Month: April 2008

Big screen dolls…You little wonder, little wonder you…

For those of you in the Washington DC area that haven’t already checked it out, the current exhibition at The Hirshhorn is The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image – Part I: Dream.

The exhibition is approaching it’s final week (it runs until May 11th) and it features Tony Oursler‘s 1997 work: Switch. (See picture above)

It seems the Bowie doll is taking museum goers by surprise, not least of all BowieNetter wlrook who posted this on the MBs earlier in the month:

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I was in Washington DC recently, and had time to visit the Hirshhorn Museum of contemporary art. The exhibit, “The Cinema Effect–Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image–Part I: Dream” was the major draw. I walked thru the maze of displays, starting with Warhol’s Sleep projected on a wall, and towards the middle of the tour I walked into a dark room which had an approx. 18″ rag doll affixed six feet up a wall with a projector inches from its face.

A talking face was projected on the doll, and I gasped: “David!” I mean, that voice, I know it like my own. Had it been silent, it would have taken a few minutes because it really was only the face–no hair, no ears–and distorted. So David Doll monologues for 5-10 minutes as if he were directing some bizarre film. His face is so mobile and expressive, so toothy…the monologue was fantastic (“you there with the face…yes you in the shirt…” “SEX!SEX!” and the poignant disclosure that something needed to be moved because he couldn’t see out of that eye).

I stood thru it four times. People would come in and not recognize or after a couple of minutes say “you know who that looks like”. The project is by Tony Oursler circa 1996. If you are in DC GO GO GO…it runs through May 11. It was a fine surprise for me.

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And here’s another bit from Washingtoncitypaper.com:

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Dreaming is deeply solitary, but films are usually designed to be a collective activity?sharing a reverie with others. Tony Oursler is the only artist to acknowledge this in Switch (1996), a three-part installation of handmade dolls with video projected onto their blank faces. The first doll, positioned high on the wall, is a movie director barking orders at his invisible actors, and some of his words take museumgoers aback: ?You! Stop looking over here! I don?t exist. The camera does not exist,? he says. ?Stop! Nobody move. Freeze.? Nervous laughter from people in the gallery usually follows. (That?s the face of David Bowie, a frequent collaborator with Oursler, on the director doll.)

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Whether they realise it or not, Bowie fans will be aware of Oursler’s work via the quite brilliant Floria Sigismondi directed Little Wonder promotional film. (Montage of Oursler pieces from Little Wonder above)

David also used Oursler’s projected films to incredible effect during the 50th Birthday Benefit Show at Madison Square Garden in January 1997 and the Earthling Tour of the same year.

You can read more about the exhibition on the Hirshhorn website, where there is also a link to a seventy nine minute Tony Oursler audio webcast.

Just about the best you can hear…

We told you about the June issue of UNCUT a couple of weeks ago (04.18.2008 NEWS: BOWIE’S 30 GREATEST SONGS IN UNCUT NEXT WEEK) and this is just a reminder to say it is worth picking up.

As you know, the magazine attempts to identify David Bowie’s thirty greatest songs via the opinions of the folk listed below:

30 – IN THE HEAT OF THE MORNING ? Alex Turner
29 – BOYS KEEP SWINGING ? Adrian Belew
28 – MOONAGE DAYDREAM ? Dave Gahan
27 – STATION TO STATION ? Stephen Morris
26 – ALWAYS CRASHING IN THE SAME CAR ? Ricky Gardiner
25 – CAN?T HELP THINKING ABOUT ME ? Miami Steve Van Zandt
24 – DRIVE-IN SATURDAY ? Morrissey
23 – KOOKS ? Rufus Wainwright
22 – SUNDAY ? Tony Visconti
21 – THE BEWLAY BROTHERS ? James Murphy
20 – LETTER TO HERMIONE ? Ricky Gervais
19 – OH! YOU PRETTY THINGS ? Phil May
18 – ROCK ?N? ROLL SUICIDE ? Marc Almond
17 – YOUNG AMERICANS ? Slash
16 – THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD ? Lulu
15 – SOUND AND VISION ? Alex Kapranos
14 – JOHN, I?M ONLY DANCING ? Siouxsie Sioux
13 – DIAMOND DOGS ? Herbie Flowers
12 – ALL THE YOUNG DUDES ? Robert Wyatt
11 – THE JEAN GENIE ? Johnny Marr
10 – LET?S DANCE ? Jimmy Page
09 – LIFE ON MARS? ? Mick Rock
08 – CHANGES ? Guy Garvey
07 – REBEL REBEL ? Rodney Bingenheimer
06 – ASHES TO ASHES – Robert Del Naja
05 – SPACE ODDITY ? Sufjan Stevens
04 – STARMAN ? Woody Woodmansey
03 – FAME ? Dave Grohl
02 – ZIGGY STARDUST – Peter Buck / J Mascis
01 – “HEROES” – John Cale

There really are some very lovely things said by these people, not least of all by Tony Visconti who also provided this touching foreword to the piece:

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“When I first met Bowie in 1967, he couldn’t get arrested. The music business and journalists just weren’t looking in his direction for the Next Big Thing. Even when Hunky Dory came out, I think the industry was still scratching their heads. David had to pull his socks up big time and invent his Ziggy Stardust persona.

