Pt 1 Goodbye to Bowie
One of the most influential artists of the 20th century lost a long battle with cancer in the wee hours of the night as Golden Globe parties were still going, a sobering end to a frivolous evening.
Though it's perhaps inappropriate given Bowie's towering iconicity in pop culture, I couldn't help thinking of Todd Haynes when I heard the news. More...
It was not just that he'd been spotted repeatedly last night at one of the key tables televised from the Beverly Hilton but that I often think of Haynes when Bowie's name comes up. Velvet Goldmine (1998) was the first Todd Haynes film that I actively awaited and obsessed over with immediacy. I had been blown away by 1995's [safe] in college -- who is this Todd Haynes person? He's fabulous! -- and backtracked to see his earlier work. Hayne's paean to 1970s glam rock was fictional but it was enormously caught up in love/fascination for David Bowie who served as a partial model for the central Brian Slade / Maxwell Daemon character (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) and also gifted the film with its title and its instructions "to be played at maximum volume".
Though you can hear Bowie's "bum bum bummmm" on one of the movie's key songs "Satellite of Love" he wasn't a fan of the project. At least he wasn't originally but there's reason to hope that that changed with time; Velvet Goldmine is far more well-loved now that when it first premiered which is par for the course for many off-mainstream auteurs.
Crowd Source Request: we're always on the lookout for great behind the scenes imagery from Velvet Goldmine. Because of the time period in which the movie premiered most of whats online is very low-res thumbnailish imagery. If you have good pics, share!
The world's ongoing David Bowie obsession peaked in the early 70s to mid 80s which was a little early for me to join in. By the time I was aware of everything and fully engaged with it, Madonna was redecorating the throne room of Key Cultural Chameleon of Our Time -- but my early memories of David Bowie do include a brief obsession with "Jazzin' for Blue Jean" on MTV in the mid 80s, and late 80s interested in The Hunger (1983) on VHS. In an off-brand moment -- considering I was surely part of the target audience being young and loving puppets & fantasy & musical numbers in movies -- I was never into Labyrinth (1986). But David Bowie transcended space and time and he kept popping up in different decades to reignite cultural respect for his longevity, influence and restless creativity.
This performance with Annie Lennox in 1992 is my personal touchstone David Bowie event and this video from February 2013 is the most exciting recent David Bowie event
because I lived through that (and obsessed on it thereafter for months) and because it's a neat encapsulation of Bowie's genderfuckery. He isn't doing anything genderqueer here, no, but his work was often ablaze with dissolved gender lines at least in its psyche, which is perhaps why Bowie felt even more vital and explosively charismatic when paired with iconic female stars: Annie Lennox, Iman (his wife, the Somalian supermodel), Tilda Swinton, Catherine Deneuve.
A genuine legend. A space oddity. A restless font of creativity.
Bowie had a hand and an eye (the blue one or the black one, you choose?) in everything: art cinema, mainstream films, music videos, fashion, iconic records. Dozens and dozens of hugely famous musicians have referenced his work but it goes far beyond sampling. You can see his DNA in so many artists including pop stars like Lady Gaga and Madonna, alien beings like Tilda Swinton, and filmmakers like Todd Haynes, Baz Luhrmann, and, more literally (since he's his actual son), Duncan Jones of Moon and Source Code fame. This is reach and immortality. Bowie the man is gone but Bowie the artist will forever remain a part of the world.
P.S. If you need more time to process (and who won't) another David Bowie post a bit later on his films.
P.P.S. While I was typing this Vanity Fair posted a piece on Todd Haynes talking about David Bowie - it is so challenging to keep up with corporate sites! -- so I shall now click over to read that.