2019: A Year In Music

15 Sunday Dec 2019

Posted by marina72 in Books, Lana Del Rey, Madonna, Music, Non-Fiction

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A Year in Music, All Mirrors, Andrew Ridgeley, Angel Olsen, Billie Holiday, Debbie Harry, Downhill Lullaby, George Michael, Lana Del Rey, Madame X, Madonna, Marina and the Diamonds, Mirwais Ahmadzai, Norman Fucking Rockwell, Odetta, Prince, Remind Me Tomorrow, Seventeen, Sharon Van Etten, Sky Ferreira, The Shangri-Las, To Be Human, Tricky, Wham!

This year brought defiant statements from masters old and new: the iconoclastic Madame X, reuniting Madonna with ‘disco god’ Mirwais; and the epochal Norman Fucking Rockwell from Lana Del Rey. Continue reading →

‘The Best Way to Forget, Until You Find Something You Want to Remember’

16 Monday Sep 2019

Posted by marina72 in Art and Photography, Jeanne Eagels

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'The Best Way to Forget Until You Find Something You Want to Remember', Amy Winehouse, Bette Davis, Christine Keeler, Cob Gallery, If You Don't Want My Peaches (You Better Stop Shaking the Tree), Jean Harlow, Jeanne Eagels, Kim Novak, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Nina Mae Fowler, Rita Hayworth, The Letter

Nina Mae Fowler is a British artist who trained at the University of Brighton, and lives in Norfolk. Her latest solo exhibition, If You Don’t Want My Peaches (You’d Better Stop Shaking the Tree), on display at London’s Cob Gallery until September 28, borrows its title from an Irving Berlin song, and draws heavily on the iconography of Hollywood’s golden age. I was delighted to find Jeanne Eagels among the subjects, as she is often neglected. This portrait shows Jeanne in her penultimate movie (and only surviving talkie), The Letter (1929.) Continue reading →

‘Madame X’ is a Birthday Girl

14 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by marina72 in Books, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Music, Updates

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Frederic Cabanas, Madame X, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe In Spain

In my 35+ years of fandom, this is the first time a Madonna album has dropped on my birthday – and it’s a masterpiece! As well as the delectable Madame X, I also got a copy of Marilyn Monroe In Spain, a wonderful book by the artist, author and museum owner, Frederic Cabanas … “Saludos a todos mis amigos!”

Soledad 2: Twin Peaks, Joe D’Amato and More

13 Thursday Jun 2019

Posted by marina72 in Film, Magazines, Television, Updates, Writing

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1989, Colette, David Lynch, Emily Jane Bryant, Heather Drain, Jeremy Richey, Joe D'Amato, John David Levy, Johnny Handsome, Les Bohem, Like A Prayer, Madonna, Marcelline Block, Michael A. Gonzales, Mickey Rourke, Peggy Lipton, Poetry, Robert Monell, Rory DeMaio, Soledad, Twin Peaks

The Italian actress Cinzia Monreale lies in her coffin on the cover of SOLEDAD Arts Journal‘s second volume, available now on Amazon for just $6 in the US, or £4.73 in the UK. It’s a still from Buio Omega (Beyond the Darkness), a 1979 horror flick, accompanied by a splendidly bizarre quote: “Darkness is not dark … time is not time … boys become dogs … girls become frogs …” Continue reading →

Penny Marshall 1943-2018

24 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by marina72 in Film, Madonna

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A League Of Their Own, Baseball, Madonna, Penny Marshall, Rosie O'Donnell, This Used To Be My Playground

Carole Penny Marshall was born in the Bronx in 1943. Her mother Marjorie ran a dance school, and her father directed industrial films. Of Italian descent, he had changed his name from Masciarelli to Marshall. Their youngest daughter was named after Carole Lombard, the much-loved comedic actress and wife of Clark Gable, who had died in a plane crash the year before. Young Carole’s middle name was inspired by her sister Ronny, who was ‘saving her pennies’ to buy a horse: and it was that name, ‘Penny’, which finally stuck. The family lived in a building which also housed the young Neil Simon, Paddy Chayevsky, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. Continue reading →

2018: A Year in Music

17 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by marina72 in Amy Winehouse, Books, Film, Lana Del Rey, Madonna, Music, Non-Fiction

