This is too cute. The blog Letters of Note came across a treasure from 42 years ago – the response to the first fan letter that David Bowie received from an American fan. Bowie got a letter from 14-year-old Sandra Adams (now Dodd) of New Mexico when he was 20 years old and wrote his response from his manager Ken Pitt’s office typewriter. The picture from Sandra’s website is below. Note his typo! It’s strange to think back in the days before computers that if you made a typo you could either rewrite the entire document or just live with it and move on. I like Bowie’s choice – to poke fun at himself.
Way back in 1972 when David Bowie developed the character of Ziggy Stardust and his band the Spiders From Mars, never in his most coked-out dreams did he think he would ever have an actual arachnid named after that endeavor. German scientist and spider expert Peter Jäger discovered the spider Heteropoda davidbowie on Mars in Malaysia earlier this year. Jäger has said in interviews since the discovery that he finds that naming spiders after celebrities brings more attention to the endangered status of these insects as their habitats are destroyed. With this publicity stunt, the Heteropoda davidbowie joins Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi in the ranks of spiders named after musicians.
For those of you who are going to be in London on August 28, you might want to hop on the tube and attend a fun David Bowie themed party. The press release follows!
Kill your Idols presents…
A Night with the Thin White Duke: DAVID BOWIE
DATE: 28th August 2009
ADDRESS: Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, Bedford Way, London, WC1H 9EU
NEAREST TUBE: Russell Square 9PM to 3AM / £3
To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of David Bowie’s Space Oddity Bloomsbury Bowling is proud to present a night of Bowiecentric fun with Live performances by The Thin White Dukes, cinema screenings of Bowie’s best films thought the night and much much more. The usual Bloomsbury favourites of dancing, drinking an bowling will be enhanced with a ‘strictly glam’ dress code and music policy. Prizes for the best lookalike.
I wish I lived near a big city that did this sort of stuff! Or at least happened to be in one on vacation at the right time…
Posted in Circle Of Friends | 3 Comments »Yesterday afternoon as I was driving home from work, NPR merged two of my scientific loves – Science Friday (an old love) and Moon (a new love). I’ve been avoiding most of the interviews with Duncan so I don’t read the spoilers, but I couldn’t resist this one. It is available to listen to or download online at the Science Friday website. Definitely give it a listen. Duncan and the fill-in host Paul Raeburn discuss not just the movie, but a possible realistic future of space travel.
Posted in Circle Of Friends, Movies, News | 1 Comment »Today David Bowie and Iman celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary! Iman has a new interview in Hello! Magazine in which she talks about their marriage and secret to happiness. Pick up the this week\’s issue of Hello! or read the excerpt at Bowienet.
Posted in Circle Of Friends, News | 6 Comments »I’m posting this reminder since the original post is getting buried under new postings. If you haven’t already, visit the original post for some news on great new covers and a free download.
Posted in Circle Of Friends, More To Own, News | No Comments »Musicians Michael and Spider have released the first two songs in their “Diamonds” project. It’s a collection of 10 David Bowie covers. The press release sums it up best:
Later this year, two music videos directed by Heath Ledger will air. He directed the video for “King Rat” by Modest Mouse and for the cover of David Bowie’s “Quicksand” by Grace Woodroofe. So far there is no news yet as to exactly when the videos will air, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do.
Posted in Circle Of Friends, News | 2 Comments »There is a new compilation of David Bowie mash-ups and remixes out for Bowie fans to acquire. The latest addition to the ever-growing list of covers, remixes, and mash-ups is Ziggy Stardust Remixed gathered by DJ BC. You can download the album at the Ziggy Stardust Remixed website. Prefixmag posted a review of the album, if you’re interested.
My take on the album? There is a lot of good stuff on there. Stardust Kids is hands down the best song on the album. I’m going to blast it in my car with the windows rolled down at least once a day for the next two weeks. The other fun ones were Starman (ATOM’s Space Funk Journey), Soul Love (ATOM’s Pink Innards Mix), Easy Hypocrites, and Five Years (World Famous Audio Hacker’s Brainache Mix). But nothing else on the album touches Stardust Kids.
Posted in Circle Of Friends, More To Own, News, Opinions | No Comments »Entertainment Weekly website is featuring seventeen behind-the-scenes portraits taken from Clay Enos’ photography book from the upcoming Watchmen movie. The portraits show the main characters of the movie, a few essential supporting characters, and a couple of bit players in costume. Among the bit players are a couple of actors dressed as David Bowie and Mick Jagger. This makes the second nod to Bowie in the film.
On a side note, when I saw Matt Frewer photographed as Edward Jacobi I finally realized that the actor that plays Taggart in Eureka is the same dude that plays the Trashcan Man in The Stand. Hello, I’m clueless. That’s the type of useless stuff that I usually know! I need to spend less time working and more time boning up on my pop culture knowledge. One day I’ll need to save the planet from an alien invasion by winning at a trivia game.
Posted in Circle Of Friends, News, Opinions | 3 Comments »