MARCH ROUND UP

 

I won’t lie March began in a fog, I had way too much going on, and almost crumpled underneath it all, but I did my very best to decompartmentalise (I am getting sooo much better at this as I get older) and work through each issue one at a time and by the weeks end I had a plan, and with a plan I always feel better. I slowly recovered as the month progressed and am feeling much better than I have in a long time, 2 weeks holidays also helped!!

 

This was good as I had a big day out with A, J, and L at The Vineyards for an outdoor concert featuring Hoodoo Gurus, The Sunnyboys, Violent Femmes, Died Pretty, and Rat Cat. My review, Pure Pop for Now People can be read here.

 

The weekend was rounded out with a cleansing night swim at Merewether Baths.

 

I caught up with a French exhibition at Lake Macquarie Art Gallery, Impressions of Paris. It featured prints from Lautrec, Degas, and  Daumier and was lovely. I always love to wander around the gardens and lakeside area near the gallery. It is in the most perfect location.

I enjoyed catching up with A and B for cocktails and afternoon tea at the new bar in The Junction, Kokomo. Despite the cheesy name, it was a very relaxing and delicious experience, and of course wonderful company.

I saw Hail Caesar at the cinemas. I really wanted to love this film. I love The Coens and love this era of film making they based their film on. But it was flawed. There were moments of perfection in the film and I was in heaven. These were the little pieces of film within a film, every person cast perfectly, every shot exactly as you would imagine it being back in the 50s, it was funny and clever and brilliant. But unfortunately the over arching premise of the film (based on a noirish/cold war kind of plot) just fell short and didn’t seem fleshed out enough and muddled. Possibly I need to see it again, It did make me laugh very loudly at times but I wanted it to be more!

 

My holidays began with my first French Friday of the year with J and we had yummy Vietnamese prior. The film was Marguerite. Set in Paris in the 1920s it is about a wealthy Opera singer in a small country town. But the thing is she cannot sing, and no one has ever told her this. She gets a really good review, by some cheeky young bohemians who appreciate the humour of what is going on, and is invited to sing at the Paris Opera. Her friends and family and now concerned she will become the laughing stock of Paris, but how can they help her without letting on to her the awful truth. This is a beautifully written and executed comedy/drama. Full of colourful characters, stunning set design, and beautiful music. But the melancholy to Marguerite’s life keeps it from being a parody. There are times you a crying from laughter and times you are simply crying. This is mostly due to the magnificent performance by Catherine Frot, already established as one of the great modern French actresses, this is surely her best film to date.

 

The following day I set off on a road trip to Sydney with my sisters and a friend to see Madonna. We did a bit of shopping on the way, but finally arrived at our destination eager to see Madonna. You can read about our experience here.

 

The following day I recouperated watching the F1 and then headed up to Cessnock to stay with a friend and relax and explore the vineyards. After the busy couple of days it was nice to truly slip into holiday mode in the loveliest chilled kind of way.

That first week of my holidays was pretty laid back, sleep ins, walks, dvds, reading, naps. I also managed to squeeze in a lovely lunch date to Foghorn although I was struggling with a sinus infection. It truly has been a hectic start to the year and I need serious down time! The Easter weekend was fairly quiet with a family dinner, assisting my nephew with an assignment and catching up with friends.

 

The second week I was out and about more, doing long exploratory walks in my neighbourhood and in Newcastle. I finally walked the Anzac Walk, and spend time reading in King Edward Park.

I ended the month catching up with N and V for a lovely lunch at Warners Bay.

I obviously got a lot of reading, watching and so forth in this month.

 

And some time to take photos!

MADONNA

I would never have called myself a Madonna fan, but when her tour was announced last year I knew I wanted to see her. I loved her when she first hit the scene in the early 80s, my sister and I dancing along with her on Countdown, we liked Holiday but loved Lucky Star. My sister grew into the fan and I appreciated her music, especially that first album. I loved her sass and uniqueness in a male oriented world of music. She really was a feminist icon back then, despite what our parents may have thought.

 

I followed her career, loving her Dick Tracy soundtrack and falling in love with her Bedtime Stories album, and was totally blown away by Ray of Light. I enjoyed her follow up, Music, but pretty much after that I felt her head went somewhere up her butt and she became too painful. In retrospect, for an iconoclast, how awful must it be to try and continually better yourself when younger women are coming and possibly doing it better. Sometimes I feel for Madonna, sometimes I want to smack her.

 

And so I purchased tickets for myself and my two sisters, even though we would have done better to have seen her years earlier when she was in her peak.

 

This week that day came...Madonna Day...bitches!

 

Prior to this we had not heard good reviews, breakdowns, drinking on stage, and later and later starts which pissed a lot of people off.

 

I headed to Sydney with zero expectations, I figured it would be a mega late start, she would probably be miming most of it, her voice wasn’t that great anyway, and she would probably sing most of the newer songs I really didn’t know, but it should look visually good.

