peter
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Posts posted by peter
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If not for work/professional reasons, I would have committed Facebook suicide years ago. Now I’m locked out of my account… After a hacking incident in 2023, I was only able to log back in for three days before my computer rebooted and ended my session. I have not been able to log in successfully since then. I wanted to reset my password, but I can’t because the hackers changed it, so I don’t know what it is. Meta is completely unhelpful with this whole situation. Very frustrating. So … yeah. I would love to have nothing more to do with them. Just slightly unsettling to know that my account is still vulnerable out there and I have no access to it. I eventually had to open up another account (which is against their terms — to have more than one account) just to be able to do my job (serving as the administrator of the official FB presence for my work).
At one point, a Meta service bot told me they had reviewed my work’s ad account and said that their investigation revealed “no suspicious activity.” Meanwhile, they had required me to record and submit a video through a platform — it ended up being between 15 and 20 minutes, and to this day, no one ever watched it. Maddening. They have no incentive to crack down on actual crime — because it just makes them more money. The FBI agent with whom I spoke (because I was referred by the police, with whom I had to file a report) was very critical of Meta because of their lack of cooperation with law enforcement.
(I don’t have an app on my phone, either, pithy … I only use it on a computer/laptop through a web browser.)
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Shots fired at Trump at campaign rally in Pennsylvania. He walked away and left the rally.
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Maybe I’m a little too blonde, but I’ve already gotten confused about which way to “X” out of a tab or tweet (or whatever) on my phone. I don’t have an account, but sometimes I would check the MadonnaNation Twitter — and then I couldn’t for a while, because they locked out all the users who don’t have accounts. At some point recently, they must have relented, because I could see the MNation Twitter again. And that’s when I got the Xes confused. It seems like a ridiculous decision.
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On 2/15/2023 at 2:36 PM, Jazzy Jan said:
People who are cruel to animals are always horrible, heartless people.
Yes. And, as you said, it is an indicator of how they treat humans, too.
I hope someone is able to help this animal soon. I mean, I have a healthy respect (fear) of alligators and crocodiles and such, but … I don’t want to see them hurt. I can well understand why it would avoid humans when it sees them approaching. I have to use Facebook for work (otherwise I probably would not be on it anymore), but it always puts videos of animals in my feed — it knows I can’t resist! Ha! And so often I see videos where animals are scared, but ultimately trust humans to help them. (Sometimes they struggle more than others.) It seriously makes me cry at my desk sometimes. I know my co-workers must think I’m crazy if they walk by when I’ve been caught off guard by one of those.
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The stuff of nightmares!
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For the same reason I just “bumped” the “Come Alive” thread, I wanted to show “Crazy” a little love, as it is another of my faves. It just has a little bit of bounce to it, but also the lovely Portuguese instrumentation ... I know lots of folks say this song makes them happy ... and it does that for me, too, in a way. But I also feel a real sense of sadness and the melancholy in it. The weight of lost love — you can hear its strain on her voice. Even though she is defiant and determined to move on, I still feel tears well in my eyes sometimes when I listen to it. The real and raw delivery on the second verse, and the spoken Portuguese line ... and the bridge! Her bridges are always so good. (Love that muffled “yeah yeah yeah” falling in the background of the bridge, too!)
I think this one is influenced by the morna style, yes? Someone was asking up-thread, and I don’t know if anyone mentioned morna. Thought she said that in one interview. That accordion sound is so mournful and longing to me.
And again the live version was a lovely highlight! Her standing on a table in her fado club and turning the male dancers away. Loved it.
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With the impending closure of the Madame X album discussion section, I’ve been spending a little time this weekend trying to catch up on threads I neglected earlier.
I just wanted to say that “Come Alive” is one of my faves (on an album full of stellar offerings) ... I love the background of the songwriting process for her, the stories of what inspired her (her own personal experiences, her daughters’ experiences, the instrumentation and its history) and then choosing the children’s choir, which conveys such a sense of hopefulness and joy and vibrancy of life. The history of the percussion just really makes this song even more profound. Love all the little extras in the production, and her slightly autotuned harmonizing back-up vocals... and then then climactic ending, which is just rapturous and reverberates in your spirit (and ears). The live version was such a highlight — even if it wasn’t so high concept, the music really lifted everyone in the audience.
