I Am

Smiles and missing teeth.
Skipping with abandon. A first pair of adult shoes...heels.
Too much OCD.
Cookies, candy and hot cheetos. Red lips and fingers.

Growing into adulthood.
The hair is wild and so is the heart. Purple or orange.

The caretakers too. They smile and have hair but not as much fun. This I see.

Clouds and trees witness the day and tell of the events.
Let's play.

Our Aging

And the people we lose along the way.

Dallas Taylor
Glenn Frey
Bowie
Adam Roth

It says more about us that we lament the loss of great music more than actors or other public figures of culture. Perhaps only writers are afforded the same sadness and respect that a musician engenders with their passing.

We know of their talent and that the voice is now stilled. We may revisit old favorites but new material is not forthcoming.
(Unless you are Margaret Atwood - she plans ahead)
And I vehemently dislike the practice of releasing material that was not intended by the artist for public consumption.

Musicians are probably closest to poets in the translation of feelings into lyrics or chord progressions.

Call Me Ginsburg and Howl With Me.

So now I must reconcile my mortality and that of everything I know and love.
At this point, I am still an angry young man. I say - fuck that.
Music endures.
Even if there is no one to hear it.

Bowie

He was one of those artists who rubbed you one way or another. Good or ill.

I have a knee jerk dislike of new music. I have to concentrate and listen to appreciate new sounds that I cannot anticipate and be in sync with.

Warren Raab had just found the album Ziggy Stardust and the Spyders from Mars.
Album art or even book art affects me greatly and this cover was no different. I felt an immediate fascination with this orange-pated "person" who sang of the End Times. Who sang of young love in the future or the past. Time had little bearing.

The music was transparent, although Mick Ronson became a favorite guitar player very soon after discovery of the record.

But the lyrics and the melodies...they took me.
Deposited me in places I had not explored, only had a vague sensation of presence.

The Thin White Duke
David Jones
Ziggy Stardust
Bowie

I am saddened but not surprised that he kept his illness a private thing. As much as he shared he kept secret.

I remember watching a 70s documentary about him and being very impressed with his love of art. He wasn't a rocker as much as a performance artist who happened to grow up during Rock & Roll's infancy. He took to the music because it was what he marinated in.

Alladin Sane
Sigh

As

Fleeting as a mountain.
Permanent as clouds.

Ups and downs are just the wobble of the toy, not malice.

2016

Gud Gawd.
WE MADE IT!!!