Bowiemas/Bowienalia 2023

January 8, 2023 5:03 AM

Three David Bowie documentaries for reflection and illumination: Cracked Actor [1975, 55m, Wikipedia], Ricochet [1984, 77m, Wikipedia], and the career spanning fan documentary Metamorphosis Part One, Part Two [45m each]. Bowie would have been 76 years old today.
posted by hippybear (12 comments total)

Thank you! Happy Bowiemas!
posted by cherryflute at 7:51 AM on January 8, 2023

Tonight I’ll be attending Afro Bowie. When my wife told a friend that we’d be going to see Living Color and Fishbone perform David Bowie songs her friend responded that he’d never heard a sentence where it was harder for him to guess what the next word was going to be.

That’s how life should be lived.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:21 AM on January 8, 2023 [11 favorites]

★ Bowietide Greetings to you, hippybear, and to all who celebrate. ★

I was a little disappointed to find out that the Blackstar glyphs weren't inducted into Unicode so I could include them in my greeting. I was, however, pleased to find out that, despite record company interference, they were released as "open source" graphics free for anyone to download and use at bowieblackstar.net.

As my weekend is at an all time low, my song for today is “Queen Bitch” from The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1972.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:28 AM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

thanks. Metamorphosis is new to me. I like that it starts with Ziggy Stardust and then seems to ricochet around from there. Ricochet I saw way back when. Cracked Actor first started showing up for me in scrappy fragments scattered across the interwebs, which given the career phase in question, was about right.

There are a lot Bowie docs out there. At some point, somebody should make a documentary about David Bowie documentaries
posted by philip-random at 9:24 AM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Living Color and Fishbone perform David Bowie songs

Holy shit, that sounds utterly fantastic. Totes jelly over here.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:45 AM on January 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

Metamorphosis seems to be mostly editing of already existing online clips. I think the first part is stronger than the second part, which feels much more filmmaker wanking but also has some really great Bowie interview moments where he's talking about art and spirituality.

Miley Cyrus brought out David Byrne to perform Let's Dance for NYE [4m], and it was a charming performance all around.
posted by hippybear at 1:36 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

There are a lot Bowie docs out there.

Unfortunately, your linked Google Search only has maybe 3 documentaries that aren't the brand new Moonage Daydream in the first dozen pages of search. It's entirely not useful at the moment.
posted by hippybear at 1:41 PM on January 8, 2023

It's Elvis' birthday too, and mine. Elvismas has a nice ring to it. (Hitlermas, less so.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 7:15 PM on January 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

Ursula Hitler: It is also my birthday. I try not to make a big deal out of it. Because *gestures at all the Bowie all around*.
posted by hippybear at 7:52 PM on January 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

Hippybearmas!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 8:44 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Just a reminder: Traditional Bowiemas is January 8. Bowienalia starts on January 8, and runs until January 10 the following year. Yes, that means it is always time to celebrate David Bowie. It also means that this year's and last year's Bowienaliae overlap from January 8 to January 10 -- these are known as the High Holy Holy Days. And of these, the most sacred is today, January 9, because not only is it the day of fullest Bowienalia overlap, it's also the birthday of Scott Walker, our idol's idol.
posted by Devoidoid at 10:34 AM on January 9, 2023

If you've never seen the Radio Soulwax tribute to Bowie from 2012, you owe it to yourself to set aside an hour and drink it in.
posted by scasburn at 12:56 PM on January 9, 2023