Just wanted to contribute something before we shut this thing down. Thank you, Madame X!
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7 hours ago, Barbie said:
This just pisses me off tbh because it really would have been amazing. MADONNA WHY
Not to blame others and blindly defend Madonna, but ... I think we can give most of the responsibility (for the lack of a video) to Anitta. Madonna posted several IG photos with the caption “Waiting for Anitta” ... these were the photos of the nighttime shoot with her IG photographer — wearing the eyepatch and a black trench. (Several of them were incorporated into the Levitating Remix and Club Future Nostalgia collage cover art.)
I think that was a pretty public way for Madonna to express what she wanted to happen. Guess Anitta wasn’t interested? Or was too busy with her own stuff to drop everything and fly off to a video shoot with Madonna. Such a shame, though.
...
This was my friend’s favorite song on Madame X. She and I saw CT and S&ST together — and then we were able to see Madame X together, too. (We both saw MDNAT and RHT, but in different cities, sadly. Time, travel, babies’ due dates! It was crazy!)
This friend used to have a karaoke b-day party every year, and hadn’t been able to for the past few years ... but this year, her husband organized a big one for her b-day, and she wanted to do an elaborate song and dance extravaganza performance! It was a medley with several Madonna songs, one Robyn, one Deee-lite, and one Britney. (I think I’m not leaving anything out. Oh! A Bjork one!) Anyway, one of the Madonna songs was Faz Gostoso! That’s how much she loves it! Her sister-in-law and I were her back-up dancers — we had a day of rehearsal and everything. It was so much fun, and I really enjoyed dancing to Faz Gostoso! It’s a great song. I wasn’t all that fussed about the original, honestly... so I wasn’t expecting much from the cover — but it really works!
Worst part was knowing Faz Gostoso wasn’t in the setlist for MXT — my friend enjoyed the show, but was just slightly disappointed by the lack of Faz Gostoso. Didn’t help that Madonna kept repeating the phrase the night we saw her — during the fado club section. Even I was wondering if she was gonna add it to the setlist by surprise or something. Alas, no.
Great song, though.
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24 minutes ago, svperstar said:
Eh. Disconnected. It's kind of like watching the periphery of my own life from the margins. How about you?
Sorry to hear that, svp. You’re not alone. Please take time for yourself and take good care of you. Thanks for all you for the Madonna community here.
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I was thinking about this ... well, not precisely, of course, @Je5u5, you have a brilliant idea!! It would have made much more sense, with the multiple identities of Madame X, for Madonna to issue a variety of covers. (More so than for Taylor’s folklore, in my opinion.) Madame X certainly had the imagery.
I was wondering about how far that model can be stretched. It would be interesting to know how many of Taylor’s sales were from multiple copies, just different covers. But of course there’s no way to know that, I suppose.
I mean, for the past few albums, it has been this way for M, with a standard, deluxe, and super deluxe. I remember ROL, Music, AL, COADF, and HC all had one standard and one deluxe. Oh I guess that’s all MDNA had, too — just felt like more because there were standard versions with Gang Bang and without. So they only started to exploit it a bit with RH and Madame X. But 8 editions each on CD and vinyl? Seems a bit over the top, in my opinion. But whatever. If she can move those units, I guess more power to her.
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38 minutes ago, tasteinmen said:
Mirwais wrote the lyrics, Casey just changed a few words to make it sound more “American”.
Oh... hadn’t quite heard that explanation. (But I was ... oh, a month late learning that Casey Spooner was claiming M had ripped him off!)
So ... was Mirwais (and thereby Madonna) acquitted of this legally? Was the lawsuit dismissed?
