Part II: Why Bowie was singularly suited to be our muse…plus Friday Five

I dont know what it was anout Bowie that really spoke to the core of me, even more so than previous obsessions such as Pink Floyd or John Lennon or the vast array of punkdom. Maybe because it was more than music. Bowie wrote philosophical science fiction epics and passed them off as rock albums. He was odd and brilliant and full of strange light. His genre was a sort of postmodern vaudville, theatre and sound and sexual energy combined with tremendous energy and wit. And even though he was an elder statesman of sorts even then, to us in the Reaganoid wasteland that was 1988, he was an undiscovered country. Little rebellious, oddball teenage girls with literary pretentions and dragon rings, reading Dylan Thomas and watching Dr Who over the phone on Saturday nights. No hero more fit for us than this exotic creature with two toned eyes and engulfing aura, who was both outcast and idol, icon and iconoclast. Or, in his own words, “comedian, chameleon, Corinthian, and caricature.”

Random Bowie moments:

1991 – Senior year, we are assigned to audition freeform solo projects in Choir. Lizzie and decide to collaborate on a relatively odd and unknown Bowie song “The Man Who Sold The World,” with me taking the lead vocal and Lizzie on piano and harmony.

1994 – Kurt Cobain less than a week dead, I flip on the radio to hear Nirvana singing “my” Bowie song. Chills run down my spine.

1995 – At last we have a chance to see the Man live, in Phoenix, on tour with Nine Inch Nails, on the “Outside” tour. That story I shall relate in the next installment…

For now, Friday Five:

1. Are you superstitious?

Superstitious, Obsessive Compulsive, tomato,tomahto…

2. What extremes have you heard of someone going to in the name of superstition?

My parents gave up an oppurtunity to see a solar eclipse in Mexico because they thought the Rapture was coming, I swear to god.

3. Believer or not, what’s your favorite superstition?

A superstition prevalent in my own family’s tradition is that one must include money in any gift of a purse or wallet. Every year for Christmas, my sister and I would claim we needed a new wallet 🙂

4. Do you believe in luck? If yes, do you have a lucky number/article of clothing/ritual?

Number of icons, necklaces and soforth that give me a sense of personal comfort.

5. Do you believe in astrology? Why or why not?

I believe all forms of divination are akin to inkblots. Useful as a means of perspective rather than actual fortunetelling.

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