Last month we reported that Bowie, Sting and Ivan Kane had picked a location to open their New York City burlesque club, Forty Deuce. The selected building at 19 Kenmare Street was formerly the home of a mobster hangout called Little Charlie’s Clam Bar. Now, according to Downtown Express, a group of neighboorhood residents are looking to put the brakes on the club. They collected 1,200 signatures over a four day period and submitted a petition to the State Liquor Authority on June 19 urging them to deny Forty Deuce a liquor license. Two days later, 20 neighbors attended a Community Board meeting to voice their opinions.

SLA rules prohibit liquor licenses to businesses within 500 feet of churches and schools, and there is a Chinatown Head Start school just a block away from the planned club site. Yet within 500 feet of 19 Kenmare and a proposed side entrance to the club, there are 26 other business sites that already have liquor licenses.

The residents are also suggesting that the club producers have not been completely forthright about the nature of the club. They stated that the original notice submitted by Forty Deuce to the Community Board identified the proposed club as a 3,000 square-foot “lounge bar” with no mention of the burlesque show, and other documentation and news articles have cited the club’s size as 4,500 and 5,500 square-feet. Meanwhile, Kane’s attorney denies the allegation and noted that the burlesque show at the Las Vegas Forty Deuce reveals so little naked skin that no adult entertainment permit is required. Thus far the Community Board has taken no action one way or the other.

Read more about the club on NYMag.com.

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Back in June of 2002, David Bowie was interviewed by the New York Times about his forthcoming album Heathen. During the interview, he predicted that the advent of digital music downloads would undoubtedly drive up the cost of concert ticket prices. On the future of the music industry, he stated:

Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. So it’s like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You’d better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that’s really the only unique situation that’s going to be left. It’s terribly exciting. But on the other hand it doesn’t matter if you think it’s exciting or not; it’s what’s going to happen.

Now five year later, the Times Online posted an article today titled “Megastars play to empty seats after fans balk at ticket prices.” Confirming the prophecy, the article reveals that the new trend of increased ticket prices has been dubbed “The Bowie Theory” by economists. Enough Europeans music fans have refused to pay the inflated prices that some big name acts including Elton John, George Michael and The Who have been forced to cancel shows, while others like Barbra Steisand the Stones carry on and belt out their hits to backs of chairs. Read more about the Bowie Theory in the BBC News.

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Apparently Lindsay Lohan has completed her 12th step and Paris Hilton has joined a convent, because Iman’s feet were worth discussing on ConcreteLoop.com last month. With a close up of Iman’s feet in heels from the 2007 Can-Do Awards, blogger Angel wrote:

Those dogs above need more than a deep-soak, they need help. I guess all those years on the runway take a toll on the feet. Guess who?! YES, THIS IS AN ACTUAL SHOT OF HER FEET. NO ONE IS MESSING AROUND IN PHOTOSHOP!

Real classy. Normally I would say that gossip this lame isn’t worth repeating, but Iman responded to the insult on her MySpace page by posting a picture of herself and David at the Met’s Annual Costume Institute Gala, writing:

We attended the Met’s Annual Costume institute Gala and i have to say it was amazing … i knew everyone would have a dress on so i decided to wear a suit and david loved it, also decided to cover my feet up as Concreteloop would post up how ugly my feet are (Yes Angela i read your Blogg)

Then Angel, acknowledging her own insignificance, posted a new blog entry titled WOW! IMAN READS CONCRETELOOP! Read this excerpt from her entry, you can actually feel her cowering beneath Iman’s shadow:

After finding out that the legendary Iman is a frequent reader of Concreteloop, I actually feel really bad for clowning her dogs earlier this week. But come on Iman, we had to keep it real! Hilarious! She is such a good sport. And she kept it classy at the gala, those shoes that she rocked were fierce.

I love that Iman got the blogger’s name wrong, too, calling her Angela instead of Angel. If that doesn’t make you feel forgetable.

Maybe this is just the nature of gossip, and we shouldn’t expect anything different, but I really think celebrity gossip has its place. When a star gets drunk, wraps their car around a tree and disrespects their entire family, I think they deserve the embarrassment of the gossip columns telling all. But what did Iman do to deserve this unpleasantry? Wear shoes? How is that ‘keeping it real?’ I think a nice close up of Angel’s own disfigured pedals would be keeping it real.

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Those of you who, like me, would wither away into dust without seeing David Bowie’s Webby Awards acceptance speech, fear not.  The BowieNet has the video posted in good quality, complete with introduction by Rod Corddry.  To get the full impact of Bowie’s speech, you must view the video at BowieNet.  Thankfully, Corddry let Bowie slide on the five word limit.

