Madonna

There are very few artists that are as controversial as Madonna. She's been hanging around since the early 80s and she is turning the big 5-0 later this year. She has reinvented herself more times then anyone has a right too, but no matter what your thoughts on her very long and very successful career, no one can deny her impact on popular culture. An impact that still is very apparent even to this day, as i found out today...

It all started this morning at about 5am. I'm working the front desk, and i'm a little bored, so what do i do? i pop onto youtube, and start watching music videos. I'm all over the place, but i really like listening to stuff that people never expect. So i pull up one of my favorite videos from the 80s. "Like A Prayer" by Madonna. It has every thing, a really catchy bubblegum beat and black jesus in the music video. I'm singing and dancing along, and Abbie Z. (the girl i'm working with) and i start talking about Madonna. we're watching her videos, talking about what are our favorite songs, and how HOT she looks for a 50 year old. Abbie says she really likes about every song madonna has ever done, except for "Like A Virgin." But especially the stuff around the late 90s, you know, "Ray of Light" and "Don't Tell Me"

So tonight, my buddy Sarah and Akira and I went out to BD's Mongolian barbeque for dinner, and afterwards we stopped into the BuyBacks store next door. We are perusing the used CDs and since i had Madonna on the brain, I decided to look her up and see what the store had. Well they had about everything, apparently people like to sell their Madonna Cds....Can we say guilty pleasure? No one wants to admit they have Madonna ripped on to their computer so they sell the evidence... I'm excited cause they have the Immaculate collection for 5 bucks. I'm so excited i show Akira what i found. He rolls his eyes "No. Don't even talk to me about Madonna....I don't even know you who you are."

I step up to the counter to make my purchase, and i'm really excited, i'm grinning from ear to ear and humming "Lucky Star." The guy at the counter looks at the CD, then at me, then back at the CD, starts shaking his head and lets out a sigh. "You know," he says "this is my least favorite CD in the whole store. I mean, what right does she have to use the word Immaculate? it's offensive." I tell him, "C'mon, it's Madonna...It's EARLY Madonna, everybody likes early Madonna." He says "the music may be ok, but that word, she has no right to use that word."

Oh well, Whatever, I got my CD and I'm Happy, "Hey Sarah! Can we listen to Madonna on the way home?!?!? Can we Can we Can we?" Now Sarah's smiling, "only if we can sing real loud." Well that goes with out saying, right? Akira starts his groaning. He says that he can't believe we're going to be listening to Madonna and he promises to put his MP3 player in and do his best to ignore us.

We're all in the car, and Sarah and i are singing pretty loudly, Akira is in the back seat (without his headphones on. He says it's because the music is so loud he wouldn't be able to hear his headphones over top of Madonna, but i think he was actually enjoying it, and just waaaaay too manly to admit it.) We cycle through all the classics, Like a Virgin (i was reminded of the movie Reservoir Dogs), Cherish, Borderline, Lucky Star, Holiday, etc. We're almost home and i'm thinking this has got to be the Feel-Good CD of the millennium. Akira looks at me with much shame and a little bit of disdain and informs me that no straight guy should ever sing Like A Virgin. Just then Vogue comes on. Sarah and I look at each other "Strike A Pose!!!" Akira promptly adds Vogue to the list of songs straight guys should never ever sing.

Come on Akira, like you've never struck a pose. Everyone has Vogued at least once in their life.

So yea, I got my fill of Madonna today and personally, I'm loving it.