http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2002-2006 by the authors Tue, 27 Jun 2006 00:14:01 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-398877 Hi everyone! I would like you to tell me your own opinion about how Madona became an icon? and what is her contribution to culture? It's a paper i have to do about those themes. Much appreciated. -Lior ]]> 398877@blogcritics.org Tue, 27 Jun 2006 00:14:01 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-346105 RE: 2006 Confessions Tour There are public presales planned, and I am 99% sure on the ticket presale password for Madonna at Madison Square Gardens. Off topic, but I've also got a Kenny Chesney password, Tim Mcgraw password and a Willie Nelson presale password. Come on over! http://freepresaleinfo.blogspot.com/ ]]> 346105@blogcritics.org Tue, 4 Apr 2006 19:30:44 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-65346 Just goes to show that Madonna can even make bagpipes cool! ]]> 65346@blogcritics.org Mon, 24 May 2004 11:31:02 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-65004 I am very angry with that Manchester date;) I had taunted friends in Manchester with my 1th August ticket saying it was the first date in the UK. What does Madonna do? Set a date in Manchester. I am avoiding my calls cos I am being destroyed with taunts here. Anyway, good for you guys up north. She hasn't been there since the early 80's in the Hacienda. Did you see a clip of the rehearsals? Rehearsing ITG(Into the groove) with the bagpipes guy from her wedding? LOL. Calf length kilt and all:) The woman is just too trendy. We'll soon be seeing those all over the place once the rest of the world get a look at that clip. Some just have all the luck. Bagpipe guy living in his little village in Scotland. You play the bagpipes..Madonna arrives for her son's christening, you just stand outside and play some of her songs on your pipes just to get press attention..and what happens 3 or 4 years down the line? You are invited to tour with her round the world...I bet you he can not believe his luck. Looking forward to hearing ITG with bagpipes. How strange is that?!:) ]]> 65004@blogcritics.org Fri, 21 May 2004 13:03:14 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-64976 Yes, the cover of American Pie was terrible... but I forgive her, we all make mistakes. And she is Madonna after all. Plus I am very excited as I have tickets to see her live in Manchester on Aug 15th! yay! woo hoo (hehe) ]]> 64976@blogcritics.org Fri, 21 May 2004 09:25:43 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-63010 Hi SS. You could have saved a lot of cyberspace by simply typing the following sentence: Dear God, you are anencephalic. P.S. Jesus, I didn't even know that until you told me. I thought I told you you were grounded with no TV! ]]> 63010@blogcritics.org Sat, 8 May 2004 19:30:03 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-62663 There are some songs where the performance and the personality of the original performer are so inextricably bound with the song, that a cover is virtually impossible. This is one of them. ]]> 62663@blogcritics.org Fri, 7 May 2004 08:57:43 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-62627 Over here in England. Everyone I know of the era of the original, consider the Madonna version a travesty, not a hit ! ]]> 62627@blogcritics.org Fri, 7 May 2004 02:49:47 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-61780 Madonna admits that covering American Pie was a mistake. It was a huge hit everywhere in the world (except America) and it was very well produced. However, the song is such a classic that it is an insult to cover. ]]> 61780@blogcritics.org Sun, 2 May 2004 15:41:29 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-61541 Wind her up, and watch her go !! ]]> 61541@blogcritics.org Sat, 1 May 2004 10:09:23 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-61510 God, that thing in your head called a brain is a waste. A waste of a brain. The creator made a mistake when putting it in your head. For you, your spinal cord would have sufficed. What's the purpose of putting it in your head when you seem to spend your life trying to convince people how dumb you are?! You have finally convinced me and I am bored of your peculiar brand of entertainment along with all these other little munchkins or smurfs you bring along with ya anytime you show up. I have nothing more to add at this precise moment because even I, find it hard to carry on a discussion with someone who uses his spinal cord to assimilate and process information. I hope you are not an organ donor. That brain must be buried with you. It is of no use to man, woman or even wilderbeast. ]]> 61510@blogcritics.org Sat, 1 May 2004 00:02:32 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-61507 I know I said this in another thread of Madonna's covering Don McLean a long, long time ago, but that was the day the music died, both figuratively and