Comments | queerbychoice: R.I.P., David Bowie

queerbychoice

R.I.P., David Bowie

Jan 10, 2016 23:43

David Bowie is dead.

It was on the day of his death, just a few hours before they announced it, presumably as he was dying, that I was listening to his brand-new album Blackstar, released just two days ago on his 69th birthday - I was listening to it on YouTube because my copy of the CD hasn't even arrived in the mail yet - and I was thinking then ( Read more... )

Comments 12

seifaiden January 11 2016, 11:38:27 UTC

The first thing I did upon learning the news was to log on to LJ (just now) and see if you knew. Of course you knew. I am so sorry for you and sorry for all of us.

queerbychoice January 11 2016, 15:58:39 UTC

Thank you for thinking of me.

luinied January 12 2016, 08:28:31 UTC

Same for me.

I don't know what to say, but I've been thinking of you (Gayle) a lot today.

queerbychoice January 14 2016, 03:20:57 UTC

Thank you too.

blamebrampton January 11 2016, 14:40:06 UTC

It just doesn't make sense that he's not in the world any more. His impact is still so palpably strong, just, now without thaht sometimes cheeky, sometimes wise real person who tempered the legend with a proper life and with a llittle sarcasm and a lot of kindness as needed. One of his collaborators was saying tonight that the last album was a gift to fans to ease them through these weeks. Bloody far-sighted brave kind bastard, that's what made me tear up.

queerbychoice January 11 2016, 15:58:18 UTC

Yes. Even though I barely slept all night from the emotional trauma of it, I'm not actually even done with the denial phase yet - some part of my brain is still firmly convinced that this must all be some sort of terrible hoax.

prairiecity January 11 2016, 14:54:24 UTC

i'm sorry to hear it; this is the first i'd heard of his death, and i didn't actually know he was even ill. he always seemed so eternally youthful. sorry for your loss.

queerbychoice January 11 2016, 15:55:53 UTC

Thank you for saying that - "sorry for your loss." You're the first person to use that wording, and it feels like the right wording, but it hasn't felt like anyone else would understand that.

None of the general public knew he was ill. He kept it private.

dzuunmod January 11 2016, 16:43:23 UTC

My sympathies, Gayle.

queerbychoice January 11 2016, 23:29:19 UTC

Thank you, Josh.

fflo January 12 2016, 20:20:09 UTC

You and the first woman I slept with are the people I would call the biggest David Bowie fans I know of if it weren't for the fact that "fan" is nowhere near a big enough word for it. I know actually several people (all women) (and queer, in various ways) to whom he was very important, but none so much as you and that former lover.

I learned a lot about the guy back in the day, but prompted as much by others' enthusiasm as by my own fascination. The most surprising thing to me was how he started out as an ordinary fella, singing folky songs, and finding his way. It's only with someone phenomenal like him that such a finding would be surprising.

I'm sorry, Cynthia/Gayle.

queerbychoice January 14 2016, 03:19:35 UTC

Thank you, Lisa/'Ff'lo.

The career trajectory that led him from "The Laughing Gnome" to "Ziggy Stardust" in the span of very few years was, I think, a bit odder than most. Or maybe it's just that most performers manage to suppress their incongruous pre-success fumblings better. Probably not, though - so much of his work looks incongruous when placed next to his work from other eras. Like the Young Americans album. Or Tin Machine. There was no label or category that anyone ever tried to place him in that he didn't promptly slip out of. Not just musical genres but also genders, sexual orientations, arguably races (the lyrics to "Blackstar" seem to me partly a declaration of transracial identity), even the entire category of "musician."