Month: December 2008

And now you’re telling me you understand, That I’m a 30 Century Man…

We first mentioned director Stephen Kijak’s film Scott Walker: 30 Century Man way back in July of 2006. (07.07.2006 NEWS: MONTHLY MUSIC MAGAZINES BOWIE BITS ROUND-UP)

And now, two years since the world premiere of the film in London, (09.18.2006 NEWS: SCOTT WALKER FILM PREMIERE ANNOUNCED FOR LONDON) we are pleased to announce its US theatrical debut as it begins a week’s run this coming Wednesday the 17th at the IFC Center in NY, before continuing at Shattuck Cinemas, Berkeley, San Francisco on January 23rd and the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles from February 27th.

As you know, we’re pretty fond of Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (11.01.2006 NEWS: SCOTT WALKER: 30 CENTURY MAN NEWS AND REVIEW) and we’re certainly not alone in our appreciation. The film made #13 in Time Out London‘s 50 Greatest Music Films Ever and UNCUT Magazine put the film at #4 in their Best Music DVDs of 2007, not to mention The Irish Times making it last year’s Documentary Of The Year.

Visit the official site for much, much more regarding the film and check out the BowieNet press release section above for more regarding the US theatrical debut.

One Shot…

OK, this is the second of our weekly competitions that will take us into the new year, whereby each of the prizes in the contests are signed by David Bowie!

After last week’s popular, if more than a little demanding, competition, (12.04.2008 NEWS: WIN SIGNED OFFICIAL ZIGGY STARDUST OUT-TAKES CALENDAR) we thought it would be nicer if we could make this one as easy as possible…kind of.

To be in with a chance of winning one of five copies of the above all you have to do is e-mail me via the link below.

BUT, and it is quite a big but, it’s still going to be a bit of a brain ache because if you enter this contest, win or lose, you are not allowed to enter any of the remaining three competitions in this series of five. Sorry, it’s the Christmas Grinch in me that makes me do it.

So, if you fancy your chances send your entry to me here before midnight NY time on Wednesday December 17th.

The winners will be announced here the next day and the third instalment will go live soon thereafter.

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.

Good Luck, kidz.

And once there were sun birds to soar with…

When I set this contest last week, (12.04.2008 NEWS: WIN SIGNED OFFICIAL ZIGGY STARDUST OUT-TAKES CALENDAR) it wasn’t for no reason that I used the song title It Ain’t Easy for that day’s lyric quotation.

I can honestly say though, that I didn’t think it would drive quite as many of you to the edge of madness in quite the way it did and I received more desperate and pleading e-mails from suicidal types than I care to count.

And all because of that elusive little diamante bird brooch that the fledgling Ziggy first sported in January 1972.

When I set the contest I mentioned a news piece back in October regarding the hitherto unreported brooch that was just about visible in a couple of the Ziggy out-take shots. (10.15.2008 NEWS: DB REMEMBERS ZIGGY STARDUST BIRD BROOCH)

As I said last week, this wasn’t the only time Ziggy wore the brooch, as BowieNetter KarmaMan proved when he sent in one of the shots from the above session.

The session was conducted in DB’s hotel room by 16 Magazine?s editor in chief, Gloria Stavers, during Bowie’s first American tour in 1972. Indeed, this is the session that the majority of you sent in a picture from as your entry.

However, Bowie had already worn the brooch publicly way back at the start of the year for his famous Melody Maker front page interview, see below. (01.22.2002 NEWS: THE OUTING OF ZIGGY – 30 YEARS AGO TODAY!)

This interview was conducted within days of the Ziggy Stardust album cover session.

Admittedly, Melody Maker reversed the picture and the brooch isn’t immediately apparent until you actually know it’s there…just about where the left nipple would be.

In fact, only one entrant mentioned this session, and that was the first of our five winners, who are…

2lips
excelsiordivine
jackie_c
mooch
webwolf

Well done folks, I guess you’re all in need of an appointment at the optician now. Still, trawling through gazillions of Bowie pix is hardly a chore, is it?

Send in your name and address and we’ll have your signed 2009 Ziggy calendar with you before you need it.

Stay tuned for the second of five weekly contests that will take us into the new year.

Photograph King, watches you go…

Jimmy King, our man in New York, attended the BOWIEBALL in NY on Saturday, (12.05.2008 REMINDER: BOWIEBALL IN NEW YORK CITY ON SATURDAY NIGHT & 12.06.2008 NEWS: BOWIEBALL PREVIEWED IN THE NEW YORK TIMES) and he came back with a big box of pictures that he took on the night, most of which I’ve managed to include in the montages here.

I’ve also grabbed a couple of pix from The Village Voice site taken by MARO, such as the shot above. You can view a slideshow of MARO’s pictures here.

