Swept Away

I downloaded some promotional quality mp3s last night...

The single is a train wreck.

The Felix Da Housecat mix does give it some more songlike qualities... but doesn't save it.

XXXOOO
Satori

Jeez.... i thought it was just me, being an ole fart with no knowledge of music et al.... as i heard it and thought it was hiddeous! Unbelievable embarrasing...the rap thing.. ohmahgawrd.... i am amazed nobody told her...you know, took her asside and said, listen this is shite...she's lookin ole too...

Rumor is, that she was on the phone for 2 hours with Missy Elliot before going in to record that "rap."

Now, if it's true, Missy is probably STILL doubled over in pain laughing about how it turned out.

Maybe she needed 2 days... or 2 weeks?

She should have just asked Missy to do a guest spot on the piece. That MIGHT have saved it

XXXOOO
S

Just saw her video and I am TOTALLY confused.
Anyone understand what she is doing?
Is her partner Satan finally coming for her?


The video that you can't see

April 3, 2003
Madonna announced Tuesday that she was blocking the U.S. release of the video for her new single, "American Life," saying "I do not believe it is appropriate to air it at this time." She added, "Due to the volatile state of the world and out of sensitivity and respect to the armed forces, who I support and pray for, I do not want to risk offending anyone who might misinterpret the meaning of this video."

Too late. "American Life," had already made its debut on German television on Monday, after she defended it to MTV last week, saying, "It's about trying to get a message out that if we want peace and love in our life, then we have to make it happen in the world."

She is such a contrived bitch.... reason she pulled it was pure marketing money making bollocks, she can no longer afford to be controversial... shes been on such a loosing streak that she can't afford any more loss...
She never ever did have talent, she was always just clever. Clever at using everyone elses talent and absorbing it and claiming it as her own... that is genius... but it ain't talent. I guess she has less of a genius cotterie than she used to...
I can't stand her, never have liked her...sure there are some music/images that i have liked but its all 'not her' its like crediting a model for the designers dress...

I think it's fucking hilarious! images of war with "I do yoga and palates and the room is full of hotties and I check out all the bodies..." leave it to her to try to get PR out of wartime, what a fucking mess! I can't help it, its just so great how awful it is. I think we have finally seen the most desperate attempt for attention she could possibly try. And I thought having a baby was the last form of desperate P.R. I hope she looses a TON of money from this piece of poor pop poo!

And that rap.....can't wait til another rappin' blonde we know hears it... "Sorry hon you weren't the first"

Is it my imagination or is that video a complete rip-off of Rob Roth's & Kitty Boots' (Click & Drag) "Atomic Cafe" video? Yet another thing Rob has "given" to the world. Thanks Glam Nerd.

thanks but I'm sure she ripped someone else off, or a combination of us. however....

Im not one to ever bring this topic up but...If one more person had said to me , "Madonna's Drowned World show was so Click + Drag", I thought I was going to punch someone. and then there's the single blue eye in a monitor that opens the show......very familiar........

but just wait, something tells me a certin other persons next music video directorial effort may have a certin projection idea attached to it.

hmmmmmmmmm

--> "And that rap.....can't wait til another rappin' blonde we know hears it... "Sorry hon you weren't the first"

-------

I was thinking the EXACT same thing when I first heard it.

Speaking of, why ISN'T there a hopelessly devoted topic for Ms. Harry? I know a lot of the Mother crowd is friends with her... so not as star struck, but for us Midwest folk, seeing her at the Mothership party was a REAL treat.

It was also our biggest regret during our last trip up. In our determination to be subtle and casual, we missed meeting her

XXXOOO
S

Bah!

[This message was edited by glamnerd on 04-08-03 at 01:54 PM.]

She should have a topic of her very own, but between DH and the Fishsticks/AbFab etc. she is very featured. But feel free to start it. God knows we all have enough Jersey Tomato stories to go around. Just a little tidbit....She just shot the season finale of "Will and Grace". It's pretty major that they gave her the season finale.

I just saw Christina Aguleras(sp?) new video last night. It's quite beautiful at some moments. I'm starting to like her....oh no,

Not sure about the pins in her back, but the rest is pretty. I sort of liked her last video too (that "you are beautiful"song). It was directed by the same guy who did Madonnas current video mess and the new movie "Spun" that features Debbie as the lesbian neighbor who kicks the shit out of a guy in a 7/11.

I like her new CD. The girl can sing.