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Musician David J, the sometime bassist and vocalist for Bauhaus and Love & Rockets, posted an interview from Popular 1 Magazine on his site today in which he recounts an amusing anecdote about the time he spent on the set of “The Hunger”. After spending a day and night filming the disco scene, he had the opportunity to hang out a bit with Bowie right outside of Bowie’s dressing room. Near his dressing room there was a classic style jukebox and the two of them spent a little time choosing some music to listen to. Bowie put on the song “Groovin’ with Mr. Bloe” by Mr. Bloe and started dancing along. David (J, not Bowie) noticed that the song sounded a lot like A New Career In A New Town and mentioned his observation to Bowie. Bowie’s response? He put his finger to his lips, as if to swear the younger David to secrecy, and just kept on dancing.

Follow the interview link above for David J’s exact anecdote and, for the curious, the rest of the interview.

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At the June 5 ceremony for the 11th Annual Webby Awards, David Bowie received an award for Lifetime Achievement.  David received the award for his digital and technological innovations.  His most well know accomplishments include his official site and ISP BowieNet (the first ever musician-related internet service provider), his digital media company UltraStar, his site BowieArt, contests for fans to mash up or write lyrics for his songs, and paving the way for internet-only song releases.

Since award winners are limited to five-word acceptance speeches (an award ceremony tradition in the spirit of the 24/7 Speeches at the Ig Nobel Awards), Bowie had to keep it short, sweet, and of course dryly witty.  Being Bowie however, he was able to get away with technically using more than five words: “I only get five words?” Bowie asked. He continued: “Shit, that was five. Four more there. That’s three.  Two…” and then exited the stage.  Of the 145 organizations and people that also received awards, one was unabashedly a fan of Bowie’s.  The founders of Facebook.com, who won the award for Social Networking in the Connections category, succinctly stated, “I’m just here for Bowie.”

For more reading on the awards visit Metro UK, New York Magazine, and BowieNet for the text of the introduction for Bowie and his award.

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Fans of David Bowie will want to recognize two very important anniversaries. Today David and Iman celebrate the 15th anniversary of their formal wedding ceremony in in Florence, Italy. They were officially married on April 24 in a secret civil ceremony, but later had a formal ceremony for friends and family.

Today also marks the 35th anniversary of the release of the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.

So put the Ziggy CD or LP on the stereo, turn it up to maximum volume, and raise a glass of champagne in toast to David and Iman!

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Well, not Bowie himself (don’t we all wish). *Ahem* I haven’t seen an official press release from Target, but several sites are reporting that punky British designer Keanan Duffty, who currently has a low-priced menswear line at Target stores, is releasing a limited-edition fall 2007 line. The name of the line…Bowie by Keanan Duffty for Target. How awesome is that. Duffty took his inspiration from Bowie, who is in turn a fan of Duffty’s past fashion collections. The collection will include jeans, dress shirts, rocker tees, and tuxedo jackets and will be available October 15, 2007 through December 24, 2007 at Target stores and online at Target.com. Ah, the collection ends just in time for Christmas.

Official press release to be posted when it is released by the Target Corporation.

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I don’t know about everyone else, but I love to know what Bowie’s former and current band mates are up to from time to time. So I have two updates for you today.

Catherine Russell, sometime member of David Bowie’s band, will be performing at the Rochester Jazz Festival on June 14. Russell has been a musician and a vocalist for many years, but is just now releasing an album of her own. The album Cat finds Russell covering fourteen little-performed jazz standards and one original song entitled “Blue Memories” written by her and Paul Kahn. For more information on Russell and her career, read Jeff Spevak’s interview with her in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.  Her diverse musical influences are fascinating.  Must remember to pick up her album.

Tony and Hunt Sales, along with Alec Pure of Deadsy, are working with Elijah Blue on his tentative new album. So far the four have only completed two demo tracks, which have been posted on Blue’s MySpace page. At the risk of tainting your opinions of the songs, I’m underwhelmed by them.

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A hearty slap on the back from me and the Webmaster if you can guess what the song is! The biopic, entitled “Kurt Cobain: About A Son” is due out late this year.  It will feature some rarely-seen interviews with Kurt and some footage of places that shaped his life.  The soundtrack to the film is due out on September 11 (interesting choice of dates) and will feature songs by artists that influenced his sound and career.  Besides David Bowie, some of the featured artists will be Iggy Pop, REM, and Arlo Guthrie.  Read more on the movie and soundtrack at NME.com.

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