literally. ]]> 61507@blogcritics.org Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:46:04 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-61469 The worst thing that Madona did was a "cover" version of American Pie. Here's the Irony of it: Is Madonna a "greater" artist than Don Mclean: YES! Is ANY track by Madonna "greater" than American pie by Don Mclean: NO! I'm just a simple punter who knows what he likes, and what he dislikes, and what he'll pay for, and what he won't ! ]]> 61469@blogcritics.org Fri, 30 Apr 2004 18:48:19 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-61443 "...she will always be number one." Yeah but number one what??? ]]> 61443@blogcritics.org Fri, 30 Apr 2004 16:26:53 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-61439 Dear God: Must make you even more upset that Madonna's FOURTH show in Southern California just sold out and a fifth one is almost sold out. Her 7th show in the New York area is sold out and the 8th one is almost sold out. As much as you Madonna haters keep harping on her (and you do have some points), she will always be number one. ]]> 61439@blogcritics.org Fri, 30 Apr 2004 16:19:25 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-61102 There is no doubt that when Madonna needs to look good in people's eyes, that she can come up with the right thing to say in an interview (or Liz Rosenberg can coach her on what to say.) That isn't proof that she's sincere, or even gives a damn about her fans. Some of her remarks might be mildly amusing if she wasn't so ridiculously fixated on "Me, Me, Me! See how witty I can be! See how I can act like a slut and then turn around and act like it's everybody else who's obsessed with sex! See how I can 'poke fun at my own image' because it's all I think about 24/7!" ]]> 61102@blogcritics.org Wed, 28 Apr 2004 22:18:49 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-61093 Ah, where to begin? Oh, my first response to SS is that sincerity IS very much the issue here. I think most of us would agree that serious artists and musicians have at least some degree of sincerity. YOU are the one who keeps insisting that she's so profound and meaningful, so let's see real proof of it, not just some nice little sound bites you dug up from your ten thousand scrapbooks. As for the AIDS thing, uh, yes, chickie, I was growing up in the eighties and I remember it well. I'm just saying it's pretty hypocritical to be "such a great AIDS activist" and then turn around and release a picture book of your self having sex with just about everything (and I've seen the book, too.) Kinda sends mixed messages, don't you think? As for feminism, all you've proved is how much you buy into her clever comments. How does the fact that she masturbated onstage in 1990 help me to get the good education that I got at a nice women's college? Thankfully Madonna was there to help me out! By the way, the Dixie Chicks did more than make just one comment about Bush (and nowhere near as vague as Madonna's repeated bursts of hot air). ]]> 61093@blogcritics.org Wed, 28 Apr 2004 22:03:31 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-60017 Dear God: You make some good points with your post. In terms of Madonna working with talented producers and songwriters, you are 100 percent correct. However, many of these people say that Madonna is completely in control of her records. She knows what she wants and drives them in her direction. Of course, they could just be saying this, but here's another fact. Bruce Springsteen is considered a musical genius, but he works with several producers and songwriters. Michael Jackson (somehow) is considered a musical genius, but it's Quincy Jones that gave him Thriller. Why question Madonna's producing/songwriting ability when she has the same input, or even more, than so-called "geniuses." In terms of backing out on her anti-war stance, I definitely see your point. Rumor was, however, that her family was receiving death threats. If this is the case, I don't blame Madonna. In terms of the Aids thing, you also have a point..but she was WAY ahead of the trendy Hollywood crowd in doing this. And she has NEVER BEEN hypocritical about her stance on Aids. EVERYBODY HAS SEX...EVERYBODY IS INTO SEX! Madonna is/was no different. ]]> 60017@blogcritics.org Fri, 23 Apr 2004 18:47:44 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-59365 Finally, can any of the fans who get to the concert before we in Europe get to attend, fill me in on the setlist. Thanx:) Lomu, if you are still alive, I rely on your views:) Some other interesting quotes I found in my quotation book..and a hilarious excerpt from an interview with Mike Myers:) Madonna on the whole feminism thing again: Well, it seems to me that one of the pitfalls of the women's movement was that women wanted to be like men. They felt they had to dress like men and behave like men to get anywhere, to be respected or to be in control. To have power. I think that's