Month: June 2009

There’s something in the sky, Shining in the light, Spinning and far away…

Following last night’s successful openings in New York and LA, (04.08.2009 NEWS: MOON IN NEW YORK AND LA THEATRES IN JUNE) we thought it would be good to link to some of the recent interviews director Duncan Jones has been doing.

Aside from MOON, the subjects range from Duncan’s two upcoming projects: Mute and Escape From The Deep, his own favourite sci-fi films, how he got his first breaks in the film world, growing up and looking at and understanding himself…and much more.

First up is a great video interview with Break Room Live from June 4th which you can view here.

And here are links to less visual but equally interesting interviews from the last couple of weeks including one with Sam Rockwell…(Possible spoilers ahead!)

June 13th – The Scotsman: Duncan Jones interview: The moon, son and star By LEE RANDALL

June 12th – IFC.com: Duncan Jones’ (Inter)stellar Debut By Nick Schager

June 12th – Cinematical: Interview: ‘Moon’ Director Duncan Jones By William Goss

June 12th – San Francisco Chronichle: Duncan Jones debuts directing ‘Moon’ film By Pam Grady

June 11th – The Independent: Moonage daydream: Duncan Jones (formerly Zowie Bowie) steps into the limelight with his directorial debut By Gaynor Flynn

June 10th – CinemaBlend: Interview: Moon Director Duncan Jones By Katey Rich

June 10th – The Village Voice: Interview: Sam Rockwell on Moon, Working With David Bowie’s Son Duncan Jones, and Not Punching Mickey Rourke By Kevin Canfield

June 8th – The Film Stage: [Exclusive Interview] Duncan Jones (Director of ?Moon?)

June 5th – Eclipse Magazine: INTERVIEW: Duncan Jones takes us to the MOON & back By DEAN ROGERS

June 4th – SCI FI WIRE: How David Bowie’s son wound up making an indie movie about the Moon

June 3rd – The New York Times: Son of Major Tom, at Ground Control By DAVE ITZKOFF

June 2nd – The Huffington Post: MOONing for Earth By Cristal Smith

ScreenCrave: Exclusive Interview with Duncan Jones Part 1 By Mali Elfman

ScreenCrave: Exclusive Interview with Duncan Jones Part 2 By Mali Elfman

MOVIEHOLE: Interview : Duncan Jones

If you’ve not been reading these interviews as they’ve been published and you have the time now, it’s really worth ploughing through them all.

There’s lots of absolutely fascinating stuff, with exclusive content in each, wherein Duncan paints some wonderful mental images from his childhood, such as sitting down with his dad to watch Clockwork Orange and roaming the streets of 50s Soho in London via the stage sets of Absolute Beginners.

If you’re in North America keep an eye on the official MOON site for details of screenings near you.

The London preview at the NFT that we told you about a few day ago (06.09.2009 NEWS: DUNCAN JONES Q&A AND MOON PREVIEW AT THE NFT) is now fully booked.

It’s happening now, the crazed in the VidZone…

Passing my son Merlin‘s bedroom yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the strains of David Bowie’s Slow Burn as opposed to the usual rat-a-tat-tat of Call Of Duty and the like.

However, when I asked why he wasn’t playing his favourite shoot ’em up or even Kanye West‘s latest he explained that he was checking out the just launched VidZone for the PlayStation 3.

He had been looking at the Bowie section for me and had found high quality videos of two of my very favourite and most emotionally charged Bowie videos of recent years, Slow Burn and Strangers When We Meet. Great to see Slow Burn in such good quality on an HD screen.

VidZone, which went live in Europe yesterday, is Sony’s free, on-demand video service for the PS3. The service launched with over 10,000 music videos which can be streamed directly to TV, complete with surround sound.

Users need to download the VidZone application from the PlayStation Store, and are then able to watch content, rewind and fast forward videos, and create a library and custom playlists.

Anyway, it wasn’t long before Merlin was back watching the song at the top of the Best Videos Of All Time list: Kanye West’s Stronger.

Of course, my comments of “You’d be better off listening to the original…Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” were met with the same enthusiasm as the suggestion from an uncle back in 1973 that I’d be better off listening to The Yardbirds‘ I’m A Man rather than The Jean Genie. Really, what do these old gits know?

Soulwax Love…

Stephen Dewaele of 2 Many DJs and Soulwax has praised David Bowie’s Ashes To Ashes in the current issue of NME (13th June) as you can read above.

Of course, the feelings are kind of mutual, DB praised As Heard on Radio Soulwax back in 2002, or earlier, and the outfit have utilised Bowie’s music several times in live sets and on their recordings.

Also in the mag is an 8 out of 10 review of the new Tiny Masters Of Today album (no other artist has a higher rating in this issue) which concludes with: “TMOT have produced an album that’s a stroke of genius…”.

Of course, David Bowie concluded much the same thing back in 2007 in his Nokia review of the band’s Stickin It To The Man…

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Punk Rockers eh? Used to be that you had to be well into your teens before you could adopt this level of attitude. But, Brooklyn based bad boy, twelve-year-old Ivan, and his ten-year-old sister Ada have created an instant classic with Stickin It to the Man.

