{"id":112543,"date":"2016-01-11T06:54:38","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T11:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=112543"},"modified":"2022-03-21T09:01:24","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T13:01:24","slug":"r-i-p-david-bowie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=112543","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P. David Bowie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"3E031A8878E0939B62E1C523D688F5AD\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nHe helped show what was possible. He embodied possibility. He was true to himself and part of that meant willingness to change. Not even willingness: he had<\/em> to change, because he was alive. And human beings are not static. And performers must please themselves first. And as he changed, his persona broadened, and as his persona broadened, more and more people were drawn into it, more and more people could relate to it, were fascinated by it, felt the possibility in it. If he could be so flexible, then couldn’t we? Maybe? Maybe identity isn’t static. Maybe gender isn’t static. Maybe none of us are as trapped as we thought. <\/p>\n

And so he moved forward, guided only by his own instincts, his own sense of what he wanted to express. He stood as an example of what it looked like to follow your own star. He was a true artist. I woke up to the news flooding Twitter and my first reaction was a sense of being lost, looking around me at an unfamiliar landscape, no street signs. “Wait … where am I now?”<\/p>\n

A world without him? No. No. <\/p>\n

I took to Youtube and started watching clips. <\/p>\n

I came across this clip of David Bowie appearing on Cher’s television show, and the two of them do a lengthy medley together, standing on a little platform, dancing, and grooving on each other, taking turns. <\/p>\n

Superstars.<\/p>\n

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