ellathenotsofinefella

[ellathenotsofinefella]

David Robert Jones

The first time I became aware of David Bowie it wasn’t as a singer but as an actor. In early 1978 I was 13 years old and my friend Phil’s mum suggested we go to the drive-in to watch a sci-fi film. Hoo-boy, I was excited! The film was THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. 

It wasn’t a kid-friendly movie by any means, but a weird artsy fartsy flick. During one memorable moment, Bowie took his own eyeballs out, then goes on to remove his hair, and his cock & balls too, revealing that he was actually an alien. This prompted his girlfriend to piss herself on camera. None of this was what any of us expected. I remember we turned to one another in the car with "WTF?!" expressions. However, Phil's mum was intrigued enough to let us stay till movie's end (Phil's mum was cool).

This must have been in the wake of STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, when the manager of the local drive-in probably figured that a good way of cashing in on the buzz was to show anything at all with a sci-fi slant. 

I didn’t know then that the alien with the detachable genitals was actually a singer, but figured that out a few years later, and was deff a Bowie fan by my last few years of high school. It was the dawning of the MTV/rock video era, and Bowie made a splash with his promo videos. I especially remember those for the album SCARY MONSTERS. 

There is an amusing anecdote about the video for the hit single ASHES TO ASHES. Bowie was being filmed walking up a beach dressed in the pierrot outfit he wore on the cover of the SCARY MONSTERS album, when an old man and his dog walked into shot. The crew yelled at him, to get out of the way. Gesturing at Bowie, the director said to the old codger “Do you know who this is?” The old guy looks Bowie up and down and replies “Of course I do. It’s some çµn† in a clown suit.” Bowie later said ���That was a huge moment for me. It put me back in my place and made me realise, yes, I’m just a çµn† in a clown suit. I think about that old guy all the time.” 

Across the other side of the world however, a certain 16 year old was actually impressed. To me, Bowie was an enigma in a clown suit, and I was curious enough to find more of his records. Each album had a new musical style, with a new persona for Bowie to strut around in. These frequent costume & character changes were lampooned brilliantly by FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS in their hilarious BOWIE episode. Some people found this Bowie as chameleon shtick alienating, feeling that he wasn’t committed to anything other than his own fame. However, I loved this approach, and absolutely everything Bowie did in the 1970s - his GOLDEN YEARS.

Some of my fave albums were all of the “Berlin Trilogy” - LOW, “HEROES” and  LODGER. I recently read that the cover photo for the album “HEROES” was taken by legendary photographer Masayoshi Sukita exactly 48 years ago in April 1977. Learning that fact prompted this post, and a tribute drawing:

The Thin White Duke’s strung out early 1970s appearances on TV chat shows fostered his early image of other-worldly weirdness. Hard to say if that was simply PR posturing, or drugs (or both) because he became a charming and witty talk show guest in later decades, serving up many funny anecdotes.

Maybe that crotchety old bugger on a cold British beach had a lasting impact on Bowie, as his music definitely changed after that encounter. The early 1980s saw some of his biggest hits but (for me) he creatively sputtered throughout the rest of the decade. In 1983 I saw Bowie - who was but a tiny figure in the distance - in concert, for the SERIOUS MOONLIGHT tour. I stopped following his music around that time. However, his earlier work that I first fell in love with, has been in constant rotation on my Walkmans, iPods and home music systems ever since.

It is hard to say why some celebrity deaths are more affecting than others - after all, I don’t know any of these people personally - but learning that Ziggy had turned back into Stardust did affect me. Even though I’d not followed his work for many years, the news of Bowie's death left me surprised and saddened, and had me devouring his records & videos constantly for weeks thereafter. Amazingly, there was fresh material. While quietly battling cancer during his last years, Bowie had enough energy to make a musical play and a new album, which was released at the time of his death. A consummate showman, David Robert Jones knew that memorable exits are just as important as entrances for an unforgettable performance.

[ellathenotsofinefella]

[ellathenotsofinefella]

"I asked ChatGPT--"

Yeah well, I asked the wasps nest in my attic. It sang its answer so beautifully to me, but I am so very afraid of it. Perhaps it will soothe my itching soul...

[ellathenotsofinefella]

[ellathenotsofinefella]

@academia-lucifer

[ellathenotsofinefella]

twitter is being overrun by ice war posting. Best this sites been in ages

[ellathenotsofinefella]

@strange-aeons Let’s make Swedish sandwich cake with mamas

[ellathenotsofinefella]

thank you Three Wise Elves that live in my inbox it means a lot

[ellathenotsofinefella]

it’s fun that Mormonism is based off pseudo-archeology and Scientology is based off pseudo-psychiatry. By that logic the big American New Religious Movement of the 21st century is gonna be based on… pseudo-computer science?

[ellathenotsofinefella]

Shout out to the USA for pissing Canadians off so bad it flipped an entire election that was supposed to be a landslide for the center-right, forever in your debt o7

[ellathenotsofinefella]

"Every social media app has Elvis impersonators" is a statistical error, Tumblr Georg, who lives in a cave and has 1000000 Elvi was an outlier and should not have been counted

[ellathenotsofinefella]

i had a dream about a meme that said “your third eye is open but your chakras ain’t ready for these titties 👅” and a completely incomprehensible picture

what does that mean

[ellathenotsofinefella]

you'll never be punk yr clothes are from shein and yr makeup is from tiktok

[ellathenotsofinefella]

Happy annual Dracula Paprika Discourse Day to those who celebrate!

[ellathenotsofinefella]

Dear video essay creators. A video analysis is when you analyze a piece of media. No no look at me. A summary, no matter how thorough, is not an analysis. An analysis requires you to draw conclusions about the media such as authorial intent, real-world parallels, discussion about themes/worldbuilding/character motivation, and so much more. You have to stop summarizing something and saying that’s analysis. The Gaylors are doing more critical analysis than you. Is that who you want to lose to? The gaylors?

[ellathenotsofinefella]

"the boob on ich plague." -a german person with chest dysphoria.

I dont want people to find this

[ellathenotsofinefella]

Key difference between archives and protocol