bullshit. I think women have always had the power; they just never knew it. And you can be just as powerful being feminine. Madonna getting exasperated with Myers's train of questions.. Madonna: Would you ask me some questions that have a resonance to my life? This interview is mostly about what you're interested in: toys and hockey. Mike Myers: Is it more about me than it is about you? Madonna: Yes, but don't you realize that all interviews are? Mike Myers: More about the interviewer than the interviewee? Madonna: Absolutely. And all reviews are more about the writer than what they're reviewing. They're Rorschach tests. Mike Myers: yes, this is true. Do you believe in psychics? Madonna: Sometimes I believe them and sometimes I don't, depending on how well their eyebrows are plucked. :) smart and funny..the only thing not to admire about the gal is this current Kaballah madness:) ]]> 59365@blogcritics.org Wed, 21 Apr 2004 09:41:11 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-59360 42 questions with Madonna pre-release of Erotica and the awful Body of Evidence movie. 01. At what point in your career did you feel like you were a success? M: I've never reached that point. 02. What are the three most unusual things about you? M: My mental strength, my emotional resilience, my appetite for sweets. 03. Do you worry about being overexposed? M: Only at the gynecologist's. 04. How do you find the courage to do things that so many people find unacceptable? M: I was wounded at a very young age. 05. What's your best position in baseball? M: On the bus, afterward. 05. How do you get along with your father? What does he think about your work and your life? M: I get along with him very well. He tolerates my work and loves me no matter what I do. 06. What inspired your latest album and its title? M: Life. 07. What kind of music and talents do you want to promote with your new record company, Maverick? M: Cutting-edge, ground breaking stuff. 08. What do you really think of Courtney Love, who has said you've tried to copy her? M: Who is Courtney Love? 09. What is the sexiest book you've ever read? M: Marquerite Dura's The Lover. 10. How do you feel about unauthorized biographies? M: I feel nothing. 11. Who did you vote for president? M:Clinton. 12. Who do you wish would have run for president? M: Mario Cuomo. 13. Do you think American society has lost its values, like Dan Quale says? M: I think American society has lot its sense of humor. 14. You do a lot of charity work. What do you think is the most important issue for young people today to address? M: Education. 15. Why? M: Knowledge is power, and the more you know, the more you grow. Staying in school, getting into books and pursuing interests are all part of it. 16. What world problem would you cure if you could? M: AIDS. 17. What is your workout routine? M: Two and a half hours of hell. 18. How do you make yourself exercise on days when you really don't feel like it? M: I think about being fat. 19. Do you have any recurring dreams? M: I always dream about being betrayed. 20. Who's your best friend in the whole world? M: Me. 21. If you were a man, who would you be? M: The Spanish guy who won the gold medal in swimming. Or Marlon Brando when he was young. 22. Why are you so interested in sex? M: Why is anybody? Why are you? 23. Have you ever pushed the limits too far? Do you have any regrets? M: Je ne regrette rien! [Translation: I regret nothing.] 24. Now that you're as famous as the original Madonna, what would you say to her if you met her? M: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed are thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." 25. How would you describe your new album? M: There's lots of up-tempo dance songs, some tear-jerking ballads- it's sexy and fun, and I'm very proud of it. 26. What would you do if you were stood up on a date? M: Call up my girlfriends and get together with them and bitch about it. 27. Here's a checklist of things to look for in a guy - which do you think is important? M: Cute: Not important. Tall: Not important. Short and slight: Not important. Caring and sharing: Extremely important. Rich: Not necessary as long as he can pay his own rent. Smart: Extremely important. Sensitive: Extremely important. Sexy: Extremely important. Cool: If he has all of the above, he is cool. Good dancer: Not necessary, but always an extra added plus. Good dresser: Same as above. Fabulous car: As long as it's clean with a good stereo. Muscles: A good body is very important. 28. Can a woman be beautiful at 50? M: Absolutely. 29. If you were stranded on a desert Island with just a TV and a VCR, what would you watch? M: I hate TV, so it would definitely be movies: East of Eden, Last Tango in Paris, Casablanca, Breathless. 30. What do you think about teenagers' having sexual fantasies? M: This is absolutely normal and should be encouraged. A good fantasy life is very important for creativity. 