Friday 17 December 2021
hunky dory
Wednesday 24 November 2021
he’s so simple-minded, can’t drive his module
Released on this day in 1972 as the lead single from Aladdin Sane and recorded with his backing band the Spiders from Mars, David Bowie’s composition was an inspired assortment of supposed American trappings with the song’s protagonist a reference to criminal vagabond and French existential playwright Jean Genet, beginning its development as an improvised jam session on a tour bus between Cleveland and Memphis. The title lyric became the namesake of the 1977 Glasgow band Simple Minds. He bites on the neon and sleeps in the capsule. Loves to be loved.
Wednesday 29 September 2021
7x7
kรกdรกr cube: a practical, mass-produced boxy house (Magyar รpรญtลmลฑvรฉszet) from Communist-era Hungary is staging a comeback
the new english canaan: revisiting the banned publication that mocked American’s puritanical ways—see also
you’ve got a habit of leaving: the first single from the unreleased David Bowie album, coming in January
merfolk and melusine: tritons and mermaids entertained by enlightened minds
facebookland: the social media giant ought to be treated like the autocratic rogue state it is—via Waxy
roll over beethoven: a team of musicologists using artificial intelligence complete the composer’s unfinished tenth symphony—to premier in Bonn next month, via Kottke
ะณะพััะธะฝัะน ะดะฒะพั: a rotating arch for a shopping arcade in St. Petersburg—via Pasa Bon!
Wednesday 1 September 2021
hey mister dj
Via Waxy, we are directed to this preternatural, surreal algorithm that rather expertly, uncannily will make a mashup of any number of songs from a group-watch streaming service, RaveDJ generating a set-list in the spirit of our friends at Hood Internet are presumably doing the old-fashioned way. It really shows its surprising competency with mixes like Gangnam Style crossed with MC Hammer’s Can’t Touch This or The Eurhythmics’ Sweet Dreams and Seven Nation Army from White Stripes. Browse the submissions or create your own and share. Always of the opinion that lamentful number from My Fair Lady and David Bowie’s song about getting to the church on time flowed into each other and had complementary energy so I gave it a whirl, our disc jockey creating “Why Modern a Love Be More Like a Man” but as the lengths seemed a little incompatible and needs a bit more refinement, please instead for now check out this preview of one of the mashups cited above to see its full virtuosity.
Monday 23 August 2021
i never did anything out of the blue
Coming in at number one of the UK charts on this day in 1980, David Bowie’s following-up on the narrative for Major Tom, a darker bookmarking of the intervening decade, is described as a nuanced retelling of a nursery rhyme with its attendant cautionary tale. Co-directed by Bowie and David Mallet (also collaborating on “Boys Keep Swinging,” “DJ,” and “Look Back in Anger” and Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays”), the music video, costing a quarter million pounds to produce, was the most expensive at the time and features the performer dressed as pantomime, commedia dell’arte stock character Pierrot, the sad, introspective clown.
Friday 20 August 2021
davy jones & the lower third
Released on this day in 1965, singer-songwriter David Bowie was billed for the final time under his birth name with the title band’s single “You’ve Got A Habit of Leaving” to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees (previously). The performer adopted the stage name after the romanticised version of nineteenth century American mercenary and pioneer James Bowie, famous for the eponymous style of combat knife.
