Madonna and a Ship
And what a weekend it was! Started off with a significant bang due to a last minute phone call Thursday evening from a friend who got corporate tickets to the Madonna concert at MSG. “Meet me there in an hour and a half.” OKAY!! Hell yeah. Here’s a review of the show.
The thing is, Madonna is absolutely incredible. At 47 years old she has reinvented herself a million times and managed to stay on top and ahead of the trends. She is one of the greatest perfectionists there is, completely devoted to her craft and her audience. And she will ALWAYS give you everything she has. No question about that. …That having been said my generous friend and I agreed that the time to see Madonna in concert was really 10-15 years ago, when she was at her physical peak and yet still old enough to add a little bit of substance to the mix -not to mention a confidence that was actually founded in something other than the combination of her youthful ego and a wish to rule the world. Today’s tour is a jumble of images that mostly go over my head (what’s with the horses?) and a woman who is known for her gift of spectacular dance but is just a little too tired to move as much. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure she’s in a hell of a lot better shape than I am, but the woman truly danced for about 4 songs. The rest was a variety of strutting and posing and maneuvering the hot gay male dancers around her. But when she does move, it’s incredible the precision that you see. And for the first time ever, I understood why her movements were so grand. I’m surprised I never thought about it before. But when you sell out a major stadium concert, even though you have screens, it is really something for the people in the very top nosebleed row to make out a blurry blond lady 10,000 feet away with moves so sharp you can see them perfectly even from that distance. Good for you Madge. Not an easy task.
Then the cruise. Wow, was that worth it! It was so amazing to be away from everything. I didn’t think about work or my family or most of my life in NYC for 3 entire days. What bliss. Just me, Karen, and the open seas. Hungry? Go get some food on the Lido deck. Wanna hit the beach your day at the Bahamas? Taxi $5. (I must confess I do like the beaches of Hawaii more). And I always forget how much I love the ocean. Growing up on a Peninsula I was so jaded. I never understood the appeal. I’ve always hated sunblock, and the sand gets in crevices and other unappealing places. But now that I never get to the beach, I just adore it. Well, it’s all about the waves for me. I love watching them. And I love being in the ocean and having the waves wash over me. Who needs a massage? Just give in to the flowing waters and your tension will completely disappear. And for you Yoga types, it is the best way to re-align your Chakras. …Other than the beach (and my ridiculous sunburn… oops!) there were delicious entrees, silly little opportunities for other guests to embarrass themselves (those are my favorite!) like the Hairy Chest contest, or the Dollar Dance contest (Cent, 5 Cent, 10 Cent, 1 Dollar.. Dollar Dollar Dollar.. grind your body shake your booty, etc), and relaxed. no obligations combined with beautiful surroundings. Not the big go crazy and party vacation, but an excellent get-away. Oh, and we were the last two passengers off the ship. That part cracks me up. We had a perfect plan for debarking based on the schedule they gave us of when breakfast ended, etc. but then they kept calling our room and knocking on our door and we couldn’t understand the big deal. When we finally got to the gangway, the guy said “ok, last two!” We couldn’t believe it. It was only 9:45!!! I asked if there was a time limit for when we were supposed to be gone by and they said no, so we were technically not doing anything wrong. It was so funny, we walked through all the empty hallways and customs areas and I kept bursting out laughing. We still got to the airport 1.5 hours before our flight. Plenty of time.
Then yesterday Independence Day BBQ on Long Island and Fireworks on the Roof in the east village.
Now I just have to get home and unpack!
The thing is, Madonna is absolutely incredible. At 47 years old she has reinvented herself a million times and managed to stay on top and ahead of the trends. She is one of the greatest perfectionists there is, completely devoted to her craft and her audience. And she will ALWAYS give you everything she has. No question about that. …That having been said my generous friend and I agreed that the time to see Madonna in concert was really 10-15 years ago, when she was at her physical peak and yet still old enough to add a little bit of substance to the mix -not to mention a confidence that was actually founded in something other than the combination of her youthful ego and a wish to rule the world. Today’s tour is a jumble of images that mostly go over my head (what’s with the horses?) and a woman who is known for her gift of spectacular dance but is just a little too tired to move as much. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure she’s in a hell of a lot better shape than I am, but the woman truly danced for about 4 songs. The rest was a variety of strutting and posing and maneuvering the hot gay male dancers around her. But when she does move, it’s incredible the precision that you see. And for the first time ever, I understood why her movements were so grand. I’m surprised I never thought about it before. But when you sell out a major stadium concert, even though you have screens, it is really something for the people in the very top nosebleed row to make out a blurry blond lady 10,000 feet away with moves so sharp you can see them perfectly even from that distance. Good for you Madge. Not an easy task.
Then the cruise. Wow, was that worth it! It was so amazing to be away from everything. I didn’t think about work or my family or most of my life in NYC for 3 entire days. What bliss. Just me, Karen, and the open seas. Hungry? Go get some food on the Lido deck. Wanna hit the beach your day at the Bahamas? Taxi $5. (I must confess I do like the beaches of Hawaii more). And I always forget how much I love the ocean. Growing up on a Peninsula I was so jaded. I never understood the appeal. I’ve always hated sunblock, and the sand gets in crevices and other unappealing places. But now that I never get to the beach, I just adore it. Well, it’s all about the waves for me. I love watching them. And I love being in the ocean and having the waves wash over me. Who needs a massage? Just give in to the flowing waters and your tension will completely disappear. And for you Yoga types, it is the best way to re-align your Chakras. …Other than the beach (and my ridiculous sunburn… oops!) there were delicious entrees, silly little opportunities for other guests to embarrass themselves (those are my favorite!) like the Hairy Chest contest, or the Dollar Dance contest (Cent, 5 Cent, 10 Cent, 1 Dollar.. Dollar Dollar Dollar.. grind your body shake your booty, etc), and relaxed. no obligations combined with beautiful surroundings. Not the big go crazy and party vacation, but an excellent get-away. Oh, and we were the last two passengers off the ship. That part cracks me up. We had a perfect plan for debarking based on the schedule they gave us of when breakfast ended, etc. but then they kept calling our room and knocking on our door and we couldn’t understand the big deal. When we finally got to the gangway, the guy said “ok, last two!” We couldn’t believe it. It was only 9:45!!! I asked if there was a time limit for when we were supposed to be gone by and they said no, so we were technically not doing anything wrong. It was so funny, we walked through all the empty hallways and customs areas and I kept bursting out laughing. We still got to the airport 1.5 hours before our flight. Plenty of time.
Then yesterday Independence Day BBQ on Long Island and Fireworks on the Roof in the east village.
Now I just have to get home and unpack!
posted by Shana @ 1:38 PM
1 Comments:
At 05 July, 2006 14:00,
Dave said…
Madonna has been around for so long because she can do one thing most recording artists can't do, SING. People forget that Madonna was the first woman on the cover of Newsweek. She went from America's sweetheart to America's slut overnight thanks to the Justify My Love video (I bought the unedited version when I was 19 ). Her resurgence was fueled by the song Take A Bow, and just when you thought she would fade off into to sunset, she releases Music, plus the current hit Hung Up. Every time I think about how Madonna's first hits started on the R&B charts ( thanks to the synthesizer breaks and and baselines )in 1984, I wonder which of today's crop of " artists " will be around 20 years from now.
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