David Bowie R.I.P

My boss didn't give me permission to play "Under the God."

Gabrels would probably take that as a compliment (xpost)

Still dealing with a lot of things here today. A friend just shared this on FB:

On national Belgian Radio 1 they had a phone call with Ivo Van Hove, the director of the Lazarus play.

Jan: You probably saw this day coming ?
Ivo: (hesitating) yes, he told me over a year and 3-4 months ago, after we had been working for a few months on the musical Lazarus.
And then he said in confidence that he was badly ill. That he should know this, if Bowie wouldn't show up he'd know why.
I didn't even tell my partner, who is also working on the musical.
I saw this day coming, but when I heard it this morning... Coincidentally I didn't sleep last night so, there must be something in the universe...

Jan: There was a big disbelief this morning when we heard the news. Our first thought was that it was a bad hoax, a very disgusting one.
One just can't believe this...
Ivo: No. You cant, I can of course because I have lived with it, meeting him multiple times, in that very difficult year in which he truly did not
want to die. He still has a very young child, a daughter aged 13,14. He truly is a family man, he is really somebody who likes to be at home.
Likes to watch television, knows all tv series, a true family man. And I have got to know him in that battle.
He really fought like a lion. He did NOT want to die. He made a new album, worked at the musical. I had an immense respect for him, but with tears in my eyes.

Jan: Did you get the chance in your conversations to talk about it, how he saw his death ?
Ivo: No, we didn't. Besides I really saw a man who didn't want to die and didn't want to talk about it. Anyway, Bowie has a reclusive lifestyle. Just his wife and daughter.
I have always respected that, I do think he liked that that I didn't try to get to know stuff about his private life.
When he talked about it, I let him and i never... I felt that he didn't want to talk about that. We did talk in great lenght
about other things, even those last days.

But I knew, the day of the premiere... We were on stage, receiving applause and in "De Volkskrant" (a Dutch paper) in the Netherlands we read that
he was standing there in good health with great energy. But we weren't even down the stairs of the stage and he collapsed. Together with Enda Walsh we have talked for about 15 minutes.
And then I knew, that evening, when he walked out of the door into his car that this would likely be the last time we'd see eachother.
And this turned out to be so.

Jan: Not just the musician, Bowie, but also the man who opened the world for lots of people. Like the emancipation of the entire holebi society.
ivo: indeed, as was the case for me from my local town. I knew aged 11 I was gay, I didn't make a secret about it but I didn't shout it out neither.
And of course, somebody like Bowie, wether he was or wasn't, I didn't ask that either, I don't think it matters. He did a lot... If somebdoy like Bowie
can on stage can make love with his guitarist, then we could do. You see ? A very important statement. Also, because of this past year, I dove into his music.
I was a longtime fan, but I dove into the lyrics, analyzed them. We also talked about them a lot, he was very open about them towards me.
His assistent who was present at the time even said he had never done that before with anyone.

You also feel that this all was a testament, he wanted to leave something behind. Something meaningful. And those songs are all very personal or, and that is
something I found out, about a society in which he didn't feel at home. So many songs are about being in space... Also, the title song lazarus.
If you just play one more song, make it that one, and hear the lyrics. I already knew their meaning but couldn't tell anyone, not even Michael C HAll.

Every sentence has a meaning, look up here I'm in heaven, look up here I'm in danger.
On earth... you see, I feel like a bluebird. See that's me, reincarnated you understand ?
Knowing that you're going to die, wanting to live, hoping that in some way you can stay here on earth.

His songs are full of that, on Blackstar.
That last line on blackstar says it all.
Alas I am not that good in rephrasing it exactly but
"I can't give it all away"

I still need to have some privacy, but I gave everything that I had...

Jan: Clear words indeed. Best of luck to you Ivo, since you still have a week to go with Lazarus.
For you and those around you, stay strong. Thank you.

Gabrels tried too hard to be the fly in the ointment; he was like a silly uncle singing Whitesnake at karaoke.

xpost

Alfred i said it elsewhere, but; I love that obit so much

Wow Alfred. Great piece. Thanks!