Last week I watched on DVD of Madonna's much criticized remake/flop. Well, I am glad that I didn't pay any $$$ to see it (Vulgar Greek spent his money on the DVD), as it was just horrid...she wasn't that good acting as a bitch (surprisingly, right?), and she was just horrid when she has to flip to vulnerable on the island...totally unbelievable at all, and no sympathy for her character whatsoever. The only moment when I stopped my running negative commentary through the whole thing was when he fantasized her doing a number (oh that's right, she's an entertainer, NOT an actress). The real question is when she will give on such attempts at thespianism?

And I saw the original during the winter (oh that's right, it still is winter outside, even though we turned the clocks back), and it was amazing piece of cinema- male vs female, socialist vs capitalist, nature vs civilization, and the dynamic interplays in only the way a 70s Italian film can pull off...

The remake is just high gloss shit.

When we use to talk (before she was famous) she used to tell me that the music stuff was just a stepping stone to her real destiny... acting. She saw herself as Jessica Lange. She always saw herself as ultimately an actress.
tee hee

did anyone read the Vanity Fair interview that came out to promote Swept Away? She basicly said that she couldn't get hubby Guy to ever sit through a Fellini movie. How he hated foreign movies , with subtitles. He only liked action movies or something like that. That might explain the end result of their little project together.

yuck!

Speaking of interviews, here's an interview with the Material Bomb that appeared in a newspaper piece today: Madonna Slams Brits - Calls Them Lazy

[This message was edited by Joel on 04-18-03 at 01:36 AM.]

"I admire Madonna. No one works harder than she does to keep it all going" -Donald Trump

"A thimble full of talent in a sea of ambition"
-Mick Jagger

I remember reading in some Madonna bio about her back-in-the-early-years admiration for Jessica Lange. I'm also a Lange fan (though "Frances" is her finest work, I also loved her as the bimbo in "King Kong" ... the scenes of her running around New York in that sequined gown is in my mind the ultimate personification of the damsel in distress heroine).

Madonna should simply NEVER make a film again. Ever. I mean, just forget it!!!

but she will Blanche.

Madonna looks real old now.

She is really old
oh, wait a minute
she's the same age as...
oh, nevermind.

Yea, well CHER is 12 years older than Madonna but unlike Madonna, Cher still looks FABULOUS - and her Farewell Tour is fab. And she doesn't have doughy skin like Madonna, either (and no huge space between her 2 front teeth) and she doesn't look emaciated like Madonna does... and Cher's still got back!!!!!!!

LOL.. BTW, Madonna is gonna be on at 10 o'clock tonight (EST) on MTV... providing that her heart doesn't give out first!!!

Remember you are talking about two children's mother.

How many albums, videos, world tours and kids did it take her to finally start looking 40-something?

I'm happy to see her gracefully showing her age.

Plus, EVERYONE knows that Cher is a Cyborg.

We got the album today. Sad to report that there are two songs WORSE than "American Life", but happy to report that she hasn't completely lost it. There are still some major hits on there.

XXXOOO
Satori

[This message was edited by Zazoo and Satori on 04-22-03 at 08:45 PM.]

I watched her tonight on MTV, giving a live performance for a very small crowd in the Times Square studio and in between taking questions from the audience and Carson Daly. She performed all new material from the new album, with the exception of the very last song, "Like A Prayer" where a gospel choir came out. I have to say I was stunned by how bad her voice still sounds live after all these years and all her efforts with lessons, etc. She was fine for the first couple of songs, but by the time she did "Like A Prayer" ... well, it was embarrassing honestly. I could sing better than that in my sleep.

That having been said, I can generally find lots of songs on her records that I like, with the exception of the last one where she looked like a cowboy. That only had a couple of good ones ("Music" and "What it Feels Like for a Girl"). The rest pretty much sucked.

Oh Madonna....
Lets get down to the plain speak.....
If you did not know who she was and you JUST turned on MTV or JUST found that new album... would you pay it any mind? No. probably not.

Here endeth the lesson.

....I am by no means a big Madonna fan (too into bananarama for that) but I thought she was really cool last night, I think it is way too easy to slag her off. She may not be the nicest person around but hey, who is? At the end of the day she excels at what she does, a pop singer/writer/performer.

I just saw the last song, "Like a prayer".
(a song that I really like BTW)
Oh my God, I thought I was the worst singer that the '80s produced!
It was embarassing. She should not try and sing with black girls... MISTAKE!

Jimmy - you forgot .... I AM a nice person....
So there...

Nah Honestly, i think Madge has done some cracker songs and has had some boss images etc but... honestly to see her strumming a guitar like she is some new guitar chick was just REALLY bad... and her voice is really NOT good...Also, I do have a big problem with singers who have NO soul or real emotion faking-it... you know pretending that they really have a heart and soul when you can tell they are singing from the handbag (polari handbag that is!) ... as i said its the 'package' you are buying into ... if you didn't know she was "MADONNA" and just caught her on the telly you honestly wouldn't give her much props.... sorry our Jimmy.

