R.I.P David Bowie: 8th January 1947 - 10th January 2016

I was just thinking today.... that back in Oct. on the 11th I was driving down Beverly Blvd. and at the Taschen Gallery was the Mick Rock exhibit on Bowie, the last day of the exhibit. I thought that it looked rather cool as dusk with the sun setting and the gallery lit up. Late on this Sunday afternoon it was closed, but I took some pictures anyway. I like to take pictures of my neighborhood when there is something different going on. This is three blocks from my home. Not sure if there was a thread already on this showing, but it's fine in this thread I guess. I had not thought about or looked at these pictures until today. I'd forgotten I even took them.

TASCHEN
Mick Rock - Shooting for Stardust
The Rise of David Bowie & Co.

 

Was that from David Priest?

DB bought something from me via Isolar in 2012 that way. I regret selling it now as it was an extremely personal item, but I needed funds to emigrate to Australia.

 

What was the item, I mean in general? Hand written lyrics or something really special?

 

That's album artwork material, right there!!!

 

One of my favorite styles of David was the cover photo of Peter and the Wolf, with his most pure and sweet look - about to read a children's story for the kids of every age.

 

Double Deluxe gate-fold sleeve art, pressed on colored wax!!! LOLOL

 

No.

I don't like to bandy people's names around on a public forum, but the initials AB should be enough for you to figure out who I'm referring to.

Welcome back, btw

 

Liver cancer is a particularly tricky one which seems to affect each sufferer differently. Some people are in immense pain whilst others are seemingly normal until the end. It took my dad. He had complications as he had a massive brain haemorrhage 6 months before he went so had trouble with walking and movement but the cancer itself just left him tired more than anything. A week before he lost the fight, he went on holiday to the seaside. Then he had a couple of days at home before his girlfriend rang me in the morning to let me know that he wasn't feeling too good but nothing to worry about. A few hours later he slipped away. We all knew it was coming but in the end it was surprisingly quick. He was on steroids which made him look puffy but some people go very yellow and jaundiced. Not everyone has the dignity of slipping away. For some poor souls, it can be a very violent death as the organ fails (I won't go into details as here is not the place). Sorry for the rambling but I hope it goes to show that liver cancer (if that was indeed the cancer that he had) is an unpredictable killer.

 

My local has a "bowie box" at the front of the store and that book has been sitting there for $10 for nearly a month now.

 

That one exists with several covers. Do you mean the grey one with the blonde 'Berlin' haircut and the animated wolf behind him?
It looks surprisingly similar to ChangesOneBowie.

 

I saw this when i was in LA back in September. Very cool seeing those shots blown up enough to see every strand of hair.

My friend also spotted Twiggy Ramirez from Marilyn Manson's band and talked to him a bit.

 

He missed a bunch of dress rehearsals for Lazarus and only showed for the public opening.

The only thing we know he did in his final 2 months were the Dec 7th opening where he apparently had a collapse backstage and the November video shoot where he's sitting/lying for most of it. The "final photo shoot" was Sept 28th in the alley of the lazarus theater.

Save for Visconti, it appears he didn't answer any emails int he final week and Iman's cryptic twitter seemed to indicate his health took a sharp turn just after his birthday. Though 1 source said he went for a walk outside on his birthday and on Sunday went to bed early citing "fatigue" and didn't wake up.

 

Didn't Tony say that David recorded demos the last week he was alive? I guess he did them own his own?

 

A letter David wrote to me, with a piece of artwork he created especially for me.

 

So the last three months he likely was feeling pretty bad, and got up and dressed for only a couple of things. In the ally photo shot, to me, he looks like a dying man. A very determined person, but dying.

 

Yes, that group of photos, or that look.

 

Ah yes, the fellow English journalist.

Oh, and thank you. Hope you're bearing up after the godawful news last month.

 

I wish he could have gotten a liver transplant. If Lou Reed could get on the list as well as David Crosby, then you know money talks. It bought Jack Bruce another 8 years or so right? But maybe it was the kind that just does not go away.

I pictured David being like a 90 year old William Burroughs type, and hanging out once in a while at openings and installations around town, old but looking ultra stylish, and with some comment on the art of it.

I still can't believe he just flew off this earth like that! To us it seemed swift, but to the insiders, it was not so swift.

 

I suspect Bowie had heart issues since 2004 that would stop him from being a candidate.

Crosby/Reed/Bruce all toured up to their transplants.

 

Just watched it again carefully, you may be right. I know Bowie was on set for much of not all the shoot, he may well have stepped in here and there!

 

Def Bowie's face is superimposed on the Low one, and a couple of the other long distance ones.

Absolutely brilliant remix. I've just posted it to Visconti and Torn's wall on FB.

 

You know, I saw a lot of the old Bowie crowd just before Xmas, at The Owl's wedding, and they were talking in positive terms about the album and the possibility of him touring. I didn't want to piss on anybody's canapés, so I kept shtum on the matter, but I thought Bowie was looking terribly ashen and frail in recent photographs, and there was no hope of him ever touring again.

My friends aren't stupid, but I don't think they wanted to acknowledge what was hiding in plain sight. As you know, I'd drawn a line under my Bowie obsession after Katrina (in truth, Reality was the beginning of the end, for me). Perhaps my detachment allowed me to see his physical decline in a way that they couldn't, or wouldn't.

I'll always love Bowie, but I haven't listened to him since 2005. No one believes me, but I have a copy of The Next Day that has been sitting on my shelf, unplayed, since my girlfriend gifted it to me three years ago.

I shed a tear on the morning the news of his death broke in the UK, but I wasn't distraught. It was an incredibly classy way to go out, I thought.

 

Visconti said the last contact they had was on the Monday before he died via FaceTime and Bowie was talking about the 5 demos he'd recorded and going back into the studio. He reckons things must have gone downhill pretty quickly after that call. He also called him on his birthday from the stage during a Holy Holy gig in NYC, and got the audience to sing Happy Birthday, but it was probably just a voice mail message.

 

This tracks is one of four from an EP you can listen to here: https://soundcloud.com/sebastienbede/sets/david-bowie-remake-ep
I've asked the band if they are downloadable in good quality anywhere.

(If you want to check out the work of the band, here is the EP I mastered (and partially mixed) -it's louder than I wish it would be, but, that's how they wanted it...