[MUSIC] Madonna, “Express Yourself” (live)

The live version of “Express Yourself” performed in 1993 by Madonna in Sydney and released to video on The Girlie Show: Live Down Under is a joy, an energetic disco reworking that is one of my early-morning energy songs.

[MUSIC] Five music links: St. Vincent, Madonna, Ireland, Ukraine, globalization

• Michael Cuby at them praises the musicianship of St. Vincent.
• Queerty notes that the new Madonna video, for the song “I Rise”, will feature multiple drag queens.
• The Signal looks at how the Library of Congress is preserving, and indexing, its archives of traditional Irish music.
• Zbigniew Wojnowski writes at Open Democracy about how Ukrainian popular music has evolved from the 1980s on, facing all sorts of cultural and political issues as Ukraine itself has changed hugely.
• CBC looks at how pop music these days has become increasingly globalized, major hits incorporating languages other than English and stars often initially unknown to North American audiences.

[MUSIC] Five music links: Mingering Mike, post-punk Madonna, Alex Chilton, Iskwe, Myspace

• Dangerous Minds notes “Mingering Mike”, a fictional soul music star created by an outsider artist.
• Noisey takes a look at the roots of Madonna in the post-punk music scene of New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
• Dangerous Minds looks at the Alex Chilton anti-AIDS song of 1986, “No Sex.”
• NOW Toronto interviewed iskwe in February about her music commemorating dead Indigenous people in Canada.
• Damon Kurkowski writes at Pitchfork about the implications of the accidental deletion by Myspace of a decade and a half worth of music there. How can libraries and archives be preserved against the vagaries of technology?

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: James Barry, Madonna, Maddie Blaustein, Wilton Manors, LIlly Singh

• Them notes the transphobia involved in novelist E.J. Levy’s apparent determination to note define 19th century doctor James Barry as a trans man in an upcoming novel.
• Hornet Stories notes the long history of support of Madonna for LGBTQ people and causes, from the 1980s on.
• Them tells the story of trans writer voice actor Maddie Blaustein, perhaps most famous for voicing the character of Meowth from Pokémon.
• VICE reports from Wilton Manors, the Florida town where all the government officials are LGBTQ.
• The coming-out of YouTube star Lilly Singh as bisexual is huge news, for South Asians and the wider community. (How To Be A Bawse is a great book.) VICE Congratulations! has it.

[MUSIC] Madonna,”The Power of Good-Bye”

The 1998 Madonna song “The Power of Good-Bye” , all shimmering electronica with subtle lyrics soulfully sung, bears consideration as perhaps the best song Madonna has ever had. Ray of Light is a really good album.

[MUSIC] Five music links: Q Lazzarus, Jake Shears, Madonna

• Spin shares the news, from fan Kelsey Zimmerman, that the singer of “Goodbye Horses”, Q Lazzarus, is alive and well in Staten Island after three decades of silence.
• Hornet Stories raves over Jake Shears’ self-titled solo debut album.
• Joe. My. God. shares the story, as he has every year since 2006, “Ricky Loves Madonna”, remembering an early victim of HIV/AIDS and his Madonna fandom.
• Daryl Deino at Queerty writes about how Madonna, with her early opposition to homophobia and her engagement with HIV/AIDS, may have saved his life.
• Hornet Stories describes, and shows, the set of 20 Lego minifigures that Michigan artist Sam Hatmaker has designed for Madonna’s 60th birthday today.

[MUSIC] Madonna, “The Power of Good-Bye”

“The Power of Good-Bye”, a stand-out song on a rather strong Ray of Light that became a lovely gentle classic as soon as it was first heard. This song is a good way–a mature way, a pensive way–to say good-bye to a partner who is no longer.

[MUSIC] Four music links: Prince and Janelle Monáe, Shirley Manson, Fischerspooner, Madonna

• VICE reports that the late great Prince had some input on the new album of Janelle Monáe.
• This interview with Shirley Manson by VICE is brilliant. I love her, and Garbage.
• I’ve been following Fischerspooner, and solo Casey Spooner, for a decade and a half. It’s always great to hear more from them, and not only new music. (_Sir_ is quite good). Hornet Stories reports.
• At Albumism, Quentin Harrison recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of Madonna’s Ray of Light album, one I think is easily one of her best.

[MUSIC] Three music links: Gord Downie and the Hip, Madonna, Joni Mitchell

• NOW Toronto shared a feature of theirs from 1989 on the Tragically Hip, featuring a Gord Downie interview, here.
• Barry Walters argues Madonna’s early 1990s experiments, like the album Erotica and the book Sex, are underrated, here at Rolling Stone.
• Noisey interviews the biographer of Joni Mitchell and makes the point that she is peerless.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait reports on the naming of the features of the surface of Ceres.
• D-Brief notes that small-scale robotic manufacturing is now a thing.
• The Dragon’s Gaze reports on a new study of exoplanets and their stars.
• The Dragon’s Tales has a nice round-up of news on hominin research and primates generally.
• Hornet Stories notes that there is apparently a debate about women as drag queens. I don’t see why they should not, frankly.
• Joe. My. God links to a Rolling Stone article celebrating Erotica and Sex, by Madonna, on their 25th anniversary.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the way Dollar General caters to a permanent underclass. Like Dollarama in Canada?
• Language Hat notes that Xibe, related to Manchu, is receiving protection from China.
• The NYR Daily reports on the mass killings, approaching genocide, in Indonesia in 1965.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel reports on the proofs we have for the current age of the universe.