Jimmy also kindly jotted down a few observations to give us a little glimpse of the kind of craziness that goes on in that there Big Apple. Over to you Jimmy…

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Saturday night saw what is fast becoming an institution on the alternative NY social calendar, so I thought I’d check it out.

A celebration of everything Bowie, the BOWIEBALL was held at the Santos Party House in lower Manhattan and presented by Deryck Todd with a host of alternative musicians and fashionistas.

The dress code had a colorful flavor of glam, some wore literal interpretations per db, and some had more of an individual or less obvious twist, either way there were plenty of spandex clad girls and boys ‘rocking the rafters’!

Live performances from featured artistes all included a Bowie tune in their sets. Here’s what they chose to play…

~ Oh You Pretty Things – performed by Ziggy Starlet (vocalist Laurel Katz-Bohen above)
~ Scary Monsters, “Heroes” and Ziggy Stardust – performed by Slinky Vagabond (minus Earl Slick)
~ Moonage Daydream – performed by Miss Guy (she’s the girl/boy in the big orange boots on the far right of the montage at the top of the page)
~ Watch That Man – performed by Michael T
Dirty Martini performed a wonderful Burlesque show and six DJ’s split between two levels kept an appreciative and responsive crowd boogying through to the early hours with a constant stream of classics.

A grotto housed several mannequins adorned in Bowiesque creations from designers including Albright NYC, Ben Sherman, Deryck Todd, Don Patron, Garo Sparo, Keanan Duffty, Richie Rich, Stephen Burrows and Zandra Rhodes.

Those who came looking understated were treated to glam makeovers by a team of makeup artists and needless to say many left with lightning bolts and gold circles, firm favorites.

The whole atmosphere was electrically fun and very friendly, it was an evening of celebration and homage to the man, the music and the inspiration, you could feel the love in the air!

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Thanx a lot Jimmy, sounds like you had a fun evening. It’s like the 1979 Bowie Nights at Billy’s all over again!

No one knew what they could do, Except for me and you…

Despite a relaunch of a slightly snazzier version of the Dubreq Stylophone at the end of last year, it seems a physical version of the instrument still wasn’t quite what modern kids wanted.

Now in the year of its 40th anniversary the Stylophone has been developed as the iStylophone specifically for the Apple iPhone & iPod Touch, see below…

As you know, David Bowie helped popularise the original Stylophone in 1969 when he utilised it on his worldwide smash hit Space Oddity, even lending his name to advertising features for the machine which was to become a nationwide craze in the UK shortly afterwards.

Bowie liked the sound so much that he returned to the Stylophone for Slip Away on the 2002 Heathen release and even played the bizarre little keyboard live during the song.

Thanx to BowieNetter Peter Cami for the pointer.

All because of what you are…

Wow! It’s true. Check it out here. And I thought there was a credit crunch.

Forget buying gold and investing in fine wines, It really does look as though your money is safer in rare rock ‘n roll collectibles.

And it seems David Bowie is one of the very safest investments, remaining, as he has, in the Top 10 collectors’ chart for thirty years or so now.

Thanx are due for the pointer to BowieNetter nessler who notices that despite the high price of this record: “At least the shipping is free!”.

Speaking of releases on Philips…

Some cat was laying down some rock ‘n roll…

Following on from Shammy’s piece, (12.03.2008 NEWS: BOWIENETTER SHAMMY REPORTS ON BOWIE AT MoMA) we’ve had a couple more BowieNetter reviews of last Monday night’s presentation of David Bowie’s videos at MoMA by Thurston Moore.

Both gmoney and daligala have sent us their thoughts, which we’ve pasted below…

Pictures are again by Jimmy King, including the one above of a busking type chap on the New York subway who was apparently making a jolly good fist of Starman…seems like he chose an appropriate spot for his performance!

Anyway, here follows gmoney and daligala’s reviews respectively…

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Hey, Blammo. Here are my thoughts on the show the other night.

It definitely felt like the lunatics had taken over the asylum, when all these artistically clad (if not decked out in full-on glitter) David Bowie fans descended the escalators of New York’s usually stuffy beacon of contemporary art. There was a huge line of people hoping to get into the sold out show from no-shows and cancellations.

But even though the crowd was rowdy and excited, they were well-mannered. The elderly ticket taker ripped our stubs with a smile and the playful admonition, “No dancing!”

Barbara London, the Associate Curator for MoMA, took the podium a little bit after 7pm. She thanked everyone for coming and gave a couple of shout outs to Mick Rock, Mark Romanek, and Sam Bayer who were in the audience. I’m sure she’s a lovely lady, and obviously has great taste having come up with the idea for this event, but public speaking is not necessarily her strong point as evidenced by her tripping over a couple of names and seeming generally flustered. Perhaps it was all the excitement of the evening and the rowdy (but polite), expectant crowd.

