EXCERPT:
OTTENBERG: When was the last time you confessed?
MADONNA: Well, every song on this record is—not every song. Some are just joy. “Love Sensation” is just joy. But a lot of the songs here are confessional.
OTTENBERG: What about the last time you confessed in a church?
MADONNA: Oh, that’s been a while.
OTTENBERG: Do you have a relationship with organized religion?
MADONNA: Well, I was raised a Catholic and I’m a cultural Catholic. You know what I mean?... When I go to Italy, I go to churches. I smell the incense, I light a candle. I do all the things I’m familiar with because they’re evocative and they make me feel a type of way. Sorry.... I realize how pagan Catholicism is. Beautiful religion. Going to churches and seeing all these paintings, a naked man on a cross, bleeding, suffering, and his mother crying. So many dramatic visuals.... And then after you have your communion, you receive the body and blood of Christ. That’s dark. My mother was very religious. I don’t practice it, but I still feel connected to it.
OTTENBERG: What about god?
MADONNA: What about them?
OTTENBERG: Your connection. Like, do you meditate? Do you—
MADONNA: Pray.
OTTENBERG: You pray?
MADONNA: Mm-hmm. It’s a combination of meditation, just stating my intentions for the day, positive affirmations, and asking the universe or god or the archangels, or the angels, to come to me and protect me and/or help me attain something. You know I study Kabbalah and I have for many years. It’s the mystical interpretation of the Old Testament. So I do take part in a lot of holidays or occasions within the lunar calendar that look like Judaism.
OTTENBERG: I’m Jewish. I mean, I’m more culturally Jewish, but I’m bar mitzvahed.
MADONNA: You’re circumcised.
OTTENBERG: The point is I’m circumcised. What do you put on your popcorn?
MADONNA: Brewer’s yeast. Do you want some?
OTTENBERG: I’d love some. Thank you so much...
Posts
52 comments:
Airhead with lots of plastic surgery.
Please, God… no.
Ok. I don't give a hoot about Madonna - but it has come up within the past week or so, for some reason, that back in the "boy toy" days, reporting on Madonna fell into two camps: she was a flash-in-the-pan symbol of the degeneration (not "degeneracy" although that idea was there too) of the present generation, and "watch this one - she's got The Thing."
History (modern history, anyway) seems to have spoken, huh? I really liked her Like A Prayer version of herself, and her Vogue version was interesting too; I lost interest at Sex (wasn't that the coffee table book?). But there's no doubt that she's been a cultural phenomenon (to a greater or lesser degree) for decades.
I think the reason Madonna came up in my life recently must be that we were hosting a college friend who had DJ'ed throughout his youth. Lots of music talk for the past week.
Dave Begley said...
Airhead with lots of plastic surgery
Probably true of reporter. I suspect Madonna is worse.
@Jamie -- Yep, that's the right timeline. She hit the "I'll do anything to stay famous" sell-by date with the "Sex" coffee table book of 1992!
After her sex kitten phase and the end of hair metal in the 1980s, she became a female-fan Barbie Doll dress-up artist. She held that title until Lady Gaga outclassed her with Alexander McQueen's costumes.
In recent years Madonna has resembled a cranky old Italian grandmother with weird teeth, so I dare not click through to see her photos while eating.
I asked the internet why Madonna is interesting and it informed me among other things that "She refused to conform to traditional female roles in music, paving the way for later artists like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift."
She was in one very good movie, and made one great album.
Roseanne Arquette was in that movie too, and got canceled for decades for refusing to service Harvey Weinstein, so you are free to make any inferences you like.
Is it possible to pair up two more destructive, obnoxious and crazy people than Madonna and Kahlo? I think Althouse hit the jackpot here.
I don’t recall her version of what Catholicism is but yah, some of that is dark.
Crossing the streams
Absolute proof that this publication has no meaningful awareness of Catholic/Christian/Jewish traditions, as Interview wrote "god" instead of "God." Believers generally write "god" for the figureheads of other religious beliefs. Many jews write it as "G-d" out of respect too.