This 2:43 minute slice of detached cool comes across like Suicide crashing a Shaggs rehearsal. How can you resist: “You say yes, I say no. You say stop, I say go. You say up, I say down. You say smile, I say frown. Stickin’ it to The Man, stickin’ it cos I can, stickin it to The Man, every day.” Genius – David Bowie

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Elsewhere in the review a certain Ms K Dawson and Mr T Moore are credited as authors of How To Screw The System Pt 1…I always thought that Spaceface got a bit jittery around authority figures…I saw her knock a Bobby’s helmet off with a well-aimed Frisbee once. Honest.

I am your crazy driver, Honey I’m sure to steer you wrong…

Scanning through the Iggy Pop section of iTunes recently I was initially a little excited to see the two items above. That excitement quickly turned to disappointment when I realised that they were both just more versions of Iggy’s set from March 21,1977, at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio, with David Bowie on keyboards.

Both issues are bad in that they no longer have the correct running order and the covers are irrelevant, but at least Iggy & Ziggy (left) has a photo reflecting its title.

The other version, I Need Someone, (first mistake, should be I Need Somebody) has a ludicrous cover with a Bowie shot from 1987 and what seems to be an attempt to make it look as if Iggy has been airbrushed onto the side of the car DB is sat in!

Also, ten of the twelve tracks are mislabeled in that they play another track from the album other than that listed.

We told you about the CD versions of this great show back in 2006. (03.09.2006 NEWS: NEW IGGY BOOK PLUS BEST LIVE WITH DB 1977 CDs) However, the only one of those CD releases available on iTunes seems to be the Revenge release of Wild Animal, even if it has been mislabeled as Wild Animal (1976-1977) (Live).

He’s chameleon…(no he’s not)

We told you all about the Bowie section at the BME at the O2 arena in London back in March. (03.01.2009 NEWS: SNEAK PREVIEW OF BME EXHIBITION ON YOUTUBE & 03.06.2009 NEWS: REPORT FROM PREVIEW NIGHT OF BME EXHIBITION & 03.08.2009 REMINDER: BRITISH MUSIC EXPERIENCE EXHIBITION OPENS MONDAY)

Well now the website has been updated with a dedicated artist section that includes a Bowie page viewable here.

Though I feel they did a pretty good job of the Bowie display at the exhibition proper, I couldn’t help noticing the rather disappointing intro in the biography on the Bowie page on the website, here’s a bit from it: “Bowie has been called the chameleon of rock, due to his ability to predict (and even set) musical trends, adjusting his musical persona accordingly.”

This is despite the fact that at the exhibition the Bowie display cabinet has a short introduction which kicks of with this: ?I?ve often been called a chameleon but surely a chameleon tries its hardest to fit in with its surroundings. That doesn?t describe me too well.? – David Bowie

I think perhaps this is one of those left hand/right hand scenarios.

You get a girl…

Had a few e-mails from UK BowieNetters today asking what happened to A Camp‘s version of Boys Keep Swinging and their Covers EP on iTunes.

Last month we told you the EP would be available on iTunes from June 9th. (05.26.2009 NEWS: ASLAN AND A CAMP COVER BOWIE ON NEW RELEASES)

Well, that was certainly the case for iTunes in America, but after a bit of digging it became apparent that there was no UK release as the Bowie cover, along with the band’s cover of Pink Floyd‘s Us and Them, had already been released in the UK back on May 3rd as extra tracks on the Love Has Left The Room EP.

Mystery solved.

I’ll tell you things you’d like to hear…

With around a month to go, full-page adverts for the upcoming VH1 Storytellers release that we told you about back in March (03.23.2009 NEWS: EMI TO RELEASE VH1 STORYTELLERS WITH BONUS TRACKS) have started to appear in the monthly music mags.

One thing that we may have not made completely obvious in that previous news item is the fact that the DVD and CD are part of the same package and aren’t available separately. Also, see that same story for the tracklisting if you didn’t already.

We’ll leave you with a closer look at those pictures in the ad above for your viewing pleasure…

Don’t be afraid of the man in the moon…

As part of its excellent One Giant Leap season, the British Film Institute is hosting a preview of Moon at the National Film Theatre on London’s Southbank.

The screening takes place on July 8th and it’s followed by a Q&A with director Duncan Jones.

Click on the link above to purchase tickets, but hurry as the majority of them went during a member’s only advance ticket sale.

Absolutely free…

Absolute Radio, (formerly Virgin) has teamed up with iTunes for a series of free podcasts of interviews from the Virgin Radio archives.

Aside from the picture researcher choosing a wholly irrelevant shot for the Bowie podcast, it’s still good to hear this nearly six-year-old interview with Ben Jones (above) which was recorded in September 2003, the day after David’s performance of Reality at the Riverside Studios in London. (09.08.2003 NEWS: REALITY AT THE RIVERSIDE TONIGHT: FINAL REMINDERS & 09.09.2003 NEWS: RIVERSIDE ROCKS AROUND THE WORLD)

The interview was originally broadcast on September 21st 2003. It was an hour long affair interspersed with music chosen by David. (09.20.2003 SNIPPET: BOWIEPHILES) This podcast version is just twelve minutes long and contains no music.

If you’re an iTunes user go here to have a listen.

Making my love like a shining star…

Today is the seventeenth anniversary of David and Iman‘s official church wedding in Florence, above. I’m sure you’ll want to join us in wishing them both a wonderful day, filled with special family celebrations.

Two wedding days mean two chances each year to send them our congratulations and BowieNet members can make a personal contribution to the well-wishing, by adding to the message board thread started by Bianca here

:))