 

We popped the best of disc into the car stereo and sang along, fully aware that she may not sing any of them.

 

Our road trip commenced at lunch with another friend hitching a ride, we shopped, had an early dinner, and then headed to Olympic Park to get a car park. This got us into the centre around 7.30/8.00 and we headed to our seats just after 9pm. We knew that when we heard Michael Jackson’s Wanna Be Starting Something, she’d be on next.

 

Just on 10am, that song played and the crowd went wild.

 

The centre darkened and the music started with her dancers and backing crew coming to the stage and after a short while Madonna herself arriving in a cage that was lowered on to the stage! And straight into Iconic from Rebel Heart, followed by Bitch, I’m Madonna, then Burning Up – totally unexpected. There were four different sets and this first one was called  Joan of Arc/Samurai.

 

In between sets a tape played with a Madonna song while her back up dancers and acrobats did mind bending things on stage, this presumably was to assist with complex costume changes and it really worked. By the second set I knew this was going to be absolutely amazing and I felt ashamed to have doubted this very capable woman, who I used to think was an iconoclast...maybe she still was!?

 

Each set featured songs from her Rebel Heart album, which I had listened to only a couple of times, but it obviously had more impact on me than I initially thought as they all sounded pretty familiar to me!

 

The second set was Rockabilly Meets Tokyo and included a sweet acoustic version of True Blue – this was when I realised she was more than iconoclast! She sounded terrific, no miming or auto-tune here. She also gave a great performance of Deeper and Deeper, and an outstandingly powerful snippet of Love Don’t Live Here Anymore (I forgot she had even covered that way back in the day) and ended with Like A Virgin. The crowd went wild!

 

The third set was a Latin/Gypsy one, which was superb. La Isla Bonita, and a fab little mix of Dress You Up, Into The Groove, and Lucky Star. Then Take A Bow before absolutely killing Like a Prayer. Oh Madonna, I am sorry for ever doubting you. She ended this very tight set with Rebel Heart.

Throughout she interacted with the crowd, she had this mantra of Fuck Fuck Fuck Yeah that she asked the audience to help her with, now I love the word Fuck but I felt this just felt a little forced, the only bum note of the night. Also her American accent changed as she spoke, often a southern accent, which I have never recalled hearing before. But look, that is just being really picky. She was honest and funny and interesting and real. She addressed a whole lot of the ‘issues’ the press had made and you actually felt sorry for her. The media always takes stuff out of proportion, we should know better. Yes, she is the mistress of spin, but she is still human. She doesn’t really drink on tour – I buy that totally, how anyone her age could do what she does with the conviction and energy she has, well it would be impossible and as she said, I’m a working Mum, I miss my kids, so sue me! I remembered the early sass and take no prisoners Madonna I loved and saw that shine through and it made me smile. Still, some of the banter was too much, ahh shut up and sing!!!

 

The final set, Party/Flapper came up and I was grinning ear to ear. This was by far the most exquisite and stunning to watch and included the best songs. The set was very Gatsby and stylish and her costumes sublime. It featured Music, Candy Shop, and Material Girl – all fabulous. She also did the most amazing version of Le Vie En Rose, just her and a ukulele, she actually brought me to tears she was that good. This was followed by a lovely snipper of Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend. She ended the set with Unapologetic Bitch and pulled Gwendoline Christie up on to the stage. I immediately recognised her, she is very very tall, but doubted myself as I had no idea she was in the country. But yes, it was her and there was some sassy back and forth.

The show ended with Holiday and it was spectacular. It was now around 12.45am. She had played for almost 3 hours. I was beyond impressed.

 

Standouts for me were Like A Prayer, La Vie En Rose, and the Dress You Up/Into the Groove/Lucky Star songs.

 

I do think we were lucky when you match this against other performances but in all I am glad we went and saw this amazing woman!

 

Full Setlist

 

Joan of Arc/Samurai

Taped intro: Revolution

1. Iconic

2. Bitch, I’m Madonna

3. Burning Up

4. Holy Water (and Vogue)

5. Devil Pray

 

Rockabilly Meets Tokyo

Taped intro: Messiah

6. Body Shop

7. True Blue

8. Deeper and Deeper

9. HeartBreakCity (and Love Don’t Live Here Anymore)

10. Like a Virgin

 

Latin/Gypsy

Taped intro: S.E.X.

11. Living for LOve

12. La Isla Bonita

13. Dress You Up (and Into The Groove and Lucky Star)

14. Take a Bow

15. Like a Prayer

16. Rebel Heart

 

Party/Flapper

Taped intro: Illuminati

17. Music

18. Candy Shop

19. Material Girl

20. La Vie En Rose

21. Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend

22. Unapologetic Bitch

 

Encore

23. Holiday