31. Should parents allow their children to read you book, Sex? Why? Or why not? M: I think they should be at least 15 or 16. Otherwise, I don't think they'd understand it. 32. What do you think of guys who kiss and tell? M: Total losers, big turnoff! 33. What could George Bush learn if he read your book and listened to your music? M: Probably nothing - he seems very closed-minded. 34. Would you ever have an affair with a married man? M: This is a dead-end situation. 35. Why do kids find Marilyn Monroe so fascinating? M: Aside from the fact that she's shoved down our throat, she has a beautiful, fragile, childlike quality. 36. What do you think of people who have never changed their hair color? M: They probably have very healthy hair. 37. What's with the gold tooth? M: I'm a Leo, and I love gold. It's jewelry, it's an ornament, it's just in my mouth instead of on my ear. 38. If you were back in high school and Luke Perry sat next to you in class, would you be able to concentrate? M: Depends on how cute the teacher was. 39. What do you do to snap out of a depression? M: I eat candy. I talk to a good friend. I shop. 40. What are you going to do for the rest of the day? M: Work. Work. Work. 41. What do you think of MTV? M: I don't know. I don't watch TV. 42. What's your new movie about? M: Can a body be a murder weapon? Can you kill someone with love? ]]> 59360@blogcritics.org Wed, 21 Apr 2004 09:10:48 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-59356 Paraphrasing Madonna on playing the keyboards and the guitar: I am rather proficient at the drums. I can play the Piano but I find it dreary and I am not that good. I can play the guitar. I was very happy when I learned chord progressions because I could put my melodies and lyrics to work myself. Patrick studied music. I only had Piano lessons but I am very instinctive so it just comes to me and I hum it or play it. He does the intellectual stuff of how many sharps we can have here or there, then we work it out. I stopped practising the instruments though. Stephen Sondheim says I should go back to practising these instruments. Maybe I will. Madonna's sense of humour on her image.. Interviewer: It's interesting to learn you have written so many of your own songs. I don't think people realize that you're a songwriter as well as everything else you do-- Madonna: You mean they don't realize I'm a songwriter as well as a slut? (laughs) It's the image that gets in the way. What am I supposed to do? The information is on the label. If they don't read it, that's not my problem. I'm not going to put a sticker on the outside of the album that says, "Listen--I wrote these songs!" You know, they pay attention to what they want to pay attention to. Madonna on working with Pat Leonard: Interviewer: How does your writing process work? I know that many of your songs were written with Pat Leonard. You've mentioned that sometimes you'll come up with a melody and bring it to him and let him figure it out-- Madonna: Yes. In my very retarded fashion I will sing it to him. Or hum the melody line to him, and he will put it into a chord progression and we'll come up with the song that way. Interviewer: These are melodies that just pop into your head? Madonna: Yeah. And I start singing them just from my head. Or if I think of a lyric, like a hook or a line, I'll just put it to a melody and he'll bang it out on the piano for me. Madonna on working with PRINCE; Interviewer: You and Prince wrote "Love Song" together, which is a wonderful song. Did you and he work together or did he give you a track? Madonna: No, he didn't give me a track. We sat down and just started fooling around. We had a lot of fun. What happened is that he played the drums and I played the synthesizer and we came up with the original melody line; I just, off the top of my head, started singing lyrics into the microphone. And then he overdubbed some guitar stuff and made a loop of it and sent it to me, and then I just started adding sections to it and singing parts to it. And then I sent it back to him, and he'd sing a part to it and add another instrument and send it back to me.. He's a real interesting...unique talent. Madonna on Ambition: "I am ambitious. But if I weren't as talented as I am ambitious I would be a gross monstrosity. I am not surprised by my success because it feels natural." Madonna on Image: An image and a good hook can get you in the room, but something has to keep you in the room." Madonna on criticism: "I think if someone becomes hugely successful the public becomes disgusted with them and begins to wish the star would slip on a banana peel. That's the basic aspect of human nature." Madonna on early nude pix: You get paid 10 dollars an hour (for posing nude). It was a dollar fifty at Burger King. I kept saying, 'It's for Art'." Madonna on nutters: "There are the nutcases. Basically there are two kinds of nut - the sex maniac who wants a piece of my underwear and the moral majority who condemn me to emotional