And people make fun of Keith Richards

Which windbag was it who made a snarky reference to Madonna at the convention the other night? News flash for politically minded 60-year-olds: 50-year-old Madonna stopped being a hip pop-culture reference about three days after she felt up Garth on SNL.

Yes you heard right: Madonna is 50. I recently heard a critic on the radio reviewing her new album. He said it represented her "fight to stay relevant." My friends! We can win this fight!

I remember the first time I saw her. It was 1984, the "Borderline" video. Saw it sitting in Eddie Hardina’s living room. He was one of the lucky few who had cable television, and thus MTV. I suppose for a while she really did represent something fresh. For 16-year-old boys she represented exposed underthings, which was a novelty in 1984. Seems so long ago, doesn't it?

I lost interest in her virtually the moment that video fell out of MTV's rotation, but Wikipedia assures me she continued to post hits well into the late 1990s. On her new album she sings "my sugar is raw" over and over, in the song "Candy Shop." Did I mention she’s 50? We have some guys who play ball at St. John's whose mom's aren't yet 50. Anyway, on most of her new songs the lyrics are barely intelligible, her voice is buried so far down in the mix it could be anyone's. An album like this is really the work of a producer more than a singer.

On a related note, Matt Thurber recently emailed me to say that for the first time he didn't recognize a single song in the iTunes music store’s "Ten Most Popular" list. I looked and neither did I, so what do I know?

I know this: Hoops at St. John’s tomorrow at 8:00 a.m., as usual. Please let me know if you will or will not be playing.