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Clothes always fit ya, Life is a pop of the cherry, When you’re a boy…
In a feature regarding this season’s clobber, Adam Tschorn of the Los Angeles Times reports that Yves Saint Laurent designer Stefano Pilati found inspiration in the style of David Bowie for this latest YSL project…here’s an excerpt from the piece:
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Yves Saint Laurent didn’t hold a runway show this season, instead channeling resources into an arresting video starring British actor Simon Woods (HBO viewers will recognize him as Gaius Octavian from “Rome”). In the video, which can be viewed at www.ysl.com, Woods swirls, splashes and thrashes his way through a shower of rose petals, while kitted out in the fall/winter collection, and pocket squares tumble through the air backed by an infectious, pulsating soundtrack.
“The message is fashion for everybody,” the designer, Stefano Pilati, said of the project. So it was no surprise that his inspiration was David Bowie, the archetypal creative chameleon. The collection similarly had it both ways — some trousers were tapered, others flared; there were velvet biker jackets and three-quarter-length coats that could have been pulled from a Pendleton catalog. Bowie-esque touches included slim silhouettes and lighting bolt details.
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Go
It’s a little over seven minutes long but it’s worth a look, as, apart from the inclusion of the very handsome British actor Simon Woods as the clothes horse, the whole thing is accompanied by a soundtrack comprising a kind of mash-up that includes Lou Reed via Portishead and LCD Soundsystem concluding with a section of the brilliant (IMHO…but not many others’) 1997 Aphex Twin remix of “Heroes” which combined David Bowie’s original vocal recording with the Philip Glass instrumental score to brilliant effect.
I keep a photograph, It burns my wall with time…
Speaking of exhibitions drawing to a close, (01.21.2008 NEWS: DB RECOMMENDS KARA WALKER EXHIBITION AT THE WHITNEY) photographer
Readers of the New Musical Express (NME) in the early to mid 1970s will be very familiar with Joe’s incredible shots of David Bowie. The picture below was just one of many that graced the front page of the magazine and it’s one that will be on show and for sale at the exhibition.
It was rare to find any colour Bowie shots of Joe’s, the incredible photograph above being a fine exception taken during rehearsals for My Death at the taping of the Russell Harty Plus TV show in the UK in January 1973…thirty five years ago this week.
Check out
Vote now for the candidate…
There’s one thing that seems to unite all of the above front-runners in the 2008 US presidential candidates campaign and it’s a desire that David Bowie first expressed way back in 1971.
Click on your favourite future President to find out what the hell I’m talking about.
Many thanx to Hugh Atkin for his hard work.
See their faces in golden rays…
The quite delightful all-girl trio
The girls covered Oh! You Pretty Things at a recent NY gig and they had this to say about the song on their website: “We recorded a version of David Bowie’s “Oh You Pretty Things” for a compilation that is coming out in Europe on the K7 label. We definitely made it a little spookier and dreamier. We don’t know when it will be coming out but we will let you know as soon as we do.”
If you’re in New York right now and you simply can’t wait to hear the released version of the Bowie cover, it may be an idea to get along to what promises to be a great show tonight and possibly hear it live. Please let us know if you do go and if they do play it.
Click on the black notes in the picture above to reach
Someone sees it all…
David and Iman‘s visit to the Kara Walker retrospective has been widely-reported over the last few days…albeit a week after the event.
They visited The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York during the day on the 12th and DB suggested I provide a link for those of you that may be able to get along.
The exhibition entitled: Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love has just under a fortnight left to run (it closes on February 3rd) and you can find any further information you need
I’ll leave you with a few thought-provoking words from Kara herself, taken from the Whitney site…
?It?s interesting that as soon as you start telling the story of racism, you start reliving the story. You keep creating a monster that swallows you. But as long as there?s a Darfur, as long as there are people saying ?Hey, you don?t belong here? to others, it only seems realistic to continue investigating the terrain of racism.?
If I can’t control the world-wide web we weave…
Austin Chick has given a brief interview to
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R: I love David Bowie’s role here — he’s funny, he’s horrifying and totally surprising. How did he become associated with August, and how did you approach the challenge of directing him?
AC: Before we shot that scene he and I had spoken on the phone a couple of times, but we hadn’t met about it. We hadn’t rehearsed. He showed up, knew his lines and was an absolute joy to work with. He had a bunch of stuff he’d worked out on his own — a bunch of different colors to the way he eviscerates Hartnett in that scene. He was really game to playing around with it, and one of the things that he and I talked a bunch about was the idea that Ogilvie really takes pleasure in what he’s doing. He sees a bit of himself in Hartnett’s character and sees this as an opportunity to teach a young man a lesson — not destroy him forever. But you can tell he sort of relishes it. I spent the whole day saying, “Oh my God; I’m directing David Bowie.”
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You can read the whole interview (which includes more about DB) by clicking on Ogilvie‘s cane in the picture above…that’s him on the right, looking a lot like David Bowie.
Meanwhile, don’t forget that the first of four Sundance screenings of the film commences tomorrow. (01.09.2008 NEWS: DB ON AUGUST FILMING PLUS SUNDANCE PREMIERE)
Thanx to BowieNetter erik.vanhaecht for the pointer to the Reeler interview. We’ll hopefully have some better quality pictures of David as Ogilvie shortly.
Johnny combs his hair… (or) I’ll slice them till they’re running red…
I’m sure most of you are already familiar with this story by now, but Johnny Depp‘s vocal performance in the latest Tim Burton movie, musical thriller Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, continues to draw comparisons to the voice of David Bowie.
Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant made the following observations on BBC TWO’s Newsnight programme on Thursday evening: “Johhny Depp kind of channels David Bowie. It [Depp’s voice] sounds very like David Bowie and his Cockney accent…he’s definitely channelling. It’s like David Bowie singing Bertolt Brecht, almost.”
This was the modest man’s response: “I certainly would never have expected that kind of compliment…to be even mentioned in the same breath as someone like David Bowie. Certainly wasn’t intentional.”
Well, whether anyone influenced Johnny or not, it’s certainly not an unfair comparison by Mr Tenant. Check out the Baal EP for the evidence.
Personally I think it sounds more like Mr Depp is imitating David Bowie imitating Anthony Newley.
Thanx to BowieNetter m.art for the original Newsnight pointer and to the Rev ‘Fat Des’ Fop for the link to this
Shine shine shine…
Nice little piece regarding The Buddha Of Suburbia reissue published in today’s Review section of The Independent in the UK. I can’t find it online anywhere, but seeing as it’s very nearly yesterday already, I’m sure it’s OK for us to reproduce the article by Robert Webb in full here…
Satisfyingly enigmatic indeed.
For those of you that managed to miss last year’s reissue of Buddha, the following news item is a good starting place to find out more: 06.19.2007 NEWS: THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA PRESS RELEASE
You’re face to face, With The Man Who Sold The World…
Above is the annotation to a full-page mono reproduction of one of
It’s a shot you’re all familiar with and it can be found on page 282 of
As NME correctly states, the series of pix were mainly shot during backing vocal takes for Lulu‘s gorgeous version of The Man Who Sold The World.
So, rather than reproduce the pic they used again, here’s another from the session that never made it into Moonage Daydream, courtesy of Mick Rock.
Just look at that profile…sharp enough to cut diamonds…which is precisely what Bowie did next.