“I love to work with him because I think we make really good records. His talents are exceptional, and he has rarely inhibited his creativity. I think other recording artists regard him enviably as someone who’s reached the pinnacle of unbridled creativity. He’s multi-dimensional. For most of his career, he’s been an iconoclast, not a trend follower. But then, he also has a charm and charisma usually associated with movie actor legends. Although he never denies his working-class upbringing, he’s like royalty.

“These days, we keep in touch via email. Instead of watching a film together we send each other links to YouTube. We also send each other all types of music we’ve either discovered or rediscovered. During the making of the last two albums. Heathen and Reality we used to watch episodes of The Fast Show and The Office, respectively, on our lunch breaks. We both love British comedy.

“We’ve known each other for 40 years. There’s no pretension, no awe, just a mutual love of creating something from nothing. On the other hand, we don’t take each other for granted. I respect him more than ever. He’s one of the few people I know who actually keeps on growing. He’s always full of surprises and revelations.

“Who hasn’t been inspired by Bowie’s music? Certainly not the über and unter peers contributing to this collection. David Bowie has long ago achieved Gandalf status in the rock world, and his songs have become potent magic spells.

“Welcome to Uncut’s Top 30 Bowie songs, picked to praise by an all-star cast.”

Tony Visconti, March 2008

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Aside from all the lovely words, the article is accompanied by a whole bunch of great pictures, not least of all the one at the top of this piece, coloured to perfection in the Terry Pastor style…albeit with completely inaccurate colours, just like the original…and how about the seldom seen shot above of Starman being performed by Ziggy and The Spiders on ITV’s Lift Off…great stuff.

As mentioned previously, there’s also a 12-track CD of Bowie cover versions called Rebel Rebel. To be brutally honest, there are a couple of good performances on it, but it doesn’t bear repeated listenings…

Finally, you can vote for your own Bowie favourites here on the UNCUT site.

…and Lo! it was midnight…

I was listening to 6 Music late last night/early this morning when I was pleasantly surprised by the regular Live At Midnight show which this week aired an hour of live Bowie from his remarkable 2000 Glastonbury performance.

If you were there, you will know just how incredible a night it was, with a wonderfully enthusiastic audience giving Bowie a hero’s welcome as he strode magnificently through a 21-strong set of hits and classic album tracks.

Here’s the original setlist:

David Bowie – Glastonbury Festival – June 25 2000

01 – Wild Is The Wind
02 – China Girl
03 – Changes
04 – Stay
05 – Life On Mars?
06 – Absolute Beginners
07 – Ashes To Ashes
08 – Rebel Rebel
09 – Little Wonder
10 – Golden Years
11 – Fame
12 – All The Young Dudes
13 – The Man Who Sold The World
14 – Station To Station
15 – Starman
16 – Hallo Spaceboy
17 – Under Pressure

Encore
18 – Ziggy Stardust
19 – “Heroes”
20 – Let’s Dance
21 – I’m Afraid Of Americans

6 Music aired around two thirds of the show with these 13 songs:

01 – Rebel Rebel
02 – Ashes To Ashes
03 – Changes
04 – Ziggy Stardust
05 – Starman
06 – Life On Mars?
07 – China Girl
08 – The Man Who Sold The World
09 – “Heroes”
10 – Fame
11 – Hallo Spaceboy
12 – Little Wonder
13 – I’m Afraid Of Americans

As you can see, no logic has been applied to running order, and several great tracks weren’t played. Nevertheless, it’s a great listen capturing very well the atmosphere of the night.

If you missed it this morning, you can listen again here until the next Live At Midnight broadcast on 6 Music next Sunday night/Monday morning.

All you’ve got to do is win…

So here we are, already at week four of our ten week Rex Ray contest. (04.06.2008 NEWS: THE GREAT REX RAY GIVE-AWAY STARTS TODAY + 04.13.2008 NEWS: REX RAY GIVE-AWAY PART 1 WINNER – PART 2 IS GO & 04.20.2008 NEWS: REX RAY GIVE-AWAY PART 2 WINNER – PART 3 IS GO)

And so, on with the winner of #8/10 of the untrimmed 20″ x 14″ (508mm x 355mm) hand-numbered Berkeley print, (see above left) customised by Rex in the Reality style and signed by both Rex Ray and David Bowie in 2006.

