Bowie’s webby acceptance speech
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events
Bowie won a webby, that part I’ve already posted on here. However, for some bizarre reason, winners are only allowed to say five words. Here was Bowie’s:
“I only get five words?”,”S***, that was five. Four more there. That’s three,” “Two,” and then exiting.
Can’t see how you can get much better than that with only “five” words!
Tags: david bowie, Events, webby
American Fantasy Idol?
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events
Marc Hirsh of MSNBC had a fantasy idol competition. The contestants were:
- 12th place: Sting
- 11th place: Marvin Gaye
- 10th place: Stevie Nicks
- Ninth place: Johnny Cash
- Eighth place: Chrissie Hynde
- Seventh place: Courtney Love
- Sixth place: John Lennon
- Fifth place: Mama Cass Elliott
- Fourth place: Whitney Houston
- Third place: Stevie Wonder
- Final two: Aretha Franklin and David Bowie
- Winner: David Bowie
Now, being a Bowie fan, I’d like to think my years of suffering at the hands of all the testosterone driven music freaks who thought Motley Crue was good music has finally paid off. However, I think this is somewhat biased. John Lennon would have sung sweeter, Stevie Wonder would how wowed them. Aretha Franklin would have just knocked them completely off their feet.
Simon Cowell would have kicked Bowie off the show because of his hair, crooked teeth, mis-matched eyes, weird clothes, and limited vocal range. Bowie’s talent would never have been an issue.
( Courtney Love would never have beaten anyone on the list. )
Tags: American-Idol, Aretha-Franklin, Chrissie-Hynde, Courtney-Love, david bowie, Events, Fantasy, fantasy-idol, John-Lennon, Johnny-Cash, Mama-Cass-Elliott, Marc-Hirsh, Marvin-Gaye, simon-cowell, Stevie-Nicks, Sting, Whitney-Houston
David, Lou, and Bono hang out at Syracuse University
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events
Oh man, this is an unreal meeting.
Lou Reed was honored with the George Arents Pioneer Medal For Excellence In The Arts by his alma mater, Syracuse University. Besides Bowie, Bono was there as well to honor Lou. Now, I think I would have actually gotten pretty nervous if I had been given the chance to squeeze in the middle of a pic with Lou Reed, Bono, AND David Bowie. One on one would be super-cool, all three at the same time near mind-blowing for me. These guys didn’t just play music, they defined my entire generation for me. If you were way out there, you were a Lou Reed fan walking on the wild side. If you were into exploring alternative sounds and weren’t intimidated by distractions such as sexuality or hipness, you were into David Bowie. If you wanted to impress the babes and hopefully score, you were into U2. The rest of the stuff was pretty safe depending on which trend you bought into. By being into Reed/Bowie/Bono combined, you pretty much told the world you were into intellectual qualities of music such as the lyrics. These guys didn’t write rap and hip hop, they wrote stories, sagas, tragedies, and ethical odes that meant something.
So, why do you suppose a rocker like Lou Reed would be honored by Syracuse University? That’s where he got his degree. Honorary anyway, in English. Reed credited his musical writing style to a professor he had at Syracuse, Delmore Schwartz. Reed described it as “to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music,”. In other words, to tell a story. Intelligently.
No one even tries any more. And, the three best at doing that were all there in the same room at the same time. Lou’s last real hit was over 30 years ago and people are still honoring him. I wonder how many hitmakers of 2007 will be remembered in 2037?
Tags: award, bono, david bowie, Events, george-arents, Lou-Reed, syracuse
Bowie gets a webby
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events
Bowie was honored by the Webby Awards by receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. In my opinion, this is LONG overdue. Very early on Bowie was using the internet in developing very unique interactive applications such as mashing song, adding lyrics, remixing songs, submitting art, selling tickets, buying music and stuff, the whole works plus some. Now, it’s sort of a given that bands will do some of this stuff. He should have gotten the first Webby Lifetime Award. But, this one will do for me. Very cool, just a little late.
