I see that I missed y’all last week. No particular reason, at first, I was just busy. But as I broke into the last week, a strong cold hit me like a tonne of bricks, then morphed into the flu. Today was my first properly upright day since Tuesday last. I’m gonna have to talk to the doc about this shizzle at my next physical (a couple of months 0ff). After a good couple of years, I’ve been running into a bad stretch of health, and I can’t figure why. Oh, well. Life goes on, until it doesn’t.
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Speaking of which, David Bowie. David Bowie.
David Bowie made a HUGE impression on me with his music, from early on. Certainly Space Oddity was my first impression of the dude, but thereafter he never, ever failed to impress me with his talent, his ability to rebuild himself and his art around new platforms, new audiences, new everything. I’d hear a song on the radio, scratch my head and think, “That sounds a bit like David Bowie, but he doesn’t do this style.” Yeah, well, now he does. I saw the Thin White Duke but once, at the Oakland Coliseum for a Day on the Green Event. September 17, 1983 (I can trust Wikipedia for that, right?) It was a stop on the Serious Moonlight tour (SRV wasn’t playing in the band, sadly), and it was a rockin’ night. Some nobodies opened the show in the late afternoon, The Tubes put on a stellar set, then Bowie and the band played for a couple of hours with a grand stage show. By then, I was about 40 feet away from the stacks on stage, left center. Amazingly loud.
David Bowie knew how to put on a show. He was a proper artist, musician, human being. We were blessed by his presence. If you haven’t yet, then get his last album, Blackstar. Yeah, he worked the last months of his life to give us one more album. Videos, too, you can find them on the Tube of You. Deeply excellent and moving work, as usual.
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In related news, Amanda Palmer and Jherek Bischoff were working on a track one long day a couple of weeks back when the news of Bowie’s death dropped. Blink. It’s two weeks later and those to amazing people along with other musicians and artists have put together, recorded, mixed, mastered, and released a Bowie string quartet tribute EP: Strung Out in Heaven. I’ve got the tracks because I support Amanda on Patreon, there are many paths to get the music beyond that one, follow the link. The Blackstar cover is right there. Six tracks, strings and vocals with Anna Calvi, John Cameron Mitchell, and some bloke named Neil Gaiman contributing vocals, along with a bunch of artists doing up track artwork backing up Sarah Beetson’s wonderful album cover. Also highly recommended!
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Our condolences to the families and friends of these fallen warriors:
- Sgt. Joseph F. Stifter, 30, of Glendale, California, died Jan. 28, at Al Asad Airbase, Al Anbar Province, Iraq, from wounds suffered when his armored HMMWV was involved in a roll-over accident.
- Blane D. Bussell, 60, of Virginia, died Jan. 26 in Manama, Bahrain, of non-combat related causes.