I saw the MTV thing last night with Madonna and I too felt very embarrassed for her. I really liked Madonna a dozen years ago or so when she came across as being GLAMOROUS and sexy and downright Hot and Naughty! But now, she looks about as glamorous as a dish rag!! Poor Madonna, her star is fading fast...

...tell me what I would or would not think. And who told you that you ar a nice person? You are many things but nice is NOT one of them...LOL

A dead-on review, from of all places, The Washington Post

quote:

---

.... As a lyricist, Madonna is insufferable, and her whine suffuses and suffocates "American Life." The stardom-as-mortal-burden idea is among the more insipid cliches out there, and it's especially absurd coming from Madonna, in part because she has so relentlessly, unabashedly pursued stardom for more than two decades and lived off the glamour-puss culture she now claims to revile.

It doesn't help that she's such a strangely clunky writer. But hey, if she can't find peace with a fortune and spare time for Pilates, that's her problem...

---

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18531-2003Apr22.html

I thought she was going to prove everyone wrong last night, but the more she talked, the more I got annoyed.

Especially when she started discounting all her old music as not really having much value.

(I'm paraphrasing) I can look back and see several good songs in there... but I don't really listen to my old work...and then went on to say her favorite dance song that she did was "Music."

So, she's telling us we should stop buying her albums and just concentrate on the music that Mirwais touches.

She's acting very self righteous. I feel enlightened and at the same time empty, so everyone else should have my values.

YET, I bet the ONLY reason she did that live show last night, was to preview the album on the day of release to try to offset all the bad reviews she knew she was getting.

She's coming across as a huge hypocrite. I don't think it is so much her age that is making her ugly I think it's what is coming out of her mouth.

I liked Madonna - she had/has some catchy tunes. Aside from the excuse of those who don't know what's good for 'em, the old gal may have done lost her American Mind, wut with that new-fangled furrin accent 'n' hubby 'n' awl.

when was the last time you heard that one? hehehheh. I have always been a fan - in fact, I consider my self to be incredibly madonna damaged - so heavily influenced by her earlier work - that I cant really criticize her without turning the mirror on myself (you know - affecting personas, trying to sing, attempting to bare your soul and finding only a sheet of ice under there). Having said that, I saw Cher's farwell tour the night before and, as a stage performer, Cher really carries the day. Madonna is simply not the open, giving entertainer (some might say the"rocker") Cher continues to be. Madonna seems still to be so unbelievably unable to just GIVE IT UP on stage. Only when she lapses into that babyvoice "friend of Rosie" act does anything genuine really resonate with me. It might just be a new perspective from me (and I used to absolutely ADORE anything she did), but everything she does looks like so much WORK. I know it must be nerveracking to present new songs to such a small crowd (remember - this is super-mega-uber-stadium rocking MADONNA!) but how long has she been doing this? When was the last time you saw her having fun onstage? I see glimpses of it, and those are the times when I think she's just brilliant.

Funny, when I m talking about Madonna I can feel like both critic and artist. I truely love so much of her music. She has at least 30 amazing songs. Each one more fun and interesting than the next. Whats shocking to me(re: what Zazoo/Satori said)is that she is so unbelievabley hard on herself. Can you imagine putting so many wonderful songs out there, so many hot videos, so many diverse showcases - and STILL pooh pooh it as representing a "less evolved version of myself". UNREAL! How jaded and completely self-judging and critical. No wonder she's not having any fun up there anymore.

on the art crit side, Madonna has used "pop culture" so brilliantly - she actually is art - having attained dizzying heights of self-objectification. As a drag queen, I always felt connected to her on that level. I also feel that its a fine line you walk when you turn yourself into a "thing". Only the most fabulous (and committed) of queens objectify themselves and still remember where they are, who they are and why they're there.

I think what Cintra Wilson calls the "grotesque crippling disease" of celebrity has taken a terrible toll on Madonna. I saw how visibly uncomfortable she was exposing her famous underbelly to such an intimate crowd. But I also admire her bravery for challenging herself to do just that - Also, hit or no, I think the new work is pretty cool.

Yes, it must be tough to that calculating and that greedy for attention. Don't get me wrong, she's put out stuff we all like. Especially the earlier music. But, come on. Her "humanity" is wearing thin. Everything she does, she does for profit. "Madonna" and "artist" are antonymous. She's a sham. Always has been. She takes credit for so much work that other people do. I think she's a bully.