The symbolism of David Bowie's Last Album and Eponymous Track: Blackstar

David Bowie's last album BlackStar's signature track, also called Blackstar is dripping in poignant symbolism. Aside from the line 'on the day of execution' we see visual clues to Kubrick's Space Odyssey (remember this Bowie Kubrick homage?), a straw man of Christianity (Project Bluebeam?), a Black Star represented as both the Star of David and let's call it Nibiru for fun, and of course the ubiquitous pyramid shaped triangle and all seeing eye juxtaposed with bandaged eyes.

I like the candle at the end that starts as a thin flame but swells into a gargantuan mass of humanity as time goes on. 

What do you think?

Space Dude, In Your Space Suit, In Your Space Boots, Space Dude

Is Miley Cyrus the new David Bowie? 

Probably not, but Space Boots is an indication that someone's creativity resonates with authenticity and art on this track, and that took me by surprise.

I realise contemporary celebrity music requires a phalanx of songwriters, posses of producers, session musicians, mixers, voice artists, plug junkies, electrical engineers, processed audio cheese slices, studio rats, money worshippers, Sleb sycophants, groupie thinkers, OCD fame mania, explicit soul selling and relentless veneration of drugs and sexual promiscuity aimed at our impressionable young, who are least able to discern dystopian social engineering from pop culture.

However I claim Space Boots is not only punctuated with moments of brilliance but to my simple ear has the quirkiness and counter-intuitive solutions that emerge when a real artist takes control and externalizes their interpretation through song. I hope that artist is Miley Cyrus as not much else is wholesome in the globe trotting music biz.

The Man Who Fell To Earth

There's a great quote about this movie on IMDB. It says just because it's interesting doesn't mean it should be enjoyable. It's fair to say that in parts and in different ways The Man Who Fell To Earth isn't very good or even deliberately not good in my view like hiring flat actors so that Bowie doesn't look too bad (I've seen him do much better roles in Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and The Prestige). 

Right at the end the synching is so bad they have to be ripping off a Fellini movie and it doesn't quite work in colour so I would call this movie Fellini in New Mexico as it's filmed in Roswell UFO country. Bits of it are great including photography and costumes. Even the sex scenes are too ridiculous to be offensive.

Just Pictures Of Jap Girls In Synthesis

Do you remember a guy that's been, In such an early song, I've heard a rumour from Ground Control, Oh no, don't say it's true.   

They got a message from the Action Man,"I'm happy, hope you're happy too,I've loved all I've needed love, Sordid details following".   

The shrieking of nothing is killing, Just pictures of Jap girls in synthesis and I, Ain't got no money and I ain't got no hair, But I'm hoping to kick but the planet it's glowing. 

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, We know Major Tom's a junkie, Strung out in heaven's high, Hitting an all-time low.

Time and again I tell myself, I'll stay clean tonight, But the little green wheels are following me, Oh no, not again, I'm stuck with a valuable friend, "I'm happy, hope you're happy too"

One flash of light but no smoking pistol.

I never done good things, I never done bad things, I never did anything out of the blue, woh-o-oh, Want an axe to break the ice, Wanna come down right now. Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, We know Major Tom's a junkie, Strung out in heaven's high, Hitting an all-time low.

My mother said to get things done, You'd better not mess with Major Tom, My mother said to get things done, You'd better not mess with Major Tom, My mother said to get things done, You'd better not mess with Major Tom, My mother said to get things done, You'd better not mess with Major Tom.

Stanley Kubrick & David Bowie - 2001 Space Oddity

Unmissable for Kubrick fans looking to listen and/or see remixed classic Bowie tracks set to 2001 Space Odyssey. It's cost free and available to download using a variety of channels including bit torrent for the movie content which presumably was made at David Bowie's expense, though there are some premium tracks available for the Bowie/Kubrick aficionado. Well worth downloading for possibly the finest full length audio visual display available on the internet. A tall claim but one you can see for yourself over here.

The Youtube clip is from a fan who had a similar idea and not from the Bowie 2001 website, though it is reflective of the overall creativity. It's also well worth researching Kubrick's filming of NASA moon landings for reasons that nobody has fully figured out yet but which led to an entangled life for Stanley who seems to have observed up close the sharp teeth of the elite power groups and filmed the issues and themes he was exposed to in his prematurely cut short career.

Oh You Slightly Weird But Pretty Things

Wake up you sleepy head

Put on some clothes, shake up your bed

Put another log on the fire for me

I’ve made some breakfast and coffee

Look out my window and what do I see

A crack in the sky and a hand reaching down to me

All the nightmares came today

And it looks as though they’re here to stay 

What are we coming to

No room for me, no fun for you

I think about a world to come

Where the books were found by the Golden ones

Written in pain, written in awe

By a puzzled man who questioned

What we were here for

All the strangers came today

And it looks as though they’re here to stay

Oh You Pretty Things

Don’t you know you’re driving your

Mamas and Papas insane

Oh You Pretty Things

Don’t you know you’re driving your

Mamas and Papas insane

Let me make it plain

You gotta make way for the Homo Superior

Look at your children

See their faces in golden rays

Don’t kid yourself they belong to you

They’re the start of a coming race

The earth is a bitch

We’ve finished our news

Homo Sapiens have outgrown their use

All the strangers came today

And it looks as though they’re here to stay

Oh You Pretty Things

Don’t you know you’re driving your

Mamas and Papas insane

Oh You Pretty Things

Don’t you know you’re driving your

Mamas and Papas insane

Let me make it plain

You gotta make way for the Homo Superior  

Ready For The Shift totally nailed what I was trying to say a few weeks back.

I prefer Homo Luxus to Homo Superior but it doesn't rhyme as well does it? ;)

We Are Stardust, We Are Golden

"I'll camp out on the land - I'll try to set my soul free" -Matthew's Southern Comfort never fails to hit the spot.The last photo is this year's catwalk which is heavily biased towards the silver spacewalk, and nothing to do with the price of an ounce going up exponentially. My friends tell me there's a huge difference between buying silver and actually having it in metal in a safe. Paperwork I guess.

Other times I find myself singing Life on Mars because some are utterly unambiguous about that number. Then I get distracted because I didn't know what time it was and the lights were low. Or is it because he'd like to come and meet us but he thinks he'd blow our minds?

Hey that's far out, so you heard him too? Very few have heard or seen this original.

I have no idea why but one picture I posted on Tumblr two days ago has gone ballistic around the world. Here it is.

We look so small and fragile from the moon. We pretend we're not, but we feel so omnipotent staring into our iPhones.