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On 6/10/2020 at 9:22 PM, VogueMusic said:
I am not one for censorship, especially of artistic works. That's a slippery slope if there ever was one. Everything must be put in the context of its time, or else you are bound to censor everything from the past, which in some form or fashion, is probably problematic. And the racist aspects of this film/story have been addressed for a long time, so it's not as if it's anything entirely new. Teach it, study it, and put in a proper context. People can (and should) be able to hold more than one idea/perspective on something at a time.
I commend TCM (Turner Classic Movies) for saying they don't believe in censorship, but they will address certain subjects/depictions in the intro and/or outro of the films they present, and give context and background to those issues. That's how you should do it. And then let the audience decide if they want to watch or not.
And for the record, this is not a defense of the film. People are free to find it, or anything, offensive...and then decide for themselves what they want to give their time, attention and money to.
Yay! Was thinking this, and have been meaning all week (er, two weeks!) to find some TCM clips of Jacqueline Stewart talking about this -- love her! (Love all the TCM hosts, honestly!) Instead, I only found these, which are not as directly related as I'd hoped, although she makes some oblique references when discussing film history:
But I know I've heard her speak eloquently about films that need to be contextualized for modern audiences.
And now I see I'm super late in doing this, because @Beautiful Killer posted other videos that are more specific to Gone with the Wind from TCM, so -- thanks, BK! I'm interested to see what they have to share.
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Love all three — I think Crazy and Come Alive might be tied at the top for me, with Crave coming in a close second.
2 hours ago, Mooncrown11 said:YES!! My vote also. When I saw the World of Madame X on Amazon about the origin of the instruments used on the song, it made me love it even more.
Yes, @Mooncrown11, Come Alive resonates even more deeply right now — partially for the reason you stated — I love that background on the instrumentation (krakev, I though they were called in the doc, but I found krakebs and variant spellings online just now). I think she shared somewhere that her twin daughters experience being turned away from a class (gymnastics maybe, or dance?) — which Madonna suspected to be racially motivated. Knowing that, hearing her rally cry against that through the song, and feeling the inherently hopeful optimism infused through the voices of the children’s choir truly results in an uplifting song that takes flight and soars over adversity and oppression.
But Crazy is so full of heartache, I just love wallowing in that melancholy, too. And Crave is full of longing. All such powerfully emotive songs.
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1 hour ago, ThomasW said:
well in the US, GMAYL was not really a radio hit, which is what I think he was asking about, the single got to #28 on BB's Radio songs chart and #24 on mainstream top40, but it hit the top 5 on the hot digital tracks chart and #6 on the hot digital songs chart, so people wanted and downloaded the track (over 100k the first week and over 150k the week after) sendint it to the top 10 on the Hot 100, and radio only gave it a soft push for 2 weeks and then basically dropped it after the third
Okay then, it was a top40 radio hit, which was his question. It was the last time she had a radio chart appearance. It was pushed because of the Super Bowl, which made sense.
The fact that her last radio chart appearance wasn’t a #1 ubiquitous smash hit is not really a shocker. I’m sure we’d all love for her to have her late-career “Believe”/Cher moment, but ... it makes logical sense that M’s chart peaks would start to slip downward.
I’ll correct my post above — I said top 10 mistakenly — I meant top 40.
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2 hours ago, dario said:
Since she left Warner does she ever has a radio hit? .. I don't think Live Nation has done anything about radio deals maybe Interscope who knows!
Yes, GMAYL was a top 40 in the US ... not sure which markets you’re talking about, but there was a deal for that song to be played hourly on the weekend of its release because of the Super Bowl. So, it made sense — while the idea of “payola” for her to have a hit is kinda repulsive to me, I can accept it in that instance, because it was an event weekend and it made sense for people to hear that song before the performance. The idea is less offensive to me, I guess, because most media in the US do a lot of stories related to the Super Bowl during that week, so ... it made sense for radio to be playing her a lot and talking about how she would be performing, etc. Feels organic to me, not forced/fake.
But, yes, that was her last radio hit in the US to my knowledge, and it was after she left Warner. Since then, it’s only gone down. Clearly the Warner machine knew how to help her on radio all over the world, and she completely lost that support network, sadly. On the other hand, with the edicts that happened from, say Radio 1 in the UK, it became clear age was going to be an insurmountable obstacle for her, anyway, so ... not sure if it would have mattered or not.
