when I was a kid --think, back in the silly '10s--, this was the Madonna I knew (and loved)

I had to pirate the Sims 2, of course, and from CDs no less! CDs with home-printed covers bought in dubious places. I also had a Confessions on the Dance Floor CD, replayed and scratched to its untimely demise. I think my favorite song was always Forbidden Love, which to this day might be one of my most played songs ever. I listened to it on my MP3 player, back home when I was 13, and I listened to it when I started running for real, a couple years ago, finding my routes through the Temple of Debod and down the Manzanares river. And I listen to it now, with the same unshaken love. This is the Madonna I know and love today:

Madonna also used to date Tupac Shakur, and tried to get him to impregnate her, for some reason.

She also dated Basquiat, and they shared hairstyles.

This is my gorgeous Like a Prayer vinyl, which I got in January during a post-holiday vintage market sale. On the front cover, Madonna's hands are hooked to her jeans, she's covered in crystal and beaded jewelry, and the title covers her belly button. I always thought both my aunt and my english teacher looked like her. My teacher, Joanna, died from cancer a year ago; I was shocked and also unmoved by the fact, feeling very far away from the part of my life she was a part of. When I was a kid, Madonna was my idea of beauty. She was, in many ways, like a deity to me.

going off to Porto tomorrow first thing in the morning, and thinking of you. 07.08.2025.