Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Bowie's Requiem

 

 Something is just not right about this week.  David Bowie has passed away.

Yesterday I bought his final album, Blackstar. Requiem, more like. It's very dark, esoteric, hauntingly cryptic, a bit disturbing, and possibly the most artistic of his endeavors.  The corresponding videos are also amazing, especially Blackstar.

Blackstar:

Spent a good part of this afternoon trying to decrypt the lyrics to Blackstar -- the first line is "In the Villa of Ormen" -- and discovered a fascinating photography page on Tumblr called the Villa of Ormen. The Villa of Ormen page doesn't say who is responsible for collecting and posting the images found there; it could have been Bowie himself for all I know.

One particular photo by Polish photographer Michalina Wozniak grabbed me as possibly the inspiration to a scene in Bowie's Lazarus video.  In the photo a naked woman is partially hidden in a dark wardrobe. In the video Bowie hides himself inside a large wooden wardrobe.

Lazarus:


Following the trail of crumbs to some very interesting places.


Links: