1 style="clear: both; text-align: center;">A "Sex-y" essay by Marc Andrews</h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid0b-H9-EnVQkF3hGfJAnlpzJC1WsW95atsQr2_bmFlChvt_uwXll07CCZAt28oGjnUM2DxXIcvRjwOJcKScGnv7aGnjyttSOuvPl-vkxL4aDzoMpDAe6FJjCOYYCMwdq9Qwmnjq4L2r0uzRcVg_x2LAs4mzLOEkYrjHxTNt7WyIt7qZxvAEhDFOVl/s4032/IMG_5027.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid0b-H9-EnVQkF3hGfJAnlpzJC1WsW95atsQr2_bmFlChvt_uwXll07CCZAt28oGjnUM2DxXIcvRjwOJcKScGnv7aGnjyttSOuvPl-vkxL4aDzoMpDAe6FJjCOYYCMwdq9Qwmnjq4L2r0uzRcVg_x2LAs4mzLOEkYrjHxTNt7WyIt7qZxvAEhDFOVl/w480-h640/IMG_5027.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><b><i>Sex</i>. It's also a book by Madonna, pop fans!</b></u></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">In the almost 30 years since I first bought my copy of Madonna’s </span><i style="text-align: left;">Sex</i><span style="text-align: left;"> book in Sydney (on its simultaneous global release date of Wednesday, October 21, 1992, fact fans!) I’ve probably only ever glanced through it a…um…“handful</span><span style="text-align: left;">”</span><span style="text-align: left;"> of times. It always seemed an oversized tome more at home sitting reflectively, innocently and out of harm’s way on a high shelf well out of reach rather than actively being fingered, lingered over and thumbed through incessantly on my coffeetable.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">My last proper thorough “just browsing, thanks!</span><span style="text-align: left;">”</span><span style="text-align: left;"> occasion would have been roughly a year after <i>Sex</i> was published, when I was requested by the makers of <i>Smash Hits Australia</i> to bash out a glossy fanzine, wittily entitled </span><i style="text-align: left;">Madonna – The Material Girlie Down Under, </i><span style="text-align: left;">to celebrate the Queen of Pop’s inaugural Australian visit and tour in 1993. <i>Sex</i> went, thus, down under. As you do.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9DZUmdgxgIHY-rnE0PhTNtMgTCVL5st4HbznSkfHJr8HHi7WShuolZkqghD1weKYMrzoCx5Z_HJy0AvpGp3XVdXloC_UgJY6Xc0e8YeHpM3E220GD3zgWswq85VfR4lEkRydCApHosQjHkFHD-I5ZskA9D-DLCmyG2kcqwmpCvChrHRoR-JrqGXwr/s4032/IMG_5564.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9DZUmdgxgIHY-rnE0PhTNtMgTCVL5st4HbznSkfHJr8HHi7WShuolZkqghD1weKYMrzoCx5Z_HJy0AvpGp3XVdXloC_UgJY6Xc0e8YeHpM3E220GD3zgWswq85VfR4lEkRydCApHosQjHkFHD-I5ZskA9D-DLCmyG2kcqwmpCvChrHRoR-JrqGXwr/w480-h640/IMG_5564.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>1993's Australasian-only <i>Madonna: The Material Girlie Down Under</i> fanzine - with bonus <i>Sex</i>!</u></b></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">When I wrote my recent </span><i style="text-align: left;">Madonna: Song By Song</i><span style="text-align: left;"> book during the various COVID lockdowns, I avoided <i>Sex</i>, only feeling the urge to splurge on relistening to the bonus one-track CD that, yes, came with the book (a more minimalist if not more lacklustre version of </span><i style="text-align: left;">Erotica</i><span style="text-align: left;"> called </span><i style="text-align: left;">Erotic</i><span style="text-align: left;"> that begins with Madonna, ahem, momentously clearing her throat and featuring the fan fave, and cute-but-culled, lyric “Bend over baby/I’m gonna make your smile”). That means I haven</span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">t roughly manhandled <i>Sex</i> for circa three decades.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Madonna’s very unlike-a-virgin book, just for the record, sold 1.4 million copies (<i>Sex</i> sells, shoppers!), but also effectively ensured virtually everyone associated with it was quickly smothered and mired in a great big dirty dollop of notoriety, if not brazen infamy, plus more than an immeasurable gust of scurrilous scandal too (Vanilla Ice, we’re eyeballing you here with your oddly puritanical “underpants on” stance!). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">So, with its 30th anniversary looming large on October 21 this year, I thought it a pertinent, opportune and appropriate moment to reassess </span><i style="text-align: left;">Sex</i><span style="text-align: left;"> in detail, separating its covers from its content, and its bonus content too, in order to really “sex-sessfully” tabulate this fabled book’s…<i>how do we put this?</i>…sordid sex appeal in today’s post-plastic, less-fantastic digital age of the internet, social media and – lest we forget! – that bad ass we are now on intimate terms with too called cancel culture. Get set for hanky panky ahoy!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU2RwaE9zW2MGhyiYfgktQrOXfcXRcFdLtcq1y8pGYhIbvKbDCpTC5AHeFJiRJrgPq1DzjeN-0Tzt60px_rZdLmMl1Tv6T5DSVgMW9iyzFVSRpS0MabZc727v2WWMwZ2Y3uuUNAvZrkLH19nvKL2ry_6uSILxxEp7ly3fmhKW5qpaXd8rOJ2XGHb2Q/s3738/IMG_5021.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3023" data-original-width="3738" height="518" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU2RwaE9zW2MGhyiYfgktQrOXfcXRcFdLtcq1y8pGYhIbvKbDCpTC5AHeFJiRJrgPq1DzjeN-0Tzt60px_rZdLmMl1Tv6T5DSVgMW9iyzFVSRpS0MabZc727v2WWMwZ2Y3uuUNAvZrkLH19nvKL2ry_6uSILxxEp7ly3fmhKW5qpaXd8rOJ2XGHb2Q/w640-h518/IMG_5021.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><b>30 years later Madonna still in ecstatic erotic glory on the cover of 1992's <i>Sex</i></b></u></td></tr></tbody></table><b style="text-align: left;"><br /></b></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b style="text-align: left;">The Packaging!</b><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The <i>Sex</i> book’s shiny, slick, silver Mylar packaging has surprisingly held up rather well over three decades, although on my copy, which has flown the tyranny of distance and thousands of air miles between Sydney and London, there are some unflattering creases that refuse to budge, though luckily no signs of actual disintegration. Yet! Who knew a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate, originally created for use for film camera and by NASA, could be so resilient? Guess TeamSexBook did! Great work, or should that be “booksmart”?!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">It’s also the same material American junk food faves Pop Tarts are sold in, plus Mylar is used for bagging that other bastion of high art, comic books, to protect them from the ravages of time. Again, who knew? </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The front image on the packaging is an arty overexposed icy blue headshot of Madonna’s face and blonde tousled hair with a deceptively modest “Madonna Sex” inscription (used in close crop on the <i>Erotica</i> album cover – talk about double penetration!). On the back is the rather more mystifying message, “Warning: This book contains adult material and its exterior packaging reflects the controversial and sensitive nature of what is inside”. I’m guessing this is why the “white out” cover shot, which basically pushes Madonna’s 1986 <i>True Blue</i> album cover over its climatic precipice, is so, er, heavy-handedly retouched then. Speaking of which, one of Madonna’s hands, with cutesy nail-polished fingers, is also visible on the back…for those who enjoy one-handed entertainment most likely. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><h1 style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="text-align: left;">“A better title for <i>Sex</i> might have actually been <i>Fetish, </i></span></b><b><span style="text-align: left;">as this is more like a catalogue of fantastically filthy fetishes Madonna plays out!</span><span style="text-align: left;">”</span></b></h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The price given is £25 which nowadays seems a real steal, especially in this current shambolic era of the plunging pound. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The publisher is listed as Martin Secker & Warburg and this well-read lot famously opted to put out George Orwell’s grim-no-saucy-pix syllabus classic <i>1984 </i>(in 1949) incidentally. They were an imprint of American publishers HarperCollins, which clearly didn’t want its all-American multinational corporate brand/name tarnished or anywhere near <i>Sex</i>, despite the fact it clearly states here “Made in U.S.A.”. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Why the price is not in $$$$ then remains another unanswered question. Martin Secker, who merged his company in 1935 to form Secker & Warburg, died in 1978, decades before Madonna’s <i>Sex</i> had his name on its tactile packaging. Now part of Harvill Secker, the company’s current manifesto declares that “for more than 100 years we have celebrated curiosity, discovery and understanding”. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Madonna obviously came to the right place for her cunning curio, though her chosen publisher sadly afterwards failed to even entertain the idea of a reprint, or even a non-hardcover copy, or even non-hardcore version of <i>Sex</i> (soft-core <i>Sex</i> or just flaccid <i>Sex</i>?). Thus Madonna’s <i>Sex</i> outing, in its original printed form, remains a one-time only edition, collectors take note! <i>Antiques Roadshow</i>, take cover!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBMhPa0wvkpT2dCHM9Nyvpe3I_iwttPm-vzHGLEDI--Zc0LsAsS3fhik1OGiG6s33smchy0X66WRzwN1LPFtfbpzqZtKhCl8X61U91OZLFwAVMCx6GlvDLlW2Bhc90ADTvqCYbHrPyCNxMdz2mh09jIyUJ2WBK_gCFn9dzFROjZckLErsN0hefpuZy/s4032/IMG_5022.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBMhPa0wvkpT2dCHM9Nyvpe3I_iwttPm-vzHGLEDI--Zc0LsAsS3fhik1OGiG6s33smchy0X66WRzwN1LPFtfbpzqZtKhCl8X61U91OZLFwAVMCx6GlvDLlW2Bhc90ADTvqCYbHrPyCNxMdz2mh09jIyUJ2WBK_gCFn9dzFROjZckLErsN0hefpuZy/w480-h640/IMG_5022.jpg" width="480" /></b></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><b>The inner metallic <i>Sex</i> cover - very stiff, very silver and not-very-sexy actually.</b></u></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></span></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><b>The “real cover”! </b></span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Once you delve inside the Mylar packaging (mind those sharp edges now, dear!) the prospective reader/viewer/perv can unmitigatedly get their mitts on Madonna’s (or doppelganger Dita’s?) <i>meisterwerk</i>! There’s that pesky three-letter word SEX again printed in typewriter typeface on stiff, cold, hard metal just to remind you of the lewd, lurid and lascivious things Madonna has in store for you inside. Oo-er, missus!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Then there’s yet another coverpage with the letters “madonnasex” on stiff brown cardboard-like paper (hey, we get the idea, folks?!), which appears to be ageing and yellowing not as well as the rest of the contents. This comes alongside some big name print industry player credits who all deserve another pat on the back, or at least on their behinds: “photographed by Steven Meisel”; “art direction by Fabien Baron”; “edited by Glenn O’Brien”; “produced by Callaway”; and, <i>encore une fois</i>, the publisher’s credit. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">So where are these <i>Sex</i>-ed up blokes all now? </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Esteemed American writer and art critic O’Brien, who Madonna first met through her brief fling with artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in the early 1980s, passed away in 2017 at the age of 70 after years of ill-health. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">63-year-old French-born creative director Baron (also credited with directing Madonna’s mostly banned and very bent <i>Erotica</i> music video clip that same year in 1992) went on to found and run the Baron & Baron creative agency, specialising in promoting fashion brands and luxury lines. Baron also invested much of his artistic energies into reviving Andy Warhol’s<i> Interview</i> magazine, where O’Brien also made his journalistic mark BS (i.e. Before <i>Sex</i>). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">68-year-old happysnapper Meisel got his start as an illustrator for Studio 54’s favourite fashion designer Halston and prior to his <i>Sex</i>-capade had judiciously shot Madonna’s juicy, iconic 1984 <i>Like A Virgin</i> album cover (yes, the one with the wedding dress and the “boytoy” belt). </span><span style="text-align: left;">Meisel is contemporarily considered one the grand doyennes of high fashion photography, despite his risky/risqué <i>Sex</i> detour with Madonna three decades ago when he was still a sprightly 38-year-old.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9mEsiZTsdK6GM-1PVUMa_bT-_hopANQikJ85zHDc7lCPR3yRA8ADSOFcTrVJhVTxTB8N_qmVn_8mBfGTpEWD0nDvOqIvbBPry7_OGd_kbdMZE9O7ePHd_13D_rx_FVm43XUK4YmGV9bJcceleeYP77ombIQrVCGqPd-C8tlepQ8NTYs8iPxxAZEA2/s1296/Erotica%20album.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1296" data-original-width="1290" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9mEsiZTsdK6GM-1PVUMa_bT-_hopANQikJ85zHDc7lCPR3yRA8ADSOFcTrVJhVTxTB8N_qmVn_8mBfGTpEWD0nDvOqIvbBPry7_OGd_kbdMZE9O7ePHd_13D_rx_FVm43XUK4YmGV9bJcceleeYP77ombIQrVCGqPd-C8tlepQ8NTYs8iPxxAZEA2/w638-h640/Erotica%20album.png" width="638" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Spot the difference, comparison shoppers, between the <i>Sex</i> book and the <i>Erotica </i>album cover!</u></b></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Callaway, which produced the book for Warner Books, a subsidiary imprint of global player Warner Communications, would soon after evolve, or devolve even, into Callaway Arts & Entertainment. Surprisingly, they would re-team with Madonna a decade after <i>Sex</i> (and she’d had two kids!) on her moralistic children’s tales, <i>The English Roses</i>, of which she would pen a not-so-dirty dozen individual titles, though their appeal to children almost 20 years later now is a tad more, er, thorny. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Oh, and lest we forget that just a few years post-<i>Sex</i> and pre-<i>Evita</i> in 1995 Madonna found one spare evening in her busy Queen of Pop mistress schedule to read Callaway’s David Kirk children’s classic <i>Miss Spider’s Tea Party</i> at a <i>Bedtime Stories</i> pyjama party too. See how they’re literally all together in bed with Madonna in this, readers?! Sheesh.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The back cover, as you might expect, completists, is also in chilly, steely industrial aluminium with a stretched “X” symbol housed inside brackets because everyone knows how sexy brackets are, non? So why the “X”? An educated guess would be ’cos this made buyers aware/beware yet again that what</span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">s inside on the next 128 pages is, yessiree, rather X-rated (although the “R” rating was used in Australia at the time for classifying adult material so “X” didn’t really hit the spot, G spot or otherwise, down under). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Hold that thought though because we’re going in closer and it’s going to get messy, undressy and even confessy too! </span><span style="text-align: left;">Strap yourselves in readers. This is likely to be a very bumpy ride indeed. Madonna/Dita’s going to put you in a trance and teach us all how to…. <i>yikes!!! </i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilH4y_asa6n18cqd-b1SkWzP2wjoaE3yX5-nigtRwvpfNFxJAp_0XxOBCcdfljrsyvxQ0TXSl-mX1OBQvlJvD2buJelHquiCHByFs3LbFqwzTnrkmoocuZxoWlwnb3Z3Ux_DIMJBQKDe446kIQSWV9D4fvLo-PsoApvW35MmDtjNUNJYFlJFV6yOyy/s4032/IMG_5029.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilH4y_asa6n18cqd-b1SkWzP2wjoaE3yX5-nigtRwvpfNFxJAp_0XxOBCcdfljrsyvxQ0TXSl-mX1OBQvlJvD2buJelHquiCHByFs3LbFqwzTnrkmoocuZxoWlwnb3Z3Ux_DIMJBQKDe446kIQSWV9D4fvLo-PsoApvW35MmDtjNUNJYFlJFV6yOyy/w480-h640/IMG_5029.jpg" width="480" /></b></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Credits where credits are due. No prizes for guessing whose name is biggest on this page!<br /><br /></b></u></td></tr></tbody></table><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b style="text-align: left;">The sort-of-warning page!</b><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Sorry folks, we’re still not quite there yet, apologies for all this publishing foreplay palaver. On the back(side) of the cover there’s a perky (or is it pesky?)</span><span style="text-align: left;"> 250 words or so dedicated by Madonna to explaining her lofty, intellectual and high-minded reasons for writing </span><i style="text-align: left;">Sex</i><span style="text-align: left;">. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">“This book is about sex. Sex is not love. Love is not sex,” it begins earnestly, “but the best of both worlds is created when they come together”. Awww, who said erotica, romance is dead? </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Three years after she controversially and commendably included a safe sex leaflet inside copies of her 1989 album <i>Like A Prayer</i>, in what was then still an age of untreatable HIV and AIDS (pre-1996), it was also laudable and applaudable for the Queen of Pop to include a life-and-death note in <i>Sex. </i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">“This book does not condone unsafe sex,” she preaches gravely.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">“My fantasies take place in a perfect world. A place without AIDS. I</span><span style="text-align: left;">f I were to make my dreams real, I would certainly use condoms. Safe sex saves lives. Pass it on.”. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">In other words,</span><span style="text-align: left;"> AIDS=Death. Yes, it</span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">s Madonna at her ACT UP acting-out best. Take a bow, gay guru!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The last line, however, is Madonna flipping to revert to her most flippant, if not most frivolous: “Nothing in this book is true. I made it all up.” </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Oh, alright then, spoil all our fun. Glad that clears things up on that matter. <i>Sex, </i>in Madonna’s mind at least then, is therefore ostensibly fiction with a little friction and hopefully some lube too to assist with greasing those brain cogs. Talk about a mind fuck!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Pictured opposite on the spiral binding (is there anyone who thought this contrivance was a big and clever way of book binding? No, didn’t think so!) is a sinister looking shot of Madonna in a spooky B&W silhouette holding on to the back of a bed with a rope clearly around her neck. Kids, don’t try this at home! No, really, don’t!!!!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhJhzqppURz5MpS24wK6anABbC2wajJurfuffZBNDM87UDWETs05NaEc8sldugJJ1wdxpzzoOJyoR8SaikbMKe5X23avYIhNSqusrAxc62OytDP-3rMUM4yr5TO8wOZqqNe5L58FmDvdOvZLhpOGLoU3oONcrLXpWUaCBQj9rat8iq52DuF_HZZPue/s4032/IMG_5023.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhJhzqppURz5MpS24wK6anABbC2wajJurfuffZBNDM87UDWETs05NaEc8sldugJJ1wdxpzzoOJyoR8SaikbMKe5X23avYIhNSqusrAxc62OytDP-3rMUM4yr5TO8wOZqqNe5L58FmDvdOvZLhpOGLoU3oONcrLXpWUaCBQj9rat8iq52DuF_HZZPue/w480-h640/IMG_5023.jpg" width="480" /></b></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><b>"X" marks the spot on the back of Madonna</b></u>’<u><b>s hardcore/hardcover <i>Sex</i> book</b></u></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="text-align: left;"></span><b style="text-align: left;"><br /></b></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b style="text-align: left;">The opening “moneyshot”!</b><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Opposite yet another “S E X BY M A D O N N A” typewritten page intro (ho hum aka “don’t bore us get to the chorus”!) we finally have the pleasure of meeting the star of the <i>Sex</i> show – the Queen of Pop’s naughty alter ego/love technician “Dita”. Yes, punters, she’ll be your mistress tonight. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Cue the lyrics from <i>Erotica </i>though,</span><span style="text-align: left;"> as with the song itself, the word “fuck” is muted to “……”. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Turn the page and, oops, she did it again. There it is in full – “I’ll teach you how to fuck” later to grace a tour T-shirt from 1993’s <i>The Girlie Show</i> concerts, then revived for the 30th anniversary this year. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">That Madonna/Dita, she sure knows her merch/zeitgeist!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGFd9UJrt3MqmuSUe1rqWVEAx6H0DjVdrDX0N_pTrCuEFCqgopPW_muoQL5EggJxtSy-dUQXIQrgfn1FE6-QQQvJLFc6cuomCPFGKRCiEHJUcq3iN39VERLDtNAsTWd1DdmWnQ0iIizP2wlKgNHfWYIa83NeexKiHeGXsEcyOKFD4DAzSiDGAZAlJ/s1150/finally-enough-love-pride-i-ll-teach-you-how-to-f-...-t-shirt-21654-p.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1150" data-original-width="1150" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGFd9UJrt3MqmuSUe1rqWVEAx6H0DjVdrDX0N_pTrCuEFCqgopPW_muoQL5EggJxtSy-dUQXIQrgfn1FE6-QQQvJLFc6cuomCPFGKRCiEHJUcq3iN39VERLDtNAsTWd1DdmWnQ0iIizP2wlKgNHfWYIa83NeexKiHeGXsEcyOKFD4DAzSiDGAZAlJ/w640-h640/finally-enough-love-pride-i-ll-teach-you-how-to-f-...-t-shirt-21654-p.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Wear it with pride, <i>Sex</i> lovers!</u></b></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b style="text-align: left;">The (for want of a better word) “Madonnaporn”!</b><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i>Sex</i> gets to grips with its subject matter, quite literally, on its</span><span style="text-align: left;"> very first proper page with Madonna fingering <i>la bouche</i> and, yup, Madame seX’s lady garden at the same time. Talk about a loitering multi-tasker! She’s also decked out in a fancy leather studded ultra-skinny bikini bottom and “free the nipple” bra. Where are those goddam shiny tassels when you need them, eh showgirls?! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpfZclrVeCiuQ7nsx4TP4fr-YffGSC3dM121vW-ssYYDltmjeTMPuoZLcbjpY2XIOG_0jpnjLv5xEyZvrh-1Nw59wPNv29E5BgiHhvbliFypuTL8EyG0BSn_zQe9zZjvZFb867apPL5WP7AzZ-mClpwncVJxIBbUoBmLPKcu9fjTEoHQJOIxXcDRO/s616/Sex%20Mads.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="616" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpfZclrVeCiuQ7nsx4TP4fr-YffGSC3dM121vW-ssYYDltmjeTMPuoZLcbjpY2XIOG_0jpnjLv5xEyZvrh-1Nw59wPNv29E5BgiHhvbliFypuTL8EyG0BSn_zQe9zZjvZFb867apPL5WP7AzZ-mClpwncVJxIBbUoBmLPKcu9fjTEoHQJOIxXcDRO/w640-h408/Sex%20Mads.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Dita the teacher is in session. You have been warned, <i>Sex</i> students!</u></b></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">And so our (S)exploration of carnal discovery/depravity (you choose!) begins into the dirty, depraved and debauched mind of one former Catholic, now ex-communicated for life we’re pretty sure, ex-virgin and so very extra Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone. </span><span style="text-align: left;">Her name now though is Dita, last name Parlo, and she’s in charge. Time to get </span><i style="text-align: left;">Sex</i><span style="text-align: left;">-y.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">First come (or should that be cum?) are the closely cropped loveable lesbians who are generously granted nine dedicated pages, with the extra of one additional page where our esteemed author informs us </span><i style="text-align: left;">In The Realm Of The Senses</i><span style="text-align: left;"> (a steamy, controversial 1970s Japanese erotic thriller/potboiler which features eggs being sucked out of vaginas!) “turns me on because it’s real”. Hey lady, that’s a movie, but we digress…Madonna also reveals here that she surprisingly enjoys reading </span><i style="text-align: left;">Playboy, </i><span style="text-align: left;">despite the fact they did her over five or so years earlier with some old nude photos from her skint dance student days/daze. Sorry, late publication whores, that skin rag went out of publication during the first great age of COVID in 2020. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Our second set of <i>Sex</i> visitors to Madonna’s book is that roguish and voguish, good time, happy-go-lucky, put-a-smile-on-your-dial S&M crowd (Dita calls it like she whips it here – </span><span style="text-align: left;">“We could use the cage. I got a lot of rope.”). As you might expect this “hurt me hurt me but the pants stay on” section involves various low to high risk activities including flogging, a rimming chair, a sling, some high heels, a paddle, lots of candles, a cross and some restraints. Less expected, however, is Madonna’s plucky use of a pinball machine in the midst of all this intense and deep diving slap and tickle. Game on! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">“There is something comforting about being tied up,” Madonna attempts to convince us. “Like when you were a baby and your mother strapped you in the car seat.” Erm…pass. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Thankfully, as we keep merrily flicking along, we next well-cum the arrival of our lusty lady’s then boytoy, model/actor Tony Ward – best known for his role as, er, her toyboy in 1990’s saucy <i>Justify My Love</i> video – with shaved head. Perhaps it’s a nod to the lesbians early on, then again perhaps not. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Toyboy/boytoy Tony gets cracking chivalrously by licking Madonna devotedly, which, turning the page, in a New York minute abruptly leads to a high school group rape scene involving another skinhead. Madonna doesn</span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">t look especially happy in the photo. Understandably really, especially considering she would confess 21 years later in 2013 that she was raped when she first moved to New York in 1977 while still a teenager. Did Madonna actually intend this section of </span><i style="text-align: left;">Sex</i><span style="text-align: left;"> as a self-help trauma survival guide of sorts. Unlikely, revisionists, <i>Entschuldigung Sie.</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">This is, to be honest, arguably one of the primary stumbling “questionable” entries in <i>Sex</i> that would likely not have survived scrutiny if it had been published in 2022. In all honesty, <i>Sex</i> probably wouldn’t have been published in 2022 at all, it</span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">s also worth reminding ourselves too. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Before you can shout a yearning, burning “consent is sexy” catchphrase from the COVID generation Dita is back scrawling some bloke called Johnny a long note from – where else? – the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Cannes to declare she’s feeling very relaxed “cause Ingrid just ate my pussy, so you’ll forgive me if this note is sloppy and short as I am feeling very hot and squishy inside”. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Remember how Madonna recently reminded the world she</span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">s addicted to sex? She hasn’t changed much in 30 years, has she? Age has not dimmed her fixation, so it’s presumably high time for a 12-Step intervention, or at the very least attending a meeting of Sex Addicts Anonymous! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">And is this Ingrid that she mentions so often actually her close real-life bestie Ingrid Casaras, who Madonna is rumoured to have stolen” from former gal pal comic Sandra Bernhard because she’d suddenly decided she was “pan-sexual” back then? Mull on that gossip-munchers and we might have an answer to this stickily cunning conundrum rather soon as it transpires. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgGgAu19QBGY4xBiwWfLg68tREIb8PzL2EIFgSSVWo09CSf2X010_OcUcZ02My-jmsaAVzjuGAMLN1qBkkrGRn7VDs-IHPgjLrFx_eVuSIrYRpS3IP2EYqjI6oHRvP7YiBBnGtcIrQ6emWoM3L3KbPWJR9CbcUAeRrzI-XcWDyu99HOW4iIc3bjGUy/s4032/IMG_5025.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgGgAu19QBGY4xBiwWfLg68tREIb8PzL2EIFgSSVWo09CSf2X010_OcUcZ02My-jmsaAVzjuGAMLN1qBkkrGRn7VDs-IHPgjLrFx_eVuSIrYRpS3IP2EYqjI6oHRvP7YiBBnGtcIrQ6emWoM3L3KbPWJR9CbcUAeRrzI-XcWDyu99HOW4iIc3bjGUy/w640-h480/IMG_5025.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Sometimes more was less when it came to <i>Sex</i>'s difficult-to-enjoy "clit lit"</b></u></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Next along waltz in a bunch of pretty young wistful things of the male variety with long loused up hair which also features Madonna/Dita fondling them in various ageism-ain’t-nothin’-but-a-number situations focused primarily around lingerie, group sex and open-mouthed kissing. Not necessarily in that order, mind you. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">“Sex with the young can be fun if you’re in the mood,” Madonna/Dita insists. Feasibly not the shrewdest statement Madonna has ever made, or written, though doubtlessly she’s talking about youngsters who are, as they say in pornspeak, </span><span style="text-align: left;">“</span><span style="text-align: left;">barely legal</span><span style="text-align: left;">”</span><span style="text-align: left;">. Let’s hope so, Twittersphere. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">It’s succeeded playfully by Madonna indulging in a serious rimjob to a bottom in a jockstrap. In all probability it</span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">s Tony Ward again, owner at that time of a gloriously firm upstanding butt that was once described in a gay magazine to Madonna as </span><span style="text-align: left;">“</span><span style="text-align: left;">an ass you could serve drinks from</span><span style="text-align: left;">”. She heartily agreed</span><span style="text-align: left;">. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">At the same time as her power-rimming session, just because Madonna can, she delivers a stern feminist statement asserting she “wouldn’t want a penis. It would be like having a third leg.” Wishful thinking at its best, m’lady. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Moving right along, because it’s savvy not to linger too long here in case you get, er, bogged down, we are then granted a full page summary of Madonna’s erudite advice on how to make someone desperately want you.
“The best way to seduce someone,” she claims encouragingly, “is by making yourself unavailable.” Mmmm. So how’s that worked out for you then M/D? </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i>Sex</i> proceeds to then offer up more prose, <i>really</i> <i>intense dense prose</i>, that not even sex-starved academics would be able to decipher coherently, best summarised by the line “there’s no better way to wake up in the morning than with my lover’s cock inside of me”. Talk about morning glory. L</span><span style="text-align: left;">ittle wonder she and her partner are “waking up the neighbourhood”. Security!!! This scenario is “conveniently” continued on page 154, except of course it isn’t, for no particular reason. Pah.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">After a brief interlude about phone sex (remember this was pre-internet, pre-smartphones, pre-apps, millennials!), the lesbians and the gays gather harmoniously for a meat’n’greet at the urinals. Why? Well, this is pure fantasy after all, remember and this exquisitely queer photo is actually a masterful and sexy concept that somehow slipped through the, er, cracks. Madonna/Dita appears to either be off-camera here, or more likely she’s just become the ultimate troughguy. Oops, we really have lets our minds go where are mouths are (or vice versa). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2dHtqls5gJ0-98nm02C7-_zgOrxkEceDoHLRsYY_kQAa-TAhLADapGDxle4L2W3yRRxDhy1N4dh1ZL6rQpvuMhipmjgnGaHTLrEU6VgA8bOXKU75c7yPloHcHEgpX_CA4vbRz3H6bxr_K9kUd0RmSGcBR0h6-7ECK7dcBeZFf64iWomUSMUD_Ci8D/s1364/Erotica%20toesucker.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1364" data-original-width="1342" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2dHtqls5gJ0-98nm02C7-_zgOrxkEceDoHLRsYY_kQAa-TAhLADapGDxle4L2W3yRRxDhy1N4dh1ZL6rQpvuMhipmjgnGaHTLrEU6VgA8bOXKU75c7yPloHcHEgpX_CA4vbRz3H6bxr_K9kUd0RmSGcBR0h6-7ECK7dcBeZFf64iWomUSMUD_Ci8D/w630-h640/Erotica%20toesucker.png" width="630" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>The withdrawn toe-sucking 12 vinyl of <i>Erotica</i> finally released 30 years later this very month!</u></b></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Flip the page and - <i>Gott Im Himmel!</i> - Dita returns to give Johnny a Fergie-sized toejob all the way from The Big Apple. “Things have not been the same since you left,” she writes almost quoting verbatim the opening line from her single <i>Secret</i> which would be released two years later in 1994 (hello secret <i>Secret</i> preview!). </span><span style="text-align: left;">“I hardly ever think about my pussy,” she adds. The last bit was not in her single. Clearly. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">This is quickly followed by Madonna’s lusty musings on her earliest memories of self-love aka masturbation. Before you can say <i>“Fick dich!”</i> Dita returns soon after, spilling her beans about sowing her oats to a nameless, faceless and visually under-represented doctor. Her erotic dreams are evidently all about girls just wanting to have fun because they involve a “little blonde chick” who she names, oh yes she does, as none other than queer pop icon rival Cyndi Lauper. </span><i style="text-align: left;">She-bop</i><span style="text-align: left;"> that one, 80s ladies! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">That might be upsetting enough for more sensitive viewers (not to mention admirers of Cyndi’s <i>True Colours </i>anthem), if it weren’t for the fact Madonna is pictured on the opposite page crouched over a goofy, woofy dog clad in only a bunny tail, gloves, heels and a big naughty grin. Did that poor pooch sign a waiver for this? Call, or better bark at, his agent! </span><span style="text-align: left;">“</span><span style="text-align: left;">Ruff</span><span style="text-align: left;">”</span><span style="text-align: left;"> stuff indeed.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjde758-fbWq3_m9GctVkVeGppkAkNmiOAsKDuoNrht1DdSWK64rz-2pdwu8V7ncf460qaoEhLl1ldBKhakR7YQHYkfo-l-xloNMy4kzC4uWpZih75KUhPD9nzeBe-rFBNa56VQ473iyjeYJFd09Vew0vdAubMwc1b1gw4QlQUTN4jlxsRJk0znK2mp/s4032/IMG_5024.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjde758-fbWq3_m9GctVkVeGppkAkNmiOAsKDuoNrht1DdSWK64rz-2pdwu8V7ncf460qaoEhLl1ldBKhakR7YQHYkfo-l-xloNMy4kzC4uWpZih75KUhPD9nzeBe-rFBNa56VQ473iyjeYJFd09Vew0vdAubMwc1b1gw4QlQUTN4jlxsRJk0znK2mp/w640-h480/IMG_5024.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>"Kisses sent from heaven above they get sweeter and sweeter...etc...ad lib to fade..."</u></b></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>Before one can worry oneself too much about animal rights it is – finally enough love! – the moment when “the gays”(TM) arrive in force, <i>en masse</i> and <i>sans</i> clothes. Madonna kindly informs us she has a twitchy itch she likes to scratch regularly at gay male strip places. “Only the guys at the gay clubs can dance and they always have really good bodies,” she declares ecstatically. Yes, most valued perv-patrons, we have been dropped off at NYC’s feted “gay male burlesque” Gaiety Theatre, which sadly closed its doors for good (and probably not-so-good too!) in 2005. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Gay porn star Joey Stefano, who would die of a drug overdose two years later in 1994, features prominently, as does his memorable penis, while openly gay German actor Udo Kier, now in his late 70s, adds a dash of seedy Eurotrash to the buff beefcake all-you-can-eat-in. You might recall Udo also had a featured role in Madonna’s deliriously subversive yet discolicious </span><i style="text-align: left;">Deeper and Deeper </i><span style="text-align: left;">music video later that year in 1992. Lifetime Achievement Academy Awards voters, take note please! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="text-align: left;">“The biggest pop star in the world almost got cancelled decades before the world </span></span></b><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="text-align: left;">even knew what cancelling was!</span><span style="text-align: left;">”</span></span></b></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Madonna’s very in-your-face <i>Sex</i> gays receive a humungous 10 dedicated pages, in case you’re still scoring. As you might also suspect there’s a fuckfest full of hot, horny homos kissing, writhing, wearing thongs, baring their genitals (and buttholes!) alongside an uncharacteristically stately Madonna, dressed in formal evening attire with a glittery gown, dripping in expensive jewellery, and loving every skanky second of it. Is this the same outfit she wore to the Academy Awards in 1991 (where </span><i style="text-align: left;">Sooner Or Later </i><span style="text-align: left;">won its </span><i style="text-align: left;">Dick Tracy</i><span style="text-align: left;"> composer Stephen Sondheim an Oscar for Best Original Song) and then perchance she popped in to the Gaiety afterwards on the long drive home in her limo? Talk about a big night out, fag hags of the world! </span><span style="text-align: left;">Just how do you follow that homoerotic horniness? Easy peasy, vaginal sleazy. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">“My pussy has nine lives!” declares a (w)hole page of <i>Sex</i> in large letters as this verbal intercourse is overshadowed opposite by a nude Madonna and a pissing fish sculpture. What’s the possible connection? To pee or not to pee, that is the question? We smell a squishy wet fish visual metaphor here. Toss it back!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Before you can chew on that non sequitur before suppertime Dita is here again – in case you missed her sordid penmanship – and she’s managed to find the time to knock off a fistful of letters to dear old Johnny about Ingrid’s birthday. Let’s assume they all had delicious red velvet cupcakes to celebrate, shall we? </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Before you can holler “birthday suit</span><span style="text-align: left;">”, however, we swing back to “I like my pussy” because Madonna hasn’t quite finished with her own genitals just yet, thanks for asking. Cue a slew of pix of Ms. Ciccone pleasuring herself before Dita barges in to strike </span><i style="text-align: left;">ein </i><span style="text-align: left;">pose and contact Johnny to let him know how she’s so jealous of Ingrid. Surprisingly, we STILL haven’t as yet actually laid eyes yet on her gay gal pal Ingrid (Casares?) in the </span><i style="text-align: left;">Sex</i><span style="text-align: left;"> book, but before you can ponder that too much Madonna has yanked us over yonder into sex with the elderly. Yup, here comes/cums “gerontophilia” to give intimate relations with senior citizens its rightful, respectful and respectable name. Lock up your aged care facility residents, grandkids! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Alongside these poses Madonna sees fit to contrive a lengthy diatribe about how there are “so many women with the ugliest guys”. Mercifully that sullied, ripe ole term “sugardaddy” which we all expected is omitted here.
Careering along quickly there’s Madonna full mooning at the beach with a spot of hairography, joined by Isabella Rossellini (now 70) cameoing as a fully-clad man just because she can, next to supermodel wannabe Tatiana Von Furstenberg (now 51) and a brief appearance by – yes, she really is real after all! – gamine Ingrid Casaras (now 58). Told you!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">You want more, readers? What about a huge double page spread of so many clever words about Madonna’s debauched, dirty and downright shopping list of freaking fantasies that it’s mindfully best to just glance at the ones highlighted like “clit” and “pussy” to get the general gist of things. Clit lit ahoy!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">That’s merely to get you in the mood, however, for the red hot starring role on the next page of none other than Mr. Blond Ambition himself, Vanilla Ice (now 54)! Oh yes, the <i>Ice Ice Baby</i> rapper, who Madonna briefly dated during the book’s concoction, stars with his then lady love opposite another written section which begins coyly, “I don’t think you have to have a language in common with someone to have sexual rapport”. Do you see where she’s going with this? Van, for some hard to believe or explain reason, gets seven dedicated pages in <i>Sex. </i>Bet he regrets that now. Or Van’s then manager does. </span><span style="text-align: left;">Incidentally, he does not get naked in</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><i style="text-align: left;">Sex</i><span style="text-align: left;">. Thankfully. </span><span style="text-align: left;">He did, however, later go on to be arrested for grand theft and perform for President Donald Trump. Not at the same time, however, though that is a distinct possibility. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo0kGKSFNVeUmYmffWYe_UlPePKrCSQ-RYiHtrU9j6PXv03c3Ku6tf_tEav8FvDKh5G87pIdI-KO6kw2qvil0xerVxKxIhmpD9-o2-MTc6ALmCYBoDpHvwIzjeCYY3Ihv1puXeZu7MUpcNwT7gyCfncZpqviV26z97zHT8S1boUqh7m68q9hh-RmQi/s623/imago0077676250s.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="623" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo0kGKSFNVeUmYmffWYe_UlPePKrCSQ-RYiHtrU9j6PXv03c3Ku6tf_tEav8FvDKh5G87pIdI-KO6kw2qvil0xerVxKxIhmpD9-o2-MTc6ALmCYBoDpHvwIzjeCYY3Ihv1puXeZu7MUpcNwT7gyCfncZpqviV26z97zHT8S1boUqh7m68q9hh-RmQi/w640-h432/imago0077676250s.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Madonna and Vanilla Ice have...er...in <i>Sex</i>. Don't they make a lovely couple then?!</u></b></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Back to </span><i style="text-align: left;">Sex</i><span style="text-align: left;"> and there’s yet another letter from “nympho” Dita to Johnny (is anyone else a tad bored by their limpdick correspondence yet?), before the big name guests keep a-coming/cumming, like black rapper Big Daddy Kane (also now 54) and black supermodel Naomi Campbell (now 52). These two dark-skinned beauties get six pages, in case you’re </span><i style="text-align: left;">still</i><span style="text-align: left;"> keeping, er, score. Naomi looks like a deer in headlights who is failing to keep her mind on the pay cheque. BDK, meanwhile, keeps his slinky teeny panties on. Now where’s the big dick energy in that then, eh, sizequeens?! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Another page of very long Madonna/Dita dirty talk/probing prose ensues about a long sex fantasy involving a woman called – and, no, we’re not making this up here! – Lourdes. That Madonna’s daughter would be born five years later and be given the name Lourdes simply boggles the brain and defies further examination. BTW: dontcha wonder what Madonna</span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">s kids think of her <i>Sex</i> book, or if she</span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">s even let them have a sneak peek at the copy she is unreliably rumoured to have hidden under her mattress?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">To snap you out of that triggering situation, it is </span><span style="text-align: left;">– </span><span style="text-align: left;">say it ain</span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">t so! </span><span style="text-align: left;">–</span><span style="text-align: left;"> high time for Dita’s farewell letter to Johnny. She’s found out he’s been having sex with Ben (don’t ask!) who seems to be some guy Ingrid was keen on.
“Next time you want pussy,” she snarls, “just look in the mirror. Gone fishing. Dita.”
Not exactly LGBTQ+ friendly now, is it, Mads? Where’s the queer love where you really need it? </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">As we inch towards the end of <i>Sex</i>, nude illusion hitchhiker Madonna (clutching her clutch) famously shows up in more black and white pap shots, then for a late evening snack pops off on her heels to chow down on some pizza with a semi-bored audience who like to watch. How come no one has mentioned the topless pizza eating shot before? Hold the extra anchovies while you’re at it, delivery boys!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Then, prepare yourselves students of fine literature, because Madonna is due to unveil her final, if not ultimate, <i>Sex</i> statement right here, right now: “A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That’s why they get what they want”. Express yourself, don’t repress yourself, to coin a phrase. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i>Sex</i>, dear readers, has now officially left the building. Kind of.
A long list of credits follows and isn’t it always a joy to see both the Gaiety Theatre and The Gap getting “special thanks” side by side. Ah, cock’n</span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">corporate coziness at its finest. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Madonna’s not quite done yet either. Oh no. She has considerately compiled her own lengthy page of ass-kissing acknowledgements.
