Welcome to the Church of Man-Love. Here are a few things you might like to know:
You can expect 5-20—current daily average is 10—photos of David Bowie to arrive on your dash every day without fail. Videos and songs also pop up from time to time. There may be the occasional random photo of some other fella who strikes my fancy. I may ramble on about obscure bits of trivia.
I try too keep the blog at a PG-13 rating, though occasional R-rated text exchanges may slip through. I rarely post nudity, and always put it behind a cut.
I travel often. Sometimes I am away from my computer for several weeks at a time, so if I fail to answer a question promptly that’ll be why. Though, I love getting questions, so send me a message! And fear not, despite my travels, your photos will always continue to arrive, so long as the queue is working.
Requests are lots of fun! Let me know if there is a photo you would like to see, and if it exists, I will find it.
If you nick a photo that I have edited and repost it instead of reblogging or if you change the click-through link to redirect somewhere other than my blog, I will silently judge you.
If you spot a typo, factual error, or other screw-up, please tell me; I do want to know!
FAQ:
This is about the owner of this blog. For more info about Bowie, start here.
Who are you? Where do you live? How old are you?
I come from a very pretty planet known to your scientists as “Gliese 581g” in the system Wolf 562, though my people do not use those designations. I dare not give specifics as to my current location or activities, as certain Terran governments seek my capture.
Are you male or female?
On my planet we do not experience gender dichotomy as you do on Earth.
But, come on, boy or girl?!
I don’t think that my sex, gender, or orientation should make any difference to anybody’s enjoyment of this blog. Man-bits, lady-bits, or confusing in-between-bits … It doesn’t matter. I am who I am.
How long have you been a Bowie fan?
I’m a recent fan, having only become acquainted with his work around a year ago. I had, of course, heard his name mentioned here and there, but I couldn’t have picked him from a line-up.
¿Hablas español?
Sí, pero no muy bien.
Which stage character of Bowie’s do you like best?
It’s a tough choice, but I’ll have to say Ziggy. He is made of contradictions: archetype and subversion, crass and pure, obvious and unknowable. He is truly timeless.
My favorite non-stage character is Julian Priest.
Have you heard all of Bowie’s albums?
I have heard at least one or two songs from every single album, but I’ve been working through his oeuvre chronologically. I started at the very beginning with “Liza Jane” and am now up to Scary Monsters. Next up, Let’s Dance, which I’m planning on starting in a week or so.
Listening to his work this way was a well-considered choice. After hearing enough music to know that I was very interested in Bowie’s work, I decided that I wanted to give each album the time and attention it deserves, so didn’t rush to listen to them all at once.
What is your favorite album?
Picking a favorite is difficult, but if forced to, I would have to say Ziggy. Predictable, perhaps, but it is a classic for good reason. I like every single song (yes, even “It Ain’t Easy”) and don’t think I will ever tire of it. My top albums of the ones that I have heard, are currently:
- Ziggy
- Low
- Station to Station
- “Heroes”
- Diamond Dogs
- Aladdin Sane
- Hunky Dory
The first five are all about equal in my favor. I love them greatly.
Do you have a favorite live performance?
Oh, there are soooo many. I quite adore the “Life on Mars?” from the “Call me sailor” performance, and the 1987 Live Beat Club performances are quite cracking. “Drive In Saturday” on the Russell Harty show is sublimely weird, as are the SNL songs. “Heroes” on TopPop and Marc’s show are heartbreaking. And I know I’ll think of six or seven more favorites in the next two minutes.
Have you ever met David Bowie?
Sadly, no. And the odds that I ever shall are quite slim. ¿Book signing next year … I can hope. But, on the other hand, I’m not entirely sure that I want to meet him. I am very happy with the imaginary Bowie that lives in my brain.
Meeting your idols can be a dangerous thing; I have had bad experiences meeting people I looked up to. And I would only want to meet him if it was in a social or work setting, where we could speak as equals. Meeting people strictly as a fan is an incredibly abnormal thing.
Bowie’s work has given me so much, what more could I possibly hope to gain from actually meeting him?
Inquiring minds want to know about the proprietor of this awesome blog. How do you know so much about our beloved leader? Were you friends with him back on the home planet?
I have never had the privilege of meeting our dear leader, but he is held in the highest regard on my planet—indeed, on all the worlds of the Great Alliance. Long before I was hatched, he departed the civilized territories, forsaking a life of luxury to bring the word of truth to this barbaric, backwater planet at great personal cost to himself. His is an inspiration to us all.
How did you get into Bowie’s music?
I had heard “Life on Mars?” from the TV show by the same name, and had the vague notion that David Bowie was an odd musician who was known for his exceptionally tight pants.
Now, I am overfond of sci-fi. Netflix suggested TMWFTE, which I had heard of. I watched, was impressed. Did a little bit of reading online. Dug through my vast music collection and discovered a “Best of Bowie ‘69-‘74” collection (I have indiscriminately ripped all the CDs of my friends and relatives, so have a great deal of music that I haven’t heard and would never buy).
I put “Oh! You Pretty Things” on loop and went about my business. Sometime around the third repetition, the light-bulb went on: THIS IS SCI-FI.
Sold.
Tell me your first memory of David. Be Specific.
I was walking down the street one day, when this astonishingly handsome man appeared before me—and I do mean appeared, just from nowhere—in a rain of glitter, and attempted to persuade me to get in a little wooden box with him. He kept saying that it was bigger inside than I thought … yeah right, try another line! So I ran away and thought that would be the end of it. I had nearly forgotten about the whole thing two weeks later, when …
What? Why are you looking at me like that?
What is your opinion of Velvet Goldmine (the film)?
If taken strictly as a film with no consideration given to any potential real-life connections, I have some complaints. The story structure certainly leaves some things to be desired; the Citizen Kane pastiche is rather silly.
As eye-candy, one certainly can’t take issue. The boys are pretty and the costumes and makeup are very shiny.
But as biography or historical record, to me, it is a failure. It seems more a cartoon than an actual attempt to capture the era—with the exception of Ewan’s Iggy performance, which seems the most authentic part of the film. I think that Bowie was wise to distance himself from the project. His analogous character—Brian Slade—seems quite … vacuous. Though drawing influence from many sources, Bowie has been an active motive force through his career. To portray him as a passive agent being acted upon, but never doing, seems a basic miscalculation.