"...It’s a combination of meditation, just stating my intentions for the day, positive affirmations, and asking the universe or god or the archangels, or the angels, to come to me and protect me and/or help me attain something....."
So, she just reviews her list of errands like everybody else, then. Look, just because our politicians don't know when to fade away and keep their self-respect, doesn't mean you have to, too.
…naked Jesus on the sad cross came up a few times when the women and chardonnay collide. As girls they got urges over Jesus…mostly naked, the beard, abs, inguinal crease. None of them admitted it was a topic in confession…
I noticed a split consciousness in myself about this kind of performer. One part has disliked her all along and knows she is a faux Catholic; the other part asks whether her performance for her own audience is interesting to them or dated. I think this interview is just someone scrambling for material meeting someone scrambling for coverage. She isn't outside boundaries, who could be these days, but she's inside time.
She needs to maintain a slim connection to the church to maintain Fallen Catholic Girl, Inc., which has been very lucrative.
I thought she was into Kabbalah, or is she afraid to be cancelled???
"She refused to conform to traditional female roles in music, paving the way for later artists like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift."
Huh? She was a bog standard pop-tartlet being reinvented for every album.
I'm proud of myself. I started to read the interview - and bailed.
I just don't give a rip about Madonna.
I never particularly liked her or her music, but by most metrics, she's had a successful life. She's no Debbie Harry, but tell that to her fans. They'll follow her to her grave. She'll be like Rod Stewart--up there with an oxygen tank and a walker shaking that thing.......Well, good for her. We should all rejoice when someone leads a successful life. Proof positives that such a thing can be done........Perhaps some of her more traditional views helped her in her journey, although that's not something she'd ever fess up to..
1. The photos in the interview made me look up her album covers. She’s the one celebrity I would never recognize in the wild. She has an album interesting face, but she doesn’t have any distinguishing features. Perplexity tells me she has a strong jawline. Maybe it’s because she’s played with her image so much.
2. Trump’s influence is everywhere. Madonna discussing herself: “I’ve had an extraordinary life. I’ve had a huge life.”
Where have we heard that before?
Certain female singers attract a gay following. I think that's true of Madonna, and it gave her career a boost. Did she supplant Liza Minelli? Who's the current icon? I get the sense that Taylor Swift is not that big among the gays.
"Them." !!! THE most basic foundational element of Judeo-Christianity gets tossed out the window so she can sound .... woke...? Acceptable...? Modern.... ?
Foolish. Foolish is le mot juste.
Them.
I used to read Interview when Fran Lebowitz wrote a column. I see the choice of subject and the quality of questions hasn't gotten any better.
Next up: J-Lo discusses her views on Kant, Wittgenstein and Schopenhauer!
She ain’t no Lucinda Williams.
I'm stuck on the title of the article, "The Madonna Interview". I'm stuck on it because I wonder how that would entice anyone to click on it?
What do you hope to learn?
She kept her sex kitten vibe for way too long, as in decades. It’d be embarrassing for any normal person. Apparently she just shot her wad early on and couldn’t think of any other way to get clicks.
OMG the tags have multiplied since I saw this last!
Human rites. Stat!
Since boatbuilder mentions an entertainer I haven't thought of in years, here's a joke about her:
If cannibals took over Hollywood and started eating all the big stars, why would they eat Jennifer Lopez last? 'Cause there's always room for J-Lo.
This sort of banter would have been a lot more interesting back when men still wanted to fuck Madonna.
What's interesting to me is that Madonna was a major cultural force that exploded into the 80s pop zeitgeist. But I was always more taken with Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" which beat Madonna to the charts by about 4-5 months. When I saw her bopping through NYC in her jangly mismatched thrift store getup I was like "What is this?" and it intrigued me. The song being catchy also helped. Keep in mind I was about 11 or 12. Lauper didn't have the sex appeal because she was such a relative oddball, but that video was a remarkable departure from what came before.
