Posted on 01/18/2016 9:59:21 AM PST by rey
Not a Fan
by Theodore Dalrymple
January 16, 2016
One should not speak ill of the dead, of course, especially of the recently dead, but it does not follow that one should speak well of them, or speak of them at all. Personally I was astonished at the amount of coverage given to the death of David Bowie. One might have thought he was really a figure of world historical importance such as David Beckham or Leonard DiCaprio.
On the day after his death, the supposedly serious newspaper that I take most often when I am in Britain, The Guardian, ran a special 12-page supplement on his life and activity, as well as five pages in its normal section. There have been articles about him on the two subsequent days. I wait patiently for the tide to turn.
(Excerpt) Read more at takimag.com ...
I think his point is as entertaining as PT Barnum was and as much money as he made one would hardly consider him an artist or cultural icon. Likewise, Bowie was a showman. Like Barnum he knew his audience and how to satisfy them. Barnum is dead as well and that does not make him beyond criticism and neither is Bowie. The reverence with which the press treats Bowie is annoying as he merely prostituted himself to make money.
You missed his satire. I have read numerous books by this author. He was a psychiatrist working in UK prisons for decades and his profound understanding of the nihilism in England and the importance of Virtue and the Natural Family in culture, is profound. He wrote tons on the ‘toxic culture” that promotes vice 24/7-—not unlike the homoerotic Weimar Republic.
One of the best books I have ever read on psychology and child development-—he is brilliant.
They don’t want to hear it. This is a dump on Bowie thread.
As an aside, I have the extreme honor to be very close friends with a truly great musician, and through him, friends with another premier musician. The first is mourning the loss of an artist, the second the loss of a musician. Some of the best musicians in the world have paid tribute to Bowie’s talent. Others just carp on his moral failings.
When I was 15 & my Dad was teaching me how to drive, I approached a railroad crossing too fast. The car flew over the ramp as the rear end rose several feet off the ground & then came down again, KABOOMP!!
Dad looked at me and said, “Son you just did a real `thank-you-ma’am’.”
It was years before I knew what that really meant.
;^)
Bill Clinton raised Chelsea carefully, too. It’s our children they want to corrupt.
As a big fan of Pat Metheny, I was curious on his experience with working with Bowie on “This Is Not America”, the funny part is that Pat beforehand had no idea who Bowie was. But he found that Bowie was a huge jazz fan who had an obsession with the saxophone. Said he was the nicest person you could ever meet and was very professional.
I don't "get" Egyptian music, but I know that's one of my many, MANY profound areas of cultural poverty.
Heh, getting too hard to tell anymore!
Well, I could be wrong too, but that is how I saw it.
Just thought I’d toss it out there.
Hope things are good for ya.
Alot of people liked him.
Alot of people didn’t like him.
There you go.
Thanks, they are... same to you ;)
I think he was being facetious.
Thank you for that story. Bowie loved jaz—he was very good with his sax. Me, I enjoyed his tribute to country music: Bus Stop.
Just to excite the Bowie bashers, here’s the tribute from Glastonbury:
‘Glastonbury Festival’s Facebook page carried images of the superstar - who performed there in 1971 and 2010 - with the message: “Thank you David Bowie for all the magic and memories.”
Founder Michael Eavis told the BBC of Bowie’s maiden appearance at the Somerset festival: “He had lovely long flowing hair, a right hippie-looking lad. Fantastically beautiful he looked, actually.
“Nobody knew who he was, he played at four in the morning at sunrise, songs we’d never heard before.
“He’s one of the three greatest in the world, ever - Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and David Bowie. There’s no one else even close.”’
“:^)
Wham Bam thank you ma’am, was a phrase that existed at least in the 60s, probably long ago. David B in no way invented or even popularized it.
It is especially entertaining when DailyMail writes a story involving guns then completely hacks up the most simple firearm terminology.
Ok.
Bowie was ok with a couple of songs. I never liked 95% of what he recorded. Too much focus on being weird and too little focus on good music.
Your missing his point. This man worked as a psychologist in prisons in the UK for decades and saw the literal killing of children and destruction of the Natural Family and understood on a profound level how a whole generation of children were literally being destroyed.
His point....today’s children don’t know who Churchill and Michelangelo are unless they are turtles. They are that culturally dumbed-down and ignorant. Their tastes are toxic and banal. The Excellence (virtue) that WAS Western Civilization has been destroyed by the institutions in our “culture”-—and the transmission of Virtue (excellence) is no longer being done——sewage is pumped into their heads 24/7 and it is can only promote nihilism of a Bowie.
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