I posted today on FB saying that I bet I could write updates only about the music I hear and what it makes me think of and what it reminds me of. I was on my way to the gym, and while I was running, it occurred to me that this could be a funny blog post, or, better yet, a blog itself dedicated to random stuff I think about when I hear songs I know and love.
I could write a lot about the different stuff I listened to while I was running, but I think "Ray of Light" is the best one. Who doesn't love this song? OK, if you don't, just hush your mouth now :) And, yes, some of you may argue that that song (and album) is more William Orbit than it is Madonna, but really, it's all awesome, so I don't care all that much :) I think I always had that song on mixes (tape, CD, ipod playlists) that I listened to while running-- it's over 5 minutes long, and a good song of that length is key when you need some motivation. I see people who run without music, and I have no idea how they do it. No idea. How the hell do you propel your body forward without music?
I love Madonna. Love her. I remember being at my aunt's house in California as a kid and seeing the video for "Material Girl" on MTV. We didn't have cable and didn't get it until I was in high school, so MTV was this highly coveted, forbidden fruit. As a kid, I think Madonna was also this weird source of awareness of just how NOT white and blonde I was and how I never would be, too. There weren't exactly any Indian divas on MTV, you know?
But then, Madonna, the ever morphing maverick that she is, decided to go Indian in 1998 and was all about mehndi and was singing "Om Shanti" in a way that we never did when we had to go to Hindu religious school as kids. Let me tell you, all those religion classes would have been much more interesting and palatable if we got to sing like Madonna.
"Ray of Light" reminds me of that fall of 1998. I was a senior in college and lived with 4 wonderful women. We had a crazy Halloween party where we dressed up like the Spice Girls, except we made up different identities... oh, it's not worth explaining, but I swear it made perfect sense at the time :) That party was CRAZY-- someone we knew came dressed as Dirk Diggler. His zucchini prop was somehow left behind in our house after the madness was over, and my housemates disagreed on what to do with it-- one insisted on throwing it out because of where it had been, and another felt like it was a perfectly good vegetable and could be cooked without a second thought. I think we ended up giving it back to him.
Anyway, that song would come on, and every woman would jump up, eager to yell, "And I FEE-EELL!" Freaking beautiful.
The other funny story I remember is a random, only-at-an-Indian wedding thing-- a cousin of mine got married that fall, and a couple nights before the wedding, a bunch of us were getting mehndi put on our hands. We were at someone's house sitting around while the older aunties put mehndi on our hands. Yeah, there's a lot of sitting around since you can't exactly do anything when someone is putting intricate patterns of mud on your hands for hours, right? Anyway, someone turned on a radio, and I know that one of the songs from "Ray of Light" came on, and then that Prodigy song "Smack My Bitch Up" came on. Oooooof. Not a good one for the ears of sweet old Indian aunties-- no, not so much. It was funny, because all of us in the younger set squirmed in our chairs, uncomfortable and sorry that our nice and well-meaning elders had to listen to that. Well, we forgot that those lovely aunties couldn't understand a damn word of that song. Most of them understood English just fine, but they would always wave their hand and mutter, "I don't understand this music!" Needless to say, they didn't bat an eye.
Good times. Go listen to that song. It's brilliant.
No comments:
Post a Comment