Tags: david bowie, Events, webby-award
Peace On Earth
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events
Growing up in rural Kentucky in the late 70’s and early 80’s, listening to David Bowie wasn’t considered cool by almost anyone’s standards. Those friends that did think I was cool for challenging the social norms by listening to an androgynous asexual most of rural US wished was from Mars were usually the kind of people you really didn’t want thinking you were cool. Those that did listen to Bowie with me in those days did so with the doors closed and the headphones on. They did it often, but no one was allowed to know. If someone did suspect, it was vehemently denied. If the chatter got too much, the closed-door headphone sessions ended and we played southern rock to assure everyone we were not “that way”. Times were rough then.
I grew out of that phase ( basically everyone else adjusted ). Times passed by and I wanted a family. After several years of futility, I decided to consult with “experts”. I was told quite frankly I would most likely never have kids. I won’t bore you all with the extinuating circumstances. But, I pretty much gave up on the idea and went back to sinning and lusting and having all kinds of fun with rather reckless abandon.
So, I think it should be obvious why this rather crappy video I shot with a cell phone means so much to me:
Cruising the streets of my home town, listening to my all-time favorite performer who I used to be ostracized for listening to being broadcast for all to hear at Christmas, with the son I was told I’d never have.
Pretty damn cool.
For those that don’t remember, here’s a much better sounding version:
Tags: Events
Kick out the jams, kick out your mother, now kick out the landmines
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events
Bowie was kicking things in 1967. Now, he’s kicking a little different.
Bowie’s got another new gig. He’s apparently turning into a rather busy philanthropist. No sooner than declaring he’s African, he’s now giving away his clothes. Literally. Well, boots anyway. This could be big. Bowie has had some pretty nifty shoes along the way. Right off the bat, I’m thinking:
I really liked those boots. They were kinda flashy, but not overkill. And, they looked really, really, comfortable. I’m basically a fashion slob, I prefer comfort to looks any day. I could see these boots bringing some good money.
Now, these boots are probably overkill. The pic is cropped, but basically these boots go up to your neck. I’m thinking these are bad to work in. For true Bowie fans, big bucks I can see for these.
Now, these were my personal faves. They look kinda comfortable, add about 10 inches to your height, and, make a statement that you like to be loud and noticed in public. If Bowie put these on the block, I’d bid in a heartbeat. Doubt I’d win, but I’d run the price up for sure. I actually tried to find some of these for my Frankenfurter outfit for Halloween to no avail.
I have no clue how this auction’s going to work. I’d hope there would be some type of online option. I also have no clue what Bowie is donating. I do know he could sure make this interesting.
Tags: Events
Aladdin is for the family?
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events
For my birthday, Mrs. Moon, Moonlet, and the Mooncess got me this:
Now that was very cool. What I found odd about it was where they got it.
Dawahares. Now, Dawahares isn’t that big a chain, so I guess I need to describe it a little. They are where you usually buy stuff like this:
Their “back to school” stuff pleases all principals. They are definitely the farthest thing on the planet from the hippest alternative clothing store you will find.
This kind of bums me out.
The second thing I noticed is it is kind of a watered down version of Aladdin. Sort of gives me the feeling it is meant for little girls ( pinks instead of blood reds ). The Mooncess, at 13 going on 15, even said she wanted it. That kind of bums me out as well.
Aladdin Sane, the androgynous asexual from Mars, is now marketed for little girls in family clothing stores and no one is is bothered by that.
What has my life come to?
Tags: Events
Rock Heroes
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events
Bowie was named one of rock’s greatest heroes by NME readers. Of course they considered Pete Doherty the second greatest hero of all-time so the list is meaningless to me. Kurt Cobain to this crowd is their greatest hero. Whew. Next. With awards like this, I can see why Bowie decided he was fed up with the music industry. I’m feeling that way too.
