David Bowie: Happy 71st Birthday

Happy 71st Birthday to My Favourite #ManCrushMonday of all time! I chose this picture of 80s!Era Bowie in celebration, as he will always hold a special place in my heart.  He is the first Bowie that I was ever introduced to from his collaboration with Queen on "Under Pressure", and as Jareth the Goblin King in Labyrinth.  Despite Bowie's personal opinion that he was "asleep" for the 1980s, to me, the decade will always be home to some of my favourite albums, films, and work by him.  Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) is in my Top Five favourite albums and I am a staunch supporter of both Never Let Me Down and the accompanying Glass Spider Tour.  Not to mention my undying love for his music videos like "China Girl" and "Let's Dance".  Meanwhile, historically, the 1980s is when Bowie officially shot into mainstream popstardom, cementing his role as a cultural icon, sex symbol, music revolutionary, and rock god.  Also, it's home of a lot of great haircuts.  I picked this image of the numerous ones taken in the 1980s because 1) It's cold here and he was on a skiing trip in the photo and 2) It's a rather silly picture to counterbalance a lot of "serious" photos that are usually distributed of him

A VERY Happy 71st Birthday to My Forever Fav! I only wish he was still here to celebrate with all of his friends, family, and (of course) fans.  However, there will be time for reminiscing and being sad two days from now.  Since it's his birthday, I would much rather celebrate his life!

I spent my day living 24/7 Bowie (so, a normal day).  I started off by getting woken up by my Bowie alarm clock tones before getting ready to the newly released "Let's Dance" demo (which strikes a pleasing middle ground between this acoustic performance and the original, complete with an adorable laugh at the end).  Then I put on my Bowie shirt that Manar gave me for my birthday before heading out (still listening to Bowie) to make a pilgrimage at all the relevant stops.  I first went to Washington Square Park (his favourite park), then I headed down to Dean & Deluca (his local grocery store).  After getting some soup, I headed over to McNally Jackson (his local book store) to purchase one of his Top 100 Favourite Books (The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima), before finally going to visit his apartment on Lafayette St.  By this point it was pretty cold, so I headed back to watch Labyrinth and a copious amount of his music videos, interviews, and performances.

Now, in honour of the festivities, here's a bunch of my favourite Bowie-related things and resources!

STARTER KITS

1) If you're looking for a classic "David Bowie Starter Kit", just wanting to get into his straight, pure, unadulterated musical genius, then look no further than my Spotify Playlist that I put together for an introductory course into The Legend.  And here's a short explanation behind my song choices that I put together last year.  His birthday (and the start of a new year) is the perfect excuse to get some of this QUALI-TEA ART into your soul.

2) If you're looking to get into his music videos, might I recommend: "Space Oddity" (original version), "Life On Mars?", "John, I'm Only Dancing", "'Heroes'", "Ashes to Ashes", "Let's Dance", "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)", and "Lazarus", as those are his most famous, innovative, and influential of his works.  However, if you're looking for some a little more off the beaten track, every music video he made in the 90s is absolutely incredible.  "Little Wonder" and "I'm Afraid of Americans" are both excellent, and "Jump They Say" (from 1993) is actually my favourite Bowie music video.

Of course, every video he does is fantastic, and honourable mentions include all of his music videos from 2013 - particularly "The Next Day" (look out for that Gary Oldman cameo who worked for a sandwich and a bottle of pop) and "Love is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix by James Murphy for the DFA)" (which he made for $12.99, directing the entire thing himself in his office).  These are the two that I find myself continuously going back to watch over and over again.

3) If you're looking to get into his tours, all of them are amazing in different ways.  Of course, Ziggy Stardust is the most famous and iconic, as captured in Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - The Motion Picture but The Diamond Dog/The Soul Tour is also wonderfully captured in Cracked Actor, made by Alan Yentob.  My personal favourite tour goes back and forth, but there's something to be said for his critically UNacclaimed Glass Spider Tour, the spiritual successor to the Diamond Dog Tour, and the Outside Tour, when he tried to get rid of his legacy and only perform his most recent and/or obscure songs in excellent attire.  Meanwhile,  I'm still waiting for a non-bootleg official release of his ISOLAR I tour, of which the best I can find is this footage from the Vancouver Rehearsals.  This is a particular loss to me, as The Thin White Duke is my favourite era of Bowie.  I will admit that I haven't watched A Reality Tour straight through, as I get too sad when I think of it being his last ever tour.

