Another one to the pile (R.I.P. David Bowie)
I haven't been feeling physically great lately. A lot of sinus and body issues that my body just wants to say screw everything and sleep it off. So, I slept for a long time this morning only to wake up to Neil kind of subtly text me before I did my post wake up look at the internet, that there was sad news awaiting me there.My initial thought was that another one of my favorite elderly actors has gone away because it was their time, and there it was. My sister posted to my Facebook wall that my beloved David Bowie had lost his battle with cancer.
I still don't know what to think of it. 1) Cancer, in any form, is an awful bitch that needs to be irradiated from this earth; 2) I now live in a post-David Bowie world and I don't know what to do.
I know it's silly to be so upset over a celebrity's death like this, but David Bowie and his art were always there for me when I need it.
I was six when I first saw Labyrinth. It was at daycare and on glorious VHS. This was my first encounter with Bowie and I thought it was amazing. A few years passed and I could never remember the name of that movie but the fantastic performance that he gave always stuck with me and the songs! I would hum remnants of things that were foggy all the time and desperately search for this fantastical thing in small town Texas all the time. My family didn't have internet and it was still kind of a luxury at this point too, so I know it would have been so much faster to Google, but then I wouldn't have this story.
Then my pre-teen years came. At this point have discovered Space Oddity, Ziggy Stardust, Under Pressure with Freddy Mercury, and of course recognizing him on the TV. Mainly just obsessing over this music that made me feel things and love things in my very angst-y pre-teen years.
I'm 13. VH1 has popped the lid way open on 80s nostalgia bombs. So much so my mom to this day has issues with watching John Cusack movies and The Princess Bride with me because they were on repeat in our house so much, but I'm happy they did because after of years of thinking I was a crazy person and that this wonderful thing that included beautiful songs and the imagery of Jim Henson creatures was just a fantastic fever dream: there it was. Labyrinth.
Now out of everything this man has done, he will always be Jareth the Goblin King. Beckoning Sarah to forget about the babe and be his Goblin Queen. I, like any girl who loves this movie, wanted to be Sarah more than anything and still do, but unlike Sarah, I would let my sibling go for that trade. I can say this because even though I do love my sister she knows this to be a thing.
Labyrinth is just so quintessential Bowie that it combines everything you love about him and his art together. You get the fantastical over the top persona that is Jareth, you get the amazing pop/rock songs, you get the ballads all with the theme of other worldly-ness, yes some of this is Henson too, but if you have seen the behind the scenes footage of this (and I have, mainly due to the fact I own three versions of the DVD) it's so both of them and that's why this speaks to me more.
My parent's generation has Ziggy Stardust for that, which was a pure Bowie thing, but I have this and I see this version of him in all his work. I love him for being so transcendental. I love him for being the weirdo and it was okay to be that because that meant I could be the weirdo.
Simon Pegg tweeted out the best response this morning: "If you're sad today, just remember the world is 40 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Bowie."
So this is my Bowie story to add to the numerous Bowie stories out there.
I know I will never be known the way he was. I know I will never create amazing art the way he did, but I know that I'm glad to have been in a world that I got to know this.
