The Madonna Bracket: Round 1

Here’s a fun new twist that brings Madonna back into the sports arena, a place she last visited in 2012’s epic Super Bowl performance. It’s a basic bracket (or so I think – to be completely honest there’s a good chance I don’t even know what a bracket is) which will go through some of her songs to see which picks my Twitter polls advance. This will be a decidedly unscientific and high subjective process, because this is my blog. If you want to do it perfectly, or differently, start your own website. 

For this first round, we are hitting up some of her earliest hits, with four challenges that are pitting classics against classics. Here is how it’s shaking out:

    

Those turned out in mostly expected ways (though ‘Like A Virgin‘ getting knocked out this early in the proceedings may cause some consternation). The next round went like this:

That one surprised me a bit – I thought ‘Holiday’ stood a better chance – it’s been performed on many more tours than ‘Borderline’ and has always struck me as a classic song. Maybe the voters on my Titter account are of the age where they remember that brilliant Mary Lambert-directed video (the original release of ‘Holiday’ had no video at all, which is appalling, but I digress…) On to other appalling items, and bigger surprises, as ‘Borderline’ was pitted against my beloved ‘Material Girl’ and made for a heartbreaking final round. 

Not to hate on ‘Borderline’, I just happen to like ‘Material Girl’ better, and it’s provided Madonna with an indelible nickname that has lasted four decades. And so it will be that ‘Borderline’ will advance to the semi-finals. The next bracket will be from the ‘True Blue’ period… so stay tuned… 

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Dazzler of the Day: Marcus Law

It’s been way more than a hot minute since we’ve featured a male model as a Dazzler of the Day, so let’s rectify that with this post on Marcus Law, an international model who has been impressing viewers with this scintillating Instagram account. Law has worked wonders with the amazing proprietor of Snooty Fox Images, and his modeling success can be attributed to what you see below. 

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Roses Not For Valentine’s Day

Putting Miley Cyrus and her empowering ‘Flowers’ song aside for the moment, these roses were a gift to my husband for a good deed he recently did. It’s always risky buying flowers in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, and we certainly don’t exchange roses on that jacked-up floral holiday, but Whole Market finally had a deal that I could use with my Amazon Prime membership which had two dozen boffo-big roses on sale for $34.99. That’s a steal on an average day in June when roses are tumbling off the trellises. Finding them a few days prior to the day of love was a moment ripe for the picking, or purchasing. 

A vase of flowers does wonders for the soul, and I always forget that until a few weeks pass without them. They are a luxury item in the winter, but some luxuries are worth the cost, especially if they result in such joy. 

(And as Miley proclaims, it’s absolutely fine to buy yourself flowers, which is what I usually do. These just happen to be for Andy.)

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A Look Back, Out of Sheer Exhaustion

“This has been a day,” I said to myself, and anyone who would listen.

Three days into the work-week, I found myself saying it three days in a row.

“This has been a week,” became the new mantra.

And breaking the hump of the week has broken my spirit a little bit, which is precisely when I stopped in my steps and took stock of the moment. The day had turned sunny and warm – warmer than I can remember it being at any point this year – a very happy sign, a sign we are on the right track, and that little dose of sunlight carried me over the Wednesday hump. 

When out of energy or time, as I found myself when trying to write this post, the easy way out is to look back – and so it is that I dug out this old photo, and a few old posts that follow. Enjoy the pause, enjoy the shift in weather, enjoy the possibility of spring on the wind.

The narcissist

Making a rope of words, a beautiful rope of words.

Getting into David Beckham’s underwear.

Naked sprawl.

The room of the bed.

Ten years ago in Boston.

A 21st Century Renaissance Man.

A beautiful killer.

A cozy night with the twins, a decade ago.

Sooner or later I always get my man.

One of my favorite books.

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Dazzler of the Day: Salma Hayek

Early on during the run of ‘Ugly Betty’ Salma Hayek gave an indelible performance that has stuck with me all these years. She was doing double duty as an executive producer throughout the show’s charming life, and since then she’s given one spellbinding performance after another, including her latest turn in the third ‘Magic Mike‘ film. (See also Channing Tatum, Channing Tatum naked, and Matt Bomer nude.) Going back to Ms. Hayek, she easily earns this Dazzler of the Day for a career of stunning portrayals on camera, and a multitude of producer credits behind the lens. 

