Hey, Tuesday...the day got the better of me, sorry for the late post. Had crazy dentist appointment today for oodles of time and have been busy catching up ever since. (Hate the dentist, don't you? Even when you go to one as cute as mine). But screw dentistry. Let's talk about Madonna. Last night found me surfing the telly, eventually settling on Madonna's "Truth or Dare", released in 1991. It's very hard to fathom that was 20 years ago, but it was. I have always had a bit of a love/hate with Madonna, to be honest. Her music was so overproduced, so crassly commercial, and her fake accent of recent years and rather insipid surgeries and skeletor frame irritated me. But when you watch this little genius piece of film, produced two decades ago, you realize how profound she truly is. Because the film looks amazing still, the fashion is so on point, so almost right NOW it scares me. From the Pucci bodysuit with denim cut offs she sports to meet a rather shy (and young) Antonio Banderas to the amazing costumes for the stage, it all looks so damn good. Almost better now in a way...I came away from watching this little genius piece of pop history inspired. And wanting to bob my hair, curl it, and dye it blonde (don't put it past me. I'm bored...) Let's make something clear- if you grew up in the prime of the Madonna era- You wanted to be her, a small (or huge) part of you ached to be that tempting and bawdy, even if you were a bit more "alt" and found her music too radio/MTV friendly. In some ways, her mere raw/sexy/Catholic shit liberated you. When she writhed all over the stage at the MTV awards, dressed in white, you couldn't take your eyes off of the TV. That uninhibited and glamorous and dirty all at once thing was more interesting than most; Camille Paglia dubbed her the "future of feminism", which makes a lot of sense to me, really, because it was true back then. The world was different before Madonna. Let's face it. It just was. Now fast foward to 2011, and here we have Gaga- another pop icon, blonde, who has more ambition than anyone and is also trying to instigate and provocate. But here's the difference- she's not hot. And you just don't really want to be her. Like at all. You don’t want to be in a cocoon at the Grammys. Gaga you may want to be if you are a misfit of some kind, it's true. Maybe she speaks for the freaks...but Madonna spoke to the rawest parts of women- Gaga is more innately talented by miles- but Madonna? You watch Truth or Dare and can’t believe how cool she still looks...the clothes- that ability to take street style and make it so unbelievably chic. And she changed the game for what it meant to have a sexy body- that strength, that muscular take no prisoners power- strong became sexy, all thanks to her. That era of her- the hair...fantastic. She challenged all of us, in a mass way, but still....if Gaga is this gen’s Madonna, I’m not so sure about the future. When I first saw "Borderline” back in the day, I wanted to spray paint a loft in new york, in a big leather jacket, too. The style, people, the style. It all comes back to that...that coupling of street style, swag, sex and dance moves straight out of the Palladium. I know women wanted to be her, and men most definitely wanted to screw her. No doubt about that. That's a perfect pop icon, peeps. Do men want to do Gaga? Hmm. Nope. Not really.And I also need to mention that amazing moment in the film, when Warren Beatty is horrified by Madonna's need to get a throat culture on camera. He is disgusted and amazed by her need to "spend every moment on camera". Let's talk about now- where every moment of our lives is documented for everyone to see- on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and You Tube. Just another example of Madge being way ahead of her time. She was not only obsessed with fame, but saw the value in curating a version of life for the world to see. PURE. GENIUS. Those of of us in marketing can't deny her ingenuity, and all of this talk about "conversations" these days has me thinking Madonna was the greatest at creating them- yet also LISTENING at the same time- she has a remarkable ability to listen to what's happening in music and in the clubs and bring it mainstream. In may ways, Madonna is the ultimate trend forecaster- a weather vane for what's happening underground and in the streets and clubs and bringing it right to vous et moi, with considerable aplomb. She's simply the ultimate provocateur. And on that note, some of her music has been amazing....I have talked to you about my love for Bedtime Stories over and over...an album I still adore to this day, and I was one of the few that loved American Life, was a huge fan. So watch that movie again and recognize- her look was beyond back then, as was her staging of her show- and those costumes by Gaultier still look unreal today- that play on masculine and feminine- one of the things I love most about being a girl, really. I watched and was moved and inspired and realized, yes, Madonna really matters. She really does and always will. And that's what's up this truthy/dary/dress you up in my lovey kind of Tuesday in the MIA. ...XO