“I would like to thank everyone who made this book possible, especially the people who took their clothes off when I asked them too,” she whitters respectfully and, in all likelihood, also nakedly. “Most of all thanks to Steven Meisel for not being afraid when I was. Perfection.” </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">And so Madonna’s <i>Sex</i> book is <i>really</i> done. Except it’s still not quite yet! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTDYGhFCRXuQgsg6x6CRl0sLbLAwg4MNndn98ZwBKhDZxOzRtivNjtAWxO1R4dsjcdZRXSFPcvVQ8sl4SKwsFLv6U8aP1FCcWFXy6QTD3qoTBgFa_d-M_pkwgJEwoBKwSz8iyL-d4nXvwclqOqCnPCY-PCozru0CwxvvRNNM2hOWdytI9_bhNWCXv_/s4032/IMG_5026.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTDYGhFCRXuQgsg6x6CRl0sLbLAwg4MNndn98ZwBKhDZxOzRtivNjtAWxO1R4dsjcdZRXSFPcvVQ8sl4SKwsFLv6U8aP1FCcWFXy6QTD3qoTBgFa_d-M_pkwgJEwoBKwSz8iyL-d4nXvwclqOqCnPCY-PCozru0CwxvvRNNM2hOWdytI9_bhNWCXv_/w480-h640/IMG_5026.jpg" width="480" /></b></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><b>No it</b></u>’<u><b>s not an ad for <i>RuPaul</i></b></u>’<u><b><i>s Sad Drag Race</i>...but who IS "the stranger"?</b></u></td></tr></tbody></table></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b style="text-align: left;">The "boobalicious" comic book!</b><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Attention shoppers! As a nifty, shifty afterthought also included is an 8-page comic rather like a leftover aftertaste of the main <i>Sex</i> entrée. It stars Madonna as Dita (again!), plus five others depicted here as Chiclet, Stella, </span><span style="text-align: left;">Bunny, Dex and </span><span style="text-align: left;">The Stranger (some seriously bad/sad drag persona non grata who strangely doesn’t feature anywhere that we could spot in the comic and who might actually be Steven Meisel). It’s given the not-so-wry title of “Dita In The Chelsea Girl” and is a not-very-amusing photostory about people having sex with their underwear on. Where’s the fun in that, eh?! </span><span style="text-align: left;">NB: Madonna, as you’d expect, is the only one of the bunch who gets her boobs out.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">This not-so-graphic-at-all cartoon</span><span style="text-align: left;"> strip concludes, inauspiciously, with Madonna’s immortal speech bubble, “What is that smell?”. Pyromania, arson, or maybe just your everyday disco inferno? <i>Rude!</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">This ornery, not-so-horny comic also promises to be “continued next month</span><span style="text-align: left;">”</span><span style="text-align: left;"> which, of course, never happened (everyone all at once chant: “liar, liar, pants on fire!</span><span style="text-align: left;">”</span><span style="text-align: left;">).</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Er…and that, readers, is Madonna’s </span><i style="text-align: left;">Sex</i><span style="text-align: left;"> book finally spent and done in full...or at the very least in this here very, very abridged version for your time-poor reading </span><span style="text-align: left;">“</span><span style="text-align: left;">pleasure</span><span style="text-align: left;">”</span><span style="text-align: left;">. Her name <i>was</i> Dita!</span></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b style="text-align: left;">What to make of <i>Sex</i> 30 years later!</b><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i>Sex</i>, the book and not the act (which is, to quote Madonna again, human nature), certainly is a strange, peculiar historical artefact. It will undoubtedly go down (ahem!) in history as the most bizarre thing a pop star ever thought that they could get away with and did in the end – it was an early 90s thing obvs!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Perhaps the thing most glaring about it now, but which was kinda conspicuous also at the time, is that high fashion <i>Sex</i> is just not really all that sexy. It is, most definitely, provocative, controversial, unbelievable and there’s at least one photo in <i>Sex</i> that everyone will find a turn-on, just as there probably is at least one (if not quite a substantial amount) that will equally be a turn-off. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSXHkg2vKRxOCP465ReKtaa8nRXhxjXqr3hM-ysGT3H3Cvb-QiMX3IoJkez_gGeIuCt4MScMmBmvOHLzYo4g3hB9nv1AbrksYoTK2DG4jZzhhv9BqBrM0Gr6IgR63tVY7KiCC3XPj1ZkUpe1T6Oy315FTjwjSpvCWNOIIhfeMTo5yvTTze2bxS2CWq/s2252/Screenshot%202021-10-20%20at%2023.03.55.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1486" data-original-width="2252" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSXHkg2vKRxOCP465ReKtaa8nRXhxjXqr3hM-ysGT3H3Cvb-QiMX3IoJkez_gGeIuCt4MScMmBmvOHLzYo4g3hB9nv1AbrksYoTK2DG4jZzhhv9BqBrM0Gr6IgR63tVY7KiCC3XPj1ZkUpe1T6Oy315FTjwjSpvCWNOIIhfeMTo5yvTTze2bxS2CWq/w640-h422/Screenshot%202021-10-20%20at%2023.03.55.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Even previous Madonna champion <i>Smash Hits UK</i> took aim at her <i>Sex</i> book in 1992. Uh-oh.<br /><br /></u></b></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="text-align: left;">The introduction of gay sex, lesbian sex and underground sex kinks, fetishes and establishments to the mainstream populace at large is likely the major positive residual <i>Sex</i> delivered. Never before had a female pop star aligned herself so singularly and so decisively as Madonna did at this moment with her queer audience. The fact she was willing to push the edgy envelope with her gay boys too shows just how far she was willing to go with <i>Sex</i>. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJUi4-9a-6_Bd9ItvR-ZXIA9IyPRWT6U24rje0YNh-zCBB4ALXyJWcJR7CuvyfTQhle7LZpZ6Ajaqk9U1QaRLHXC4ClXayDV2LNZHj3WswdrkhUWAhdhf6SoNv6SLOvU2S0eH6nh4swC79tDURwf9bGTJAUdQi068XirV5bfAtwT_4zHcW3z3S1UxR/s956/Screenshot%202022-10-01%20at%2011.56.01.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="814" data-original-width="956" height="544" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJUi4-9a-6_Bd9ItvR-ZXIA9IyPRWT6U24rje0YNh-zCBB4ALXyJWcJR7CuvyfTQhle7LZpZ6Ajaqk9U1QaRLHXC4ClXayDV2LNZHj3WswdrkhUWAhdhf6SoNv6SLOvU2S0eH6nh4swC79tDURwf9bGTJAUdQi068XirV5bfAtwT_4zHcW3z3S1UxR/w640-h544/Screenshot%202022-10-01%20at%2011.56.01.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u><i>Smash Hits Oz</i> was more sympathetic to Madonna, <i>Sex</i> and her other extra-curricular activities! (With thanx to Dita's master Matt @madonnaaustralia)</u></b></td></tr></tbody></table> <span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">In the aftermath, sadly, Madonna’s <i>Erotica</i> album, released a day before the <i>Sex</i> book, was not so much overshadowed as cast in its post-coital wake. The backlash against the book – and it was huge, ferocious and from almost all sides, angles and groups – put all other previous Madonna controversies (the <i>Like A Prayer</i> video, <i>Justify My Love</i> video, <i>Truth or Dare </i>movie to name but three) in the celibate shade. By the time Madonna’s flaccid soft-porn erotic thriller movie <i>Body Of Evidence </i>was released just over two months later in early January 1993 it looked as if her career – movie-wise, music-wise and otherwise – might never recover. Her singles similarly struggled in the charts (<i>Erotica</i>’s glorious second single <i>Deeper and Deeper </i>deserved a much higher chart placing than #7 US and #6 UK) and even releasing two of her best ballads, <i>Bad Girl</i> and <i>Rain</i>, couldn’t stop the slippery slide. <i>Erotica</i>, the album, undeservedly vanished seemingly overnight like a scorned lover, from the charts. Blub.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAp6lzLPv5FosONCJL104JV49GklLEVo5GLKZD5ln9-PejAC8wnRk4l2tv3jmP_lzbJL5YvN7DBPVhd3hQrEk3QDPkAZCxAP_Iw5w_ndTEZ12OWtvlRvJfvSrcsNHzCkVOfnV9iefA26_6zqPjS-ld1gsu_N0eonb3xj1nPNrz3YtlVWCfDQDKeHAK/s1278/Screenshot%202022-09-30%20at%2011.28.27.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1278" data-original-width="848" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAp6lzLPv5FosONCJL104JV49GklLEVo5GLKZD5ln9-PejAC8wnRk4l2tv3jmP_lzbJL5YvN7DBPVhd3hQrEk3QDPkAZCxAP_Iw5w_ndTEZ12OWtvlRvJfvSrcsNHzCkVOfnV9iefA26_6zqPjS-ld1gsu_N0eonb3xj1nPNrz3YtlVWCfDQDKeHAK/w424-h640/Screenshot%202022-09-30%20at%2011.28.27.png" width="424" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Madonna's hot wax-lovin' <i>Body Of Evidence</i> movie struggled at the box office post-<i>Sex</i>.</u></b></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Madonna didn’t quit, however, in fact she just kept going and barely stopped to notice. She lurched head first into <i>The Girlie Show</i> world tour the following year and then for her follow-up record in 1994 did a complete “reinvention”, recording the cruisey urban groove <i>Bedtime Stories</i> album with “absolutely no regrets”, to quote the caustic fetish-lite video she made for that album’s biting <i>Human Natur</i>e single. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">The mere fact Madonna has never ever attempted anything like <i>Sex</i> again (let’s remember that she next went into writing children’s books!) signals this was never planned as anything more than a one-off. It’s also no coincidence that no other pop star, male or female, has ever attempted anything even remotely like <i>Sex</i>, which suggests that as controversial as the book was at the time, in today’s somewhat even more puritanical society it’s probably ever more so. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">It’s quite clear there’s enough questionable material here (Bestiality! Sex with people of questionable age both junior and senior! Glorifying rape!) that Madonna would surely be cancelled by today’s social media judges and juries. Yet as an intriguing anthropological artefact <i>Sex</i> is likely to be an item heavily dissected, disseminated, deconstructed and debated for years, if not centuries, to come. Its cultural, societal and media impact was immense and still is. The biggest pop star in the world almost got cancelled decades before the world even knew what cancelling was. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">On a more personal note, I’m probably unlikely though to thumb through <i>Sex</i> again unless there’s a very good reason to (the 40th anniversary in 2032 seems a likely next revisiting marker!), yet I would never sell it, nor would I ever part with my copy. It’s as much an essential part of my Madonna collection as her CDs, records and the few magazine covers I’ve managed to save from extinction over the years. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i>Sex</i> is no coffeetable porn masterpiece/masterstroke (the book design at times hurts both your hands and your eyes), but is no disgrace either. It’s bold, inventive, dicey, dubious, bi-curious and if nothing else shows what a healthy appetite self-confessed sex addict Madonna has always had for one of life’s most pleasurable acts. Her name was Dita and she definitely was the mistress in charge. Wonder whatever happened to her? She’s probably still releasing remix albums, playing at Pride events and kissing girls and she likes it. Oh, hang on a minute, that’s actually Madonna circa 2022. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAEEGZgotcrtx7FvlHGjnj42Pj0IRwyD3Ok1g_UmEvdlD2n6GxXbXLC_ZmtL3ZkzpsG0y23RKAFqIUuBeJH2kD3nye0JhOBC74Dr5iTo3thjg-0zIr-2fSYP87GaqhqLkygwr7PUPy-eFMYV0-aXf6ma2L7HAXqIi1taNDY1O24RfevHQTH96-1MJE/s3244/IMG_5030.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2870" data-original-width="3244" height="566" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAEEGZgotcrtx7FvlHGjnj42Pj0IRwyD3Ok1g_UmEvdlD2n6GxXbXLC_ZmtL3ZkzpsG0y23RKAFqIUuBeJH2kD3nye0JhOBC74Dr5iTo3thjg-0zIr-2fSYP87GaqhqLkygwr7PUPy-eFMYV0-aXf6ma2L7HAXqIi1taNDY1O24RfevHQTH96-1MJE/w640-h566/IMG_5030.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><b><i>Sex</i>'s bonus <i>Erotic</i> CD single in handy resealable packaging - sexy shoppers take note!<br /><br /></b></u></td></tr></tbody></table>If nothing else, the wash-up from 1992 certainly proved that <i>Sex</i> sells. And sells out! This highly sought-after book has never been reprinted and is unlikely to ever be again. Hang on to your first and only editions if you have them. Amazon is currently selling copies (and used ones at that) for $3278!! </span><span style="text-align: left;">Let’s hope Madonna kept a few spare copies for herself for any future rainy days that may arrive (she does have six other mouths to feed at her dinner table after all). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">She truly did teach us how to all go fuck ourselves...and made a profit from it too. Don’t tell her to stop </span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">cos just like a prayer she’</span><span style="text-align: left;">ll take you there. Down on her knees, most </span><span style="text-align: left;">“</span><span style="text-align: left;">like</span><span style="text-align: left;">“-</span><span style="text-align: left;">ly.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"></span><b style="text-align: left;"></b><h3><b style="text-align: left;">The final “ass”essment!</b></h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">For a book called <i>Sex </i>there’s surprisingly very little actual sex between its pages – certainly no penetration (front or back bottom, in case you were wondering!) – though there’s an awful lot implied. A better title for <i>Sex</i> might have actually been <i>Fetish, </i>as this is more a catalogue of fantastically filthy fetishes Madonna plays out before our very beady eyes. That also assumably wouldn’t have drawn quite the same collective and powerful ire from the world’s media, churches and outraged right-wing politicians.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">This book has certainly since shaped the way the world views the B&D, S&M and fetish scenes, making them both accessible, appealing and appetising (if that’s the right word) for a more mainstream audience. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">There’s a goofy charm and childlike naïveté</span><span style="text-align: left;"> to Madonna/Dita’s writing which means it would be hard for anyone to take anything she writes too seriously. It’s clearly mostly tongue-in-cheek (and yes, we do mean that as a double entendre as well, thanks for asking). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">In today’s much more sophisticated, knowing and puritanical 2022 world a book like <i>Sex</i>, if it ever managed to get past the publishing gate, would surely be slapped with a “R” rating, warning labels and not be available in any way to minors. That this book had none of those things attached and could be pulled off the shelf and purchased by anyone, regardless of age, is arguably more dubious than any of the various sexual entanglements Madonna found herself in between the sheets of paper. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><h1 style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="text-align: left;">“She truly did teach us how to all go fuck ourselves...and made a profit from it too!</span><span style="text-align: left;">”</span></b></h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Madonna’s soft pedalling, or is it just ironic indifference, on hot reprobated topics like sexual predators, group rape and bestiality, certainly make this book more about button-pushing than about trying to raise anyone’s healthy libido. That was clearly Madonna’s aim, though she probably suspected she could get away with anything back then as the world’s biggest pop star. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">She eventually did, miraculously, although it took a few solid years of deliberate retreating from her overtly sexual side. It wasn’t until a decade later during 2003’s political rupture with her <i>American Life</i> video – a badly-timed anti-war statement in the midst of the Iraqi War – that her mass fanbase, and certainly her until then fervent American radio play, never fully recovered or returned. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaKNrjFSmZQGNXkQD1_r3Xu67xsp-pNv4a_YFAAw9ejgyU5TckUYTjD8GWMcN3WLURW58bEM8B3batfJ67QUDG8ei6LlgBfeyU7zzI2SBh9iw5_UJ6B1cmfCDN3UJunZjabyEMvAmxO8bdpsj8Voda3bXhxDx6dDEKPcLC6xc8ObUhtEdJVeCAluOt/s1288/Screenshot%202022-09-30%20at%2010.14.02.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1288" data-original-width="948" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaKNrjFSmZQGNXkQD1_r3Xu67xsp-pNv4a_YFAAw9ejgyU5TckUYTjD8GWMcN3WLURW58bEM8B3batfJ67QUDG8ei6LlgBfeyU7zzI2SBh9iw5_UJ6B1cmfCDN3UJunZjabyEMvAmxO8bdpsj8Voda3bXhxDx6dDEKPcLC6xc8ObUhtEdJVeCAluOt/w472-h640/Screenshot%202022-09-30%20at%2010.14.02.png" width="472" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: 700;">A recent Instagram portrait of Madonna, aged 64. She hasn't changed much has she, pervs?!<br /><br /></u></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">As you might expect there is no special “deluxe” special edition of the </span><i style="text-align: left;">Sex</i><span style="text-align: left;"> book planned, nor a reprint due. TeamMadonna2022 did make the sly addition of the “I’ll Teach You How To Fuck” T-shirt to her recent and excellent </span><i style="text-align: left;">Finally Enough Love</i><span style="text-align: left;"> remix album merch. There was one minor concession </span><span style="text-align: left;">– the withdrawn </span><span style="text-align: left;">“</span><span style="text-align: left;">toejob</span><span style="text-align: left;">”</span><span style="text-align: left;"> picture disc of the <i>Erotica</i> 12</span><span style="text-align: left;">” single is finally seeing a proper release 30 years after it was deemed too controversial to be mis-manhandled by the general public by her label Warner Music. It was originally due in October 1992, a month after Royal firebrand Fergie was snapped doing similar to her </span><span style="text-align: left;">“financial advisor</span><span style="text-align: left;">” before she had divorced scandal-clad hubby Prince Andrew. Toeing the line, much?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">In the grand wash up of this contentious publication, some 30 years later, Madonna probably would do <i>Sex</i> all over again (remember, she is an addict!) and probably not change a thing either. She did insist two years later, post-<i>Sex</i> in 1994, she had absolutely no regrets doing it and that she’s still not <i>Sorry</i> either (though that was realistically much later in 2005, calendar watchers and single release lovers). </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i>Sex</i> did and still does matter 30 years later. I’d buy it again too, actually. </span><span style="text-align: left;">Bitch, she</span><span style="text-align: left;">’</span><span style="text-align: left;">s Madonna, after all.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivBh1HMxyBVyqyF-KPbmW2EUNXNdhPK9TvqjIAE-XHRX-Y47lDB62cNdQr4X2ZS5oNrDYKnrapqkJSSanWXAjqs2u0NY8RlPE4O_hmMh0VZD8WrnjBxTuDq3FO7URYJ5Kclz92U1s8ZaOjvJ5SZSXM4KIPDcxH6aFYAtmK8k1a5iGHtmYthOgkxZ2J/s1369/Madonna%20Song%20By%20Songcover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1369" data-original-width="915" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivBh1HMxyBVyqyF-KPbmW2EUNXNdhPK9TvqjIAE-XHRX-Y47lDB62cNdQr4X2ZS5oNrDYKnrapqkJSSanWXAjqs2u0NY8RlPE4O_hmMh0VZD8WrnjBxTuDq3FO7URYJ5Kclz92U1s8ZaOjvJ5SZSXM4KIPDcxH6aFYAtmK8k1a5iGHtmYthOgkxZ2J/w428-h640/Madonna%20Song%20By%20Songcover.jpg" width="428" /></a></div><i style="text-align: left;">Marc Andrews is the author of 2022's "Madonna: Song By Song" book published by Fonthill Media. He has also written about Madonna for Smash Hits (UK & Australia), Classic Pop, DNA, Mediaweek, Sydney Star Observer, MailOnline and Facebook's Poptastic! page. </i><a href="http://www.fonthill.media/products/madonna" style="text-align: left;">www.fonthill.media/products/madonna</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3Bh3y0kByxaAjh0sGDZwbgr3XaajMgdUQUH7Bjlp-9r1uAzIxUJS2Yh9R6A-p7tu3MKASpwPQl-9ysvwjZS3gUgLMLL52TclUwISG-VwiDvGGm0NS0GgnQFSlGErV6W5NMn_eoSfGOxjklqBnBWLN0lLpINN1FxW7lWNEz87Axk950apKA14k7bU/s4032/IMG_5027.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3Bh3y0kByxaAjh0sGDZwbgr3XaajMgdUQUH7Bjlp-9r1uAzIxUJS2Yh9R6A-p7tu3MKASpwPQl-9ysvwjZS3gUgLMLL52TclUwISG-VwiDvGGm0NS0GgnQFSlGErV6W5NMn_eoSfGOxjklqBnBWLN0lLpINN1FxW7lWNEz87Axk950apKA14k7bU/s4032/IMG_5027.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div></div>marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-36447733358952333512022-04-12T12:15:00.004+01:002022-04-12T12:22:57.238+01:00You life needs to be more Poptastic!<p><br />And it can be too! Just be going over to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/poptasticSmashHits">https://www.facebook.com/poptasticSmashHits</a> you can read daily entries on all things Smash Hits magazine related - birthdays, cover stars and the best of the magazine that brought pop to the masses between 1978-2006. Poptastic rocks! It also discos, sways, but mostly pops! </p><p>Did you miss our recent post all about Madonna's oft-forgotten but classic hit "Angel" released in 1985? Check it out here to see what you missed!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-bNErX6ZYQ4LMdEEtkbENllX8wI69W_RaCWs-W-8oLHGdjVJeOFKDh7KLm7yw911nbvzkmAdJrSzciXT_xwyPsjXrZROdWEs9vwxjJPuIlo9TSYUYr6Rvn8wSD9mtVReemQgDgbb6RwTnez1zd4D0QPkF_GM3KiKZe_stD-1KXfN9KnaTykvEMk89/s1254/Screenshot%202022-04-12%20at%2012.16.05.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1254" data-original-width="940" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-bNErX6ZYQ4LMdEEtkbENllX8wI69W_RaCWs-W-8oLHGdjVJeOFKDh7KLm7yw911nbvzkmAdJrSzciXT_xwyPsjXrZROdWEs9vwxjJPuIlo9TSYUYr6Rvn8wSD9mtVReemQgDgbb6RwTnez1zd4D0QPkF_GM3KiKZe_stD-1KXfN9KnaTykvEMk89/s320/Screenshot%202022-04-12%20at%2012.16.05.png" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/poptasticSmashHits/posts/354040370096439?notif_id=1649575839275441&notif_t=page_post_reaction&ref=notif" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/poptasticSmashHits/posts/354040370096439?notif_id=1649575839275441&notif_t=page_post_reaction&ref=notif</a></p><p><br /></p>marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-49975526598819410542022-04-12T12:10:00.003+01:002022-04-12T13:05:00.513+01:00Read my DNA story "How To Build A Body The Steve Grand Way" here<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE_EKKz_mhgdnOocoWpUXtgNSyWLNnXZ7PyHF24exKPhtek5zyZKTvYv596mgB6BV4WwXJk9whGlETZ4eh9P7soMzARtqBycIEpHND6-qx9GCdqOQ3Hb1r4yMozr3Z_wVeJ_92txIlfEpIgOJwuWNS-tVqa6gDSRc3HqinVRC4VzHzv-Hcb_CAV7uD/s1308/DNA%20%23266.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1308" data-original-width="1038" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE_EKKz_mhgdnOocoWpUXtgNSyWLNnXZ7PyHF24exKPhtek5zyZKTvYv596mgB6BV4WwXJk9whGlETZ4eh9P7soMzARtqBycIEpHND6-qx9GCdqOQ3Hb1r4yMozr3Z_wVeJ_92txIlfEpIgOJwuWNS-tVqa6gDSRc3HqinVRC4VzHzv-Hcb_CAV7uD/s320/DNA%20%23266.png" width="254" /></a>In addition to writing the cover story for DNA magazine recently on Steve Grand (see below and what a fetching cover story it is indeed) an extra special part of our interview was saved for online consumption and here it is!</p><p> Find out more about this megahottie's nutrition tips, workout practices and tips'n'tricks. Now you have no excuses not to look like that. Well, we certainly don't either, for that matter, right!</p><p> <a href="https://www.dnamagazine.com.au/how-to-build-a-body-the-steve-grand-way/">https://www.dnamagazine.com.au/how-to-build-a-body-the-steve-grand-way/</a></p><p></p>marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-12284330524332859302022-04-12T12:06:00.001+01:002022-04-12T12:06:07.150+01:00"Kylie: Song By Song" by Marc Andrews<p>My new book, "Kylie Song By Song", is being published soon (even before Kylie's birthday - now you know what to get her)! For more information and to order go to <a href="https://www.fonthill.media/products/kylie">https://www.fonthill.media/products/kylie</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlFrpZW88vMfpf6gd9uz1Id1ao9bMqC3EJYS7o-AxXNScSBf4oLp8WOP0nVKUWgpbEeCq9Hn5wQyJTN0fxX8QluOLg-KDBbkZqPIEQY2VpF4gWG552GeWSLrFBkHeWarEe-oWv6R6nJE6o-tbModDddBcBUOAkdxBHTrfvFhnCMTnakm98dIIPQ9rs/s1480/Kylie%20SBS%20cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1480" data-original-width="986" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlFrpZW88vMfpf6gd9uz1Id1ao9bMqC3EJYS7o-AxXNScSBf4oLp8WOP0nVKUWgpbEeCq9Hn5wQyJTN0fxX8QluOLg-KDBbkZqPIEQY2VpF4gWG552GeWSLrFBkHeWarEe-oWv6R6nJE6o-tbModDddBcBUOAkdxBHTrfvFhnCMTnakm98dIIPQ9rs/s320/Kylie%20SBS%20cover.png" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700;">How Australia</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700;">’</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700;">s </span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700;">‘</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700;">Princess of Pop</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700;">’ </span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700;">became a global superstar with an
extraordinary career spanning five decades and fifteen studio albums
</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700;">———————————————————————————————</span></p><p></p><div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column">
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: rgb(31.000000%, 50.600000%, 74.100000%); font-family: 'SymbolMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">
<p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">The first book to offer a complete summary of Kylie Minogue</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">’</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">s 35-
year recording history across five decades (1987-2022)
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="color: rgb(31.000000%, 50.600000%, 74.100000%); font-family: 'SymbolMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">
<p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Examines every song in the Kylie back catalogue with over 300
individual entries
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="color: rgb(31.000000%, 50.600000%, 74.100000%); font-family: 'SymbolMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">
<p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Chronicles Kylie</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">’</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">s classic hits, album tracks and B-sides, plus music
video and remix information and insights
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="color: rgb(31.000000%, 50.600000%, 74.100000%); font-family: 'SymbolMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">
<p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Details Kylie</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">’</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">s essential demos, rarities, live tracks and additional
recordings, plus a lavish 16-page colour section of her iconic album
covers
</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">From </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-style: italic;">Neighbours </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">TV teen queen to Stock Aitken Waterman</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">’</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">s megastar, the
rise of Kylie Minogue to the top of the charts is one of the biggest smash hit
success stories in pop music. Across fifteen studio albums, her transition
from </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">‘</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">SexKylie</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">’ </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">(with help from Michael Hutchence) to </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">‘</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">IndieKylie</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">’ </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">(thanks
to Nick Cave and Manic Street Preachers), then to undisputed </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">‘</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Princess of
Pop</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">’ </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">(courtesy of the irresistible </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">‘</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Can</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">’</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">t Get You Out of My Head</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">’</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">) proved she
was not just an actress, singer and a remarkable live performer (including
Glastonbury Goddess), but a true global superstar. After successfully
beating cancer, Kylie returned to the top with several big-selling albums,
including the critically lauded </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-style: italic;">The Abbey Road Sessions</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">, festive fave </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-style: italic;">Kylie
Christmas </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">and 2020</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">’</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">s history making Disco. This book is an exhaustive </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">‘</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">step
back in time</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">’ </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">through her complete catalogue across five poptastic decades.
