Almost a week after David Bowie's death, I dreamt that he and I were sitting at a table somewhere - a cheap school/college table, like one would have in a library, - and drawing
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This dream is amazing. :| Accidentally or not, the collaboration-drawings seem to really elegantly capture both the boldness and the inherent derivativeness of his art (which always was more like changing or twisting something familiar than actually creating any new thing that was purely his own). Maybe you've just subconsciously assimilated his cultural image really well. I have no idea what to make of the end of the dream, though. I mean, given that you have no actual feelings about him in real life. Very strange...
Incidentally, did you know he'd been offered a role on Hannibal? Apparently they wanted him to play Hannibal's uncle in S2, and his management told Brian Fuller he couldn't do it just then, but to ask again the next year if they wanted him for S3. Honestly, the fact that he didn't do Hannibal was one of a number of things that made me sort of worried about what was really going on, because that show would have been so right up his alley. He did a whole art-murder concept album back in the 90s.
jesus christ, how do you quote in this thing?.. bleh. reminds me why livejournal is not a thing anymore.
Maybe you've just subconsciously assimilated his cultural image really well.
I guess it's cultural osmosis of some kind. I mean, living in the West you do absorb the idea that Bowie is an icon, but if you don't actually listen to his music, the whys are nebulous. The makers of Venture Bros cartoon RPFed him as "The Sovereign", a shapeshifter that headed a society of supervillains. Except he wasn't actually David Bowie, he was someThing that was also David Bowie?.. I'm sure I'm missing a whole lot of layers of meaning in all this.
I have no idea what to make of the end of the dream, though. I mean, given that you have no actual feelings about him in real life. Very strange...If I had to guess, I'd say it's because Russians tend to draw parallels between him and our Boris Grebenschikov
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I'm sure I'm missing a whole lot of layers of meaning in all this.
Huh. Haven't seen the cartoon, so no idea, except that it's a pretty well-established fact that "David Bowie" was always a character, even apart from all the sub-characters that the character was playing. (OR, of course, alternatively, that David Bowie was real, and was actually not human at all, but rather some kind of space-alien-god-thing who merely disguised himself as a human rock star. A rock star who disguised himself as a space-alien-god-thing, that is. Er.)
Russians tend to draw parallels between him and our Boris Grebenschikov.
Yeah? I had heard of Grebenschikov, slightly (no idea where), and of course I saw the pictures you posted on FB, but didn't know anything about him. Sounds like I should check him out. Both Refuge and Bardo sound interesting, the former particularly.
in 'Russian man' years, especially in 'Russian poet' years, he's ancient.Oy. These guys
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(OR, of course, alternatively, that David Bowie was real, and was actually not human at all, but rather some kind of space-alien-god-thing who merely disguised himself as a human rock star. A rock star who disguised himself as a space-alien-god-thing, that is. Er.)
Yeah? I had heard of Grebenschikov, slightly (no idea where), and of course I saw the pictures you posted on FB, but didn't know anything about him. Sounds like I should check him out. Both Refuge and Bardo sound interesting, the former particularly.
Greben' also sang in English for a while, he tried to see if he can make over in the West. He did okay, make some English-language albums, but in the end he's a Russian poet, so he had to go back to what he was best at.
I mean, Bowie was in a sort of similar position. He'd already had major heart surgery some twelve years ago. When he showed back up in 2013 I think everyone was sort of like, "Oh thank god, he's
( ... )
...Heh, yeah, definitely no idea. Except that the blond shirtless guy he's fighting is Iggy Pop, who was one of Bowie's best friends from the mid 70s onward. Dunno why they'd be fighting, though... or who any of the other people are...
Here's an ancient recording of Greben' making his American TV debut on Letterman
Thanks for the link -- I like this. He's got a good voice (even more noticeably on the second clip you linked to, but he sounds good here too). Funny thing: I watched this video first (before the Venture Bros. clip) and was wondering if he was alluding to Iggy Pop in the song, since one of Iggy Pop's bigger hits was "Real Wild Child (Wild One)." Could easily be just a coincidence, but it was weird to hear those lyrics and then see Iggy in the cartoon as well.
