Can you believe that Madonna will be 60 in 7 years? Yesterday I was watching a performance of hers from some British awards program via 1995, and it dawned on me–it’s been 16 years, sixteen, 16, sixteen years since 1995. Then like a week or two ago I was watching a documentary on Keith Haring and I saw her perform for Keith’s birthday party. She was so young, barely famous–if even–and there she was working “Dress You Up” like she needed to pay the rent by midnight. It’s not necessarily important to some people that Madonna turns 53 today, but to people like me who in some ways see Madonna as a benchmark of life and youth, it becomes a reflection of how fast time has gone.

Madonna is like the spirit of New York, midwesterners who feel trapped and pop life from the ’80′s, ’90′s, ’00′s and now the ’10! 4 decades of a pop star who in my eyes is immortal; mainly because her aging is me aging, and me aging is me dying. So for the next couple of years I’m going to really take advantage of being able to live Madonna; hopefully a concert or two before Madge turns 60, before it becomes too grim to look into the face of what used to be Madonna, and now turns into a person who may be too old to get up and “Vogue” or perform “Like A Virgin”.  Before I realize all the cultural things I once appreciated turned 20, 30, 40, 50 years old.