This is not a good day (Vale #Bowie)

The Thin White Duke persona, 1976.

We all have heroes. One of mine was David Bowie. Innovator. Musician. Technologist. Visionary. Bowie took Burrough’s analogue techniques and brought them into the 20th, then 21st Century. But he did so much more. His (now) last album is wonderful. I listened to his previous album and it made my transition to middle-age easier, because I could hear him exploring the same issues. Now I have the album he recorded in the face of death. Undimmed. Unafraid. Strong.

Whatever I do, I want to help people to see things as they are. Truth, in the classical Greek sense of revelation of reality, is what I’ve been talking about. I have been a Bowie fan, follower, and later scholar, for decades. I have no doubt that when David Bowie looked at the world, he saw what it was, what it could be and what he could do with it.

He certainly influenced me and made me think about what could be, if I saw it truly and pursued it with passion.

A moment’s silence for the passing of a unique and important element of our culture.