He drank a LOT when he was young because that was the late-Soviet modus vivendi for the BohemeYeah, I sort of figured. I'm sure Bowie did his share of hard drinking as well, but I think with him it was mostly psychedelics in the
( ... )
Thanks for the link -- I like this. He's got a good voice (even more noticeably on the second clip you linked to, but he sounds good here too). Funny thing: I watched this video first (before the Venture Bros. clip) and was wondering if he was alluding to Iggy Pop in the song, since one of Iggy Pop's bigger hits was "Real Wild Child (Wild One)." Could easily be just a coincidence, but it was weird to hear those lyrics and then see Iggy in the cartoon as well.
Oh, BG has a special voice, he does. XD Well, did, when he was young - he's a lot more hoarse now. On one hand, quite melodic, but on the other hand, he wasn't a trained singer, and he used to have this bleating vibrato... sounded a third Bob Dylan, a third Jacques Brel, and a third kid goat. XD
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sounded a third Bob Dylan, a third Jacques Brel, and a third kid goat. XD
XD I guess I kind of see what you mean, though mostly he sounds just fine to me. (Admittedly, I have zero musical/auditory training -- I even kind of enjoy Bob Dylan's voice -- so my assessment is probably meaningless.) ...But what in the world is that squeaker noise? Is that some kind of instrument? Now that is strange!
I don't know that Bowie was ever exactly a trained singer, either. His "normal" singing voice is sort of nasal (sometimes extremely and purposely so), and he tends to come back to that by default at various points in his career. But he does also have this magnificentbaritone that got to be one of his trademarks in the late 70s-80s.
Then after it became possible to sell albums, "suddenly" people discovered the "plagiarism" - is it plagiarism when you credit the original author but don't get their official permission to use their work, because that's pretty much impossible?.. the jury's still out.I've always wondered how this sort of
( ... )
XD I guess I kind of see what you mean, though mostly he sounds just fine to me. (Admittedly, I have zero musical/auditory training -- I even kind of enjoy Bob Dylan's voice -- so my assessment is probably meaningless.) ...But what in the world is that squeaker noise? Is that some kind of instrument? Now that is strange!
No idea! BG loves his 'svistelki i perdelki' (whistles and fart-makers) - a fun translation of 'bells and whistles'. But yeah, BG's singing is most commonly verbed as "bleating". :)
But he does also have this magnificent baritone that got to be one of his trademarks in the late 70s-80s.
I wonder if it's just an inevitable consequence of cigarettes? No matter where your register is, everyone ends up a baritone eventually. This is what BG sounds like these days... in a subway in Moscow, because why not.
True enough. And staying skinny and pretty seemed to be rather high priorities for Bowie.
I think it might've been the opposite for Boris. He spent about 20 years being the king of Leningrad underground. The
( ... )
Incidentally, did you know he'd been offered a role on Hannibal? Apparently they wanted him to play Hannibal's uncle in S2, and his management told Brian Fuller he couldn't do it just then, but to ask again the next year if they wanted him for S3. Honestly, the fact that he didn't do Hannibal was one of a number of things that made me sort of worried about what was really going on, because that show would have been so right up his alley. He did a whole art-murder concept album back in the 90s.
I know he invented ( ... )
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Maybe you've just subconsciously assimilated his cultural image really well.
I guess it's cultural osmosis of some kind. I mean, living in the West you do absorb the idea that Bowie is an icon, but if you don't actually listen to his music, the whys are nebulous. The makers of Venture Bros cartoon RPFed him as "The Sovereign", a shapeshifter that headed a society of supervillains. Except he wasn't actually David Bowie, he was someThing that was also David Bowie?.. I'm sure I'm missing a whole lot of layers of meaning in all this.
I have no idea what to make of the end of the dream, though. I mean, given that you have no actual feelings about him in real life. Very strange...If I had to guess, I'd say it's because Russians tend to draw parallels between him and our Boris Grebenschikov ( ... )
Reply
Huh. Haven't seen the cartoon, so no idea, except that it's a pretty well-established fact that "David Bowie" was always a character, even apart from all the sub-characters that the character was playing. (OR, of course, alternatively, that David Bowie was real, and was actually not human at all, but rather some kind of space-alien-god-thing who merely disguised himself as a human rock star. A rock star who disguised himself as a space-alien-god-thing, that is. Er.)