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/d6/90/b1/d690b18e0eeee6e632f5e005a4347b86.gif

Thanks for that, Ned.

You're welcome -- the original post:

http://www.threedimesdown.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=296102&sid=945cb9d29908caa3ac99ad8c96ed9063#p296102

I teared up for the first time today reading that excerpt.

like a zillion other people, DB was a big part of life for me, for so long, I thought he would just be around forever. I put Blackstar on the speakers Saturday afternoon and listened to it 3 times through. I imagined, man he's really got something here, maybe we'll get another one out of him yet, if the results are this good this time around.

I don't have much relevant to say that it's been a hard couple of weeks to lose my artistic heroes in one big swoop.

sfj's is a little odd

I remember watching this 'live by request' tv performance when it came out. He's such a charmer on this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnnY_Z9OtC0

Also, yes, good one Alfred!

lol wtf @sfj's

is that really the best the LA Times could do

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-david-bowie-heroes-appreciation-20160111-column.html

haha wtf indeed

uhhh

woof

I mean I'd probably passive aggressively dislike Bowie too if that happened to me, but I don't think I'd express that feeling in print on the news of his death!

would love to see his genius annotations for bowie songs though

I don't know what is in any of those trucks. Maybe nothing I need, maybe everything.

what was in them that I didn't have?

Well that's an interesting approach

my 4yo daughter's story about Bowie and the Spider from Mars is better than that sfj piece:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/princessparkle/6179715201/in/album-72157625628118184/

"was he high when he wrote that" seems like a cliched thing to ask but ... was he high when he wrote that

sfj's is ehhhhh. Hey. His opinion, ya know?

here are my dumb bowie feelings. i slowly got into a few albums, mostly the berlin trilogy, ten years ago. then i stopped listening. now he's dead and it's the reason i'm re-listening to station to station right now. it's incredible, way better than i remembered. it really sucks that he's dead. the end.

it's pretty weird how compelled people are to tell their bowie stories, like everyone's got one and it's always this indelible memory from their youth that (usually) isn't actually that interesting to other people, like the people i heard on the radio today (callers on local npr station) -- one caller was like "i used to sing 'the little drummer boy' with my cousin and that's why we love bowie" and another said "i listened to david bowie with my son, who is now 32" and her big claim to bowie expertise was having been raised in england. my own memories are precious to me, but utterly mundane and not really worth sharing. and yet i found myself contacting my old friend from 8th grade to reminisce about how we used to listen to her brother's records and jump on her bed. it's like bowie was always there being totally amazing even when we were super boring. that's part of his charm imo!! his excellence elevated reality in that way, at least he did for me.

i also admire his ability to remain a private person.

mattresslessness otm

i did a report on Mars when i was in 3rd grade and titled it "Is there life on mars?" and my mom introduced me to Bowie then

his excellence elevated reality otm

Lorde, on FB:

When a hero dies, everyone wants a quote. I woke up this morning with a tender head from tears and that big red cup of Japanese whiskey, gulped last night just after the news came. People were already asking me what I thought. It feels kind of garish to talk about oneself at a time like this, when the thing that has happened is so distinctly world-sized. But everything I’ve read or seen since the news has been deeply intrinsic in tone, almost selfish, like therapy. That’s who he was to all of us. He was a piece of bright pleated silk we could stretch out or fold up small inside ourselves when we needed to.

Mr. Bowie, I guess right now we have to hang this thing up for a minute.

The night I met him I played at an expensive Vogue benefit with a lot of fresh flowers, honouring Tilda. I was not quite seventeen, America was very new to me, and I was distinctly uneasy and distrustful toward everything happening in my life that was putting me in these flat-voiced, narrow-eyed, champagneish rooms. I played my three songs, thrashing and twitching in platform boots. Afterward, Anna clasped my hand and said “David wants to meet you,” and led me through people and round tables with candles and glasses and louder and louder talk, and he was there.

