Saturday 31 December 2011

Spending the last minutes of 2011 with you

Oh Father
This Used To Be My Playground
Live To Tell

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Oh dear...

One month has passed without writing a thing!

December is being quite a ride. Between work, studies on music journalism, my podcast side-project, Christmas stuff and an endless flu, there's no energy left to think about nice things to post in here.

Something's got to give... but under the skin, all remains alive and kicking ;)

No need to talk about all the frenzy that has been going on these last few weeks, surrounding the new album, the new video, Superbowl, the world tour, the perfume, the Golden Globes, oh God, what a massive year lies ahead of us!

You all know everything about that - and frankly, it's not my intention to give you the news (there are better places to find them), only thoughts and impressions.

So here's something I'd like to share with you, reminding the amazing December we had, nineteen years ago. I couldn't be more obsessed back then, M couldn't be more fierce and daring. Our Christmas in 1992 was all about house music, vintage clothes, romance and nightclubbing.

A few days ago, I put Erotica on my CD player, pressed 4 and couldn't help saying out loud: God, this is SO DAMN SEXY!

I can't help falling in love with this song, over and over again.


Thursday 1 December 2011

World AIDS Day I

Love Won´t Protect You
Commercial for National AIDS Network
December 1st, 1988

World AIDS Day II

Madonna's commitment to the fight against AIDS has always been a reason for our pride, since the first Who's That Girl Tour shows, dedicated to the research of a cure for "the plague of the 20th century". But at the time, I wasn't aware of such thing.

In fact, I wasn't aware of the seriousness of AIDS at all (I was 7 when the Portuguese media talked about it for the first time, in 1984, with the shocking death of António Variações, a Portuguese singer and absolute pop icon in my country). Not until the day I arrived home, on March 1989, after running to the record store to buy my copy of M's brand new album - with that amazing, epic title: Like a Prayer.

When I took the record out of the sleeve, something fell off. There they were: The Facts About AIDS. Madonna was speaking directly to us, addressing the issue through her art. On that precise moment, I realised ther seriousness of it.

Unfortunately, 22 years have passed and still...

... AIDS Is No Party!

World AIDS Day III

September 1998
Speech at the APLA Walk
(AIDS Project LA)







World AIDS Day IV

Message in 2003

Heathrow > JFK

October 24, 2011
Departure: Heathrow, London






Arrival: JFK, New York




The W.E. Tour: Episode 7

After Venice and Toronto, W.E.'s film festival tour could not be completed without the 55th BFI London Film Festival. On October 23, Madonna arrived at the Empire cinema in Leicester Square and was ABSOLUTELY DAZZLING!