4) If you're looking for "Top Performances" or versions of songs, there's too many to count.  So some of my favourite (in no particular order) are: his performances of "Stay" and "Five Years" on the Dinah Shore Show, his performance of "TVC-15" on SNL, his rendition of the Low album at the Montreux Jazz Festival, his Live by Request special on A&E, his infamous performance of "Starman" on Top of the Pops (and this later one of "'Heroes'"), and the entirety of his acoustic performance at The Bridge School Benefit Concert.  The best part of any Bowie performance is looking out for how little he knows his own lyrics, and how he's so endearingly charming about it all anyways.

5) If you're looking to get into his non-musical work, then look no further than his amazing acting career.  The Man Who Fell to Earth and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence are both Criterion Collection-level films that are incredible to watch, while a personal favourite will always be Labyrinth (and honestly, it was made by Jim Henson, George Lucas, and David Bowie so it was bound to be amazing).

But my favourite Bowie-acting-story is how Christopher Nolan personally visited Bowie to try and convince (read: beg) him to play the part of Tesla in The Prestige, whereas Bowie wrote about his role in Spongebob Squarepants: Atlantis Squarepantis as, "At last I’ve hit the Holy Grail of animation gigs. Yesterday I got to be a character on…tan-tara…Spongebob Squarepants. Oh Yeah!! We, the family, are thrilled. Nothing else need happen this year, well, this week anyway."  I just love the idea of Bowie being absolutely chuffed about being in Spongebob, whereas he had to be convinced to take part in The Prestige.

And I would be remiss if I didn't do an honourable mention for all of Bowie's wonderfully diverse and weird commercials.  The ones for Vittel and Louis Vuitton will always be my personal favourites.

6) If you're looking to get into Bowie as a comedian, literally any interview will work.  Normally, I have a hard time watching interviews with him because the interviewer is too annoying (either they are insulting and intrusive or they won't let him talk or they're just too slow to pick up on his humour), but it's worth it for the gems that Bowie gives.  This trilogy of "Funny Moments" compilations is a great place to start, along with this Retrospective Conan put together, and his commencement address at Berkley.

ACCOUNTS

1) Best David Bowie Instagram Accounts - of course, I follow @davidbowie, @the_real_iman (his wife), and @rodeneronquillo (his daughter-in-law), but for pure fan accounts, I love @somebowie, @newkiller_blackstar_, and @crossroads_and_hamburgers.  They are my top three, but @the_girl_with_the_mousy_hair, @waiting.for.the.thinwhiteduke_ and @jeangenie.sweetthing.candidate are also honourable mentions.  Also, a lovely shout out to the David Bowie: Glamour Fanzine accounts on all the social media who are supportive of my tweets and posts!

2) Best David Bowie YouTube Accounts - like Instagram, of course I follow Bowie's official account, and emimusic usually has a decent amount of his music video archived, but the three fan accounts that shine the brightest are Mister Sussex, Nacho Video, and david bowie tin machine.  All three of these accounts always provide excellent footage for almost any of one's Bowie needs, and take the time to remaster, edit, and compile the footage themselves.  Nacho, in particular, does an excellent job at providing a detailed explanation/history of the piece in the description below the video.

3) Best David Bowie Twitter Accounts - like Instagram and YouTube of course I follow Bowie's official account and @ManMadeMoon (his son), but my top favourite fan accounts are @ziggylyrics for excellent regular Bowie quote content and @CrayonToCrayon, which is without a doubt the funniest Bowie fan account out there.

BOOKS/BLOGS

So many books and blogs about Bowie are saturated with gossip, strong opinions, and a lot of speculation about his sex life, so it's difficult for me to find many that I enjoy.  The only two places that I've found consistently reliable (while also providing valuable insight) are the book The Complete David Bowie by Nicholass Pegg and the blog "Pushing Ahead of the Dame" by Chris O'Leary.  On a personal note, I disagree more with O'Leary in regards to whether or not he believes a song is "good", but his blog is still a great "quick reference" for any background you want about Bowie and his music.  And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't once again plug for Bowie's own Top 100 Favourite Books List as critical Bowie material to consume.