I've never met a hero of mine and liked it. It just sucks, the pressure is too huge, you can't enjoy it. David was different. I'll never forget the caressing of our hands as we spoke, or the light in his eyes. That night something changed in me - i felt a calmness grow, a sureness. I think in those brief moments, he heralded me into my next new life, an old rock and roll alien angel in a perfect grey suit. I realized everything I’d ever done, or would do from then on, would be done like maybe he was watching. I realized I was proud of my spiky strangeness because he had been proud of his. And I know I'm never going to stop learning dances, brand new dances.

It's not going to change, how we feel about him. For the rest of our lives, we'll always be crashing in that same car.

Thankyou, David Bowie.

That Lazarus play director also revealed, on Dutch radio this time, but he plobably shouldn't have, that it was liver cancer btw (article in Dutch).

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/35902/David-Bowie/article/detail/2580998/2016/01/12/Regisseur-Ivo-Van-Hove-Bowie-had-leverkanker.dhtml

The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)
Posted: January 11, 2016 at 6:02:51 PM
I teared up for the first time today reading that excerpt.

Me too

It should not be so jarring that a guy with cancer does not want to die but I can't take reading it

aw lorde <3

Celebrate! New mix from Stirmonsterrrrr https://www.mixcloud.com/JD_Twitch/strung-out-on-lasers-and-slash-back-blazers-bowie-mix-by-jd-twitch/

So many older misfits on the soc media showing deep love for this man at the moment. It's special. Gotta love the Interwebs at a time like this.

To discuss his film performances for a moment: rather good as Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ, a magnificent camera object in The Man Who Fell to Earth, dotty in the best sense in The Prestige, and believably ravaged in The Hunger. My best friend and I watched The Linguini Incident in early '94; the Blockbuster employee actually snickered.

With Rosanna Arquette?

yes

and Marlee Matlin

awkwardly southern in FWWM

AHHH'VE SEEN SOMETHIN

oh -- excellent as David Bowie in a Japanese internment camp in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.

i feel like a goober for blarping my boring bowie memories on fb this morning but I was so sad and stuck at work & i didnt know what else to do

i love reading about interactions people had with him. he seems to have had the same warmth about him that i heard mccartney has, putting people at ease & being ok with everyone turning to jelly in their presence & patiently, sublty diffusing the weirdness. and i like hearing how funny he was.

also he is one of the few men i've stayed in love with my entire life, like i never really went off him, i just found new ways to think he was great. i mean music & writing & performing he's the bees knees obv but then fashion! all those iconic, incredibly artful looks, plus just his bloody walking-around clothes he was always so put together & interesting...

i already hate using the past tense

Bowie in FWWM is wrong in the best sense. Almost out-Lynches Lynch for weirdness. And the extended stuff they released a couple of years ago makes it even more 0_O

I like his cameo in Into the Night. Rewatching it now he reminds me of Ricky Gervaise.

Townshend:

Woke up to the awful news that my lovely friend David Bowie passed away. I am so deeply sad, but he just completed a radical and audacious new album, and that is a great thing. Personally I am grateful to him for doing it.

For those who were his fans he was a charismatic and exotic creature and still gloriously beautiful even as he approached 70. But face to face he was funny, clever, well-read, excited by the arts, and really good company.

In a Japanese restaurant we once ate tiny live crabs sent over to our table by a businessman fan. David said we must try, out of courtesy. I wouldn’t have done it with anyone else on the planet. Delicious, of course.

He was simply a joy to be around, so good at making everyone feel at ease. I’m sorry to hear it was cancer that got him. I knew he had been ill for several years but didn’t know the details. My thoughts now go to his family and close ones, and to so many of his fans who will be beyond distraught today. We have lost a monumental figurehead of the British arts scene. We have also lost a wonderful clown whose combined sense of mischief and creativity delightedly touched our hearts. David Bowie was my Salvador Dali. He was also one facet of my perfect Ace Face.

Pete Townshend, 11 January 2016

;_;