Wild heart

From the Rolling Stone photo session.

Massacring Mozart

I think we're going to be hearing a lot more of her in 2016.

As desperation takes hold

Did not know this song could get any better.

 

A chance meeting in 1983 had David Bowie, Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook chatting away over beers in the Kings Arms in Salford. “…So we were all there just having a laugh and we joked that he should come n have a jam with us, then next minute – well, it was the next day actually, but i didn’t expect he’d definitely come by – and we were in the practice rooms and we were playing Love Will Tear Us Apart and I was like, f%$k we’re playing Love Will Tear Us Apart with David Bowie singing, this is crazy. We never released it – Bowie took a recording of it, and just layered some more vocals on for fun, sent it back to me…”

Via Sonic More Music.

When shitty things happen in life, it never ceases to amaze how therapeutic art is to help stitch up wounds. Books, films, poetry, but most of all music. David left us such a great care package.

After getting over the initial shock of his death, two things bugged me:

Q: How did David stay so out of the radar? He lived in New York for christ's sake.
A: Here.

Q: Why didn't he tell us/me that he was sick?
A: Here.

So there you go.

Glass half full response: a bit of death is probably a good way to start 2016 anyway. Keeps things in perspective.

 

This remains my favourite latter-day Bowie pic ^

Women Having A Terrible Time At Parties

In Western Art History....

"oh you found us 

you found us with your guitar 

hey guys he found us and he brought his guitar with him"

I definitely know this guy.

More here.

How do you get along sir?

Favourite scene from Skins, although it's probably 10 x more hilarious when you're in the middle of the season - it's an incredibly dark episode, and then this happens:



Or maybe it's just a sentiment that resonates with me: yeah, life is a piece of shit. But then there's music. And dance. And cheese.

I re-watched the entire first season of Skins last year because I wanted to analyse the story structure. When I watched the show, I really loved how they gave each character an episode, and room to explore the depths of each character. I was determined to do that same thing with a series I'm putting together. But then the new Arrested Development happened, and it just proved how terrible that formula can be too, imho.

So what's the solution then? A big ensemble cast or something more character focused? I really like how Aziz Ansari created something in between in his 'Master of None'. There's a central group of characters, but they didn't appear in every show - because the didn't need to. Aziz talks about it more here on The New Yorker Radio.