Every released track and collaboration from her 300-plus song catalogue </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">–
</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">many self-penned or co-written </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">– </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">over thirty-five years is examined in detail
with new insights, revelations and vital video/remix information. </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-style: italic;">Kylie:
Song by Song </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">celebrates this unique artist</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">’</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">s truly remarkable and
unparalleled career and is a must-have for every dedicated fan of the lucky,
lucky, lucky Australian pop princess.
</span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div><br /><p></p>marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-70902911292379980442022-03-21T15:50:00.004+00:002022-04-12T12:19:28.974+01:00My new book, "Madonna: Song By Song", is out now through Fonthill Media.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="goog_235202568"><img border="0" data-original-height="3198" data-original-width="2245" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEib72LxH7zwTWsw7-41N1dCRBfo_AKs1U9xDlbvdFBsrryHv7fiYFxwIolEE0_RTOhXiPN5Mb5JcmrRA3HfVmaIrKBvrAVY2aCRpmTAAevfWn-8g3bnBas_2pL2_V7Vj4pAaSfCfIOX8s79zbM2hFcUw5GapsCRO9zghlBUVi_1_ZlN9EZEE-X2SL3M=s320" width="225" /></a></span></div><a href="https://www.fonthill.media/products/madonna">https://www.fonthill.media/products/madonna</a><br /> <p></p><div>
<div class="page" title="Page 1">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<p><span style="color: rgb(12.156860%, 28.627450%, 49.019610%); font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 11.000000pt; font-weight: 700;">How the greatest pop star of all time also wrote some of the biggest and
best-loved hits of all time
</span><span style="color: rgb(12.156860%, 28.627450%, 49.019610%); font-family: 'Arial'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-weight: 700;">———————————————————————————————
</span></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li style="color: rgb(30.980390%, 50.588240%, 74.117650%); font-family: 'SymbolMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">
<p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">The first book to offer a complete summary of Madonna’s 40-year
</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">recording history (1982-2022)
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="color: rgb(30.980390%, 50.588240%, 74.117650%); font-family: 'SymbolMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">
<p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Examines every single song in the Madonna back catalogue with
over 250 individual entries
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="color: rgb(30.980390%, 50.588240%, 74.117650%); font-family: 'SymbolMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">
<p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Chronicles Madonna’s classic hits, albums, tracks and B-sides, plus
music videos and remix information and insights
</span></p>
</li>
<li style="color: rgb(30.980390%, 50.588240%, 74.117650%); font-family: 'SymbolMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">
<p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Details Madonna’s essential demos, rarities, live tracks and
additional recordings, plus a lavish 16-page colour section of her
iconic album and single covers
</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">In a career full of blond ambition where controversy has consistently
swirled around her, the music of Madonna has often been overshadowed,
if not sorely overlooked. Across fourteen albums, soundtracks and
numerous greatest hits collections, the undisputed ‘Queen of Pop’ has
released over eighty singles spanning five decades. In this book, every
released track from her back catalogue is examined in detail with new
insights, revelations and information. Her role as ‘Queen of Clubs’ is also
duly acknowledged, making note of the remixes that have helped her rule
the dance floor after her first release in 1982, ‘Everybody’, got her into the
groove. From ‘Like a Virgin’, ‘Like a Prayer’ and ‘Ray of Light’, from
soundtrack work for </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-style: italic;">Dick Tracy </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">and </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-style: italic;">Evita</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">, to collaborations with
superstars Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Dua Lipa, this is a must
read for any fan of the artist also known as ‘Madame X’. </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-style: italic;">Madonna: Song by
Song </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">reclaims her stature as not just one of the greatest pop artists ever,
but as songwriter/producer of some of the biggest selling and most
memorable songs of all time.
</span></p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div><br /></div>marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-43407710585436033942019-06-13T15:56:00.001+01:002019-06-21T07:56:43.446+01:00MADONNA /"MADAME X" - "SEXY, POLITICAL & STILL A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH!"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dL2iyYfJ7QM/XQDE958BarI/AAAAAAAAFf4/jzzqsDDB2JQlcaijTVAurUguKEe3cJv7ACEwYBhgL/s1600/madame-x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dL2iyYfJ7QM/XQDE958BarI/AAAAAAAAFf4/jzzqsDDB2JQlcaijTVAurUguKEe3cJv7ACEwYBhgL/s320/madame-x.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">REVIEW </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BY </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">MARC "MR X" ANDREWS</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For all of Madonna’s plans, intentions and prior press declarations
about not wanting to work with multiple collaborators this time around and
stick with one or two like she did back in the glory days of her first 10
studio albums, on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i> she has still
managed to clock up six different producers. Not just that, but by the current
tally on her 14<sup>th</sup> studio album she has gathered a whopping 23
co-writers, which does not even give due credit to Tchaikovsky who she nicked,
er, borrowed part of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Nutcracker</i>
for on the mind-bending, fan-dividing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark
Ballet</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What that means then is much like her last few albums, which
have struggled with both critical acclaim and commercial appeal and been a
hotchpotch of multiple collaborators, there's real inconsistency here, as if its three albums in one (the world music one, the R&B one and the experimental geopolitical one). To that end, s</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">ome tracks soar and others bore. The good
news is Mirwais has been brought back and all of his </span><i style="font-family: 'times new roman';">Madame X</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> efforts are, if not terrific,
at the very least sonically arresting, pushing Madonna further experimentally than
she has since, well, since Mirwais last properly produced her on 2003’s </span><i style="font-family: 'times new roman';">American Life</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> album (where he was the
sole producer).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mercifully Diplo’s unflattering and ill-fitting work with
Madonna here has been kept to a bare minimal (one track – easily the album’s
worst). That’s down from the five he produced on 2015’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rebel Heart</i>, including the dour, frosty lead single <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Living For Love</i> which sank that album
even quicker than the numerous prolific internet leaks. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D_htWn5AtJc/XQDElzRylKI/AAAAAAAAFfw/fFRHWejgpfUxIJnetnssFcs0DuE-MbbgQCEwYBhgL/s1600/tmp_r3onVN_81344e06d591ed87_June_Issue_Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1236" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D_htWn5AtJc/XQDElzRylKI/AAAAAAAAFfw/fFRHWejgpfUxIJnetnssFcs0DuE-MbbgQCEwYBhgL/s320/tmp_r3onVN_81344e06d591ed87_June_Issue_Cover.jpg" width="247" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">While </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Madame X</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">’s
lead single </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Medellin</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> didn’t exactly
catapult Madonna to the top of the charts in English speaking lands,
unsurprisingly it did well across the globe especially in Spanish and
Portuguese speaking countries. More sedate second single </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Crave</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> appeared to get lost amongst the three other “promotional”
singles/tracks released/shuffled out prior to the actual album’s official release date of June
14. There was clearly a bold new marketing plan to get people to hear more of
the album "vibe" before it was released, yet the sorry selection of singles proves that yet again Madonna’s label of the last ten years – Interscope/Live Nation –
might be great at tours but are seemingly hopeless at doing her A&R
justice. That now complete a trifecta of obvious single choices across 2012’s </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">MDNA</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> and follow-up </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Rebel Heart</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> being cast aside for trend-catching radio-friendly
reasons. They all tanked with a silent thud, except in the clubs when they were wisely bolstered by dance mixes playing to her fan base and offered something a
little interesting, or extra, as well (the various Offer Nissim, Don Diablo and
Sander Kleinenberg mixes should all be duly acknowledged). Saddest of all for
fans is how the six tracks she recorded with 1998’s </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Ray of Light</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> soundmeister William Orbit on </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">MDNA</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> showed promise albeit sounded rushed and half-baked, while the
Queen of Pop busied herself elsewhere with fashion lines, make-up products and
movie directing (on </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">W.E.).</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mr Orbit even complained about such and was thereafter
banished from the Madonna kingdom. In attempting to craft a “world music” of
sorts as on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i> his cosmic ethereal input is
sorely missed. It effectively means that while Team Madonna is once more forlornly chasing
radio formats and former chart glory, she again puts her longtime musical legacy in jeopardy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GQyt_qGd0c0/XQDEjY9IcxI/AAAAAAAAFfg/3NA23bFIHrE3vQBWgZHgR11SoBKTQ9n5QCEwYBhgL/s1600/jr-nytimes_004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1097" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GQyt_qGd0c0/XQDEjY9IcxI/AAAAAAAAFfg/3NA23bFIHrE3vQBWgZHgR11SoBKTQ9n5QCEwYBhgL/s320/jr-nytimes_004.jpg" width="262" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With all these producer/writer hands on deck and a kind of “last chance to
get this right” mentality,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Madame X</i>
was never going to be the worst of her albums. Listening to 2008’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hard Candy</i> a decade after the noughties
ended you are reminded now just how horribly dated it is and, aside from the singles,
rather unlistenable, if not forgettable. Will <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X </i>be exalted to the grandiose levels of critical acclaim and
fan admiration as 1989’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Like A Prayer</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ray of Light</i>, or even her most recent
critical darling, 2005’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Confessions On A
Dance Floor</i>, which just seems to age better and better as the years go on? Reviewers
have generally been more positive for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame
X</i> than any album since <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Confessions</i>
(“her best album since <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Confessions</i>”
has now become a by-word for Madonna fans for lazy journalism).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are at least a handful of killer Madonna tracks here up
there with the best of her best. Strangely none of them were any of the five
tracks released either as singles or “promotional tracks” ahead of <i>Madame X</i>'s release.
This seems to suggest a real disconnect and lack of understanding from her current
management/record company about Madonna’s true fanbase and any hit single potential she might still possess.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For all its flaws – lyrics that required more careful
caressing and less hamfisting, bandwagon jumping grooves (hello Diplo!) and that
constant excoriating use of Autotune on Madonna’s voice making her sound both
robotic and idiotic – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i> is in equal parts surprising, engaging, interesting, thrilling and occasionally bonkers
brilliant. Some of it is the sexiest music Madonna has ever made, some
of it is the most overtly political, most challenging and most uncompromising
of her career as well, while some of it is also is potentially divisive, confrontational and truly heavy shit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At almost 40 years into her music career (she’ll officially celebrate
that milestone in 2022), there’s a lot to be grateful for here, especially when
you consider most of her 1980s contemporaries have either died sad,
drug-fuelled deaths (Michael Jackson, Prince, George Michael, Whitney Houston),
or given up chasing streaming teen acceptance (Cyndi Lauper, Pet Shop Boys, Kylie
Minogue). Madonna remains the rogue loner, forging new terrain for someone her
sex, age and, lest we forget, daily hair reinvention. She is still a force to be reckoned with. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X </i>hints at that and hopefully
also hints there is still more of that boldness and blond ambition to come
too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEK1bWSNOBypyfyDls0M_XBfkwTuXHBTodjcjJO0JVNaL7bKQ3G_oBIbFTJ5I01x_5iWfHHHDofbWiRLKa71mCyowgsch5NNR5Pia5kFzZw4go_3dkVscNPBQXMBOiql9P4sAWCLeDC-Y/s1600/Madame+X+cover+deluxe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="595" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEK1bWSNOBypyfyDls0M_XBfkwTuXHBTodjcjJO0JVNaL7bKQ3G_oBIbFTJ5I01x_5iWfHHHDofbWiRLKa71mCyowgsch5NNR5Pia5kFzZw4go_3dkVscNPBQXMBOiql9P4sAWCLeDC-Y/s320/Madame+X+cover+deluxe.jpg" width="318" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What
should have been the singles and in what order?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Faz
Gostoso, I Don’t Search I Find, God Control<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">10
Good Things About <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
Don’t Find I Search</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, Mirwais, Maluma, the cover (standard Frida
Kahlo brunette), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Ballet's </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ambition</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,
Crave, God Control, Looking For Mercy</i>, Anitta, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Batuka<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">10
Not-So-Good Things About <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Diplo, Quavo, Diplo, the cover (deluxe Soviet bloc blonde),
Diplo, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Ballet'</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">s pretention</span>, Diplo, only two real dance songs, Diplo, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Future</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">TRACK BY TRACK (DELUXE EDITION)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jAZS_OfLg-0/XQDGaLwJ4yI/AAAAAAAAFgE/ADFbwlG8eJIZqOAXx5GneIj45g5cYLH2QCLcBGAs/s1600/Madonna%2BMedellin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="446" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jAZS_OfLg-0/XQDGaLwJ4yI/AAAAAAAAFgE/ADFbwlG8eJIZqOAXx5GneIj45g5cYLH2QCLcBGAs/s320/Madonna%2BMedellin.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Medellin
(Featuring Maluma)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On paper this should work beautifully – Madonna cooing
risqué yet thoughtful lyrics (albeit hiding unnecessarily behind Autotune),
Maluma acting up as the sex bomb he is and Mirwais making a welcome return handling
production duties. Yet somehow <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Medellin</i>
just manages to fall short of expectations. Is it too sluggish (“Slow down
Papi”), too disjointed (“Ay ay ay!”), or with too many disparate pieces of a musical
puzzle that just don’t quite fit together as they should ("One-Two-Cha-Cha-Cha")? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chartwise <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Medellin</i>
reached a disappointing #87 on the UK charts – a new low for a lead Madonna
single from an album. It did better in chaotic Venezuela where it reached #5,
as it did in Finland, while Greece was most receptive to its latin charms
with a #3 ranking. Better news is it hit #1 on
the US Dance Club Charts giving Madonna her 61<sup>st</sup> US top ten chart entry and 47th dance #1.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The two Offer Nissim club remakes (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X In The Sphinx</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Set
Me Free</i>) are easily two of the best Madonna remixes of her career. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spinx</i> unexpectedly and delectably adds
in Egyptian elements, while <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Set Me Free</i>
sounds like Nissim has been hiding in his Israeli panic room listening solely
to 1990s remixes by Rollo and Peter “Club 69” Rauhofer. We love that, by the
way. Interestingly Nissim appears to have been added to the list of songwriters
for his remixed version, an acknowledgement of how much he brings to the sleek
new dance version. Most of the other <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Medellin
</i>remixes are merely “meh”, though LA95 offer a sultry revamped bassline reinterpretation and Erick Morillo brings the sheen with a shimmering tech house remake that is hypnotic, intoxicating and shirtliftingly good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Overall for a first single from a new album <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Medellin</i> did the job of bringing
people’s attention back to Madonna and back to her music, and perhaps in years
to come will be reassessed as one of the standouts from her catalogue. Three
months after its single release, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Medellin</i>
already sounds like a much-loved old friend, which can’t be a bad thing. Major
confession on a dance floor: our toes still twitch every time we hear it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ruK7RYPGd4M/XQDEcyLPtkI/AAAAAAAAFfo/VE_WqBrjzyU5LSdHGXqRKQPWaYtTOSnjgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Madonna%2BDark%2BBallet%2Bcover.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ruK7RYPGd4M/XQDEcyLPtkI/AAAAAAAAFfo/VE_WqBrjzyU5LSdHGXqRKQPWaYtTOSnjgCEwYBhgL/s320/Madonna%2BDark%2BBallet%2Bcover.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dark
Ballet<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is the second Madonna/Mirwais collaboration after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Medellin</i>, though that track also
featured latin chart heavyweight Edgar “Edge” Barrera, who co-produced the
other Maluma track featuring later here on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame
X</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IOSkzO1SP7Q/XQDEZJ90EqI/AAAAAAAAFfg/MjSxM-TL8mw2Adxi7xcEXyUoicPl7j-AgCEwYBhgL/s1600/Dark_Ballet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IOSkzO1SP7Q/XQDEZJ90EqI/AAAAAAAAFfg/MjSxM-TL8mw2Adxi7xcEXyUoicPl7j-AgCEwYBhgL/s320/Dark_Ballet.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The fact Madonna previewed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Ballet</i> – previously called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beautiful
Game</i> – at both 2018’s MET Gala and 2019’s Eurovision Song Contest kind of
warns you to how bonkers this track is. Abstract, pretentious, ambitious and
loopy are other words that seem more apt than rapt. What do pop stars craving
credibility usually resort to? Plundering classical/operatic music. Guess who’s
at it here? Incorporating (or is that just a nicer word for stealing and a less
nice word than “inspired by”) aspects from Tchaikovsky’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Nutcracker</i> it’s decidedly nuts, which presumably is the
statement about the world M wants to make. There’s a myriad of swirling piano
flourishes, carnival type electronic voices and Madonna reciting her slam
poetry about the storm the world faces and bleating about love and loneliness “but
it’s getting late now” before making a lame joke about a Supreme hoodie which
seems to render her words as superficial nonsense. Then there’s more sad,
tinkly piano afterwards like an afterthought and Madonna singing “it’s a
beautiful life” (or is it “a beautiful lie”?). Sure beats an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Life</i>, if that’s the idea! A
number of reviewers went so far as to call <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark
Ballet</i> “Madonna’s very own <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bohemian
Rhapsody</i>”. Freddie Mercury would get a chuckle out of that, we’re sure! If
you know your Madonna oeuvre then best to slot this between 1989’s short but
nutty <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Act of Contrition</i> and 1990’s
Carmen Miranda-inspired loca <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I’m Going
Bananas</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shot by </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; text-decoration: none;">Emmanuel Adjei</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
and co-directed by Madonna, the video for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark
Ballet</i> was inspired by the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Clockwork Orange</i> film and features Mykki Blanco in character as Joan of
Arc, an all-time favorite heroine of Madonna. There is a quote from Joan
at the beginning and one from Mykki at the end about being black queer and HIV+
“but no transgression against me has been as powerful as the hope I hold
within”. This video has earned either love it or hate it fan standpoints. Many saw
this as Madonna’s “magnus opus”, raising pop to pop art. Those on the opposing
side couldn’t get past the bombastic art school clichés, pretentiousness and
heavy-handed portentousness. Who said Madonna wasn’t doing controversial
anymore? Still all PR is good PR, right sweetie darling?!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-41xvkYfR3PQ/XQDHRu4OdJI/AAAAAAAAFgQ/uFBWK8lilCMTQWlXMZXUK1YDVYk2-QU2QCLcBGAs/s1600/tetu-france-magazine-may-2019--13857-p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="919" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-41xvkYfR3PQ/XQDHRu4OdJI/AAAAAAAAFgQ/uFBWK8lilCMTQWlXMZXUK1YDVYk2-QU2QCLcBGAs/s320/tetu-france-magazine-may-2019--13857-p.jpg" width="243" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">God
Control<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many earlier reviewers were calling this track, which quite
literally blows its way in from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark
Ballet</i>, as “a sequel to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vogue</i>”? Perhaps
the rap section could be a sequel of sorts to the Hollywood legend roll-call in
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vogue</i> (not the “soy latte” of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Life</i>) that some reviewers
picked up on, but the vintage disco references (very 1970s) are somewhere between
the bouncier moments of her <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Erotica</i>
album and the retro-dance of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Confessions</i>
album. It’s also worth remembering at this point how Mirwais’ contribution to
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Confessions</i> album, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Future Lovers</i>, was one of that album’s
hidden highlights, tapping into a golden vein of disco that he also deeply mines here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Where <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Ballet</i>’s
ambitions seem trapped under the weight of its own seriousness, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God Control </i>soars high with its
inventiveness. It is unquestionably <i>Madame X</i>'s first classic track. Amid bizarre lyrics veering between declararions (“wake up!”) and
desperation (“that dope I don’t smoke it’s true”), strings swirl incessantly
(and “hustle”, as Madonna points out in disco lexicon), all the while reminding
us about gun control, or religion, or both, with the shotgun
sounds to make sure we don’t miss, or misunderstand, her big statement piece. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why didn’t Madonna perform <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God Control</i> at Eurovision this year in Tel Aviv to make her political
point and keep the crowds of gays’n’their admirers dancing? A hellish disco inferno video featuring Madonna in a blonde wig, reality TV drag queens and an orgy of guns/blood heralded <i>God Control</i> as not just the third single, but easily the most controversial video and release from <i>Madame X</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Future (Featuring Quavo)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UNJAHNH5IQ0/XQDEj49HG1I/AAAAAAAAFfk/7h8-DrEFY38Ydn9NxHtYVgnMvIG7FidkgCEwYBhgL/s1600/madonna-future.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UNJAHNH5IQ0/XQDEj49HG1I/AAAAAAAAFfk/7h8-DrEFY38Ydn9NxHtYVgnMvIG7FidkgCEwYBhgL/s320/madonna-future.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Come get woke? More like stay in bed. This was the second
promotional single (not actual single) from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame
X</i> and remains unloved by critics, fans and music-buying public alike. One
reviewer even called it the “worst song” on the album and they might be right
too. Either Madonna needs to sack her manager, Guy Oseary, or else he needs to
veto her judgment every time she decides to work with hipster producer Diplo.
