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| Mom at Richland Art Fair 1007.17 |
Hi Mom,
Here's the next of the seven songs. No one said that they had to be over consecutive days.
I wanted to choose a picture from five years ago to go with the song "Five Years," and I found one almost to the day. July 17th, 2010 is only off by two weeks from the date of your death five years later. I remember this art fair well. I took you there, and you bought a blue bowl and a photo of a cat for yourself. The rest of what you bought was all for Liesel, including a water bottle that she just used the other day and a photo of a Buddha in a yard that we have hanging on our wall. It was a nice afternoon at the art fair, and you had a lot of fun. It may have been the last of the Richland art fairs that I took you to. I am sorry about that.
As I wrote all before, these songs in my seven songs list are all chosen because they were songs I sang around the time of your death. They are not all songs with direct meaning to your death or our relationship, but this one actually fits in a weird way. Had I known in 2010 that we had five years left, I would have done a lot more. I am not in any way suffocated by regret because I did a lot with you, Mom, especially in the last three years since we learned of the degenerative palsy that ended up being what killed you. But of course, we could always do more. I could have done more.
DAVID BOWIE - "Five Years"
Filmed at BBC Television Studios in London
for the BBC 2 programme Old Grey Whistle Test
and broadcast on February 8, 1972.
- here, courtesy of BBC Television
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Studio album by David Bowie
"The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is the fifth studio album by English musician David Bowie, which is loosely based on a story of a fictional rock star named Ziggy Stardust" (Wikipedia).
Release date: June 6, 1972
Artist: David Bowie
Label: RCA Victor
Genre: Rock music, Glam rock
Awards: Grammy Hall of Fame
Anyone who has ever spent some time with me knows how huge a David Bowie fan I am,
I have written about David Bowie a lot on my blogs, though not as much yet on this one.
Here's my biggest and main tribute to BOWIE:
T-shirt #269.
However, when I searched the T-shirts blog, I found several posts with Bowie content, and this one jumped out at me:
T-shirt #312.
I don't know if you can check out links where you are, Mom. Actually, you probably see all time and space at once, so links are not real to you. But to other readers they may be. Check those links. You will be glad you did.
Last two things, I am grateful for the person who brought David Bowie into my life. I may not spell her name right, but as best I can remember, it's Janiki Kuppuru.
Here's the details. I first remember encountering David Bowie during a cast party following a show my senior year of High School. He was on SNL, and I remember criticizing him because what he was doing was so weird. Now, it's strange that I would criticize him because I liked weird (I still do). However, I was trying to fit in and so I was keying into the vibe in the room, which was judgy and dismissive. Later that same year, on a whim, I bought David Bowie's latest album, Scary Monsters, and I hated it. It was too weird, which again was strange because I liked weird. But mind was not yet fully open and willing to accept difference.
Then I met Janiki Kuppuru in my first quarter at K. She was British, she had been born in Sri Lanka, but she was most recently from California. We stayed up all night one time, and when I told her that I did not like David Bowie, she insisted that I sit and listen to his album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in its entirety and without speaking. I loved it. (Incidentally, I really liked her, too. She refused to wear shoes and was a free spirit.) She knew I would love it since I liked science fiction and aliens and creative, cool things. I went back and listened again to Scary Monsters, and this time I had a new attitude: I loved it. Though Low has eclipsed it as the Bowie album I find that I listen to most often, Scary Monsters may be my favorite album by David Bowie. I closed my senior theatre project show, Raw, with a singalong by the entire cast and audience of David Bowie's "It's no Game, Part Two," which closes that album. It remains a shining and culminating moment in my memory.
Wherever you are Janiki Kuppuru... Thank you.
As for you, Mom, wouldn't it have been nice to know that we had five years left in July of 2010?
My brain hurts a lot.
"Five Years"
by David Bowie
from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spider from Mars - 1972
Pushing through the market square,
So many mothers sighing
News had just come over,
We had five years left to cry in
News guy wept and told us,
Earth was really dying
Cried so much his face was wet,
Then I knew he was not lying
I heard telephones, opera house, favorite melodies
I saw boys, toys, electric irons and T.V.'s
My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare
I had to cram so many things to store everything in there
And all the fat-skinny people, and all the tall-short people
And all the nobody people, and all the somebody people
I never thought I'd need so many people
A girl my age went off her head,
Hit some tiny children
If the black hadn't a-pulled her off,
I think she would have killed them
A soldier with a broken arm,
Fixed his stare to the wheels of a Cadillac
A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest,
And a queer threw up at the sight of that
I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlor,
Drinking milk shakes cold and long
Smiling and waving and looking so fine,
Don't think you knew you were in this song
And it was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor
And I thought of Ma and I wanted to get back there
Your face, your race, the way that you talk
I kiss you, you're beautiful, I want you to walk
We've got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that's all we've got
We've got five years, what a surprise
Five years, stuck on my eyes
We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that's all we've got
We've got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that's all we've got
We've got five years, what a surprise
Five years, stuck on my eyes
We've got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that's all we've got
Five years
Five years
Five years
Five years
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
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- Days ago = 125 days ago
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1511.05 - 20:02
and again 1511.07 - 7:51
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