{"id":7484,"date":"2012-09-26T00:36:05","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T07:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=7484"},"modified":"2012-09-27T17:12:53","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T00:12:53","slug":"madonna-cant-stop-shocking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/09\/madonna-cant-stop-shocking\/","title":{"rendered":"MADONNA CAN’T STOP SHOCKING"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"MADONNA CAN’T STOP SHOCKING<\/h1>\n

At 54, Madonna’s still got it: Breast baring in Turkey, mooning in Italy, and supporting gay rights and Pussy Riot in Russia<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

Whatever you think of her\u2014that is, if you think of her at all\u2014there can be no denying that Madonna\u2019s current MDNA<\/em> tour show is spectacular. Though short of Stones-Age, the 54-year-old icon is still long past her performing prime, yet remains Jagger-like in her ability to work a huge arena\/stadium stage for two hours, in her case with incredible solo and ensemble dance routines.<\/p>\n

Madonna being Madonna, of course, controversy has accompanied the concerts. Her support in Russia of gay rights and Pussy Riot, breast-baring in Turkey and mooning in Italy\u2014then doing both in France along with flashing a swastika on a video image of France’s National Front party leader Marine Le Pen\u2014made more headlines than the music.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In Israel she went so far as to point a rifle at the audience at the start of the show, then justified her lack of love with a peaceful plea: \u201cAll the conflicts that occur here and have been occurring for a thousand years, they have to stop. We all bleed the same color. No matter how many percentages of land we give back, no matter how many talks, no matter how many wars, if we don\u2019t treat every human being with dignity and respect, we will never have peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

True enough, but in New York earlier this month for two sell-outs at Yankee Stadium, she felt compelled to issue a sometimes poetic, often meandering \u201cmanifesto\u201d in trying to explain the shockingly graphic gun violence enacted at the start of the show to go with opening songs \u201cGirl Gone Wild,\u201d \u201cRevolver\u201d and \u201cGang Bang.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her show, she claimed, represents \u201cthe journey of a soul from darkness to light\u2026anger to love\u201d via spectacle and performance art. The gunplay? Merely symbolic, yielding to the \u201cinnate and pure love inside us all [that] we have to find a way to tap into.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever. She hoped viewers would leave feeling inspired to go out and make the world a better place. The Sept. 10 Yankee Stadium show, it must be said, did in fact end on an inspiring note, with \u201cLike A Prayer\u201d performed with a full gospel chorus.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"REN\u00c9E FLEMING SPEAKS<\/h1>\n

Diva reveals she’s had over 50 operatic roles during New York public TV anniversary celebration<\/h3>\n

Speaking of divas, Ren\u00e9e Fleming, speaking at a panel discussion last week celebrating New York public TV station WNET\u2019s 50th anniversary at the Paley Center for Media, tallied 54 different operatic roles in her career, attributing her and her fellow vocal greats\u2019 stardom to \u201c10 percent talent, 90 percent effort,\u201d as well as resilience, stamina, facial structure and accompanying \u201cresonance cavities.\u201d<\/p>\n

WNET\u2019s Great Performances At The Met<\/em>, by the way, is running The Metropolitan Opera\u2019s spectacular Robert Lepage production of Wagner\u2019s Ring Cycle<\/em>, featuring the extraordinary set made up of the 45-ton contraption of 24 planks that rotate independently in providing varying surfaces for the characters to perform in all sorts of poses\u2014as well as to screen objects and substances including stones, water and fire. Also showing is award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke’s \u201cmaking-of\u201d documentary Wagner’s Dream<\/em>; Froemke won a Grammy in 2001 for directing and producing Recording \u2018The Producers\u2019: A Musical Romp With Mel Brooks<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n

\"\"ZZ TOP LEARNS NEW TRICK<\/h1>\n

Texas trio becomes a foursome as rescue canine prances onstage<\/h3>\n

But here\u2019s some real news you can use: ZZ Top is now a quartet! That\u2019s right, that little ol\u2019 band from Texas became a foursome last week at New York\u2019s Beacon Theatre when new band dog GiZZmo came out at the end for the final encore \u201cTush,\u201d then romped merrily around original members Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard as they took their bows.<\/p>\n

Turns out the little guy is Beard\u2019s rescue dog and goes everywhere with the band. \u201cHe sits on top of one of the cases and starts quivering at the end of \u2018La Grange,\u2019 then howls all the way through \u2018Tush\u2019 until he runs out and prances around like a little horse,\u201d said Gibbons.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s Beacon show capped three days of intensive promotion in New York for new album La Futura<\/em>\u2014their first new studio set in nine years, and an excellent return to form. On Monday, the group did press and a concert for iHeart Radio; Tuesday brought more press, an in-store signing at J&R Music and a John Varvatos\/Chrysler\/GQ-sponsored party in Soho attended by Howard Stern. Wednesday came The Beacon, where the set also included the new album\u2019s \u201cI Gotsta Get Paid,\u201d but could have benefited from \u201cChartreuse\u201d\u2014if for no other reason than the title rhymes lyrically with \u201cbig caboose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"DOLLY PARTON
\nDOUBLES DOWN<\/h1>\n

Dolly Parton launches own line
\nof slot machines<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Not to deliberately close with an obvious segue, but Dolly Parton now has her own line of slot machines. Dolly Parton Video Slots<\/em>, along with the Two Doors Down<\/em> and Nine To Five<\/em> spinning reel games, come from computerized gaming equipment supplier IGT and feature, says the press release, \u201cinteractive juke-box-style song selections, big bonus action and front-row concert experiences all with Dolly cheering the player along.\u201d<\/div>\n

\u201cAs you know, I love doing lots of different things and this is the most different thing that I\u2019ve done so far,\u201d said Parton. Indeed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MADONNA CAN’T STOP SHOCKING At 54, Madonna’s still got it: Breast baring in Turkey, mooning in Italy, and supporting gay rights and Pussy Riot in Russia Whatever you think of her\u2014that is, if you think of her at all\u2014there can be no denying that Madonna\u2019s current MDNA tour show is spectacular. Though short of Stones-Age, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4976],"tags":[4986,4977,2744,4991,4983,4981,823,4979,4990,4993,4987,4978,4988,4984,4982,4992,4985,4980,4989],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7484"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7490,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484\/revisions\/7490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}