Crazy for You: probably my all time favorite Madonna ballad. This song take me back to summers on the way to the pool, and that first line “swaying room as the music starts” immediately transports me to that part of my childhood. When I think of best first lines to Madonna songs, it’s up there

It’s amazing to me that kids will do anything and everything to look appealing to colleges—clubs sports volunteering running for class office start a business— except read a fucking book.

Funana: while only included on the international deluxe version of Madame X, I love this song. I think it’s one of the most fun she’s done recently and should have been a prioritized single. I think I’m going to go back to the beginning and cover some non album tracks and one offs such as this.

Up for a run, then off to run errands and then likely run right back to this bed for a mid morning snooze and then spend the day to finish one book so I can start another.

I Rise: I’m neither here nor there on this closing Madame X track. I remember it mostly due to it being the closing number on the tour during which she walked down my aisle and I was in the aisle seat so for me, I connect this with the time I was the closest I’ve ever been to her.

Nothing like crushing a middle schooler at pickleball to start the year!

Looking For Mercy: more catchy than it seems at first. She didn’t perform this on the tour for Madame X which is…interesting. There are a couple that I would have switched it with.

I have to adopt this lamp

I read a lot this year but don’t really document them. Off the top of my head some good choices include Angel Down by @danielkraus.com, TJ Klune’s The Bones Beneath my Skin, Disco Witches of Fire Island by Blair Fell, The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sarah Raasch, James by Percival Everett

I Don’t Search I Find: this Madame X track feels like it belongs more on Confessions or American Life. I like this song; it has hints of Rescue Me and Justify My Love, the beginning of her spoken word era

The wind woke me up so many times last night. The WIND. But since I was up, might as well take a piss since that’s also a thing now.

Literally this morning after the gym in a crop top tank. Now getting ready to walk the dogs. 30 degree temp drop. I hate winter.

Bitch I’m Loca: this is a fun song. You can never have too much Maluma.

There are far too many coffee joints in my little neighborhood and most are overrun by mommy groups. BUT if I had to say I’m loyal to one…I would rank them as follows: Mulberry Lame (lane but leaving the typo). This was opened likely to thin out the mommy herds as it has….

Also currently reading the 4th Dr Greta Helsing book and then added Futbolista to my TBR list. Thanks @oldtownbooks.bsky.social

Each morning after feeding and walking the dogs, they settle in for their early morning nap. The old one can snooze anywhere and is ok to do so on the floor. It is beneath the little one to do that. The amount of drama involved for her to get this spot…

Faz Gostoso: too lazy to translate this (and other songs on Madame X) but this is a catchy song.

I promised myself I would keep complex thinking to a bare minimum over the break from school so I can just eat pastries but HR and the recent passing of two very influential soccer coaches I trained under has got me thinkin ‘bout my teammates (not in that HR way)

I absolutely loved Disco Witches of Fire Island. And will likely reread it again soon but up next:

Extreme Occident: I don’t care for this song. It’s boring.

Come Alive: repetitive simple lyrics? Check. Another Madame X track that I don’t mind.

Steel Magnolias is sort of a Christmas movie (there’s a good chunk of story taking place during Christmas).

I love my little neighborhood because I can walk the dog and stop and chat with Jay as he opens his hardware store and the market across the street. Then I can hit up Gustave’s bakery for a latte and a muffin and chat with my old neighbor who moved a couple blocks over and then…

I really like Good Hang with Amy Poehler but normalizing Paula Pell face timing while driving (when her wife in the passenger seat could have just filmed her but didn’t) is not a good look.

Crazy: another solid and singable track from Madame X. Still…not many track that I’m crazy in love with (at least not on the album’s original line up)

Crave: I like this Madame X track. I wish she’d not included any featured performer. And that she would enunciate. Not a fan of the slur/mumble thing she’s doing.

Is. Bridget Jones’ Diary a Christmas movie? I think it is.

Killers Who are Partying: I’m torn on this track. I hate the verses but I like the chorus even though I don’t know the translation.

In my honors English 10, I asked how many read for fun. 3/27 raised their hands. In the other, 2/27. One girl asked if the bible counts. I asked if that’s the only thing she reads for fun and she said yes. Other than those 5, they sure as hell don’t read for class either.

Batuka: didn’t realize her son had a part in writing this. While I don’t necessarily love it, I thought the performance during the Madame X tour was actually a highlight for me

A little time to read on this final school day of 2025

Future: While a catchy track, the chorus is simple enough that it really gets inside your head. Quavo loses me though when chiming in as it sounds like all the mumble rap that seems to be popular with the youth. Nothing distinctive. Madame X:

God Control: I love this song and the video is one of her best. The inclusion of the Stoneman Douglas survivor in one version—maybe the video?—hits home for many of us in education obviously but also clearly one we can all relate to as Americans.

It’s not the weekend before holiday break at my school if I don’t get called faggot for asking a group of girls to go to class instead of wandering the halls

Oh this took a turn into human trafficking. Didn’t expect that.

Dark Ballet: I will never pretend to know what this album is supposed to be or be about. This track reminds me that Madonna is gonna Madonna and sometimes you just gotta go with it.

Medellin: I have mixed feelings about Madame X overall but I did enjoy this first single. But I think it was a clear indication that this was not an album to lure back any old American fans that had likely dropped off since Confessions.

Rebel Heart: I love this song. I think it’s one my favorites she’s ever done. Next up:

Messiah: I don’t hate this penultimate track from Rebel Heart but it reminds me so much of Like a Prayer’s Pray For Spanish Eyes which I prefer much more.

Unofficial school library poll—tbh I thought Stranger Things would be the more popular choice

I’m about half way through this book and despite the multiple narrators, they are all written the same . I’m only finishing to find out which one is dead. Not one likable bitch in the bunch.

S.E.X.: this song is so terrible. It’s just rehashing things she’s already covered on a better album. I can’t even make through a relisten just to say I gave this one a fair evaluation. I hate it. I have nothing against her singing about her sexuality as an older women. It’s. Just. So. Bad.

Veni Vidi Vici: I like the incorporation of previous hit titles into the lyrics but the chorus sucks. I don’t think she needs songs like this to justify what she has accomplished. As she told Dick Clark in 1984 she wanted to do, she conquered the world. She doesn’t need to convince us that she did

Best Night: is anyone brave enough in her circle to just say you know what…this song kinda sucks. Maybe don’t put this on the album? Did she owe people or something? And like a previous track, the best part is the throwback to an older better song (Justify My Love)

Wash All Over Me: sigh…boring. I wonder if I’d appreciate it more on a much shorter album?

Inside Out: I kind of don’t mind this track from Rebel Heart but the verses are not enough to get me to seek it out. I like the chorus though. It’s just right in the middle of this mire of a segment on RH. Me trying to get my interest to the end:

Oh. What. Fun. …is not.

The awkward phase of growing your hair sucks, and I actually prefer short hair…but my students want me to grow it out. This pic was 2020. The stylist who normally cuts my hair just kinda up and left and I don’t know what to do!!!

Holy Water: the only redeeming aspect of this song is the Vogue reference.

First weather delay of the school year, yet I have been up since 4:15 because my old dog whined and I thought he needed an emergency poop. He did not and now here we are awake