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^ And yet ... then she didn’t film a video for Faz Gostoso, and she didn’t even have any tour dates in South America to build on the momentum.
And was Medellín even serviced to radio in those markets? I know you’re talking about streaming (Faz was a moderately popular track for streaming, yes?) ... but clearly there would have been some low-key success on radio just from the featuring players alone.
The term “single” in reference to Madame X release strategy has never been more confusing. In the past a “single” would have received most of the treatment below (with the exception of a late single — probably wouldn’t be available to download as a preview track). With Madame X, she filmed videos (thankfully!) for songs that were not singles, and yet she didn’t really support the actual singles with the full arsenal.
Music video?
Serviced to radio stations?
Track downloadable prior to album release?
Remixes commissioned?
Remixes available to stream?
Remixes released to consumers via digital platforms for purchase?
Remixes sent to DJs for club play?
Featured in a promo performance?
(Then again, I guess it’s true that it happened plenty of times before that she didn’t film a promo video for every single. So. Maybe I shouldn’t find it so confusing.)
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Yes, @Paul — that’s it. Avicii has been corrected in this version, so our suspicions were correct.
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1 minute ago, animalinstinct said:
I think they sent them to DJs before it hit #1 on the dance chart. Most of the remixes made their way to https://www.dirrrtyremixes.com
Thanks, @animalinstinct!
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I thought just the Honey Dijon remixes were out earlier ... ? I mean, this new bunch certainly wasn’t uploaded to her channel until they were available for purchase from iTunes and Amazon. (I don’t buy mp3s anywhere else but these two vendors... Is there another place to legally obtain remixes other than iTunes or Amazon?)
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Maybe they are fixing the DaVinci error...
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1 hour ago, Mensch said:
I don’t think it’s gonna happen. I would’ve heard more of it and never did again...
Thank you for the update, @Mensch! I can’t say I’m surprised ... that rumor always seems to come along with an impending album release. I remember talking about this when you first shared it — although the prospect is always exciting, we seem to always hear a variation of it — Veronica Electronica with Ray of Light, and I know I heard that rumor with COADF from someone who worked at MTV and heard that from her team when she was doing TRL or something like that. Maybe we’ve heard it to a lesser degree in the other album cycles, but there’s always that dangling dance promise that rarely comes to fruition. (Remixed and Revisited might be the only time something eventuated, but that wasn’t all that much dance, either.)
Thanks again, Mensch, for sharing with us when you can.
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7 hours ago, Kilt said:
For DB, after the Tchaikovsky breakdown, i expected the song to pick up in a way similar to the Nobody Knows Me instrumental outro part, but with more punch and drama.
Oh, I can see what you mean there. I was hoping for another “movement” after the ballet, too, rather than a conclusion/coda (which is just a brief return to the refrain and a fade-out). I guess I kind of hoped maybe the tour version would maybe expand on it a little bit, too. It is still beautiful in its own way, though. I think, on some level, that track is not supposed to be fully satisfying in and of itself. It interrupts itself and ends abruptly— but that’s just the form following the message of the song maybe? With Joan of Arc as a template — her life was disrupted and cut short. I think there’s a certain respectable quality to the track reflecting those sad facts. Doesn’t mean that our ears aren’t left wanting more, though!
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Lovely! “Crazy” is one of my favorite Madame X tracks. Thanks so much, Dub!
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1 hour ago, acko said:
Riiight.
On the weekends?!
...
This was kinda funny. I sent it to a couple friends, who also enjoyed.
At least he seems to have studied the original to imitate it so closely.
Like Suedehead, I hope it prompts people to seek out and appreciate the real thing.
J.K. Rowling Faces Criticism for Transgender Comment
in Politics and World Events
Posted
And when Azealia Banks spends *her* time harassing other celebs, including Madonna, what percentage of the population is that, I wonder?
Before removing the speck of dust in your neighbor’s eye, consider the beam in your own.