After standing in for an ailing Avicci on 2015’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rebel Heart</i> Diplo smothered her voice on that album in Autotune
making it sound lifeless and frankly ridiculous. He’s at it again here on this
“roots reggae” track which suffers simply because it’s way too average, if not
snoringly dull. It’s a B-side at best with a bored sounding rap from Quavo,
also responsible for the worst Madonna duet of her entire career on 2018’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Champagne Rose</i>. Diplo is not only
co-producer on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Future</i> but doubles the
agony as co-writer (as Thomas Pentz), but thankfully it’s his only contribution
to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i>. The song also credits
Paris born brothers Clement and Maxime Picard as co-writers, not a surprise
given Diplo worked with them before on Major Lazer’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Love</i> track from 2017. Strangely <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Future </i>made the top ten in Israel, the only country in the world to
do so, even after her overthought/undersung Eurovision appearance. Oy vey!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1eEohKGezpI/XQDEkl1_2tI/AAAAAAAAFfs/qRSFdj8l9G0syQU5hPT29gJaVda3gAMdQCEwYBhgL/s1600/madonna-madame-x-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1332" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1eEohKGezpI/XQDEkl1_2tI/AAAAAAAAFfs/qRSFdj8l9G0syQU5hPT29gJaVda3gAMdQCEwYBhgL/s320/madonna-madame-x-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Batuka<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Madonna graciously grants her adopted son David Banda a
co-writing credit on this song (along with producer Mirwais), so it’s easy to
see who is driving her musical direction or choices these days. Not a husband,
but a son and, yes, another man (#metootoo). Has she learned nothing from when ex-husbands
Sean and Guy tried to steer her away from her pop core and fan base? And is
that David’s voice chanting in some tribal language as a highly autotuned
Madonna sings about the long way and a long day she’s had? Hmmm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">From the previous track’s reggae swag we shift musical
appropriation to tribal Africa (perhaps inspired by Madonna’s many trips to
Malawi to adopt children) and another song mentioning her daughter Mercy by
name in the lyrics. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Batuka</i> boasts all
the trademark hallmarks of Mirwais’ bag of tricks – unexpected synth strings, percolating
drum beat interludes and a melancholy violin exit. Somehow it all works here,
perhaps because it sounds like there’s some dedicated fun going behind the
control panels and mixing desks. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Batuka </i>had
been mentioned early on as the first single from this project, but the fact
it’s too far removed from anything else Madonna has ever done, let alone you’d
hear on radio formats today, might have frightened the powers that be away from
that decision.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QpnbOkaSFVw/XQDElS1wgQI/AAAAAAAAFfs/bDOg8MbxOqAA-pBvY6C92nxyPD7hv0QbgCEwYBhgL/s1600/madonnamadamex-tour.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="814" height="185" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QpnbOkaSFVw/XQDElS1wgQI/AAAAAAAAFfs/bDOg8MbxOqAA-pBvY6C92nxyPD7hv0QbgCEwYBhgL/s320/madonnamadamex-tour.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Killers
Who Are Partying<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I will be gay if the gay are burned” begins this
not-so-subtle track in which Madonna imagines herself to be, or perhaps
represent, a variety of persecuted minorities or groups. Her “party” thus
comprises the already mentioned gays, as well as Africans, the poor, children,
Islam, Israel, Native Indians and raped women. This deadly serious, swaying mid-tempo
song thankfully perks up when Madonna switches to Portuguese and the lyrics
sound like soothing Fado rather than grating pop. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Killers</i>
might just be Madonna’s most well intentioned, yet clumsily awkward, work since
she wrote a batch of forgettable children’s books. Another direct sonic
descendant from Madonna/Mirwais’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American
Life </i>work together, fans are likely to spend much time and discussion
making sense of this track and defending it. Reviewers have almost
comprehensively slated this track, yet for sheer cunning, uniqueness, nerve and
talent it deserves at least a quiet reflective moment to party on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0FMdLgtogcY/XQDEZcqkagI/AAAAAAAAFfc/TZUo9IlnCvQe0oV57m90q_doC3BMna2NQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Crave%2Bcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="438" height="289" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0FMdLgtogcY/XQDEZcqkagI/AAAAAAAAFfc/TZUo9IlnCvQe0oV57m90q_doC3BMna2NQCEwYBhgL/s320/Crave%2Bcover.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Crave (Featuring Swae Lee)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i>’s
second proper single (with video!) and one of the first songs Madonna wrote for
her 14<sup>th</sup> studio album project. Although this track gave Madonna the
best debut of her career on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary Chart that doesn’t
actually mean much in the bigger scheme of things. It failed to chart on the
Hot 100 chart, on any other chart around the world of note and, to add insult
to injury, her record company Interscope had to service another version, minus
the rap from Swae Lee, to keep AC radio happy. The video, complete with Swae, homing
pigeons and a Madonna who seems ageless from the blinding white light constantly
hovering around her face was suitably stylish, crisp and equally as ignored by
the mainstream. As it is the song slides in neatly somewhere next to 1994’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Secret</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Take A Bow</i> and 2008’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Miles
Away</i>. Produced by Billboard and Mike Dean (though written by Madonna, Swae
Lee and Starrah), it’s pleasant enough fare, but that's not really good enough for a second single. This is another of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame
X</i>’s missteps when it came to selecting singles and chasing safe radio play,
instead of opting for more interesting, challenging choices that would do
Madonna’s musical legacy more justice in the long-term. Late, if not too late in the piece remix efforts, including Tracy Young, didn't seem to help <i>Crave</i>'s chart cause.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Crazy<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3Q3nKK9izo0/XQDElMDUBwI/AAAAAAAAFfw/Hm9tTnSmEcM39on9bO8Jqwo-VLHp6JhYQCEwYBhgL/s1600/madonna-madame-x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="845" data-original-width="1290" height="209" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3Q3nKK9izo0/XQDElMDUBwI/AAAAAAAAFfw/Hm9tTnSmEcM39on9bO8Jqwo-VLHp6JhYQCEwYBhgL/s320/madonna-madame-x.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Madonna must have liked <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rebel
Heart</i>’s pensive and poignant <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost
Town</i>, which was that album’s second single but criminally ignored and thus sank
in the charts despite an expensive video and Madonna singing it with Taylor
Swift on TV. Here she brings back on board Jason Evigan as co-writer/co-producer,
who also contributed to album closer <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I
Rise</i>. He’s also the son of TV actor Greg Evigan, most famous for the T show
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">BJ and the Bear</i>, but got his start
writing hits for the likes of Disney stars like Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez.
Interesting fact – he was born in 1983, the same year Madonna’s first album was
released! <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crazy</i> manages to
incorporate the word “loca” a few times in the chorus, yet harks a little too
far back to the soft and safe R&B stylings of 1994’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bedtime Stories</i> album. Coming straight after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crave</i> on the album it’s almost as if <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crazy</i> is a carbon copy, albeit a slightly badly photocopied
version. The pleasant accordion sound at the end makes for some sweet relief,
and a touch of that Portuguese “Fado” sound again, but this is more album filler than
killer. That said, coming back to this a few days later it's definitely one of those Madonna "grower" tracks, getting better with each listen, especially when isolated from its original tracklisting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MZLAURWRGZQ/XQJh6Ga94ZI/AAAAAAAAFhY/oyBtFYJpFAQbWY_WVpCcyjGd6Q0MfqEAACEwYBhgL/s1600/04062019b1559687820.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1400" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MZLAURWRGZQ/XQJh6Ga94ZI/AAAAAAAAFhY/oyBtFYJpFAQbWY_WVpCcyjGd6Q0MfqEAACEwYBhgL/s400/04062019b1559687820.jpg" width="400" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Come
Alive<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2016 Grammy winning Producer of the Year Jeff Bhasker (for
Mark Ronson’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Uptown Funk</i> hit which
he also co-wrote) has also penned hits for the likes of Katy Perry, Rhianna and
Beyonce. Hey, this man also cowrote Jay-Z’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Run
This Town</i>, which won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, so you might
have big expectations here for his one contribution to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i>. You might be disappointed though. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Come Alive</i> is a
jaunty, catchy, "could be anyone" track (</span><span style="font-family: "\22 times new roman\22 ";">bridging the gap between Beyonce and Ariana Grande at last!), yet the least </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">representative of the bulk of the record's material</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">. It does succeed in being shouting inspirational, if you’re
a diehard showoff like Madonna, with lyrics like “Stand out, no I don’t
wanna blend in”, but the undeniably best bit is the haunting chanting chorus at the
song’s end. If <i>Come Alive</i> had had more of that it would indeed have come alive a
whole lot more. Sadly, something of a missed opportunity here too.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Extreme
Occident<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yi2J5Ni6knI/XQDEga6F9TI/AAAAAAAAFfg/RH8Z8mx7khkk4v4r2O0BMHUMLrce8uAeQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Madonna%2BMadame%2BX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="938" data-original-width="1468" height="204" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yi2J5Ni6knI/XQDEga6F9TI/AAAAAAAAFfg/RH8Z8mx7khkk4v4r2O0BMHUMLrce8uAeQCEwYBhgL/s320/Madonna%2BMadame%2BX.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another Madonna/Mirwais collaboration which does indeed
sound like something they might have worked on next after 2003’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Life</i> album, their last proper
collaboration. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Extreme Occident</i>
details how she went from the Mid West to the Far East (during the 1995 filming
of the film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shanghai Surprise</i>?) trying
to discover her own identity. “Occident”, incidentally, is a Hindu word of
origin referring to the countries of the West (Europe, America and Australia),
which probably explains Madonna baying about being “lost”…and then “I wasn’t
lost”. Any pop song that can self-consciously use the word “lucidity”, keep
repeating “life is a circle”, then leap into Portuguese and back to English clearly
has the whiff of “experimental” about it. This is likely to be a fan favourite
and one of the two extra tracks to be found on the Deluxe edition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i> (the standard has 13 tracks also
skipping out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Looking For Mercy</i>).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3svH65iy5Os/XQH_YXGA1nI/AAAAAAAAFhI/HckdUuWN27UmUnMjCvEOmA6vLJjLAr7ggCLcBGAs/s1600/NINTCHDBPICT000472164071.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1349" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3svH65iy5Os/XQH_YXGA1nI/AAAAAAAAFhI/HckdUuWN27UmUnMjCvEOmA6vLJjLAr7ggCLcBGAs/s320/NINTCHDBPICT000472164071.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Faz
Gostoso (Featuring Anitta)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is the sixth co-production on the album by Mike Dean (alongside <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God Control, Crave, Crazy, Come
Alive</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Looking For Mercy) </i>who
also worked on Beyonce’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lemonade</i> and
Kanye West’s new <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yandhi </i>record. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faz Gostoso</i> was previously a Portuguese
#1 for bisexual Brazilian singer Blaya, strangely enough on Madonna’s old
record label Warner Music. Madonna’s version features another bisexual
Brazilian singer, Anitta, so, yes, this is a cover version – the first one to
feature on a proper Madonna studio album since <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fever</i> on 1992’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Erotica </i>(let’s
forget all about 2000’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Pie</i>,
please). Clearly Madonna must have heard the original <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faz Gostoso</i> a lot when she was out in Lisbon soaking up the
ambience of her new hometown, or perhaps her kids turned her on to it, which
might be more likely. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Faz Gostoso</i>
means “so yummy” in all senses, including sexual, so to set the scene Madonna
invites us to “come baby come” at the song’s opening. Madonna has also added
her name to the co-writers of the song, perhaps thanks to the “losing your
mind” English lyric she phones in here. No one is complaining though because the
beat is unstoppable and this would have made a much more compelling, if not
#metoo, first single from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i>
than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Medellin</i>. Opportunity lost, yet
this stands as the most authentic, and enjoyable, world music sound on this whole
album. Just try and not tap your feet, or swivel your hips. This is where
all the good things about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i> - the frenetic
beat, the spicy lyrics, the mix of languages - </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">plus a brief respite from politics truly reign supreme.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g86oUrnhzWE/XQDEdLBCJwI/AAAAAAAAFfo/F0Q3wHMpHL02Tqa18OPNW1uvIxx8E_7vQCEwYBhgL/s1600/MADONNA%2BMEDELLIN%2BPRESS%2BSHOT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g86oUrnhzWE/XQDEdLBCJwI/AAAAAAAAFfo/F0Q3wHMpHL02Tqa18OPNW1uvIxx8E_7vQCEwYBhgL/s320/MADONNA%2BMEDELLIN%2BPRESS%2BSHOT.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bitch
I’m Loca (Featuring Maluma)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Madonna didn’t record just one song with Colombian
heartthrob rapper Maluma she did three. Two are on this album and a third, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Soltera</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(Single)</i> features on his latest album <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">11:11</i>. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Soltera</i> is
suitably catchy and wacky with Madonna adopting a naughty girl attitude
especially with her “bye bye bye” bits at the end. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bitch I’m Loca</i> by comparison seems more of a throwaway track and
definitely the lesser of their three collaborations. Madonna sings “I like to
be on top”, though the reggaeton beat carries the song along, produced by
Billboard who worked on three <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i>
cuts, before it reaches its climax with Maluma asking Madonna where he should
put it. “You can put it inside!” she giggles. Not one of Madonna’s most
memorable efforts, especially in the lyrics department. More a suitable companion
piece for the silly and also mercifully short <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I’m Going Bananas</i> from 1990’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I’m
Breathless</i> soundtrack, or <i>Erotica</i>'s goofy <i>Waiting</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nHxyI8smWYg/XQDIOv80gUI/AAAAAAAAFgc/r4mD3tr6n-0_ys47-724b9bgEJaJonpGgCEwYBhgL/s1600/madonna-worldpride-new-york-city-v-neck-t-shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="1010" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nHxyI8smWYg/XQDIOv80gUI/AAAAAAAAFgc/r4mD3tr6n-0_ys47-724b9bgEJaJonpGgCEwYBhgL/s320/madonna-worldpride-new-york-city-v-neck-t-shirt.jpg" width="320" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
Don’t Search I Find<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Just when you were despairing that here is yet another
Madonna album where she forgets about het club roots, finally, Madonna comes up
with a potential successor to 1990’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vogue</i>.
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I Don’t Search I Find</i> has elements of
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vogue, </i>if not that same year's <i>Rescue Me</i> and 1992’s underrated<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Deeper & Deeper</i>, and might be
the best out-and-out club banger she’s proffered up to the club kids since
2005’s ABBA-loving <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hung Up</i>. While it
might not own the strongest chorus on the album, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I Don’t Search I Find</i> is gloriously slinky, sexy and perhaps should
have been the first single, sent out to clubs. Reviewers have described it as “vintage
Madonna disco” but it’s actually very Shep Pettibone-era Madonna house music.
