Guilty Pleasure : Madonna, Holiday

What is it about pop culture that beckons me to worship at its altar and continually consume it’s cheesiest of offerings? For your classic-gold-pop cravings we have today that super awesome cant-get-it-out-of-my-head wonder that is Madonna’s Holiday. 

I can never tire of this song though. When I found this glorious music video, it went straight to loop playback. The routine is mesmerizing and Madonna gives it her all (for the 1980s at least). The male backup dancer is her brother Christopher – they had a fallout a couple of years ago when he passed a few snide comments about her.

There is another version where they perform this beside a swimming pool – in fluorescent clothing!

I prefer the studio version as its easier to watch.  She isn’t a recent fitness-freak convert, she has always been as is evident from those toned, muscular arms and shoulders. 

We need a holidayyyy!!!! Watch and enjoy.  

And please excuse me as I head off to learn that entire routine. 

Figure out the direct URL to a Picasa Web Album image

Found at bottom right corner in Picasa image page

Usually at the bottom right corner of the Picasa Album page, you can find the following indirect references to the photo.
The 'Link' text will provide the address of the page that the photo can be located.
The 'Embed Image' has a lot of text that can be snipped away to identify a link of sorts. But this is a link to the Thumbnail of the image and not the original image. Playing around with the 'Select Size' dropdown box will also not help. I have two ways to figure out the link.

Method 1

Copy the text in the ‘Embed Image’ box. It should look like this

"<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/2hqWmHFEE8Q2fEXqXv_GkgfR6GF3IPNqiVc4B5OrcFc?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BFxrFx-lwQ4ofpXn_Y2MSLz4aYGNB_Bo-AgIReFTeO7XR3EEPGBDTlEqfRz_t-ujHGWJmlSKOmltP9u9UwiuDS90N-k_l1MEwTW9Nk7pvR8o9Pg4tJQp59_MyNIXTck73Q1HnbY2_bJ9/s144/test.jpg" height="26" width="144" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/116203292309171745238/LithiumRibbon?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKLo_7fcnqaorgE&feat=embedwebsite">Lithium Ribbon</a></td></tr></table>"

Only the text in red is relevant to us. Copy it out into your text editor.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BFxrFx-lwQ4ofpXn_Y2MSLz4aYGNB_Bo-AgIReFTeO7XR3EEPGBDTlEqfRz_t-ujHGWJmlSKOmltP9u9UwiuDS90N-k_l1MEwTW9Nk7pvR8o9Pg4tJQp59_MyNIXTck73Q1HnbY2_bJ9/s144/test.jpg

You may want to test this link to see what turns up. What you will find is a Thumbnail of your image. Let’s edit this link a bit more. 
Replace the ‘s144’ in this text with the original width of your image. My image was designed to be 1100 pix wide by 200 pix high. For my direct link, I will replace ‘s144’ with ‘s1100’. Now my text is

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BFxrFx-lwQ4ofpXn_Y2MSLz4aYGNB_Bo-AgIReFTeO7XR3EEPGBDTlEqfRz_t-ujHGWJmlSKOmltP9u9UwiuDS90N-k_l1MEwTW9Nk7pvR8o9Pg4tJQp59_MyNIXTck73Q1HnbY2_bJ9/s1100/test.jpg

This will generate a scaled up (original) image when called. Test your link to check that the picture size is correct. This is the direct link to the image.

Method 2

This is a little more round-about. Get into the Blogger Post Editor and insert the image from the Picasa Web Album.

Inserting image in Blogger Post Editor

Get into the 'Edit HTML' Tab.

Copy URL from 'Edit HTML' Tab

Copy the link generated. In this case it is

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BFxrFx-lwQ4ofpXn_Y2MSLz4aYGNB_Bo-AgIReFTeO7XR3EEPGBDTlEqfRz_t-ujHGWJmlSKOmltP9u9UwiuDS90N-k_l1MEwTW9Nk7pvR8o9Pg4tJQp59_MyNIXTck73Q1HnbY2_bJ9/s1600/test.jpg

So there you have two, slightly complex solutions for a direct URL to your Picasa image.