Music
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No one more Visionary in rock music, except maybe Dylan and Lennon, and for all sorts of reasons–the records he made with Mick Ronson way back re-invigorated rock for the masses in a way Zappa did for a smaller few, when some thought rock still a fad, and a dying one at that. It led to punk, new wave, and more for a decade to come. Well on the other side of that, in 1986, a few years into the MTV era (another "fad" people thought as doomed), I was hired to direct/edit Bowie's video for Space Oddity. He wouldn't perform it or be filmed. It had to be based on all available NASA footage. My partner and I went ahead and cut it, Bowie loved it, and it became part of his tours, projected large, but never made it to MTV or broadcast because of a legal dispute involving creative rights. The idea of making a video for a long-dead (with little airplay at the time) back-catalog number was thought crazy, but of course it became standard 20 years later when Youtube arrived. The big silence will never be silent for him. This is my favorite:
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It's been a long time since any celebrity death has moved me as much as David Bowie's today. He was an institution in music since I can think. He was so many personalities in his time, and all came across so convincingly. And he lived here in my city, in Berlin, for some time and created some of his more memorable music here.
I listened to his "Where are we now" to honour and remember him after hearing the news. Sadly appropriate in its elegiac, melancholic quality, remembering his Berlin years decades later.
R.I.P. David, and thank you for the music.
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Tonight I will be watching Merry Christmas Mister Lawrence, RIP David
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As if Sunday wasn't bad enough with Bowie passing, the St. Louis music scene lost an incredible musician to cancer earlier that day as well. Ken McCray, the drummer of Tilts and formerly Shame Club, who had been battling cancer for four years. Such an amazingly cool dude, the nicest guy you'd ever wish to meet, and probably the best drummer in town by most accounts. A real powerhouse, and supremely musical as well. I was honored to have known him and see him play on many occasions with Tilts and Shame Club, and it crushes me that I'll never get to witness him behind a kit again as he was such a joy to watch. Fuck cancer.
My favorite Tilts song:
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http://www.sunkilmoon.com/jesuskm.html that happened. I never know when Mark Kozelek releases new music, but it always makes me excited. Hopefully better than his last, but obviously won't surpass Benji.
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Classic sunday chillout:
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Random story semi-related to that:
My wife is a lawyer and is involved in a local lawyer association. Several years ago, we went to a fundraiser dinner and sat with older lawyer and his wife. Joe has a daughter from a previous marriage who was working as a fairly successful makeup artist in LA at the time. My wife liked to get gossip about celebrities that Joe got from his daughter. Naturally, Julie asked about her at the dinner. He mentioned that she had started dating a guy that Joe didn't especially approve of, since he didn't have a real job. We asked what he did. "He's a musician. He's the lead singer in his band." We agreed that wasn't a good long term prospect. Joe said the band might not be too terrible, since they had a recording contract. We ask the name, thinking there was an off chance we might have heard of them. He said, "They call themselves 'The Fallout Boys'" and kind of rolled his eyes at how dumb a name it was. Julie and I looked at each other, then looked at Joe, then I said, "Your daughter is dating Patrick Stump, the lead singer for Fall Out Boy?" He just got this really shocked look on his face and said, "You know him?"Yeah, totally clueless that his daughter was dating a dude in a band that was actually well known. I guess he revised his opinion, because his daughter married Stump.