Russians tend to draw parallels between him and our Boris Grebenschikov.
Yeah? I had heard of Grebenschikov, slightly (no idea where), and of course I saw the pictures you posted on FB, but didn't know anything about him. Sounds like I should check him out. Both Refuge and Bardo sound interesting, the former particularly.
in 'Russian man' years, especially in 'Russian poet' years, he's ancient.Oy. These guys ( ... )
Reply
...Here, just watch this. XD
Yeah? I had heard of Grebenschikov, slightly (no idea where), and of course I saw the pictures you posted on FB, but didn't know anything about him. Sounds like I should check him out. Both Refuge and Bardo sound interesting, the former particularly.
Greben' also sang in English for a while, he tried to see if he can make over in the West. He did okay, make some English-language albums, but in the end he's a Russian poet, so he had to go back to what he was best at.
Here's an ancient recording of Greben' making his American TV debut on Letterman
I mean, Bowie was in a sort of similar position. He'd already had major heart surgery some twelve years ago. When he showed back up in 2013 I think everyone was sort of like, "Oh thank god, he's ( ... )
Reply
...Heh, yeah, definitely no idea. Except that the blond shirtless guy he's fighting is Iggy Pop, who was one of Bowie's best friends from the mid 70s onward. Dunno why they'd be fighting, though... or who any of the other people are...
Here's an ancient recording of Greben' making his American TV debut on Letterman
Thanks for the link -- I like this. He's got a good voice (even more noticeably on the second clip you linked to, but he sounds good here too). Funny thing: I watched this video first (before the Venture Bros. clip) and was wondering if he was alluding to Iggy Pop in the song, since one of Iggy Pop's bigger hits was "Real Wild Child (Wild One)." Could easily be just a coincidence, but it was weird to hear those lyrics and then see Iggy in the cartoon as well.
He drank a LOT when he was young because that was the late-Soviet modus vivendi for the BohemeYeah, I sort of figured. I'm sure Bowie did his share of hard drinking as well, but I think with him it was mostly psychedelics in the ( ... )
Reply
Oh, BG has a special voice, he does. XD Well, did, when he was young - he's a lot more hoarse now. On one hand, quite melodic, but on the other hand, he wasn't a trained singer, and he used to have this bleating vibrato... sounded a third Bob Dylan, a third Jacques Brel, and a third kid goat. XD ( ... )
Reply
XD I guess I kind of see what you mean, though mostly he sounds just fine to me. (Admittedly, I have zero musical/auditory training -- I even kind of enjoy Bob Dylan's voice -- so my assessment is probably meaningless.) ...But what in the world is that squeaker noise? Is that some kind of instrument? Now that is strange!
I don't know that Bowie was ever exactly a trained singer, either. His "normal" singing voice is sort of nasal (sometimes extremely and purposely so), and he tends to come back to that by default at various points in his career. But he does also have this magnificent baritone that got to be one of his trademarks in the late 70s-80s.
Then after it became possible to sell albums, "suddenly" people discovered the "plagiarism" - is it plagiarism when you credit the original author but don't get their official permission to use their work, because that's pretty much impossible?.. the jury's still out.I've always wondered how this sort of ( ... )
Reply
No idea! BG loves his 'svistelki i perdelki' (whistles and fart-makers) - a fun translation of 'bells and whistles'. But yeah, BG's singing is most commonly verbed as "bleating". :)
But he does also have this magnificent baritone that got to be one of his trademarks in the late 70s-80s.
I wonder if it's just an inevitable consequence of cigarettes? No matter where your register is, everyone ends up a baritone eventually. This is what BG sounds like these days... in a subway in Moscow, because why not.
True enough. And staying skinny and pretty seemed to be rather high priorities for Bowie.
I think it might've been the opposite for Boris. He spent about 20 years being the king of Leningrad underground. The ( ... )
Reply
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