She then introduced Thurston Moore. Bowienetter Shammy has already given a great description of Thurston’s opening remarks. The Sonic Youth emigre also referenced the artistically challenged years of the 1980s and how during that time he had become out of touch with David Bowie’s music of that era. But he had heard through the grapevine that Bowie was a big fan of Sonic Youth’s DAYDREAM NATION album, which was a terrific honor to Moore and the band.

In reference to Bowie’s JUMP THEY SAY video, Moore also talked about how Mark Romanek, the director of that video, also directed Sonic Youth’s LITTLE TROUBLE GIRL video. Moore said it was his favorite kind of video to shoot — one in which he didn’t have to show up. (The video features only Sonic Youth member Kim Gordon and The Breeder’s Kim Deal).

At one point, there was a little technical glitch. The house lights went out, and Thurston Moore soldiered on in just a spotlight. Then the house lights faded back up, but no one seemed to mind. Everyone was really into what Thurston was saying.

Then the show started.

It was great. I agree with Shammy that maybe I would have picked some other vids. Or at least explained what the deal was with that Blue Jean video (for the people who don’t know it’s extracted from a larger piece). I was struck with the early videos’ ability to just marry image and music. While the ones that were made after 1981 (after MTV, as Thurston Moore pointed out) felt like they had to fit into some kind of narrative structure, which actually seemed to dummy down the video. And weirdly, later on, in the mid to late 1990s, the videos took that narrative structure and seemed to handle it in a way that wasn’t so dunderheaded, for instance in the JUMP THEY SAY video and the I’M AFRAID OF AMERICANS vid, two great pieces. On a personal note, in regards to JUMP THEY SAY, I was quite innocent if I do say, and had not caught all the references to Chris Marker’s 1962 short film La Jetée. The film’s title obviously translates to The Jump, and a lot of the images refer to the film, giving the video more of an optimistic tone than I had first thought. (If you’ve never seen this amazing film, check it out. It was also a major influence on Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys.)

The program ended with The Survive video, which is not my favorite. It’s more about a concept, that ends up giving all it’s going to give as soon as Mr. Bowie leaves the ground. Bowie is again the front and center star, not having to do anything but sit and float. (Major Tom anyone?) And, other than a quick promo for the song SLOW BURN, Bowie hasn’t made any other videos since. I think an argument could be made that the songs of the Heathen and Reality albums are, in a way, a lot denser and richer than could be translated to video. Is it possible that David Bowie, the winner of the first MTV Video Achievement Award, has developed into an artist whose music transcends the medium which he was so instrumental in establishing? I think we would be foolish to have expected differently.

Another highlight of the evening was seeing Tony Visconti and Mick Rock in the audience afterward as the lights came up. Sharing the air space of two geniuses of their respective fields who had such an important contribution to such an influential man.

Gibson Frazier – December 2008

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As my husband and I walked down a cold 53rd street night towards the MoMA we noticed a group of people decorated in rock n roll drab. All of them were turned away by a sign advising “This Event is SOLD OUT”. Thanks to Bowienet/TotalBlamBlam, we both had tickets placed in our hands. It was then that I realized not only had we arrived at the MoMA but a generation of avante-garde artistic contributors which constructed the phantasmagorical vision and visualization of images of a post modern artistic/subversive punk iconography had arrived! The legitimization and respectability with which the luster of an institution such as the Museum of Modern Art would engender on the likes of David Bowie, did not seem to archive him as merely an “ism” or pop culture extravaganza. On the contrary, they seem to get it.

Reclining comfortably into the containment of our theater seats, we ready ourselves for Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore’s opening statements. His comments seem to so closely correlate with ante-dotes from our past, that the words seemed laced with sincerity and intimacy. Immediately following his words the theater plummeted into absolute darkness. This dark abyss was interrupted by the spectacularly filtered white washed, dazzling glam rock executions of the slim, pixie, thin, authoritative and in a cosmic ecstasy delivered: DAVID BOWIE. Compliments of Mick Rock’s visionary cinematographic endeavors. With the unfolding of each video, one sensed an almost voyeuristic handling of a visual diary.

Once again, thank you for the tickets……daligala

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Thanks again to shammy, gmoney and daligala for their observations, very much appreciated.

This programme will be shown again at MoMA on Friday, December 19th at 6:00pm, though it’s unlikely to be presented by Thurston Moore this time around.

Who will love Aladdin Sane…

We announced this one back in April originally, (04.17.2008 NEWS: LIMITED EDITION SIGNED ALADDIN SANE PRINT IS NEXT) and I guess it’s pretty obvious what it is.

Probably the most easily recognisable and most ‘borrowed’ of David Bowie’s iconic sleeves is the Aladdin Sane album cover which has been reproduced as a limited edition art print by UK based company, St Pauls Gallery.