hell." Madonna on the record labels: Warner Brothers is a hierarchy of old men, and it's a chauvinist environment to be working in because I'm treated like this sexy little girl. I have to prove them wrong, which has meant not only proving myself to my fans but to my record company as well. This is something that happens when you're a girl. It wouldn't happen to Prince or Michael Jackson. I had to do everything on my own and it was hard trying to convince people that I was worth a record deal. After that I had the same problem trying to convince the record company that I had more to offer than a one-off girl singer." Madonna on PRINCE & men against women in music: Why aren't critics letting sexuality stand in the way of appreciating Prince's music? He was certainly just as sexually provocative, if not more than I was. I wasn't talking about giving head. He was much more specific than I was." "I think Prince lives a very isolated life and I don't, and that is the big difference between us. And I just try to be a positive influence on him. I've always been a fan. I think that he's incredible. He's very courageous and he causes lots of controversy too which is great... and I think he is a brilliant musician. Michael rosenblatt on Madonna's sex image: I find it ridiculous when people accuse Madonna of selling sex. Sex and rock 'n' roll fit together so perfectly that everyone in this business sells sex. Boy George, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Van Halen, Prince - who isn't selling sex? Maybe Barry Manilow, but that's only because he's after an older market, so he sells love. Madonna isn't pushing sex anything like she could if she really wanted to. Her looks is a hot 'I'm 100% woman' look, and I think that's great. Rock is full of boys who look like girls and girls who look like boys. Madonna doesn't have to put on black leather and kick the shit out of a motor cycle gang to be cool. I don't understand why people find a girl looking like a girl to be at all offensive. She's not a stripper type, so what's the problem?" Madonna on writing her 1st song: I don't remember the name of my first song but I do remember the feeling that I had when I wrote it. And it just came out of me. I don't know how. It was like somebody possessed me. It was like I wanted to run out in the street and go, "I wrote a song! I WROTE A SONG! I DID IT!" You know what I mean? I was so proud of myself. (laughs) And then after that, they just kind of gushed out of me. Because I always wrote poetry in free-form verse and kept journals and stuff, but to be able to put it to music, that was a whole different thing. Source: Madonnaisms from various Madonna websites. ]]> 59356@blogcritics.org Wed, 21 Apr 2004 08:48:29 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-59352 Dear God:) how profound you find Madonna is up to you. Profound to me means, deep, transcending the superficial. It's not the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of ANY musical Artist. I'm afraid I am not misled by the cooler than thou types who think they are deep because they are melancholy all the time. Has Madonna's music got something to say? Yah, Some of it does. Papa don't preach, Keep it together, Oh father, Promise to try, This used to be my playground, Paradise not for me..and a whole host of others. Then we have the general catchy nice dance tunes that are for fun. That does not reduce the profoundness of her music, it increases it in my view. She has always said she writes about life. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes we are sad. If profound to today's reviewers equates to a dreary tune with dire musical arrangement and chord progression then the world is a sad place. As far as Madonna being a feminist..look, it's very simple. I have a few quotes from her on when she is questioned about the whole female empowerment issue.. "People have this idea that if you're sexual and beautiful and provocative, then there's nothing else you can possibly offer. People have always had that image about women. And while it might have seemed like I was behaving in a stereotypical way, at the same time I was also masterminding it. I was in control of everything I was doing, and I think that when people realized that, it confused them. It's not like I was saying, 'Don't pay any attention to the clothes - to the lingerie - I'm wearing.' Actually, the fact that I was wearing those clothes was meant to drive home the point that you can be sexy and strong at the same time. In a way it was necessary to wear the clothes." "I don't think about the work I do in terms of feminism. I certainly feel that I give women strength and hope, particularly young women. So in that respect, I feel my behavior is feminist. But I'm certainly not militant about it, nor do I exactly premeditate it." I don't consider myself a feminist, I consider myself a humanist. ..It's that simple. Perhaps coming from a middle class family in Detroit and in a