Friday 6 August 2021
the nomi song
Born Klaus Sperber in Swรคbish Immenstadt in 1944, aspiring counter tenor who adopted the stage persona Klaus Nomi, worked as an usher in the opera houses of West Berlin, entertaining the crew during set breakdowns with arias and studied music yet was unable to secure a steady position and so switched to the confectionary business which later became somewhat of a trademark. Moving to New York City in 1973, Nomi received more professional training and took various gigs performing and developing his presence. His breakthrough moment came in 1979 when David Bowie engaged Nomi as a background singer during performances on Saturday Night Live as musical guest. Being discovered afforded more venues for his unique shows whose robotic demeanour and elaborate costuming both anticipating and reflected the stage presence of acts like Bowie’s and Peter Gabriel and reinterpreted songs like Marlene Dietrich’s “Falling in Love Again” and Chubby Checker’s “Twist” as well as classical, operatic numbers in an abstract, highly synthesised fashion. The black and white palette complemented by cubist clothes and hair-styles that referenced both the Bauhaus theatre movement, kabuki and the retro-future vision of the 1920s—particularly the film Metropolis. A decade after coming to New York, Nomi was diagnosed with AIDS and though growing sick and weak already embarked on a European tour and the talk show circuit, anticipating it would be his last, Nomi dying of complications of the disease on this day in 1983. One of the first figures from the arts community to publically die from the relatively then unknown illness, Nomi became posthumously the subject of many tributes and homages, acknowledging his stylistic influence.
Saturday 31 July 2021
you tacky thing, you put them on
Though perhaps too early to be think about one’s Halloween attire or even how Halloween will be observed in the coming three months (or perhaps not), one needs the lead time to get one’s order in for these quite stunning and custom-tailored, highly-specific one-off David Bowie cosplay outfits, via Dangerous Minds, which are of course acceptable for weddings and other special occasions and everyday wear as well. Wanda Cobar’s shop selling celebrity inspired costumes and dancewear also includes various iconic glam get-ups of Elton John and Freddie Mercury.
Tuesday 27 July 2021
we go undercover, wait out the sun
Rare and unseen, we are enjoying this preview of a retrospective exhibit of the portrait photographer Masayoshi Sukita going on display at Tokyo’s Blitz Gallery that includes a collection of previously uncirculated pictures of David Bowie, whom the artist first encountered in 1972 to see what all the fuss was about and remaining friends until the singer’s death in 2016. An iconic image (see also) with significantly more exposure, Sukita took the image that became the cover art for Bowie’s 1977 Heroes album. More at Wallpaper at the link up top.
Tuesday 6 July 2021
that weren’t no dj—that was hazy cosmic jive
Performing his new single Starman—his first charting hit since Space Oddity in 1969, David Bowie in the persona of Ziggy Stardust and band, the Spiders from Mars composed of Mick Ronson, Mick Woodmansey and Trevor Bolder, appeared on Top of the Pops on this day in 1972. Let all the children boogie.
Thursday 1 July 2021
8x8
banning: a 1967 forgotten film about a sordid tryst at a country club
remains of the day: six relics of once ubiquitous fast-food empires plain chachalaca: more badly named bird friends—see previously here and here, via Super Punchawestruck: short, initial pieces optimised for joy and wonder from NPR
gallery 88: an electronics line for kids from Sony—see also
dhead xlvi: a David Bowie painting (see previously) saved from a landfill fetches over one hundred thousand CA$
grand opening: a brief history of the ribbon-cutting ceremony
britbox: an interactive fiction project for a cult 70s television programme that dabbled in paganism and the paranormal—see also—which never existed
Tuesday 6 April 2021
call and response
Though most prevalent in contemporary artists as rap battles, diss tracks and as an extension of a feud between performers, via Weird Universe we are referred to the phenomena called answer songs with examples of more direct correspondence—especially in the 1950s and 1960s riding the coattails of more popular songs and sometimes replying with parody—particularly in Country & Western but with significant numbers including the 1938 revision of the Irving Berlin standard “God Bless America” countered with Woody Guthrie’s 1940 anthem “This Land is Your Land,” former bandmates Paul McCartney slight “Too Many People” answered with John Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?,” Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom [vรถllig losgelรถst]” to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”
Thursday 30 July 2020
tokyo pop
Outfitter to several iconic and unforgettable acts, furnishing the stagewear for the likes of Elton John and Lady Gaga, the recently departed fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto (*1944, see previously) is probably best known for the lavish outfits that informed David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust persona and their ongoing wardrobe collaboration which included this flared-leg jumpsuit. Yamamoto’s signature extravagant style was later classified as basara (ใใตใฉ) a way to describe something glam and larger-than-life.