Frida glares protectively? I don’t see intersexuality as protective. but I’m not a gay Jewish gossip writer
“Lots of music talk for the past week.“
There is absolutely no connection between Madonna and music
“Hosebeast!… schwingggg”
—— Wayne ‘n’ Garth
Interesting interview, although I would never have guessed that was Madonna from the pictures. She's obviously had work done to look that good at 67.
Tangentially, I clicked on the Debi Mazar link and went to her interview with Cleopatra Coleman. Favorite lines:
COLEMAN: You got to be careful in Australia.
MAZAR: Yeah, Australia’s wild. I’m not feeling those marsupials with their tails and all that.
COLEMAN: The marsupials are the only nice ones, Debi.
Is she a material witness of her gender or is her life a burden of her choices?
Could Madonna be the last interview subject for Interview magazine who knew Andy Warhol and is able to reproduce the magazine's signature daffy/artsy style of talk?
Who is that woman in the photos?
There is nothing more erudite than having an interview under a portrait of Frieda Kahlo, but if the interviewer mentions it in the text it turns to parody. You have to keep your mouth shut and just make sure it’s included in a photo.
I have several Madonna cds and like them, just like everyone else here. I won't pretend otherwise.
I just read the parts in the Althouse post. I disliked Madonna instantly when I first saw/heard her. That intensified as time went by (I confess to thinking she had a GREAT ass in some movie).
BUT - her remarks about her relationship with Catholicism are remarkable in similarity to my own. I think we could have a damn good conversation in the wee hours if the barkeep extended 'last call'. I can almost hear Sinatra say, "Send a round to that quiet couple at the end of the bar, Joe."
A lot of the regulars here, sound like "the mean girls" talking about Madonna. I get it. Would have jumped right in before reading remarks offered as intro.
No shame in having "some work done". Hers (if?) is "work" well-done.
That said, I know a couple of mid-sixties ladies with baby-butt skin and had dinner with an old friend last week who looked like a damn teenager. Not an ounce of fat, smooth face, neck and arms. If the light and mischief in her eyes didn't widen your grin, you're a fucking zombie. I doubt there's a single straight male in America who wouldn't instantly say to himself, "Yes, I would." She's 82. You'd be reluctant to guess 50.
I may revert to a lifetime of scorn for Madonna after reading the interview, but I kinda hope I don't. Wouldn't it be nice if the TDS peeps left the door of reason and knowledge open, just a crack?
Various recollections -
"Holiday" was first played on black radio stations in Chicago, and ahead of the visuals.
"Madonna Πουτάνα" scribbled on a university classroom desk, late 80s.
Solid pop music contributions and vibe in the 80s and early 90s, then late 90s with "Ray of Light". The rest, unnoticed.
Rush Limbaugh said that her elevator didn't go to the top floor.
From Sterne's "A Sentimental Journey" comes the following, which I have observed in several celebrity female lives over the past decades: "
There are three epochas in the empire of a French-woman—She is coquette—then deist—then devôte: the empire during these is never lost—she only changes her subjects: when thirty-five years and more have unpeopled her dominions of the slaves of love, she re-peoples it with slaves of infidelity—and then with the slaves of the Church."
Madonna has a few good years of religious BS in her.
Also remember, she was married to the famous singer and accordian player,Weird Al Yankovic, as described in the biographical movie, "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)." She also helped Weird Al Yankovic kill Pablo Escobar, IIRC, in that film. What a life she has lived!
By chance, the other night my wife and I stumbled upon her performance at Live Aid. It was shocking to see the difference between then and now.
Then? Cute, full of energy and having the time of her life. I mean, really having a great time.
Now? The complete opposite. Sullen. Angry. And just plain ugly.
Not even the same person.
The Peter Pan syndrome
Michael Jackson, Madonna, & Prince. All born in 1958. All popular during the 1980s. In 50 years, people will listen to Prince.
Who cares? I mean really! WHO CARES?
Madonna should have gone Greta Garbo 30 years ago.
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