This beautiful edition of just 195 copies was painstakingly reproduced from the original artwork and has been screen printed with the typography omitted, as in the example above.

All production details are the same as the Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory prints, with the actual image area size being 19″ x 19″, within an overall paper size of 28″ x 27″. The image is printed on 330 gsm Somerset Velvet enhanced, with a spot varnish coating the image area.

The print has the official seal of approval, and has been signed and numbered in pencil by both David Bowie and Celia Philo, above.

Celia worked for DUFFY DESIGN CONCEPTS (listed as the Kitchen Tool Shop on North American pressings of Aladdin Sane) and was involved with the art direction on Aladdin Sane. We’re hoping to have an interview with her shortly.

There are also a very limited number of the Aladdin Sane prints signed by David Bowie, Celia Philo and Philip Castle.

Philip, above, is the man responsible for the airbrushing detail on Mr Sane‘s left collarbone…Trivia buffs may like to note that Philip was also the man responsible for the striking A Clockwork Orange film graphics which adorned the posters and soundtrack album cover, not to mention all manner of promotional material, all of which is now highly collectable.

The starting price of the Aladdin Sane print is £795 (the print co-signed by Philip Castle is £895) with £100 discount for BowieNetters. And despite their even lower starting prices, both the Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory prints now retail for £1,450…that outperforms most other types of investment in these uncertain times.

There’s also a version of the Hunky Dory print signed By David Bowie and Terry Pastor and now co-signed by Rick Wakeman, above, (pianist on the album) which retails for £1,550.

To order, go here and enter the following codes for the corresponding print exactly as is, as they are case-sensitive with no spaces. Each code will give you a £100 discount on any of the Bowie prints.

INSANE1 = David Bowie Aladdin Sane Limited Edition Signed Print- Pencil Signed By David Bowie & Celia Philo
INSANE2 = David Bowie Aladdin Sane Limited Edition Signed Print- Pencil Signed By David Bowie, Philip Castle & Celia Philo
INSANE3 = David Bowie Ziggy Stardust Limited Edition Signed Print- Pencil Signed By David Bowie & Terry Pastor
INSANE4 = David Bowie Hunky Dory Limited Edition Signed Print- Pencil Signed By David Bowie & Terry Pastor
INSANE5 = David Bowie Hunky Dory Limited Edition Signed Print- Pencil Signed By David Bowie, Rick Wakeman & Terry Pastor

Remember, the sooner you order, the lower your edition number will be, making your print even more valuable.

Who will love Aladdin Sane…

We announced this one back in April originally, (04.17.2008 NEWS: LIMITED EDITION SIGNED ALADDIN SANE PRINT IS NEXT) and I guess it’s pretty obvious what it is.

Probably the most easily recognisable and most ‘borrowed’ of David Bowie’s iconic sleeves is the Aladdin Sane album cover which has been reproduced as a limited edition art print by UK based company, St Pauls Gallery.

This beautiful edition of just 195 copies was painstakingly reproduced from the original artwork and has been screen printed with the typography omitted, as in the example above.

All production details are the same as the Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory prints, with the actual image area size being 19″ x 19″, within an overall paper size of 28″ x 27″. The image is printed on 330 gsm Somerset Velvet enhanced, with a spot varnish coating the image area.

The print has the official seal of approval, and has been signed and numbered in pencil by both David Bowie and Celia Philo, above.

Celia worked for DUFFY DESIGN CONCEPTS (listed as the Kitchen Tool Shop on North American pressings of Aladdin Sane) and was involved with the art direction on Aladdin Sane. We’re hoping to have an interview with her shortly.

There are also a very limited number of the Aladdin Sane prints signed by David Bowie, Celia Philo and Philip Castle.

Philip, above, is the man responsible for the airbrushing detail on Mr Sane‘s left collarbone…Trivia buffs may like to note that Philip was also the man responsible for the striking A Clockwork Orange film graphics which adorned the posters and soundtrack album cover, not to mention all manner of promotional material, all of which is now highly collectable.

The starting price of the Aladdin Sane print is £795 (the print co-signed by Philip Castle is £895) with £100 discount for BowieNetters. And despite their even lower starting prices, both the Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory prints now retail for £1,450…that outperforms most other types of investment in these uncertain times.

There’s also a version of the Hunky Dory print signed By David Bowie and Terry Pastor and now co-signed by Rick Wakeman, above, (pianist on the album) which retails for £1,550.

To order, go here and enter the following codes for the corresponding print exactly as is, as they are case-sensitive with no spaces. Each code will give you a £100 discount on any of the Bowie prints.

If you can’t see the codes above, you need to log in first. You may also be asked for your BowieNet username during the ordering process.

Remember, the sooner you order, the lower your edition number will be, making your print even more valuable.