The sixth Mirwais co-write/so-production on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i> it wouldn’t sound out of place on the second series of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pose</i> TV series set in 1990 for example, which is not a bad
thing either. This will be played at Pride parties, parades and club nights for
years to come. If you ever wanted to know why Madonna owns the gay cubs and
bars here’s further, albeit truly timely, evidence. Finally, a track with
enough love for the classic Madonna dance tunes that have come before it. I
found my album highlight in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I Don’t
Search I Find</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zZnukOxzESs/XQDJA3l0EaI/AAAAAAAAFgk/9xxegL4urrwRt5ouKo0tkM7NDOehcPgjACLcBGAs/s1600/6a00e54f92411c883301b8d2a7d67e970c-500wi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zZnukOxzESs/XQDJA3l0EaI/AAAAAAAAFgk/9xxegL4urrwRt5ouKo0tkM7NDOehcPgjACLcBGAs/s320/6a00e54f92411c883301b8d2a7d67e970c-500wi.jpg" width="239" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Looking
For Mercy<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is the album’s other “bonus” track if you purchase the
deluxe edition. It’s a strong Madonna ballad, which could easily have taken the
place of some of the weaker moments here (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Future</i>,
we’re peering intently at you here). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Looking
For Mercy</i> might be a lullaby for her daughter Mercy…or is it actually more
a plea to God “to forgive myself”? Written and produced by Madonna with Starrah
(Brittany Talia Hazzard) this is her sixth contribution to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i> project, with five of them
making the standard album version. With its strong, uplifting message to “teach
me about love”, this moody, moving, radio-friendly cut will be lapped up by the
devout. More so than any other song here, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Looking
For Mercy</i> seems to channel this album and Madonna’s constant recurring
theme of struggling with loneliness in a world where love is hard to find. Truly
something to remember.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
Rise<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AeGlfE09qO4/XQDElcEfo0I/AAAAAAAAFfo/7QWlc39bOOEhEaSZlDPexX_t_JE-Kx6NACEwYBhgL/s1600/madonnairisefeat-770x433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="770" height="179" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AeGlfE09qO4/XQDElcEfo0I/AAAAAAAAFfo/7QWlc39bOOEhEaSZlDPexX_t_JE-Kx6NACEwYBhgL/s320/madonnairisefeat-770x433.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Originally released after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Medellin</i> as the first promotional single, but not "proper" single, from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i>. How do you instantly make
yourself relevant to a fragmented youth demographic and the wider world at large? Sample a
schoolgirl activist (Emma Gonzalez) involved in a US shooting challenging the government. Nice work, Mads! This wannabe anthem completes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Madame X</i>, but could have done with a
little tweaking or fine-tuning from a champion songwriter of the ilk of Pat
Leonard or Rick Nowels. The lyrics of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I
Rise</i> are hackneyed and repetitive at best; where it should soar and be
anthemic it merely flutters (see Maya Angelou's stirring <i>Still I Rise</i> poem for evidence of this). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I Rise’s</i> best chart
position was in the French download charts where it reached #22. It did manage
#40 on the UK Download charts, but apart from low rankings in Croatia, Hungary
and Scotland (!) was M.I.A. in chart territory. While a</span><span style="font-family: "\22 times new roman\22 ";"> respectable album closer, in its current plodding version <i>I Rise</i> is certainly no disco inferno Stonewall 50</span><sup style="font-family: '"times new roman"';">th</sup><span style="font-family: "\22 times new roman\22 ";"> theme tune. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Can some late entry remixes save the day? Just in time for Madonna’s NYC late June appearance at World Pride mixes of </span><i style="font-family: 'times new roman';">I Rise</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> arrived in the clubs with longtime Madonna remix ally DJ Tracy Young contributing. With her take on the song transforming it into a somewhat generic, albeit crowd-pleasing, big room anthem expect </span><i style="font-family: 'times new roman';">I Rise</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> to indeed rise again. A stirring and intense video, done in collaboration with TIME magazine focusing on the global protest movement, but minus any Madonna footage, was also issued some two months after the track was initially promoted.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FsYNzimxd2k/XQDEkiJUG-I/AAAAAAAAFfk/tuGNybd9fig1MXEYRguHOVlPKBL0vZggQCEwYBhgL/s1600/madonna-madame-x-double-cd-edition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1050" height="255" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FsYNzimxd2k/XQDEkiJUG-I/AAAAAAAAFfk/tuGNybd9fig1MXEYRguHOVlPKBL0vZggQCEwYBhgL/s400/madonna-madame-x-double-cd-edition.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BONUS TRACKS<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Three other new tracks, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Funana,
Back That Up To The Beat</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ciao
Bella, </i>are also being offered to fans only on the pricey Deluxe Box Set<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt 36.0pt; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Funana<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt 36.0pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"Let's go dancing!" Madonna at last </span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">implores us</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> near the close of her album. Hey, better late than never! Choosing to get into a gospel tribal groove she proceeds to graciously give lyrical shout outs to music icons who have passed: (in order) Elvis Presley, Bob Marley, Whitney Houston, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, George Michael, David Bowie, Tupac Shakur, Avicci, Mac Miller, Freddie Mercury and Prince. Mac Miller and no Michael Jackson? Ouch, take careful note of the hidden meaning of that! W</span></span><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">ritten/produced yet again with Mirwais t</span><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">his does indeed seem like an </span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">also-ran</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">, B-side, or, yup, bonus track. </span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">Funana</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> is actually an accordion-based style of music/dance from the Cape Verde islands off the Western coast of Africa, though little of that is truly identifiable or retained here. A </span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">Mirwais</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> extra oddity to sit alongside </span><i style="font-size: 13pt;">Confessions</i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">' </span><i style="font-size: 13pt;">Super Pop</i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> and 2009's </span><i style="font-size: 13pt;">It's So Cool </i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">on the </span><i style="font-size: 13pt;">Celebration</i><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> compilation.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt 36.0pt; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt 36.0pt; text-autospace: none;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IFGyLZurhcQ/XQH-8BZAluI/AAAAAAAAFhA/pxHiXjvlFxAOfACuzgihxQL8mFRag8cYgCLcBGAs/s1600/62370896_2238255922930006_6711809650464915456_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="750" height="272" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IFGyLZurhcQ/XQH-8BZAluI/AAAAAAAAFhA/pxHiXjvlFxAOfACuzgihxQL8mFRag8cYgCLcBGAs/s320/62370896_2238255922930006_6711809650464915456_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Back That Up To The Beat</span></b><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt 36.0pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Originally a leaked leftover from the </span></span><i style="color: #3b3939; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13pt;">Rebel Heart</i><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> sessions, this floated around in demo form for years as a
cult fan favourite. All that remains from the original Pharrell Williams production are the lyrics and </span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">basic</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> melody. Musically </span></span><i style="color: #3b3939; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13pt;">BTUTTB</i><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> has been significantly souped up (spacey synths, Afro-centric drumbeats and Madonna's voice transmitted in from another dimension) by Jeff
Bhasker and Mike Dean. B</span></span><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ringing her tally of contributions to </span></span><i style="color: #3b3939; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13pt;">Madame X</i><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> to seven, </span></span><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Starrah also nabs a co-writing credit</span></span><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">. </span></span><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 13pt;">For diehard fans the real fascination here is how far this has progressed from <i>Rebel Heart</i>'s sparse <i>Back That Up (Do It)</i> to the rather over-produced, word music infused <i>Back That Up To The Beat</i></span><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 13pt;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt 36.0pt; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3kav5sLL1bPFuu7kbMA3VCcYAfZiMphbiyDkAjETWzQn-T3OLTfBXdBgsjzdAP-CjOnQlW7mmhTrMhaT8VeUGs62WK07k4B_SuW22s-iAspIqRRKVqA_kYW55oMk2XGz2epf7byd9OKw/s1600/FE2CB635-11C9-45BF-87F2-DDA2E4D0412F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="996" data-original-width="701" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3kav5sLL1bPFuu7kbMA3VCcYAfZiMphbiyDkAjETWzQn-T3OLTfBXdBgsjzdAP-CjOnQlW7mmhTrMhaT8VeUGs62WK07k4B_SuW22s-iAspIqRRKVqA_kYW55oMk2XGz2epf7byd9OKw/s320/FE2CB635-11C9-45BF-87F2-DDA2E4D0412F.jpeg" width="225" /></a><b><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ciao Bella</span></b><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Finally, the last of the Madonna/Mirwais efforts which tallies up to eight across all </span></span><i style="color: #3b3939; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13pt;">Madame X</i><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> editions. Over a moody, if uninspired, house beat Madonna allows us a rare peek into her conflicted headspace ("Sometimes I despair, Sometime I have </span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">hope</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">, Sometimes I don't know, Sometimes I feel happy"). Blended into the mix is </span></span><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 13pt;">singer Kimi Djabate, originally from the West African country of Guinea-Bissau but nowadays
based in Lisbon. Before Madonna he worked with Mory
Kante who scored a breakout African pop hit with </span><i style="color: #3b3939; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13pt;">Yeke Yeke</i><span style="color: #3b3939; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> in 1987/1988. Djabate is responsible for helping bring a number of different
African musical styles, including Cape Versean moma, to western ears and if anything <i>Ciao Bella</i></span><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;"> is more a showcase for his talents than Madonna, who feels like the guest star here. "Have you ever been to the land where you can find yourself?" she asks poignantly near the end as if acknowledging the joy living in Portugal has given her life; deeply influencing her music and, of course, <i>Madame X</i>. </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>Madame X </i>is available through Live Nation/Interscope Records from June 14</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Visit <a href="http://www.madonna.com/">www.madonna.com</a></span><br />
<br />
<b>Marc Andrews is currently a Contributing Editor for DNA magazine. His work has also appeared in <i>Mediaweek, Smash Hits, Playboy, MailOnline</i> and <i>Classic Pop</i>. His first published Madonna album review was 30 years ago in 1989 for <i>Like A Prayer.</i> </b></div>
</div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-14842970652407712392017-02-16T14:59:00.003+00:002017-02-16T15:03:28.212+00:00DNA February 2017 issue out now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
<br /></div>
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HdRAL_J8FpY/WKW9w2IsP8I/AAAAAAAAERo/V81TlLnVj50oIJh6b4Lde_ySE2NpQLllwCLcB/s1600/9acf8e32-ae59-494d-7edf-0836547ca83d_DNA205Cover490x694.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HdRAL_J8FpY/WKW9w2IsP8I/AAAAAAAAERo/V81TlLnVj50oIJh6b4Lde_ySE2NpQLllwCLcB/s320/9acf8e32-ae59-494d-7edf-0836547ca83d_DNA205Cover490x694.jpg" width="225" /></a><br />
The February 2017 issue of DNA magazine features my special personal 8-page farewell to George Michael. There's also my interviews with UFC gay fighter Timmy Guest, hotly-touted Icelandic band Fufanu and "accidental activist" producer/screenwriter Adi Hasak (the man behind the TV series' "Eyewitness" and "Shades of Blue"). I also get to review the latest album releases from a bunch of too-cool-for-school artists who don't go by the names their mothers call them. Heretics! For more please go to <a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/">www.dnamagazine.com.au</a></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-23901216040083886462015-03-27T17:20:00.000+00:002015-03-27T17:20:16.447+00:00DNA April 2015 issue out now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OFJA7joxPYg/VRWQ1lSzVQI/AAAAAAAADbo/E4qNOTH7nYw/s1600/DNA183Cover490x694.jpg%2B%2Bwidth%3D.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OFJA7joxPYg/VRWQ1lSzVQI/AAAAAAAADbo/E4qNOTH7nYw/s1600/DNA183Cover490x694.jpg%2B%2Bwidth%3D.jpeg" height="200" width="140" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The new issue of DNA magazine features my interviews with Ryan Bingham and Kenyth Mogan, plus my features on Hozier and Tom of Finland. I also review the latest album and contribute a travel piece on Belgrade, Europe's self-appointed "city of cool". </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Go here: </span><a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.dnamagazine.com.au</a></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-92026562323304521602015-02-13T08:41:00.002+00:002015-02-13T08:41:48.889+00:00Steve Strange interview (2013)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Template>Normal.dotm</o:Template>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>2471</o:Words>
<o:Characters>11123</o:Characters>
<o:Company>Mediaweek</o:Company>
<o:Lines>213</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>63</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>17302</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>12.256</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">strange...but true<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">From Blitz Club to Visage</span></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eaHx8To8M8E/VN22rPPkQAI/AAAAAAAADW4/h4Sj_JY-p0o/s1600/Steve%2BStrange.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eaHx8To8M8E/VN22rPPkQAI/AAAAAAAADW4/h4Sj_JY-p0o/s1600/Steve%2BStrange.png" height="203" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Steve
Strange can truly be awarded the title of being a gamechanger. His Blitz Club
in London in the early 1980s introduced the world not only to “new romantic”
style of both dress and music (which Duran Duran would later carry off to lofty
chart heights), but also set the stage for “genderbending” stars such as Boy
George and Marilyn to come into their own and rule the world, albeit briefly.
Along the way Steve also found time to become a pop star in his own right as
the lead vox in Visage, mostly beloved for their 80s classic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fade To Grey</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now
after decades away from the business and from Visage, including having to spend
a few years recovering from an addiction to heroin (and seeing his best mate
Michael Hutchence die), Steve has reformed the band, albeit with some new members.
Visage now even have a whole new album to share with a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">new </i>new romantic world, suitably and shamelessly fashionably called
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hearts and Knives</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
much more gentle and sedate creature now than he was in his prime, Steve’s now
ever so chatty and ever so excited about his return. Marc Andrews caught up
with Mr Strange in London to find out about his glory days and why he’s decided
to become a pop star all over again in his mid 50s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">So what brought you back to Planet
Pop then after all these years missing in action, or fading to grey as the case
might be?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">(Chuckles) If we weren’t
signed to such a little label it might seem right, but because the music
industry has completely changed and I am prepared for everything to be
downsized. I don’t think me wanting to use the likes of prestigious
photographers and pay £400 for a photoshoot is a lot of money. It’s an uphill
fight, but I fight because I am a perfectionist. I’m not being a diva and
wanting my own way. Hopefully the fans, or as I call them the friends of
Visage, who have been so loyal and patient will agree and will love the album
and the album sleeves. It’s been an uphill struggle, but a learning experience.
The next album won’t take as long as this album, that’s for sure (laughs).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">What made Visage so special and so
memorable?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
were pioneers of electronic music and me just rocking up for a photoshoot
doesn’t just happen. I think the new album cover should be hanging in the
National Portrait Gallery – it’s a work of art in itself. The album has had
some great reviews too. It also took a long time to choose the people to work
with on the album. If people in the industry don’t really know anything about
Visage, they probably won’t understand then why photography and even videos are
so important. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">What’s happening with your videos?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
next video is called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dreamer I Know</i>.
I went to the video as a learning curve to see how things have changed. I
walked in with gaffer tape across my mouth to prove that I wasn’t going to say
anything and would behave and do everything that I was told. For the next one
though, for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shameless Fashion</i>, Boy
George has said he’s going to direct it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">People have always assumed you and George
were always great rivals. Is that so?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
have put our rivalry behind us and work together as a unit now. We’ve just done
some amazing photographs, which is for a free gay publication here called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beige</i>. There are a lot of big name
fashion people who contribute to it for free. I think George is really clever
and I was the one who said to him, “What you are doing with a camera is not
very much different to what you’re doing with a video – why don’t you do my
next video?” He said he would love to, so that’s what’s going to happen. He can’t
go back on his words now (laughs). Especially since he put it on Twitter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Did you feel that now was the right time
to reform Visage?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">There
was so much interest in the 30<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the Blitz Club. We
had about 7-10 various TV documentaries being done on it before the event,
talking to people who originally went when it first opened. When we started
working on the Visage project some time ago with some of the original members
it just started to feel wrong and I wasn’t happy to be doing it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">With <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hearts
and Knives</i> it sounds like you wanted to update the Visage template but not
veer too far from it, is that fair?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
made sure with this album that we purposely didn’t use any synthesizers from
before 1985. I didn’t want to have any autopitchtuner on my voice either
because that makes me sound quite woeful. It strips the emotions away from your
vocals and you sound like a robot. Anyone who uses that could be a pop star in
this day and age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Does it feel odd that the fourth Visage
album has taken 30 years to come out?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It
makes me feel proud that I actually managed to get an album together (laughs)! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You’re songwriter, vocalist and imagemaker
for Visage. That’s a lot to carry off.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">All
of the Visage photos and videos played an epic part in what was credible
fashionshoots. The only thing that is different is that we don’t have the big
budgets for the videos anymore. You don’t have to have a huge budget to be
creative, so this has been a learning curve. Visage videos used to be
mini-movies, which they aren’t anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You’re very much a gay trailblazer
through the Blitz Club and Visage. Do you feel that weight on your shoulders
these days?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Um,
the Blitz didn’t just pioneer a musical generation, but it pioneered fashion, photographers,
milliners and inspired people like David Bowie. From this club you had people
like John Galliano and Depeche Mode who were all inspired from it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Does that make you proud?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Definitely.
My nephews now ask me, “Uncle Steve, why did we learn about you in school
today? Why did you start this thing called the New Romantics? You were in our
history lesson today!” One of them, Connor, is 14 and quite musical.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Could he be part of a second generation
of Visage?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Maybe
(laughs).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tXNRfdG-X2Y/VN22s_K5N5I/AAAAAAAADXA/16CzXbyyGSk/s1600/Visage%2Balbum%2Bcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tXNRfdG-X2Y/VN22s_K5N5I/AAAAAAAADXA/16CzXbyyGSk/s1600/Visage%2Balbum%2Bcover.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">You’ve been through some tough times,
notably drug addiction, so how did you manage to turn your life around?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It
took a long time. I had to get out of London. I was good friends with Michael
Hutchence and Paula Yates at the time. We took on a court case with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The News Of the World</i> and we won. He
went to Australia and I got a phone call from him asking if I would help Paula
move house. Then I get a phone call to tell me that Michael was dead and to
lose him like that was terrible. That killed Paula so much because he was the
love of her life. I still think there’s some mystery surrounding Michael’s
death now, but the way that Paula died…(starts to get misty)…there was no need
for that. There’s so much I can’t mention, but it was that and then a fire at
my house that made me want to leave the music industry and get out of the
London scene and go back to my town. That’s when I was approached to write my
autobiography and didn’t think I had much longer myself and wouldn’t be able to
do it. I figured that I better get it out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blitzed!</i>
became a bestseller!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah,
it did really well. There were a lot of things that I just had to write about
and my publishers didn’t want me to. I said, “I can’t paint over what happened
because people will know I’m not telling the truth!” It was made me appreciate
what I had done and gone through. After the book came out, I did a tour with
Kim Wilde and ABC through Germany and we were doing gigs to around 80,000
people. Once I did this European tour I realised I had my mojo back and was
ready to start writing again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And here you are now, with a fourth
album, and you didn’t fade to grey!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well,
yes, that’s a cliché, but you know what? I never tire of doing that song. A few
of the reviewers have said that our new album is like Visage at their best from
1981-82. It’s like we have gone back in time but still managed to keep it
fresh. It’s going the way we planned. I was a bit gutted when they told me that
we had 16,000 orders for the album, but in today’s market that is amazing. We
use to sell over 500,000 but not anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Any message for your Australian fans?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">One
thing I would love to say is that it’s my birthday in a couple of days and I
have a really great friend in Australia. I’m hoping that we are going to coming
over to Australia to do some showcases next year. Visage never made it to
Australia, but Molly Meldrum was someone who really supported Visage on his
music program <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Countdown</i>. When he had
that accident last Christmas I was really upset about it because I always
really liked Molly. He was very kind and very nice to Visage. So, no, we never
did actually ever make it out to Australia but maybe next year we will.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hearts and Knives</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> is available through Blitz
Club Records. For more go to www.visage.cc<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EyvkO7_BVuU/VN22wSGD7sI/AAAAAAAADXI/dsq5MC8dsbI/s1600/Visage2013-HiRes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EyvkO7_BVuU/VN22wSGD7sI/AAAAAAAADXI/dsq5MC8dsbI/s1600/Visage2013-HiRes.jpg" height="400" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">THE STRANGE LIFE OF A BOY CALLED STEVE<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Turning
54 this year, something that probably not even he thought he would ever manage,
Steve Strange (or Steven Harrington to his mum) is truly one of the world’s most
fashionable, albeit complicated, eccentrics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">At the
age of 13 he made the local papers when he was suspended from school for dying
his hair orange and putting in a nose chain. At the age of 15 in the late 1970s
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">he moved to the
bright lights of London from his small hometown in country Wales and
immediately got involved in the burgeoning punk scene. He began working for
music impresario (and later pop star in his own right) Malcolm McLaren. He also
befriended members of the Sex Pistols, who McClaren managed. The talented and über-camp
Steve </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">designed posters,
choreographed videos, ran his clubs and by the age of 20 was already a star in
his own right. Suddenly he was the boy that everyone wanted to have a piece of
and he loved the attention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Together
with his partner Rusty Egan they started hosting club nights in London that
they called Blitz (named after the air raids during World War II – Steve was
nothing if not a humourous ironic bugger). Those who actually managed to get
into the club were known as the Blitz Kids. Held in Convent Garden around
1979-1980 the club was also perfectly positioned between two art colleges (St
Martin’s School and Central School) which meant they attracted much of the
arty, and gay, crowd through the Blitz portals. The whole Blitz era had a
heightened scene of over-the-top androgyny, the complete antithesis to the punk
ethos of safety pins, spiked hair and ripped jeans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">After
scoring a starring role in the video for David Bowie’s 1980 #1 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ashes To Ashes</i> Steve was even<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>further propelled to the forefront of
fashion and fashionable people. The Blitz Club soon became <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the</i> hot spot for those who wanted to be seen on the scene,
including young genderbending hopefuls Boy George, Marilyn and Dead or Alive’s
Pete Burns. What made Blitz so revolutionary was perhaps for the first time ever
fashion and music collided and merged perfectly, creating a pool of “weird and
wonderful” major talent that would later rule the pop and fashion worlds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Boy band
supremos Duran Duran essentially “stole” the New Romantic look to launch their
pop careers, while Depeche Mode and David Bowie also seriously plugged into the
trend. Another big 80s band, Spandau Ballet, got their start at the Blitz Club
performing live gigs before conquering the world some years later with big
mainstream ballads like perennial wedding favourite <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">True</i>. Designer John Galliano was also another who got his start via
the Blitz scene.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">70s punk
was dead and 80s New Romantic was the future. Steve even managed to mark his
own mark in the charts as part of Visage, whose crowning glory was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fade To Grey</i>, a song he partially penned
about gloomy East Berlin. It’s still considered a pioneering slice of
electronic pop heaven. Steve was so beloved he was even befriended by royalty –
Prince Andrew, no less – becoming one of his closest buddies for a time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">After
Visage’s fame evaporated and the club scene in London in the late 80s began to
fragment into “the summer of love” via ecstasy and house, Steve shifted to
Ibiza helping create the party scene, especially with trance music, on the
beloved European holiday island.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">After
battling shoplifting, heroin addiction and, yes, bisexuality, Steve Strange
finally managed to get his life back in order. While some may wonder why heroin
would have been the drug of choice for someone on the club scene, less we
remember that ecstasy only arrived on the scene in the late 80s, prior to this
most drugs that were commonly available on the streets were marijuana (which
has never been much of an upper, especially for clubgoers) and heroin. Boy
George himself also battled heroin addiction in the 80s after finding huge fame
and finding himself unable to handle it. Together with Steve they battled their
heroin hell together and beat the addiction together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Steve
now puts the price that he paid for his heroin addiction at around £100,000
(which he worked out to being £100 a day). And who paid for him to go to rehab?
His best pal smooth operator Sade, no less.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">“One day she turned
up at my home in Fulham, West London, after hearing what a really bad way I was
in,” he recounts. “She handed me an envelope and told me not to open it until
after she had gone. When I did I started crying with gratitude because inside
was £1,000 in cash and a note telling me to use the money to get myself cured.