Tags: Events
Bowie and the Grammys
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events
Last night the Grammys honored Bowie with the lifetime achievement award. Here’s a couple of pics:
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Oh, wait. Sorry. That’s not last night. That’s 31 years ago. He didn’t seem to enjoy the Grammys very much that night. In fact, this is what he had to say about it:
“The Grammys were very significant for me. It was like walking a tightrope. There were mostly aging middleclass show business people in that audience. It was a question of entertaining them or coming off like just another rock singer. I really did feel I was David Bowie and not a rock singer. It was very strange. Strange, strange, strange.”
And, from a later interview:
A couple of nights later [John Lennon and I] found ourselves backstage at the Grammys where I had to present “the thing” to Aretha Franklin. Before the show I’d been telling John that I didn’t think America really got what I did, that I was misunderstood. Remember that I was in my 20s and out of my head.
So the big moment came and I ripped open the envelope and announced, “The winner is Aretha Franklin.” Aretha steps forward, and with not so much as a glance in my direction, snatches the trophy out of my hands and says, “Thank you verybody. I’m so happy I could even kiss David Bowie.” Which he didn’t! And she promptly spun around swanned off stage right. So I slunk off stage left.
And John bounds over and gives me a theatrical kiss and a hug and says “See, Dave. America loves ya.’”
That was 1975. The Grammys totally ignored Bowie throughout the most productive years of his career. Setting trends is never rewarded by the Grammys, mimicking them is. “Under Pressure” was never recognized as a great song. “Ice Ice Baby” won a Grammy in 1990 using the Under Pressure bass riff. At that count Vanilla Ice led the Grammy race with Bowie 1-0. Artists who didn’t even sing their songs won. Milli Vanilli ( with an asterisk ) led David Bowie 1-0. On and on it went. People with no talent, no writing ability, and absolutely no concern for music kept winning. Artists like Bowie kept handing them the awards. In 1983 Bowie gave the Grammys what they always wanted, a very typical pop song that soared to #1 and stayed there forever. So, the Grammys nominated him for “Let’s Dance”. He got beat out by the king of pop, Michael Jackson, across the board. Now, you gotta ask yourself this, how many people consider “Let’s Dance” his best album? He had to crank out the most mundane stuff he could think of just to get nominated. A year later, he actually won a Grammy for a short video he did. His music was not an issue. Twenty years later, 30 years after the albums Rolling Stone consider some of the most influential ever made, a decade after the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him, the Grammys once again nominated Bowie for an award, the Lifetime Achievement Award.
After snubbing every creative effort he ever made, and rewarding one of the very rare commercial efforts he did, the “Lifetime Achievement Award” just rings shallow to me. I mean, at one point they truly considered Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli better entertainers. Where are their Lifetime Achievement Awards?
IMO, the year Bowie should have won it would have been 1980. No one knew what the hell to think of “Low”, a lot of people questioned and panned it. So, Bowie comes right back with “Heroes” and spawns a pretty damn good song with minor hit status. There was no way on this planet, according to everyone, that ‘Heroes’ could even get released. Needless to say, it’s one of my favorites to this day. The album’s hard to take, but that’s the best damn song Bowie ever did. Album of the year for 1980? “Sailing” by Christopher Cross. Song of the year? “Sailing”, by Christopher Cross. Possibly the most boring song ever recorded by man. Nix that, it IS the most boring song ever recorded. Once again, creativity trumped for sales only.
For what it’s worth, I can’t see where Bowie even attended the awards. I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have either. For that matter, I didn’t even watch them. When the Grammys start rewarding musical talent and creativity, then these awards will mean a lot more to me. And, I’m sure, it will to musicians as well.
Tags: Events
Happy Birthday
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events
Today is Bowie’s 59th birthday.
Sheez. I’ve been listening to him since he was about 28 or so.
If he were still a US citizen, he could be drawing retirement already.
I hope I look like that pushin 60!
Happy Birthday David. Here’s to 59 more.
Tags: Events