male dominated world and industry fighting to do things her own way and being in complete control of her career is what young gals found empowering. Perhaps flaunting her sexuality as many male stars had done before her and not being afraid to take the verbal backlash is what endeared her to many young gals. Determination, courage, fearlesness, ambition..all those things. So, you can argue that she did not do anything specific in empowering women but I bet you that in merely being who she is, she has inspired lots of women and they say it everyday. If you can't see that or don't agree with it..togh shit! She doesn't have to prove that she is sincere. Nobody on earth has to prove their sincerity to anyone. you take it or leave it. Like she has said "I am sincere to people who are sincere" Nobody gets annnoyed if it is mentioned that she has collaborated with other talents..lol..why shouldn't she? Music is always a meshing of creative minds. It is not so much annoyance than lack of tolerance about people refusing to give credit where it is due, but I am not interested in that discussion. Only ignoramuses still disparage her crdibility. People are going to think what they want. It doesn't affect anything in the broad span of things. You do not deserve a response regarding the Aids issue. Before AIDS became fashionable, Madonna was helping aids charities. She had many gay friends in the NY dance scene and some died of Aids so she has always been affiliated with Aids charities. Infact, due to her prominence in the Aids scene, a tabloid once carried an article that she herself had Aids and he during a gala event had to deny it. But THAT is the stigma it had at that time that for M to be so active in those circles she had to have contacted it somehow. This was in the 80's. If you do not know that, it's no biggy but to talk about her Sex book like that eliminates her ability to be a staunch suuporter of Aids charities just throws you in the same bad basket that most M critics find themselves in. From one ridiculous criticism to the other, all, clutching at straws for something negative to say and at the end of it all saying nothing that makes any sense if looked at from a neutral perspective. What stand did the dixie chics take exactly? One of them mad a comment about Dubya, then retracted it..Madonna did a video then retracted it due to senstivities for soldiers in Iraq but spent every interview thereafter telling anyone who would listen the wrongness of the war and the essential dumbness of Bush which is exactly why Fox news have it in for her because she is not a "patroitic American" quote, unquote..please, know your back ground before you write. I am going through an M overload cos I just got my tix so u've got me at the right/wrong time:) I shall post some more M quotes to answer some of your questions and just for the general entertainment of some of her fans on here:) The woman has an excellent sense of humour:) ]]> 59352@blogcritics.org Wed, 21 Apr 2004 08:22:38 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-59316 OK, folks, here are the facts: 1) Madonna has been extremely commercially successful and has gotten her name on numerous lists throughout the world. 2) Some of Madonna's tunes are catchy and her voice is adequate for that particular genre. 3) Madonna has been in the spotlight for 20 years now, for one reason or another. 4) Madonna may still be selling out concerts and kiddie books. But where on earth do some of you people come up with these insane assertions that she's a profound "artist" who has "broken the shackles off of oppressed women worldwide" (to paraphrase things)? How can you prove to me that she's sincere? And why do you get so hot and bothered whenever someone mentions that usually she has collaborated with talented songwriters and producers? If she's such a great AIDS activist, how come she doesn't promote safe sex instead of just talking about condoms and putting silly disclaimers in her "Sex" book? And if she really gave a damn about the injustice of the Iraq war, why didn't she take a stand on it the way the Dixie chicks did? How do you know she wasn't just shamelessly milking it for more free publicity? ]]> 59316@blogcritics.org Tue, 20 Apr 2004 23:01:43 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-59311 Wow. I can't believe the ridiculously impassioned arguments about how "great" and "timeless" Madonna is. What's up with that? ]]> 59311@blogcritics.org Tue, 20 Apr 2004 22:35:35 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/03/23/144028.php#comment-59222 Flea Dip..you are more desperate than Madonna was by peforming with Britney Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards. That said, I think madonna rules and it's kind of funny that her career is "supposedly over with" when FOUR shows sold out here in a matter of minutes in LA. A fifth show, in Orange County, is just about sold out. ]]> 59222@blogcritics.org Tue, 20 Apr 2004 14:00:46 EDT