I used it to go into a clinic and get cleaned-up. Giving £1,000 to a junkie is
risky because there is an overwhelming temptation to go out and spend it on
more drugs. But Sade had reckoned on some clever psychological insight. She
gambled on me not abusing our long friendship and she was right. It was her
money that I used for my first drug cure in a clinic.”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">He says that he
thought heroin was the way of coping with his problems and all the pressures. “Instead
it nearly killed me,” he admits. “My doctor told me if I carried on doing
heroin I would not live much longer. My addiction ruined me financially. I had
to sell my home in Wales and move out of the plush London place I was renting.
I even pawned my jewellery and sold my clothes and other possessions because I
was so desperate to get heroin. I was a stupid fool over heroin. I have learned
a lesson.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Once described as “the
glamourpuss of all glamourpusses”, Steve has proved to be a true survivor. N</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">ow, some 30 years after the
last Visage album, he’s poised to return to planet pop. Strangely, Steve is not
quite ready to fade to grey just yet it would seem.</span><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 17.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>NB: Steve passed away on February 12, 2015 in Egypt from a heart attack. Boy George tweeted "Heartbroken about the death of my friend Steve Strange. So bloody sad. Such a big part of my life!"</i></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-5365668340997759082015-01-22T15:53:00.001+00:002015-01-22T15:53:43.135+00:00February DNA magazine out now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XGxPrS0IKD0/VMEcrf95uoI/AAAAAAAADVQ/rl4cgOijHw0/s1600/DNA181cover490x694.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XGxPrS0IKD0/VMEcrf95uoI/AAAAAAAADVQ/rl4cgOijHw0/s1600/DNA181cover490x694.jpg" height="320" width="224" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The February 2015 issue of DNA out now features my interviews with jazz artist Sarah McKenzie, tattooed tenor Matthew Garwood, my review of The Imitation Game + reviews of all the latest albums. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">For more go to </span><a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.dnamagazine.com.au</a></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-1691403366396942442015-01-15T11:10:00.000+00:002015-01-15T11:12:59.626+00:00Albinos, Abuse & AIDS: The English grandmother saving Africa's children<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PKK-4_dsGfw/VLea0uoAgeI/AAAAAAAADTU/L2_J-Hih5_g/s1600/Food%2BKitchen%2Bkids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PKK-4_dsGfw/VLea0uoAgeI/AAAAAAAADTU/L2_J-Hih5_g/s1600/Food%2BKitchen%2Bkids.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">How Mama Lynn became
the next Mother Teresa</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">STORY &
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARC ANDREWS</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although she claims she is “not a saint but just an average
person”, British great-grandmother Lynn Gissing, known as Mama Lynn in Africa
where she does her work, has for almost 15 years been helping to feed the poor
and needy children of the world’s second largest and second most populous continent.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the East Africa republic of Tanzania she oversees the
Light In Africa NGO, running orphanages and food kitchens for children no one
else wants to love. They are the ones who are HIV+, have suffered horrific abuse
particularly Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the case of girls, are disabled
or traumatised, or have been abandoned because they can no longer be cared for
their parents. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are grim tales of children coming to her as young as
five suffering from gonorrhea, others being tied to trees in the bush and left
to die, while others have a price on their heads for the colour of their skins,
namely the albinos.<o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T2e4JKpX02M/VLebPmCkJhI/AAAAAAAADTc/hih0q9UwjLg/s1600/Mama%2BLynn%2Blow-rez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T2e4JKpX02M/VLebPmCkJhI/AAAAAAAADTc/hih0q9UwjLg/s1600/Mama%2BLynn%2Blow-rez.jpg" height="400" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mama Lynn at her orphanage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s a hard, arduous, dusty task in a place of austere,
abject poverty, miserable famine and the ever-looming threat of Ebola from the
other side of the continent. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite all of that, 69-year-old Mama Lynn soldiers on, her
faith ever strong and her “calling” to help the children of Africa even
stronger. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She began her mission in 1999 just two years after the
passing of Mother Teresa, India’s angel of mercy for the poor, needy and unwell.
Perhaps in some heavenly capacity she may have passed the torch of human
charity to another believer, this time from the north of England with three
children of her own. To that end Mama Lynn’s passion and compassion has saved
countless lives, with an estimated 350,000 lives impacted for the better
through her relentless efforts.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even in her old age, weary and weather-beaten, Mama Lynn
refuses to end her mission and retire peacefully, pushing herself to keep going
and keep doing it for the deprived children all around her. Through her new
sideline venture, Torchbearer, she is currently in the midst of building a
lavender planation and butterfly farm at her “Tudor Valley” location, near the
sleepy mountain town of Moshi. It’s a canny way of giving vocational training
to some of her children currently in care who are unlikely to go on to higher
education. Already there are snug bungalows waiting to welcome guests who may
also want to visit or volunteer at the orphanage, with plans for a fishpond,
gift shop and even a swimming pool set for a future stage, if and when more
funds become available.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet even with all her good work, sometimes even Mama Lynn
has to face the harsh realities of life. Towards the end of 2014 she made the bitter
decision to close her boys orphanage in the tanzanite mining town of Mererani,
a heinous hotbed of criminality, due to conditions there turning it into more
of a hovel than a home. Now she needs to find a new roof to house these hungry young
mouths. Thankfully, Mama Lynn has faith and lots of it. In this God forsaken place
she needs it too, an awful lot of it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y07pQEM6Flc/VLebcfCf4DI/AAAAAAAADTk/AgWpMHDEMXc/s1600/disabled%2Bkids%2Blow-rez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y07pQEM6Flc/VLebcfCf4DI/AAAAAAAADTk/AgWpMHDEMXc/s1600/disabled%2Bkids%2Blow-rez.jpg" height="400" width="362" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Children at the orphanage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">It must have taken a
lot of gumption to set up an orphanage in Mererani, one of Tanzania’s most
dangerous places.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When God asked me to go there I thought, “There is no way! I
won’t last! I’m white – they will sell me for an albino! I can’t do that.” For
a week I pleaded with God not to send me to Mererani and asked him to send me
to China, or the Seychelles, but not Mererani. After a week, I told God that if
he wanted me to go there he had to provide me with a car, (a) for a quick
getaway and (b) to take a sick child to hospital. Soon after that a couple
popped in who had heard about Light In Africa and the man said: “I don’t see
any vehicles here!” I said, “That’s because we don‘t have any.” He asked me how
we do our work then. I told him that we walk, or we catch local transport. He
looked at his wife and said, “I think the church and us can buy you a vehicle!”
I was blown away and I knew that was the car for Mererani. I still didn’t want
to go though.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Have things changed
for the better during your 15 years here in Africa?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Attitudes have changed, yes indeed. When I first came here
everything was painted cream and blue. That was the standard colour for all of
the houses. Now you can see purple houses, orange houses, lime green houses –
there is a mental change.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">So people are allowed
to make their own choices a little more now, in some small way?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes. That’s the spirit that I see. People want to be more individual.
There were also very few modern cars here when I first came. Now you see women
driving cars – it’s amazing. They are all new cars too because they can now get
loans from the bank and everything has been made a lot easier. People want nice
clothes now. <o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_6odJjtFV4E/VLebmyFZlPI/AAAAAAAADTs/beApZ2TfAx0/s1600/Margaret%2Balbino%2Blow-rez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_6odJjtFV4E/VLebmyFZlPI/AAAAAAAADTs/beApZ2TfAx0/s1600/Margaret%2Balbino%2Blow-rez.jpg" height="320" width="194" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Margaret</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Are they looking to
be more westernized?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes. The old tribal practices are starting to die out. That
increased when people realised what the witchdoctors are doing with the
albinos. For the first time it’s there in front of them. The witchdoctors are
killing for these body parts and people have to ask themselves, “Do we want to
be a part of that tradition? That’s where our parents and ancestors come from.”
When I was living on the mountain (Kilimanjaro) I saw a lot of it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell us about the
case of Margaret, the albino girl currently in your care.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She never saw the light of day for three years. Her mother
gave birth to her and kept her hidden away and she never came out. By this time
it was public knowledge that gangs were coming – they don’t do it on their own
they do it in gangs. Her mother was very clever. She must have thought an awful
lot that the gang might come. What she did was she had a compartment made under
her bed and trained the child to go in and be quiet when she went in there. As
happened, they came to the door late at night banging saying, “Open the door!
We know you have an albino child in there!” She just had time to go into her
bedroom, put the child in and close the compartment, as they broke through the
door. They looked around and can’t find it, breaking into the bedroom and looking
around and unable to find it. She knew then it was too dangerous to keep her.
She put her daughter on her back in the middle of the night and arrived here at
four in the morning. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How did she know to come
and see you?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We’re so well known. I have other albinos as well. I have
another, who is in school at the moment, who came from Mererani. She had a
price on her head. They had a reward for anyone who would get her and take her
to the witchdoctor. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Is she safe staying
with you, or still at risk?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We never let the children out unless they are escorted,
especially in Mererani. If there are any holidays or anything like that it’s
the Mererani children that get them, not here. The children here get visitors and
get treated with sweets and balloons and people are always bringing them
something, but not at Mererani. What people are staggered by is that Tanzanite is
found there, which is a government mine, run by De Beers. That is bringing
$300-400m every single year, yet you will go just three kilometres down the
road and see such poverty. You think, “Where is the corporate responsibility?”
I never had anything to do with the Tanzanite mine and when I was faced with
having to close the food kitchen down, I thought I would go and see them. It
was the miners’ children who were starving after all. The miners had worked
there and then moved on and left these children, so they have to have a
corporate responsibility, but I haven’t seen it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w0tX9dmGcYU/VLebxMSeAvI/AAAAAAAADT0/Ez8b0rQC3PI/s1600/Food%2Bkitchen%2Bqueue%2Blow-rez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w0tX9dmGcYU/VLebxMSeAvI/AAAAAAAADT0/Ez8b0rQC3PI/s1600/Food%2Bkitchen%2Bqueue%2Blow-rez.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queuing to be allowed in for food</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What did you do
exactly?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I went and knocked on their gate and was welcomed by a very
nice gentleman who said to me, “Why has it taken you so long, Mama Lynn, to
call and see me?” I said, “Can I have an appointment to come and meet with you?
I never ask for money, so don’t worry about that. I just think you should know
what is happening.” When I went for the appointment…(pause)…I wasn’t seen.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">No one would come to
see you?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(Shakes her head) I went to the gate and was told by
security that they are not available. That was very sad. That was in September,
2014. When I first met him I thought, “What a nice man!”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Did you think about
contacting De Beers and putting some pressure on them or getting a pressure
group to do it for you?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not the person to do it. I have had film crews approach
me and ask me if they could stay with us at our children’s homes and take
films. I said no. The work I do in Mererani is so delicate that if I take a
step wrong, or cause any problems, they will deport me out of that area. That
means two orphanages will suffer and all the children of the food kitchen. I’ve
worked there for 11 years and I’m the only white woman who’s worked there. When
I first opened the food kitchen I had children knocking on our children’s homes
because they were so hungry. I thought, “I must do something!” It’s been going
now ever since. I have been told that I can work here and help the children and
they will be very appreciative of it but don’t make waves. That’s why I say no
to film crews. Other people can do that but I can’t as part of Light In Africa.
(Pensively) It’s all about money. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">On the positive side,
one of your “children”, Penny, has returned from studying and doing a year of
dedicated unpaid work for Light In Africa as her way of “giving back”. Is this
another success story for you?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes. Penny was eight when she was brought to us. She was
living in the mountains and her father and mother were poor peasants. In their
house they made a fire. The fire had gone down and they had all gone to bed.
She was wearing a long kanga, which you see ladies and girls wearing, and got
up in the night and stood in front of the fire where there were still hot
embers. She caught fire and was badly burnt all down her back and her arms. The
family rushed her to hospital, but after a couple of days had no more money
left, so they had to take her out of hospital and brought her back. The only
other opportunity to try to access medical treatment is through the traditional
medicine man. So they took her to him. He got charcoal and ground it all up
into a powder and got coffee leaves and pounded it all up. He made a paste and
they covered all her back with this. Then it started to get infected and as
everyone knows when meat smells it’s going bad. When she actually arrived to
see me it was all highly infected and she was in such pain. I took her to the
hospital. They had to peel everything off her and start again. I said to the
man, “If I take your daughter it will cost a lot of money to heal these wounds.
If I take her I am going to educate her!” because I could see it happening
again. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">So you took her in?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s what I did. She went back to her family every holiday
time and last year her father died. She was very upset about that but one of
the things I always remember is he came to see me to thank me. All he was
wearing was a pair of worn-out flip-flops. As he stood in front of me, I
remembered I had a donation of a pair of trainers (sneakers) and wondered if he
would like that. I went to the store and got them out and handed them over. The
look on that man’s face and the tears started to come down. He had never ever
owned a pair of shoes. That’s what I always remember – I gave her father a pair
of shoes because he was so poor. She has now turned out to be this beautiful
girl who has been in charge of one of our homes because she was so able. Now
she is finished and here she is ready to start her life. She wants to be an
accountant so we will help with that. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Are there more of
these success stories coming through?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes. Not many people see the fruit of what they have done,
but I have been blessed. I really thank God that I have been able to see
this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yafgmza2DK4/VLecBMbjCpI/AAAAAAAADT8/kBTdHAALVOI/s1600/Mama%2BLynn%2Band%2Bbaby%2Bgirl%2Blow-rez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yafgmza2DK4/VLecBMbjCpI/AAAAAAAADT8/kBTdHAALVOI/s1600/Mama%2BLynn%2Band%2Bbaby%2Bgirl%2Blow-rez.jpg" height="320" width="249" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mama Lynn and a young charge</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">You really have a
long-term solution or plan for your children, don’t you?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, it’s not a sticky plaster over a little wound. I tried
to bring it to its full conclusion. For the next five to ten years I can see I
will be going to many weddings and many baptisms because they are all in their
20s now. The big issue I have to consider is about the dowry. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Why so?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am still the matriarch of all these children. We had this
issue when my granddaughter was getting married to a Tanzanian. We had a big
family meeting about how we were going to solve this problem. I said, “My
granddaughter cannot be bought because she is well-educated and will be a good
mother!” We came to the conclusion that the family would make a donation to
Light In Africa. They brought us rice and sugar and things like that for the
children. That was a good solution, but I could be worth a fortune with all
these girls (laughs heartily).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Maybe you will be
your own best philanthropist?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t think so. I don’t have a penny. I am the poorest
person you will ever meet. I have nothing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Because you give
everything you have to others?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, that’s true. Because I am a white woman with all this
mass of children, Tanzanians think I must be so wealthy. All I get is my small
government pension and my work pension. That goes straight into the coffers of
Light In Africa. As a volunteer, and I am a volunteer although I founded all
this, all I receive is my meals and a place to sleep. Often that is in a tent.
When we are all fully booked up, I have to reconvene into a tent. That’s how I
live. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What about when you
leave Tanzania as on your recent book tour around the world?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s quite amazing that when I leave Tanzania I am so
blessed by other people. People are so kind to me. They host me in their homes
and take me to places I have never been. They took me to the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra and I was even taken backstage.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">So although poor in
possessions, rich in experiences?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Absolutely. I don’t have to worry about anything. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">And you get to see
the fruits of your labour.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s the circle of life, which is from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lion King</i>, and how true that is. That’s what the Maasai believe
in very strongly – the circle of life. We work closely with the Maasai and our
chairman of Light In Africa is a Maasai. I had only lived on the mountain for
three or four months when I had this party of Maasai elders come to visit me.
They asked me if I would build a children’s home in their village. I said, “No,
I can’t do that!” They said, “But we have suffering children”. I told them that
what I could offer them was that every month I would come with a doctor and
help the children and the mothers. That is what has happened for all these
years. The man I dealt with then, who always wore his Maasai shuka (clothing),
now 14 years later wears western clothes when he comes to see me. He wears his
shuka when he is back in the village because he is not only the chairman of
Light In Africa but also chairman of his village and chairman of the local
government party. Through him we have been able to change a lot of bad things.<o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FmgGCInIcUo/VLecN3BZCVI/AAAAAAAADUE/LRkDfDeXkUY/s1600/Food%2Bkitchen%2Bfood%2Blow-rez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FmgGCInIcUo/VLecN3BZCVI/AAAAAAAADUE/LRkDfDeXkUY/s1600/Food%2Bkitchen%2Bfood%2Blow-rez.jpg" height="283" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The glory of food</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Such as?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The drumbeat of FGM – female genital mutilation. We’ve had
so many severely crippled children through that. When I was in Mererani on one
occasion I was just waiting for the car to come and pick me up and take me to
the airport to go to America. A social worker told me they had something I
needed to deal with. She had a 12-year-old Maasai girl who has just been
circumsised and was lying there bleeding and had heard her father sell her to
an 80-year-old man to be his eighth wife. It’s terrible what these girls go
through. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How can you change
the scourge of FGM in this region?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I try to get in there early and talk to the boys. We do a
drama so they can see. I use volunteers. I have the mother and father dragging
the girl away who is screaming, “I want to be a doctor! I don’t want to get
married!” We do everything we can to impact and change this mindset because it
is the Maasai in this region who demand that the woman be cut before she gets
married. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">That’s quite a
hideous tradition.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s why I go in for the younger ones. That’s what I do.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">It’s good that you do
it.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(Smiles beatifically) Usually when I am talking to people
they want to hear my story and there are two questions that I am always asked.
The first one is whether I get any government help because I am doing the
government’s job. No, I don’t. I have been a guest of the President and the
Prime Minister of Tanzania who have told me, “Keep up the good work, Mama
Lynn”, but I don’t get any funding.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What’s the second
question you are always asked?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The personal one – “You walked out on your husband and your
marriage, have you ever seen him?” No, I haven’t. He was a man of his word and
he said that if I walked through the door that would be it. And that is it. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">And you walked into
your new life.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, not knowing if I had made the biggest mistake ever.
Everyone was telling me how crazy I was. “How can you go to a culture where you
don’t speak the language?” I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">still</i>
don’t speak the language. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">But you had a gut
instinct to go, right?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, I did. It was a calling. I was living in the north of
England. I stopped the car intending to go and get some brochures to find a
house in the country near Grantham. All of a sudden I heard this voice in my
head saying: “Go. To. Africa.” I stopped and thought, “Where did that come
from?” I had been thinking about whether to buy pork chops, pork sausages, or a
pork pie for tea. I totally ignored it. I walked down the street a bit further
and then this voice in my head said: “Go. To. Africa.” That totally stopped me.
I looked around for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Candid Camera</i> or
someone who was trying to make a fool of me. The rest, as they say, is history.
I stopped in the middle of the pavement and couldn’t move. The voice said to
me: “Go into the travel agency and book a ticket to Africa”. Where I had stopped
was in front of a travel agency. People were passing me by on both sides and I
couldn’t move – I thought I was having a stroke. As I stood there I thought,
“Don’t panic! Has anyone else you know had this happen to them?” I had been
going to church for 40 odd years and wondered if there was someone else who
thought they had heard God speak to them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What came into your
mind?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a guy called Gideon in the Old Testament, who was
the youngest in his family. He couldn’t believe it when he was asked to lead
the Israelites Army and he literally put God to the test. He laid down a
sheepskin and said, “Ok God, this is the deal. I have to know for sure about
you calling me. I put this sheepskin down and I want it full of dew and the
ground dry.” God did that and he was able to wring out a bucket of water. The
next day he asked for the sheepskin dry and the ground wet with dew. God did
that too. So he went off and won a war with just 300 soldiers. All this is
going through my mind and I said to the voice in my head: “Okay, if you are God
and you are speaking to me, and I can’t understand why you would want to speak
to me, but if I can go into that travel agency and book a ticket in ten minutes
I will go to Africa.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">And if not?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If no ticket then I will believe that I am going crazy and I
will shout for help, call for an ambulance and go and see a psychiatrist. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">So what actually happened?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My feet were released. I walked into the travel agency and
sat down. A nice lady said: “Yes, madam, how may I help you?” I said, “I’d like
to go to Africa please!” Her next question was: “Africa is a large continent –
where exactly would you like to go?” What came into my mind was that I had
written to a Pastor in a place called Moshi in Tanzania for six years. I told
her: “Take me to the nearest airport to a place called Moshi in Tanzania!” The
lady told me she had a very cheap ticket going in one month and should she book
it now. I said: “Yes, please.” I walked out and suddenly had a reality hit.