Saturday 13 June 2020
bodice-ripping
In order to keep up with the pace of publication of pulp fiction paperbacks and special interest magazines cover artists and illustrators often turned formulaic, perhaps becoming generic and predictable.
Active from the mid-1950s through the late 1970s and under contract to Man’s Life and True Men Stories, no one embraced and mastered the model and method better than Wilbur (Wil) Hulsey (*1925 – †2015), we learn thanks to Miss Cellania, whose commissions almost invariably consisted of virile man (the gallery’s curator sees a resemblance to David Bowie) defending a distressed damsel (present or implied) from exotic animals, the protagonist himself sustaining bodily damage whilst trying to rebuff the attack. The subgenre of illustrated narrative that Hulsey propagated is sometimes referred to as “Weasels Ripped My Flesh”—though Cannibal Crabs or “Chewed to Bits by Giant Turtles” would do as well, albeit that none other are Frank Zappa song titles. See more cover art at the links above.
Sunday 24 May 2020
the elevator’s broke so he slides down a rope
Among other events of pith and moment that shares this anniversary, our faithful chronicler, Doctor Caligari’s Cabinet, records that on this day in 1974, David Bowie released his eighth studio album, Diamond Dogs, presaged by the single Rebel, Rebel, introducing his next glam persona after retiring Ziggy Stardust and donning the character of Halloween Jack (a real cool cat) who lives in post-apocalyptic, dystopian (Big Brother seguing into the final track, Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family) Hunger City.
Tuesday 17 September 2019
i took a trip on a gemini spaceship
Via the resplendent Everlasting Blรถrt, we are treated to a series of never before released photographs of David Bowie (*1947 – †2016) captured by Markus Klinko for his 2002 studio album Heathen, images inspired by the neoclassic, come-backs tracks. Klinko whom has since worked with a number of recording artists was engaged by Bowie after the photographer took the book jacket picture for the cover of Bowie’s wife’s autobiography, I am Iman. Learn more and discover a whole gallery of galley proofs at the links above.
Thursday 11 July 2019
for here am i sitting in a tin can
Though lyrically and stylistically informed by the previous year’s release of the Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey (previously), David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” (previously) had a delayed release—a version was recorded back in February—owing to an earlier split with his old record label and Bowie’s new artists and repertoire managing group decided to release the song on this day in 1969, just nine days ahead of the Apollo 11 mission, to capitalise on the publicity of that event. Due to the tone and the unresolved finish, the BBC network of stations refrained from playing the song until the crew of the lunar excursion were safely back on Earth.
Monday 27 August 2018
hazy cosmic jive
Via our peripatetic friend the Everlasting Blรถrt we are introduced to artist and entrepreneur Todd Alcott who creates rather clever, anachronistic pulp fiction/pop culture mash-ups in the form of book covers. With special attention to the generally lurid imagery and typeface, Alcott has employed these compositions to—among other things—encapsulate songs and albums of musicians who arguably were informed by the Midcentury Modern aesthetic themselves to create lovely librettos of David Bowie, The Talking Heads, New Order and others.
Sunday 24 June 2018
bowiebranchia
catagories: ๐ถ, ๐จ๐ค, networking and blogging
Monday 23 April 2018
1. outside
The ever excellent Everlasting Blรถrt introduces us to the painting, portraiture and storyboard work of David Bowie through a curated gallery that captures the artist’s soulful legacy, highlighting the influence of contemporaries (many of whom whose works he patronised and collected as well) and the German Expressionism movement that Bowie and Iggy Pop immersed themselves in when they moved to Berlin in 1976. Artwork includes sketches that are studies in cosmetic and costume development, album covers, stage directions for performances and a few panels for an unmade film adaptation of a story called “Hunger City.”