bowie concert
What a priviege to see David Bowie last night (4/14/04). I'd never seen him before, so I was unprepared for his smallness and ordinaryness in person. Very friendly and mellow guy. Occasionally the light treats him otherwise, he can sometimes cut that angular profile that send the fashionistas swooning. Some observations:
* What a professional. It was like watching someone walk into their office and check their email. Except the office is a stadium and the music is in charge.
* Visible separation between the bowie-songwriter person and the bowie-performer. We saw the performer last night no question, not trumeting or acknowledging or remaking items from 30 years ago, nor reconciling the present work with that trajectory. He gives himself permission to be someone else for a while.
* Interesting to see someone who spent all their time becoming more expressive. They won't act like ordinary folks, they'll bring things in from their unconscious without thinking twice. For example, a pantomime of bloody arms transitioning into a ball on the floor. Or, doing the hands behind your own back make out with yourself thing. I thought: this is what we should be like as writers. If it's there, expose it. If it's not there, make it up and then expose it. Easier to do with words than in front of a crowd certainly.
Very much worth a laugh was the opening band Polyphonic Spree, whose 45 band members wore choir robes and jumped up and down delivering bombastic enthusiasm. Much too loud and vapid, and british down to their font (although perhaps not in citizenship). Funny how one guy (db) can steal the show following all that. A friend called my cell during an especially loud part. I answered the call, let it pick up what must have been huge noise for 30 seconds or so, then hung up to spare him the rest.
This morning I'm heading in to find out what bombs are waiting for me in my inbox. I don't check mail on off days remotely, so that anxiety is there. It's less than the anxiety caused by checking, though.