And the winner is: Replicant

Well done Replicant, please send your real name and address to me and we’ll have your prize to you before you can shake a stick at people in glasshouses.

All you have to do to be in with a chance of being the fourth winner and getting your hands on #7/10 of the Berkeley prints, is contact me here before midnight NY time on Saturday May 3rd.

Usual BowieNet rules apply: Only one entry per BowieNet account per week, and please remember you must enter using your BowieNet e-mail or at least supply your BowieNet user name. If you do neither of these things you won’t be eligible to enter.

The fourth winner will be announced next Sunday May the 4th and the contest for the fifth artwork will commence at the same time.

BowieNet members can view larger versions of both of the above here on the MBs. Good luck.

The return of The Thin White Duke…

The May issue of Classic Rock magazine is a live special which features, among other things, what it reckons to be the fifty best bootlegs of all time.

One of those in the list is the record above, the double bootleg album of David Bowie’s show at the Nassau Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, on March 23rd 1976, known to literally billions of fans as The Thin White Duke.

The first version of the bootleg was Resurrection on 84th Street, (above) which had an incorrect running order and never attained the legendary status of The Thin White Duke.

The Thin White Duke corrected the running order and came in a deluxe colour sleeve (unusual for that time) and it was even more attractive to Bowie fans for the inclusion of David’s rather surreal appearance on The Cher Show, which included a duet with the host of Can You Hear Me and the bizarre Young Americans Medley.

Here’s the tracklisting of The Thin White Duke…

01 – Station To Station
02 – Suffragette City
03 – Fame
04 – Word On A Wing
05 – Stay
06 – Panic In Detroit
07 – Changes
08 – TVC 15
09 – Diamond Dogs
10 – Rebel Rebel
11 – The Jean Genie
12 – Can You Hear Me (Duet with Cher)
13 – Young Americans Medley (Duet with Cher)

It’s no secret that this show (minus the Cher section) is due for the EMI treatment, following on from His Master’s Voice (released officially as Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (The Motion Picture Soundtrack) in 2003) and David Bowie, commonly known as Santa Monica, (released officially as David Bowie – Live Santa Monica ’72 in June 2008).

But what we want to know from you, is what other bootlegs you would like to see get the official treatment. Doesn’t mean it will ever happen, just be cool to find out what you think.

Please stick to live bootlegs as opposed to studio stuff.

This is open to members and non-members alike and five entrants will be plucked from the bucket of suggestions and rewarded with a suitable prize for taking part.

To keep it easy, please keep it to one choice per entry. Send your suggestions to me here.

We’ll keep this one open until the end of May and announce the findings soon thereafter.

Waiting for the gift of sound and vision…

These two very nearly got away…and I know there are many of you who like to be kept informed of these variations, so on with it.

The A Reality Tour DVD, filmed over two nights in Dublin in November 2003 and released the following October 18th (10.18.2004 REMINDER: REALITY TOUR DVD OUT NOW PLUS VIEWING PARTIES), was reissued at the end of last month (March 31st) as a region 2 DVD in the Visual Milestones ON STAGE series.

This is a budget issue which has just a single page double-sided insert for the front cover with no booklet, and a solitary shot (albeit one of mine) in the inlay tray, as above.

To be honest, even though this is a budget release, with a little searching it’s pretty easy to find the original release with the booklet even cheaper!

Next up is a Region 1 single disc reissue of The Man Who Fell To Earth DVD. This time it’s part of Anchor Bay’s Cult Classic Series and it was released in the US and Canada on March 4th.

Again, though it seems this is a budget release, I’m sure Anchor Bay won’t thank me for telling you that if you really don’t have this film yet, you may be better off spending a few more dollars on the Criterion Collection double disc version (07.06.05 NEWS: CRITERION TMWFTE DVD WITH DB COMMENTARY & 11.25.05 NEWS: WIN TMWFTE CRITERION DVD BOX SET) which you can easily still find for sale at a more than reasonable price.

I intend to do a round up of all the other recently-released DVDs that bear the Bowie name at some point in the not too distant…but I have to admit it’s pretty hard to get motivated to watch most of this unofficial drivel.

Maybe I’ll slay a dragon for you…

In recognition of St George’s Day in the UK today, AOL has published a list of who they consider to be the ten greatest living Englishmen.

Obviously our man is in the list, or there would be no real point to this news item, but it’s also great to note that David Bowie is the only musician to make that list.

Here’s the whole thing in alphabetical wotsit…

Greatest living Englishmen

Sir Tim Berners-Lee
David Bowie
Sir Richard Branson
Sir Michael Caine
Stephen Fry
Lewis Hamilton
Stephen Hawking
Jonathan Ive
Jeremy Paxman
Sir Bobby Robson

For those of you thinking: “What a horribly sexist feature,” AOL did actually list who they consider to be the greatest living Englishwomen too…you can read the whole piece here.

I’ll leave you with the caption accompanying the Bowie shot that AOL used: “David Bowie – The Thin White Duke, the Dame, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane – call him what you want – but they don’t come much bigger in the world of popular music.”

And who could disagree with that?

And he’s hooked to the silver screen…

Last night we told you that David and Iman were guests at the 7th Annual Tribeca Film Festival Vanity Fair Party in New York.

What we didn’t know at the time, but have since had confirmed, is that David Bowie has been named as a member of the Tribeca judging panel.

David Bowie, Whoopi Goldberg and Molly Shannon are among 31 judges in Tribeca’s six narrative, documentary and shorts competitions.

Others include Peter Dinklage, Fred Durst, Matthew Modine, Mario Batali, Christine Lahti, Lili Taylor, Jay McInerney, Andre Leon Talley and Doug Liman, who attended the press conference announcement earlier today.

The following is from an article on contactmusic.com…

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DAVID BOWIE, WHOOPI GOLDBERG, FRED DURST and director DOUG LIMAN have all been named as jury members at the Tribeca Film Festival – which kicked off in New York on Wednesday (23Apr08).

The announcement was made by Liman at a press conference in downtown Manhattan on Wednesday, which was attended by New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor David Paterson.

The panels have been split into different categories, with Bowie and others, including actor Matthew Modine, judging the Documentary and Student Short Film group. Goldberg’s panel – which also includes Padma Lakshmi – will review the World Documentary Competition.

The festival will run for 12 days, and includes 121 feature films and 79 short films. A total of 89 movies will be premiered at the event, which is now in its seventh year.

It was founded by Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff to boost the economic and cultural revitalisation of lower Manhattan.

And Governor Paterson called on the movie industry to do its bit and make more films in the Big Apple, speaking on the same day he announced tax breaks for those who shoot in the state.

He told the press conference, “New York has inspired filmmakers since the industry’s beginning. But recently, we started losing business to our neighbours, like Canada, Connecticut and Massachusetts. New Yorkers never go down without a fight, and with the significantly expanded state film tax credit I announced today, New York will continue to serve as the most fascinating backdrop in the world.

“I am proud to have our great state foster an even greater number of productions, and feel fortunate that we have an event like the Tribeca Film Festival to showcase the work of great filmmakers and highlight the importance of this industry in our state.”

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So there you have it. As promised yesterday, aside from the sickeningly handsome shot above, members can view another splendid photograph of David and Iman by clicking on aforementioned picture above.

FOOTNOTE – For those concerned with such matters…and I know I am…She wore a vintage number in the Doris Day style. He wore an outfit by Nick Hart, who you may remember designed the coat David wore in the shots from Will we posted at the start of the month. (04.02.2008 NEWS: EXCLUSIVE BOWIE PIX FROM WILL CAMEO…HONEST GUV!)

We played our songs and felt the London sky, Resting on our hands…*

Gideon Coe has been rummaging through the BBC’s tape library for his show on 6 Music tonight and he’ll be playing “concert highlights from David Bowie”.

Well, my BBC spies have been sniffing and I can tell you that the highlights are from David Bowie’s performance at London’s Wembley Arena on November 17th, 1995.

When Radio 1 first broadcast this almost 13 years ago, the six songs aired were: Look Back In Anger, The Man Who Sold The World, Strangers When We Meet, Hallo Spaceboy, We Prick You and Teenage Wildlife.

How many of those Gideon plans to play tonight, I can not say. You can listen live at the times listed above by clicking on the Bowie pic above that I took at that very show!

* Actually, it’s unlikely that Bowie and his band felt the London sky, as Wembley was an indoor venue.

A love so real swept over me?

Today is the sixteenth anniversary of David and Iman’s civil wedding ceremony at Lausanne Registry Office. A formal church ceremony was later held in Florence. There are no traditional gifts suggested for a sixteenth anniversary, but a more modern alternative is silverware.

I know you?ll want to join all of us here at BowieNet in wishing David and Iman a very special and happy day! BowieNet members can add directly to the celebrations by contributing to the message board thread started by Bianca, here.

:))

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