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A Year in Music, All Nerve, Amy Winehouse, Back to Amy, Back to Black, Beautiful Game, Blake Wood, Bobbie Gentry, Cat Power, Charles Moriarty, Chris Wade, Comeback Kid, David Bowie, Fado, Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey, Lissie, Madonna, Madonna in the Eighties, Mariners Apartment Complex, Matthew Rettenmund, Mazzy Star, Mercury Rev, MLVC60, My Wild West, Nico, Nico 1988, Norman Fucking Rockwell, Piano & A Microphone 1983, Portugal, Prince, Quentin Harrison, Record Redux: Madonna, Record Store Day, Sharon Van Etten, The Breeders, The Girl From Chickasaw County, Wanderer, Woman

She may have left the stage decades ago, but 2018 was a vintage year for die-hard fans of the mysterious Bobbie Gentry, with a rare vinyl release on Record Store Day followed in September by a career-spanning CD box-set, The Girl From Chickasaw County. Continue reading →

Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up

13 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by marina72 in Art and Photography, Fashion and Beauty

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Communism, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, London, Madonna, Mexico, V&A, Victoria and Albert Museum

In her lifetime, Frida Kahlo was little-known outside Mexico. Her reputation abroad could be summarised by this derisive headline from a newspaper article, published during her first trip to the USA in 1933: ‘Wife of the Master Mural Painter Gleefully Dabbles in Works of Art.’ Neither was she commercially successful, though her work was feted by prominent European aesthetes like André Breton. In her home country, however, she was a cultural icon, leading the charge for a modern, independent Mexico.

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‘You May Be My Lucky Star…’

16 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by marina72 in Anniversaries, Fashion and Beauty, Film, Madonna, Music

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Beautiful Stranger, Catholicism, Confessions on a Dancefloor, Desperately Seeking Susan, Evita, Ghosttown, Into the Groove, Jump, Like A Prayer, Live Aid, Live to Tell, Living for Love, Lucky Star, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Marvin Gaye, Material Girl, Ray of Light, Secret, Smash Hits, Wembley, Who's That Girl, William Orbit

From the age of eleven, my Saturdays would often include a trip to the record department at Boots to buy a 7-inch single. One of these was ‘Lucky Star’ by Madonna. Along with ‘Holiday’, it was one of her earliest songs played on the radio. Each weekend I stopped to gaze at her gorgeous album cover, but my savings rarely stretched to LPs. When I finally bought it, it had a different cover and my best friend (who wasn’t a fan) borrowed and never returned it. Continue reading →

Reggie Lucas 1953-2018

20 Sunday May 2018

Posted by marina72 in Madonna, Music

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1983, Borderline, Burning Up, I Know It, Lucky Star, Madonna, Physical Attraction, Reggie Lucas, The First Album, Think of Me

Reginald Grant Lucas was born in Queens, New York in 1953, the son of a doctor and a teacher. “Although no one in the family was a musician or singer,” he recalled, “music was an important and natural part of our lives.” He began taking piano lessons aged six, and was given an electric guitar for his eleventh birthday. Enthralled by the “music explosion” coming from Motown and England in the Early 1960s, it was “the beginning of a lifelong romance.” Continue reading →

When Avicii Met Madonna

23 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by marina72 in Madonna, Music

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Avicii, Girl Gone Wild, Madonna, MDNA, Rebel Heart, Ultra Music Festival

In March 2012, Madonna made a surprise appearance at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami alongside the twenty-three year-old Swedish DJ/producer Avicii. She had enlisted him to remix her latest single, ‘Girl Gone Wild’. “I’ve been here in spirit for many years, but it’s good to finally be standing on the stage, looking at all you people who have come here from all around the world,” Madonna told the crowd. “In my world the words ‘music’ and ‘dance’ are not separated. Electronic music has been a part of my life since the beginning of my career. I can honestly say that a DJ saved my life.” Continue reading →

Tara Hanks

~ Author of 'The Mmm Girl' and 'Wicked Baby'

Tag Archives: Madonna

2019: A Year In Music

‘The Best Way to Forget, Until You Find Something You Want to Remember’

‘Madame X’ is a Birthday Girl

Soledad 2: Twin Peaks, Joe D’Amato and More

Penny Marshall 1943-2018

2018: A Year in Music

Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up

‘You May Be My Lucky Star…’

Reggie Lucas 1953-2018

When Avicii Met Madonna