Tag Archives: David Bowie

Apr 5 2013

The Dead Girl Haunts the Internet

139400550937540863_ezbjq5yq_b I found another groovy website, and had to share.

Flavorwire is a place on the internet where all the cool kids hang out. The site has been around for awhile and has developed a real sense of personality and style. The intelligent writers are on-topic and have an insider’s sixth sense of what appeals to the alternative pop culture audience. I really like their “BOOKS” section with such offbeat topics as 15 Amazing Book-Filled Bars Where We’d Like to Drink and Famous People’s Awesome Literary Tattoos.

The author of many of these book-related gems is the delightful and imaginative Emily Temple. Her latest post deals with the very important subject of 10 Delicious Literary Beers to Drink While Reading . I am soooo tempted to special order The Little Prince Farmhouse Table Beer (Jester King Craft Brewery), if only to own that collectable label on the bottle, and I would like to taste the Hops of Wrath (Dust Bowl Brewing Company), because who wouldn’t want to find out what a beer that is “brewed, bottled and cursed” tastes like, right?

The Little Prince Beer Hops of Wrath

PLUS, Flavorwire has an entire Hot Topic Section dedicated to David Bowie. Gotta love that. The Bowie section reports on all kinds of news related to the Thin White Duke, such as Tom Hawking’s Exclusive: Download “Diamanthunde” From John Vanderslice’s ‘Diamond Dogs’ Covers Album and recent musings over which one of Bowie’s costumed characterizations was the least successful.

Flavorwire isn’t new, but it is one of the few websites that keeps getting better and better with age. Ch-ch-check it out.

Jan 9 2013

Walking the Dead Through Bowie’s Berlin

There is good news and there is bad news.

The good news is that today is January 8, 2013 and David Bowie is officially 66 years old today. He’s a little worn, a little rumpled, with a few extra pounds around his small frame – but he looks good. A new photo has been released, and he looks marvelous.David Bowie Rock royalty. An ancient musical god reclaiming his throne amid today’s throwaway pop ballads and wannabe hipster rants.

Now for the bad news – he dropped a new single and music video today titled “Where Are We Now”, and it is… well, it just is. The song just lays there in a puddle of German montages, while Bowie sings a travelogue highlighting Berlin’s most notable tourist attractions in a quavering, emotionless voice. But where is the real passion? I want the throaty banshee wail echoing off of crumbling communist headstones, but instead I get melodramatic puppy eyes, a sheep in sheep’s clothing with an instrumental that is barely memorable.

In the 1970’s, Bowie’s Berlin was the most magical of places. Low_(album) From this time period of soul searching and intrinsic career chrysalis, he kicked a cocaine habit while simultaneously recording the critically acclaimed album Low with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti. These three musical geniuses created an avant-garde sound so haunting, so transcendent, complete with made up languages, poetic instrumentals, and synthesized percussion that interweaves itself perfectly into the caverns of the hard, solemn, unforgiving German city. Within the mutated butterfly wings of Low, the city and the songs embrace and become one, opening windows into an Eastern European flavor that Bowie does not often revisit.

“Where Are We Now” is not a satisfying tribute to any of Low’s glory. It does not have the pain of “Warszawa”, the bite of “Always Crashing in the Same Car”. It feels like Bowie is gumming the song instead of tearing at it with his teeth –

But I digress. I am so glad that my beautiful Rock God is back in the spotlight. His new album, The Next Day, drops in March and there are rumors of a tour. Let’s hope that the rest of the album has more of an edge to it, and hold our breath in anticipation in case Iman (the QVC princess of faux leather handbags) allows him out of the house long enough to make some guest appearances on all the late night talk shows and maybe even SNL.

I’d just be happy with some more pictures.

Oct 27 2012

David Bowie Alive and Well (for now)

Everyone take a deep breath – David Bowie has been spotted walking down the streets of New York on October 18,2012.

He was not a hologram, or a ghost, or even a 4D version of himself. It was really him, the original Thin White Duke, looking reasonably healthy and unencumbered in a plain blue hoodie and beret.

There was no evidence that he was making an escape attempt from the clutches of that Home Shopping Network vixen Iman, nor did it appear that he was dragging a heart monitor or IV behind him. Looking well-nourished, but sporting a bit of an old man’s  chin wattle (this is one celebrity who does not beleive in plastic surgery or botox), Bowie still looks good.

Let’s face it – Ziggy Stardust was the one and only vampire who will ever be allowed to sparkle.

Glad to see him out and about. Just wish he would use some of those magic powers and give a new interview or travel the talk show circuit. A novel would be good, too. Bet he has a lot of great stories to tell – and I’m not talking autobiography, either.

May 23 2012

Where is David Bowie?

Where is David Bowie?

He’s vanished. The Thin White Duke’s 65th birthday was January 8, 2012, but there was no public party, no photographs, no nostalgia decorated with candles and frosting.

Unlike contemporaries Mick Jagger and Jimmy Page, Ziggy Stardust seems to have disappeared into a vast domestic void, ala John Lennon. Reliable news reports like Rolling Stone and the UK’s Daily Record allude to a former rock god who has now devoted himself, heart and soul, to the life of being a Dad and a husband. He is not out dancing, he is not out attending red carpet events, and he is not on the talk show circuit. He is just… missing.

I want my renegade back. Supposedly, there is a 12-city tour city scheduled the summer of 2012; with all activities and preparations sanctioned by doctors and heart specialists. Did you know that Bowie had a heart attack in 2004, and it has haunted him ever since? At age 57, our hero doubled over in agony and was diagnosed with heart problems. He has been awfully quiet ever since. His upcoming tour is brought to you by the best cardiac specialists money can buy….but is the world ready for Bowie’s newest incarnation of feeble monarch of the circadian rhythm? I don’t know.

Because Bowie is not a part of a group like similar rock gods as The Rolling Stones or The Who, he is not involved in the same financial group dynamics or bickering as those who are multi-invested in their own fame or royalty deals.  There is no simpering Axl Rose haunting the background of Bowie’s music awards. Being a singular phenomenon, Bowie is able to call the shots and remain the ultimate superstar in any grand touring production in which he participates. He can be as intimate or as obscure as he likes – but ultimately, his fans just want him to be visible.

Iman, little HSN Circe. You are a siren in the sea of muses – admit it. What have you done to the beloved one? You have reduced him to carpool, to painting pictures all afternoon and then picking up the spawn after school. It is unacceptable how you have tamed the musical demon. I would respect you, if only I wasn’t so annoyed that it was Bowie that you silenced.

65 years old and hidden… inaccessible… will the 2012 tour redeem you? Or will it be a puppet show, driven by ticket sales and merchandising rights? I mean, after all – no matter how much I adore your previous personas, nothing can excuse the concert sellout of the “Serious Moonlight Tour” and the absurd “Glass Spider Tour”.  I’m speaking from genuine truth – this is from a fan who had the poster of your “Elephant Man” Chicago run taped to the wall by my bed. I only want the best for you.

At least you have not fallen prey to the church of plastic surgery. Bowie still looks like Bowie, even with the heavy bags under his blue and brown eyes.

We miss you, David. You haven’t been onstage since 2006, and you’ve only done cameos on other people’s projects. Please come back to the world that worships and adores you.

David, Ziggy, Aladdin Sane. Where art thou?

“Oh, how I sighed, when they asked if I knew his name…”