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Mundane Midday

The mundane moments of midday in downtown Albany may not look like much to the casual observer. Having been that casual observer on many a day, I understand that I don’t always notice the subtle beauty of what is around me, not when my mind is distracted by work issues or other worries, not when I forget to be mindful and present as I’m rushing to make a bank deposit or grab a cup of coffee. 

On those days that I do pause and remember to pay attention, the city reveals pockets of beauty that aren’t striking or obvious. They’re in the lines of faded buildings and closed restaurants, in the cracks of sidewalks and the mottled unevenness of parking lots. I find beauty in the random chair placed against a building, in the way it makes me wonder how it came to be there, and imagine who might have used it for rest or respite. 

Maybe beauty, however we find it, is simply meant to make us a little more thoughtful, a little more careful of how we see the world, and of how we see others in the world. 

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Acoustic Love

A closing reprise for Valentine’s Day finds us all a little bit, or a lot, older. 

The years pass, and with them twenty-three Valentine’s Days so far… and counting. 

There is more in that than can ever be said, more in those years and days than can ever be expressed or conveyed – not in a blog or a book, not in a whispered bedroom conversation or an exquisitely-rendered work of art. How wonderful it should be so – how wonderful that love can not be confined or bound to those worldly things. How wonderful that love can be so elusive and slippery, and at the same time so sustaining and stalwart. How wonderful love can be…

The beating of my heart is a drum and it’s lostAnd it’s looking for a rhythm like youYou can take the darkness from the pit of the nightAnd turn into a beacon burning endlessly brightI’ve gotta follow it ’cause everything I knowWell, it’s nothing ’til I give it to you.
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Dazzler of the Day: Harper Watters

My friend JoAnn sent me a few clips of Harper Watters and recommended that he be the next Dazzler of the Day, and after visiting his exquisite website, I couldn’t agree more. Best of all, the write-up is already done, taken from the aforementioned website that you simply must visit to witness all this wonder and more:

Harper Watters has a passion for being bold and unapologetically himself, as evidenced not only in his onstage dancing as a Soloist for the Houston Ballet but in his viral heel treadmill videos. He’s accumulated over 138 thousand followers with his Instagram and created the YouTube web series The Pre Show, which documents the behind-the-scenes stage life of professional dancers.

Harper’s videos have been featured on Elle Magazine, Marie Clare, and Urban Outfitters. His social media presence has allowed him to work with photographers Mike Ruiz, Gerardo Vizmanos, and Ryan Pfluger for The New Yorker. He’s been featured in the pages of Risk, Dance Magazine, and on the cover of Dance Spirit. He’s worked with leading choreographers including Tony Award winner Christopher Wheeldon and has performed on international stages in Guatemala, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, and in numerous US cities.

He’s proud to standout and collaborates with people, brands, and artists who aren’t afraid to either. 

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Hearts of Cheese

Ahh, St. Valentine’s Day. You cheesy-as-fuck fake-holiday that puts so many in a tizzy every year… with your thirty-dollar chocolate boxes, fifty-dollar roses and multiple-hundred-dollar bottles of cologne – the things you make us do to show our love to our beloved – it’s a feat that someone hasn’t turned Cupid’s bloody arrow back on you and all this nonsense. 

Andy and I long ago agreed that this ‘holiday’ wasn’t worth the hassle and craziness of a dinner out, and for several years early on in our relationship it always seemed to snow wildly on this date anyway. Once you get into the habit of staying in, it’s a hard habit to break, and for this day of love, why would we want to? 

But before this takes a bitter turn into an anti-V-Day crusade, I’m going to throw out a peace-offering to all those who love what this day has come to embody – all the cheesiness and over-the-top bombast of celebrating love, Love, LOVE! – because I remember what I thought it meant when I was a little kid handing out Valentines to my classmates. Let’s consult with the sages of Air Supply for what this day really means:

So much of my early life was informed by the power ballads of the 80’s, and that might have given me a slightly-skewed view of what love was – it felt wondrous and unattainable, dizzying and grand – and somehow I felt that songs like this only touched at the real glory of love. I couldn’t wait to try it out for myself, and I wanted all the drama and heightened emotion of a song like this. Little did I know how traumatic that could truly get, and how insanely silly, and how absolutely soul-enriching

And if that’s not dramatic enough for you, here’s Bonnie Tyler doing what Bonnie Tyler does best.

