I have to admit, lately my life has been perfectly nice but has not seemed the least bit blog-worthy. So I put blogging on hold and decided to wait for the type of writing inspiration that would lead me to create the next Percy Jackson of the children's lit world (note my modesty: I did not say Harry Potter.) Alas, inspiration comes from the least expected of places, and for me, the urge to write again came from a recent episode of "Glee" featuring the songs and other talents of Madonna. As the cast of characters asked themselves one by one, "What does Madonna mean to me?" I realized I had quite a few thoughts on the matter.
My first Madonna memories are firmly set in her black rubber bracelet stage. My fairly geeky friends and I went to see her "Like a Virgin" concert at Madison Square Garden. While we were at school, my mother had waited on line at The Garden to get us, and herself, tickets. After the tickets had been procured, my friends and I went to the Livingston Mall to get our concert trappings: rubber bracelets, probably lace gloves, and a little mini dress each for me and a friend whose parents wouldn't let her wear it.
These are the actual concert memories that stand out most. We hated the opening act. They were booed and hissed at by the mass of teenage girls at the show. (They were The Beastie Boys, who I later appreciated far more.) And then Madonna came on stage and did some very un-virginal things to a boom box.
The day after the concert, my friends and I went to our high school wearing our new "Like a Virgin" tour shirts, emblazoned with a buxom Madonna staring out seductively from our rather non-buxom chests. I wish I knew what our AP Calculus teachers were thinking when they saw us. I got rid of that shirt once I started to prefer alternative music to pop. I wish I hadn't. That shirt would have been campy fun to wear now.
After that first burst of Madonna worship in high school, I did not give her much thought until my early after-college years in Manhattan when I got to go to New Orleans with great friends because of her.
MTV had a lip syncing game show called "Lip Service" at that time. Three friends of mine were a team of contestants on the show. They did a brilliant lip syncing performance to a Madonna song - I believe it was "Vogue" - and won a trip to New Orleans.
Presumably during the time period when they were perfecting their act, I got fired (I called it getting "laid off" for years but I'm over it now and at least I managed to get fired in the summer;) moved to my already paid for Fire Island share house for a few weeks; met a boy there; went on a three week road trip with my grad student roommate during which I fell in love with New Orleans; came home and fell in love with previously mentioned boy; planned trip to New Orleans during Mardi Gras with said boy; then got dumped by the boy before our trip. And then my awesome friends won that trip to New Orleans so I went with them instead of with that boy. It was one of my favorite trips ever.
One of my other favorite Madonna memories was also from my early city days. I helped a male friend get ready for a drag performance as Madonna - the cone breasts! - at a glamorous (or maybe it was a dive, but either way, the men were beautiful) gay bar downtown. It was so much fun and probably at the height of my infatuation with the city, particularly downtown - trying new things and going new places, staying out all night, being with friends constantly, just that city rush of making the most of being young and living there.
This is the fun stuff I hope to keep in mind when my kids are teenagers and beyond, possibly doing crazy, ridiculous, overly-dramatic things. Because it's fun to do it all and have the crazy experiences, and it's almost as much fun to remember it. But memories only go so far, so who's coming to the next Madonna concert with me?
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Posted by: Suzanne23WAGNER | January 21, 2012 at 11:23 PM