“What is my family going to say?” I don’t even know where it was on the map. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How did your family
react to this news about your impending African trip?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I got home and gave them the good news. I heard things like
“Are you crazy woman? Cancel it. You can’t go to Africa by yourself. You’ve
done some crazy things in your life but this one really takes the biscuit!” I
told them that I couldn’t cancel because I honestly believed that God had
spoken to me. They told me I was being ridiculous. Then when my three adult
children arrived it was a case of: “You talk to your mother because she’s not
listening to me!” <o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0_t-Oeal9lM/VLeceOfXWzI/AAAAAAAADUM/dOv7Z0eg8Tg/s1600/Mama%2BLynn%2Bfood%2Bkitchen%2Blow-rez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0_t-Oeal9lM/VLeceOfXWzI/AAAAAAAADUM/dOv7Z0eg8Tg/s1600/Mama%2BLynn%2Bfood%2Bkitchen%2Blow-rez.jpg" height="268" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mama Lynn in contemplative mode at the Food Kitchen</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">When was this exactly?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1999. I caught the plane and landed here and booked myself
into the YMCA. Lots of things happened in that month. Two things stand out. One
was that I was spiritually directed to a place that said “HIV/AIDS Information
Centre”. At this point I knew nothing about AIDS. The only thing I knew was
that Princess Diana never wore gloves and the Queen always did. Here I was
being pushed into this doorway where there were these people who were dying of
AIDS. There were just platforms and platforms of skeletal people looking at me.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">So that was your
first introduction to what you would be doing?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All these people were sick with sunken eyes. From there I
was asked if I would like to go on some field trips to Mount Kilimanjaro with
an NGO and that’s where God showed me all the children suffering. There were no
anti-retroviral drugs here and I asked the social worker what was going to
happen to all these sick children. What she said became my guiding instinct
after this: “A percentage of the children here you see today will die of
malnutrition because there is no one here who will feed them. Their parents
have already died. The second percentage will also die of opportunistic
infections because their parents have also died. The third percentage will have
treatable diseases like malaria but because no one will buy the drugs for them
they too will die. Only a small percentage you see here today will actually
grow up to adulthood.” That impacted me so much. I went back to the UK, around
Christmas 1999, and my family thought I had gotten over this crazy African
experience.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Little did they know!<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(Laughs heartily again) I thought I would just write letters
to people and let them know what was going on and how those children were
suffering. I never thought I could do any more. In January I was in the kitchen
doing something menial and I had a vision and saw Jesus stand in front of me.
He was so big. My eyes look up at this figure dressed in white and he had his
arms out. From the second position I saw myself very small and in my arms I was
holding a dead child. Jesus said to me: “Delivery these children safely into my
arms!” Then I was filled with such exquisite feeling that I cannot describe it.
It flooded through y veins and all through my body. I stood there in this
precious moment and then I did not want to be with people at all. I wanted
isolation. For the first time in my life I could understand why monks lived
away from the world in monasteries. My family was very concerned about my
mental stability with lots of whispering going on when I came down the stairs.
I can look back and see that this was my preparation time for this adjustment
that was going to take place. After a time of meditating and prayer I made the
decision that I was going back. I had raised my children and they were all
independent and grown-up. I had fostered children and helped them. Now I was
going to come back and help these children.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How did your family
react?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There were lots of critical remarks, which was quite natural
given the circumstances, but on June 2<sup>nd</sup> I arrived at Mount
Kilimanjaro Airport. I sold everything I owned. I used to collect china tea
services. I slept in a bed that was over 100 years old, but I sold everything
or gave it away.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">People must have also
had something to say about your calling being to children and people with AIDS
with the stigma attached to that disease.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s right. “You will die!” they said. “If you don’t die
of malaria you will die of AIDS.” I was adamant. God showed me his children and
this is what my life had to be. Within six weeks I had found a derelict
orphanage then I heard the drums starting one day and that freaked me out.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Did you know what the
drums represented?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No. I wondered if they were telling another village that
there was a white woman in the village. I asked the security guard, who spoke
English, what it was. He said: “There is a mass of people outside the gate!” I
said, “What do they want?” He said: “They want you to help them. Mama, you have
to understand, it’s not only children you are dying of hunger, but old people
too. If old people have no one to care for them they are expected to lay down
and die.” I was shocked at this. I had to see it for myself. That is how the
first food kitchen started. People also asked me to help them with their
medical treatments. I had sweets to give children so they wouldn’t be afraid of
me - the first white woman many had seen. A little girl would always run down
the path for her sweet and then one day she was not there. I asked the father
where she was. He said: “I buried her two days ago. She had malaria and I
didn’t have the money for the drug.” We are talking 40 pence, which would have
saved a child’s life. That’s what started the first outreach medical. From the
death of that little girl I made an arrangement with a Lutheran Dispensary that
I would pay the bill for these people and that’s how a lot of people had their
lives saved. After that the children started to arrive.<o:p></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aoDPR0khUls/VLedITBfmAI/AAAAAAAADUU/d3zwGJLyH4E/s1600/marc%2Band%2Bkids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aoDPR0khUls/VLedITBfmAI/AAAAAAAADUU/d3zwGJLyH4E/s1600/marc%2Band%2Bkids.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The author with two of Mama Lynn's cheerful charges at the orphanage in Tanzania</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">And from humble
beginnings…<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(Laughs) Those humble and desperate beginnings 14 and a half
years later…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">And now you are
working on setting up a Lavender Plantation and a Butterfly Farm.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is what the next project has to be to help these
children who would otherwise go back on the streets. It’s a downward spiral. A
man in Arusha can be hungry and steal a loaf of bread and be stoned by those
people for stealing a loaf of bread, but politicians can steal millions from
this country and nothing happens. That’s the bit I don’t understand and what we
have to deal with.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Are you a saint?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No, I’m just a regular person. There is nothing special
about me whatsoever at all. I’m not a psychic either (laughs).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">But you have made a
difference.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have responded to every problem that has been put in front
of me. When a problem is there I have responded in the only way I know how to –
I get something done – but we have had many miracles too.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
For more go to <a href="http://www.lightinafrica.org/">www.lightinafrica.org</a>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lynn Kaziah Gissing’s 242-page book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Light In Africa</i>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Journey to Mt.
Kilimanjaro and the people and children who have touched my life</i> is
available through Motivational Press <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-17336748395876297302014-10-23T10:01:00.003+01:002014-10-23T10:03:14.552+01:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qZyUzRssX-w/VEjD1Y5ipzI/AAAAAAAADK0/5wGl8xLdJCs/s1600/DNA178cover490x694.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qZyUzRssX-w/VEjD1Y5ipzI/AAAAAAAADK0/5wGl8xLdJCs/s1600/DNA178cover490x694.jpg" height="200" width="140" /></a></div>
November DNA issue is out now featuring my stories on Beyonce, Sia, Grace Jones, Divine and Disney's gay adventures + I review the latest album reviews. With bonus Britney's bitch on the cover! Toxiclicious!<br />
<br />
For more go to <a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">www.dnamagazine.com.au</span></a><br />
<br /></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-60777326763134228772014-09-17T19:05:00.000+01:002014-09-17T19:05:02.502+01:00QX Cover 19 September 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WWPE4EB4KJ4/VBnMx8J4cII/AAAAAAAADHU/cPW5ii8ZEDA/s1600/QX%2BCover%2BSep%2B2014.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WWPE4EB4KJ4/VBnMx8J4cII/AAAAAAAADHU/cPW5ii8ZEDA/s1600/QX%2BCover%2BSep%2B2014.png" height="320" width="233" /></a></div>
It's nice to have the chance to be on the other size of the camera for a while. Here's me featured on the cover of London gay magazine QX to promote the new Epic night.<br />
<br />
See if you can spot porn star Aaron Steel on the cover too there with me, hiding in the shadows!<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-12440812145533037092014-09-04T22:09:00.000+01:002014-09-04T22:13:48.603+01:00R.I.P. Joan Rivers - my never-published interview<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:DocumentProperties>
<o:Template>Normal.dotm</o:Template>
<o:Revision>0</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime>
<o:Pages>1</o:Pages>
<o:Words>782</o:Words>
<o:Characters>4458</o:Characters>
<o:Company>Mediaweek</o:Company>
<o:Lines>37</o:Lines>
<o:Paragraphs>8</o:Paragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>5474</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>12.256</o:Version>
</o:DocumentProperties>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8d2EmEHz3Go/VAjUeQKG1JI/AAAAAAAADF4/iZmMN26T3fo/s1600/Joan%2Bshow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8d2EmEHz3Go/VAjUeQKG1JI/AAAAAAAADF4/iZmMN26T3fo/s1600/Joan%2Bshow.jpg" height="287" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold;">Joan Rivers</span><br />
<div class="MsoBodyText">
(March 2006)</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
Perhaps the only thing more outrageous than former “living
legend” Joan herself was her designer handbag full of outrageous
jokes, put-downs and sarcastic one-liners. Nothing was sacred. She aimed to
offend and to offend everyone, herself included. </div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
At her stand-up show that I witnessed in Sydney shortly
after this interview Joan began by declaring how much she hated ugly people and
that she had just discovered the ugliest people in the world – aborigines. A
fair proportion of the audience promptly got up and left – barely five minutes
into the show.</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
Later in her schtick, she told a long story about her
mother-in-law being cremated while Joan was rushing to catch a plane. “Come on
you’re a Jew, you know how to burn!” she told us she had yelled at her former-in-law
as she checked her watch impatiently. This taboo-tackling proved there was
nothing sacred or untouchable when it comes to material for a Joan Rivers joke.
My German partner at the time was visibly shaken by this particular Joan
episode…and quite possibly still is!</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
While most people become more subdued and mellow with age,
Joan just grown vicious and truly doesn’t care who she slanders. That’s why
she had a very devoted gay following, as you might imagine.</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
This interview, done for an Australian gay magazine, was never published as they "forgot" to print it. Finally, it has its day, even if it is on a very sad one indeed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hi Joan, how are you keeping busy these days?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">[Gabbling at 100
miles an hour] </span>I switched channels in the US to TV Guide and, yes, I’m
working the red carpet together with my daughter <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">[Melissa].
</span>We’re the only mother-daughter team in the US that works together. It’s
been a very good combination. I’ve also just finished a Broadway show, just had
a television show in England and tomorrow I’m doing a radio show for a week.
Then I go on tour.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Don’t you ever sleep?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Very little. Then I run my jewellery business – I always
forget that!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why not just lie by the pool?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I love the business. It’s fun to me. It’s like my hobby.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What’s been the highlight of your career?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">[Quipping] </span>That
I’m still here! When I started doing comedy I realised beautiful women come and
go and parts for actresses get thinner as you get older, but if you can make
people laugh you’ll be around forever. I thought, “How lucky am I that God made
me ugly and funny!” [laughs].</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Let’s talk cosmetic surgery. What would you recommend gay men get done?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">[Feigning
disinterest] </span>Do what makes you happy. If you don’t like your teeth, fix
them. If your ears are too stuck out, put them back. If you think your nose
should be thinner, change it. You go through life once so you should look as
good as possible.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What are your thoughts on penis enlargement?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not a gay man, so size doesn’t matter to me. Go ask your
lovers! If it makes you happy, fine. I’m a total advocate for anyone wanting to
look the way they want to look. If it make you feel better when you walk into a
bar, go on get it done. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What about botox?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">[As if giving
orders] </span>If you think you need it, get it! And get yourself a second job
to pay for it. I don’t want to hear that you can’t afford it. Yes, you can!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Any other beauty tips?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You got the wrong chick for beauty tips [laughs dirtily]. I
give them to blind people. Lip gloss is always important on the lips. Don’t
make the mistake of putting it on the nose. You’ll look like a fool. People
will notice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Do you have a posse of famous friends you hang out with?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t have many friends. The minute my friends get
anywhere they dump me. That’s the way it goes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You were in London recently. Did you bump into Madonna?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I used to bump into her a lot more than I do now. She’s too
elegant to bump into now. I bump into her housemaid now.</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">You’re
heading down under to tour soon. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was last there three years ago. This will be my third time
and I’m doing the Logies, which I’m excited about. I should get a special Logie
and Bert should give it to me.</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Bette
Midler once said she’d heard the most disgusting word she’d ever heard when she
was in Australia - pissflaps.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">[Poo-poohing] </span>Oh,
that’s not so terrible. I’ve heard worse in Bette’s kitchen [laughs dirtily
again]<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BD1iTbPQGLk/VAjUg6PbnbI/AAAAAAAADGA/wi9lYis3u28/s1600/Joan%2Bshow%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BD1iTbPQGLk/VAjUg6PbnbI/AAAAAAAADGA/wi9lYis3u28/s1600/Joan%2Bshow%2B2.jpg" height="294" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You said you didn’t have any celebrity friends!<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t – I work for her [laughs dirtily yet again].</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why do you appeal to “the gays” so much?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s a school of us like Bette, Liza, Cher – they like a
strong woman who laughs at everything. I’m the comedy diva, but don’t give me
the title unless you’re showing up for one of my shows [laughs]<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </i>I hope every gay man comes out to see
me. If there’s a lot of gay men in the audience that means it’s going to be a
good show.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Should we show up in Joan drag?<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think it’s hilarious. When they do me they always have
better wigs and better clothes. It’s all about the hair. If you get the hair
right, then you’ve got me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Joan Rivers – she was a diva supreme, grandmother and owner of quite possibly the
dirtiest potty mouth ever to have been granted a career. Just make sure you get
the hair right. After winning The Celebrity Apprentice in 2009 her career got a
(very) late boost and she became a staple on the E! channel, especially with
her campy Fashion Police weekly show, which sometimes managed to be just as
salacious as her stage shows (and with plenty of bits bleeped). Joan refused to change,
and she certainly didn’t mellowed with age. It seemed like only in the last few years had her
gift for making people see the funny side of difficult situations truly been recognised (witness her affecting 2010 documentary Joan Rivers:
A Piece Of Work). Not bad for someone who turned 81 in 2014. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Joan, you will be sorely missed and will be forevermore irreplaceable.</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-30683977949948138232014-04-29T20:24:00.000+01:002014-04-29T20:24:17.459+01:00DNA May 2014 issue out now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHeTFqpQRk31wRCfzsiu3sjujy7d8BNeYLazMki1zP4ZAkt1IWvtlBBaZ3CDw1Sxxvcpv75yKGwdaO2r-mRCdLuJFtJ37k2qFm4RruOVMVnje6myP4gpxVNhlyQyhyphenhyphenrMcjNPAbiUu7uRQ/s1600/DNA172cover490x694.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHeTFqpQRk31wRCfzsiu3sjujy7d8BNeYLazMki1zP4ZAkt1IWvtlBBaZ3CDw1Sxxvcpv75yKGwdaO2r-mRCdLuJFtJ37k2qFm4RruOVMVnje6myP4gpxVNhlyQyhyphenhyphenrMcjNPAbiUu7uRQ/s1600/DNA172cover490x694.jpg" height="200" width="140" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">DNA May 2014 issue out now features my interviews with Dan Avery and Oliver Palan, my reviews of of Kylie Minogue and Dallas Buyers Club, my travel story on Amsterdam, plus I review the latest albums. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Value for money or what, shoppers?!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">For more go to <a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com/">www.dnamagazine.com</a>.au</span></span></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-62254045935427878292014-02-28T22:58:00.000+00:002014-02-28T22:58:45.782+00:00DNA March 2014 issue out now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VTgePnSuiBk/UxEUHrg8dPI/AAAAAAAAC38/wmLSW4HTLMI/s1600/DNA170cover490x694.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VTgePnSuiBk/UxEUHrg8dPI/AAAAAAAAC38/wmLSW4HTLMI/s1600/DNA170cover490x694.jpg" height="200" width="140" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">DNA March 2014 issue out now features my travel story on Brazil (Rio vs Sao Paolo), my feature on 20 years of Priscilla and Muriel, an interview with Metronomy + my reviews of the latest albums too! Happy Mardi Gras viewers!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: red; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><span style="color: white;">For more go to www.dnamagazine.com.au</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-13352551814798582802014-01-31T12:42:00.001+00:002014-01-31T12:43:31.893+00:00DNA magazine February 2014 out now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4LibGPNpSZg/UuuaEsGxm9I/AAAAAAAAC2A/AV4zPogS6q0/s1600/DNA169cover490x694.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4LibGPNpSZg/UuuaEsGxm9I/AAAAAAAAC2A/AV4zPogS6q0/s1600/DNA169cover490x694.jpg" height="200" width="140" /></a></div>
February 2014 DNA magazine features my interviews with Hans Berlin, Gala, Lasto and the man behind the new Bridegroom movie + my features on Berghain nightclub and Boy George & i review the latest albums!<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: white;">For more go to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"> <a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/">www.dnamagazine.com.au</a></span><br />
<br /></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-88838665301281310662014-01-03T11:40:00.000+00:002014-01-03T11:41:42.885+00:00DNA January 2014 issue out now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n6XZ5jWeF-M/UsahKDI7EmI/AAAAAAAAC0Y/6qLmWaH31KY/s1600/DNA168cover490x694.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n6XZ5jWeF-M/UsahKDI7EmI/AAAAAAAAC0Y/6qLmWaH31KY/s200/DNA168cover490x694.jpg" width="140" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><b>January 2014 DNA magazine is out now featuring my historical piece on gay men and their love affair with dance music ("Up all night to get lucky"), plus my travel pieces on Tel Aviv Pride and Fire Island, interviews with Adam Brand and Garek + my album/DVD reviews. Who said Christmas was over?!</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">For more go to</span> </b><a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">www.dnamagazine.com.au</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-49950216274766256742013-10-27T19:21:00.002+00:002013-10-27T19:22:37.764+00:00DNA November 2013 issue out now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fDEn04HsRwE/Um1neExj17I/AAAAAAAACws/oACeHoQLbzY/s1600/1431_10152283653434838_63209483_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fDEn04HsRwE/Um1neExj17I/AAAAAAAACws/oACeHoQLbzY/s200/1431_10152283653434838_63209483_n.jpg" width="158" /></a></div>
November DNA magazine out now features my stories on Gaga vs Madonna (but is it art?), Pet Shop Boys, One Direction and interviews with Solomon and The Collective + i review the latest albums.<br />
<br />
More at <a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/" style="background-color: white;">www.dnamagazine.com.au</a></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-41619364935872149972013-09-26T09:25:00.003+01:002013-09-26T09:25:56.493+01:00October 2013 DNA magazine out now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YibF4EsWrAU/UkPvYIUYS-I/AAAAAAAACvU/OEeC_BFzjSo/s1600/DNA+October+2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YibF4EsWrAU/UkPvYIUYS-I/AAAAAAAACvU/OEeC_BFzjSo/s200/DNA+October+2013.jpg" width="160" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">October issue of DNA magazine is out now featuring my stories on Empire Of the Sun, Mavis Staples and Game of Thrones + all the new albums reviewed! </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">For more go to</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> <a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/">www.dnamagazine.com.au</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-61828359389791499882013-08-27T10:05:00.001+01:002013-08-27T10:07:12.794+01:00DNA September 2013 issue out now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cIO5StEpVwk/UhxrMUqQAHI/AAAAAAAACs0/6ntoqcqU36U/s1600/DNA164Cover490x694.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cIO5StEpVwk/UhxrMUqQAHI/AAAAAAAACs0/6ntoqcqU36U/s200/DNA164Cover490x694.jpg" width="140" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The September issue of DNA magazine (out now in Australia and elsewhere very soon) features my interviews with Visage's Steve Strange, Caro Emerald, CL Gris and the hottest gogo boy in the world, Shazad Hai. I also review "Behind The Candelabra" as a DVD sample and all the latest albums. Oh and there's sexy men galore in DNA's annual Sexiest Men Alive section. Take that, Anna Wintour!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">For more go to <a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/" style="background-color: white;">www.dnamagazine.com.au</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-71007143129640270352013-07-30T11:27:00.003+01:002013-07-30T11:27:37.057+01:00DNA August 2013 out now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zD7MO2vf-Eg/UfeUxiPDy4I/AAAAAAAACrA/FbO4JBvlsAk/s1600/DNA163Cover490x694.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zD7MO2vf-Eg/UfeUxiPDy4I/AAAAAAAACrA/FbO4JBvlsAk/s200/DNA163Cover490x694.jpg" width="140" /></a></div>
The August issue of DNA magazine is out now featuring my interviews with John Grant, Charli XCX (she wrote "I Don't Care") and Josh Pyke, plus my story of how <i>RuPaul's Drag Race</i> sashayed to stay into our lives <complete id="goog_2017340298">+</complete> this month's album reviews. Oh and my former flatmate Stefan is smeared all over the cover too. Like a diamond in the sky, no less!!<br />
<br />
For more go to <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/">www.dnamagazine.com.au</a> </span><br />
<br /></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-82433131724553423642013-07-11T22:29:00.001+01:002013-07-11T22:29:15.680+01:00My Madrid Pride 2013 portfolio for DNA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q0aGdNS1s3M/Ud8jTey9wVI/AAAAAAAACp4/pNP4OmzOa2A/s1600/julyMadrid+Pride4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q0aGdNS1s3M/Ud8jTey9wVI/AAAAAAAACp4/pNP4OmzOa2A/s200/julyMadrid+Pride4.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Check out this link below for a series of photos that I took for DNA magazine at Madrid Pride this year. Even the McDonald's got into the rainbow spirit of things. Mctastic!<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;">http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/Albums/Gallery_Page.asp?aid=44&gid=507</span></div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7058920726182669028.post-70788641276734938112013-07-10T14:22:00.004+01:002013-07-10T14:22:58.418+01:00My Tel Aviv Pride 2013 portfolio<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BH75Bx7HiRQ/Ud1fFM41wkI/AAAAAAAACpk/LSeagT0zh3s/s1600/julytelavi12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BH75Bx7HiRQ/Ud1fFM41wkI/AAAAAAAACpk/LSeagT0zh3s/s200/julytelavi12.jpg" width="140" /></a></div>
<br />
Check out my photos from 2013 Tel Aviv Pride on the DNA magazine website. Click link here:<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=19601">http://www.dnamagazine.com.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=19601</a></span><br />
<br />
This is one of my favourite ones here on the left - it's of TLV's #1 party boy Oliver smooching some bearded hottie down on the sands. If Oliver were any hotter there would be fire coming out of his mouth, steam rising out of his ears and he'd be proudly sporting devil horns on his head! Woof indeed!</div>
marc-e-marc andrewshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00494260748649092964noreply@blogger.com0