And so we have arrived at another Valentine’s Day – make love out of nothing at all, or make of it whatever you want. Happy V-Day to all the friends, and all the lovers! 

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Dazzler of the Day: Ricky Martin

It’s been almost a quarter of the century since Ricky Martin unleashed ‘Livin’ La Vida Lola’ upon the world, and while he’d already forged a sizable entertainment career prior to that, it was the self-titled 1999 album that shot him to pop culture superstardom. Since then, it’s been a wild and sexy ride of sorts, with acting gigs and Broadway ventures and singles and albums. Last year looked rocky for him, but he seems to have come out of it vindicated. For enduring in the sometimes-soul-crushing business that is show, he earns this Dazzler of the Day

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A Treacherous Monday Recap

Mondays always carry the risk embodied by the featured photo here – there is danger lurking just ahead, no matter how unlikely it may be. And so we enter another week in winter, but this is one with a little bit of hope, a distant light of spring at the end of its proverbial tunnel. Let’s put the past week officially to bed with a recap, then charge ahead. 

Gearing up for our 20th anniversary of ALANILAGAN.com, I put the kettle on the burner

Meditation on a rose

Tale of a Target tweet.

The brightest of mocktails to stave off the winter. 

Don’t fuck with Madonna on my time.

A Troye Sivan appreciation post

This lion never sleeps.

The perfection of the imperfection

Tibet by way of Cambridge

Finding mindfulness in a dish rag.

The ducking truth.

Signs of hope first in the house

Jaxon Layne and Lolo.

Of football, jockstraps and Tom Brady.

Dazzlers of the Day included Nick Offerman and Brandi Carlile.

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Of Football, Jockstraps & Tom Brady

He’s nowhere near the big event this year, but Tom Brady decided to garner all the attention (at least from certain websites such as this one) by posting a selfie of himself in his own underwear line. Well-played, sir, well-played. Rob Gronkowski, himself no stranger to underwear shots and other naked shenanigans, called Brady out and lamented he didn’t do it quite right by hiding the package. The Gronk would know, and that’s not something you usually hear. (No offense to Mr. Gronkowski.) 

The last time I was really into the Super Bowl was in 2012, over a decade ago, when Madonna triumphantly headlined the half-time show and showed the world how it was done. Adam Levine made a shirtless play for our affections recently, and Beyoncé worked that stadium like gorgeous thunder, but I’m still partial to Madonna’s old-school theatrics. 

As for this year, I have no idea who is even playing or what Dazzlers of the Day might strut their stuff on the field, and I’m not even all that excited to see Rihanna, but I’m happy to see others enjoy this day. Besides, it’s a chance to look back at all the ball-happy posts we’ve done in service of bowls super and otherwise over the years, as seen in the following links:

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Jaxon Layne & Lolo

These days my Dad isn’t always engaged or aware of everything around him, but every once in a while we get him to perk up, and then we get to see the glimmer of the man he used to be. My newest nephew Jaxon usually gets Dad to smile and pay attention, and he seems equally enthralled by the old man in front of him, making it a happy connection for both. 

Over ninety years of age separates these two guys, but they seem to have a bond that cuts those years away – the heartwarming connection between grandfather and grandson. 

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Signs of Hope in the House

Even before the first shift in birdsong that I noticed this weekend, the houseplants were telling us the road to spring was just ahead. The mirrored re-flowering of the Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter cactus happened a couple of weeks ago, meaning that there was similar light to the late fall when it last bloomed. Then there was a burst of flowers from an orchid (which is too spectacular to share outside of its own featured post to come) and a new batch of leaves on the Audrey ficus.

A new crop of bright chartreuse leaves on the traditional weeping fig also signaled that spring was on the way. Their young forms are thin and delicate, with a dewy shine that stiffens and ripens into the deeper mottled form that the rest of the leaves eventually grow to carry. I love this contrast now, and I love that we are almost halfway through the last full month of winter. Hang on like these little leaves – the journey is just beginning…

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The Ducking Truth

Never in my life have I needed to text the word ‘ducking’ to anyone, yet it’s all my phone thinks I want to write.

Duck all of this. And duck you too. 

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