rue David Bowie, 13th Arr., Paris, France

Yesterday, on what would have David Bowie's 77th birthday, the city of Paris unveiled a renamed street in his honor. The newly christened rue David Bowie is in the 13th arrondissement, between the Jardin des Plantes botanical gardens and the National Library, and between two modern office buildings that include the headquarters of news outlets Le Monde and L’Obs. If you want to visit, the nearest Metro station looks to be Gare d'Austerlitz.

AP Photo | Christophe Ena

AP Photo | Christophe Ena

"Five Years" by Duran Duran

I posted the audio video of this song (previously here), but now here is the official video for the David Bowie classic "Five Years" by Duran Duran. The band released the cover last month as part of "Just For One Day," pianist Mike Garson’s Bowie tribute that took place on what would have been the late legend’s 74th birthday.

"David Bowie’s apocalyptic vision in the song 'Five Years' was written almost half a century ago yet it seems ever more poignant today," Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes said. "Although it is five years since David left Planet Earth, his vast catalog of songs remain as significant and inspirational as they always have been. Mike Garson’s heartfelt celebration show was a testament to the breadth of influence that David had on other musicians. It was also a display of the deep affection and gratitude for what he gave to us all."

The import of the narrative of this song always made me cry, but the fact that David is gone, and apparently we do really only have about five good years left, makes me weep...

http://duranduran.warnereprise.com/
https://livemap.davidbowie.com/

"Five Years" by Duran Duran

For David Bowie's birthday today, Duran Duran have released a stunning cover of his song "Five Years" from the "Ziggy Stardust" album. It is a lovely, faithful cover (with one exception: DD thankfully changed a lyric to "queen"), Simon's voice sounds simply superb (maybe better than ever), and never have the lyrics been more relevant as it seems we really do only have about another good 10 years or so. Yeah, my brain hurts a lot.

Wave bye-bye!

http://duranduran.warnereprise.com/

https://livemap.davidbowie.com/

"Orca" by Until The Ribbon Breaks

Until The Ribbon Breaks is a Welsh musical group consisting of frontman and founder Pete Lawrie-Winfield with Elliot Wall and James Gordon. The project started with Lawrie-Winfield making music for his original films in film school. Soon he stopped the visual part in favor of making music. But the group still write music in a studio while projecting films with the sound off...anything from David Lynch to Terrence Malick. Of Until The Ribbon Breaks' music, music site Pitchfork accurately observed that Lawrie-Winfield exhales "his vocals with a painfully resigned rasp circled by lurching drum machines, deflating synths, and industrial clanging."

This aching song was written after a tragedy. Lawrie-Winfield writes:

"In the late, humid summer of last year, I was living in a shoe box room in Brooklyn, At 6pm on a fairly normal Sunday afternoon, I showered, collected my things and headed to the door. It occurred to me as I stepped out onto the street that I hadn't heard a peep from my roommate and good friend Adam, all day.

This struck me as strange. We normally watched films on a Sunday afternoon, always hungover, trying desperately to fend off the heat. Upstairs, I found my roommate sat at the end of his bed. His glasses were balancing on the end of his nose, his shoes were tied and his bedroom smelt faintly of the cigarettes that he could never quite quit. He had been dead for 8 hours. Orca is a song about the finality of death, no one is above it, it will affect us all. It is black and white, much like Orca."

I no longer go to 7th street
In the spring, we moved out west
I miss the cocktails at the Concorde
But every wave must have a crest
There is an image that I-I cannot shake
The wind blowing through your hair
A part of you still moving, but all of you not there
I wonder how they think of you now
Which picture they've had framed
And if it's easier at dinner to not bring up your name

Orca, Orca, Orca
There's nothing quite as black and white as you

Of course there are two oceans: the shallow and the true
The one outside the window, and the one inside of you
Such eyes you had, not colour
But space to see the truth
I think I knew that you were dying
I just didn't want the proof

Orca, Orca, Orca
There's nothing quite as black and white as you

You were dressed in your shirt
With your back to the wall
Like you'd made up your mind
Like you knew

We all make our own way
Into blue
We all make our own way
Into blue
There's nothing quite, as black and white, as you
I wonder if you feel that too
There's nothing quite, as black and white, as you
We all make our own way into blue
Orca, orca, orca, orca

You were dressed in your shirt
With your back to the wall
Like you'd made up your mind
Like you knew

We all make our own way
Into blue

http://www.untiltheribbonbreaks.com/

Tribute To David Bowie At The BRIT Awards

Here is the full clip of the BRIT Awards' tribute and the presentation of the BRIT Icon Award to David Bowie. Annie Lennox speaks so eloquently about Bowie and Gary Oldman's remarks are lovely as well. After the award presentation, Bowie's longtime band accompanies Lorde in a rendition of "Life On Mars."

"Gan-Gan" by Gemma Green-Hope

This is an absolutely lovely, touching tribute from a granddaughter to her recently deceased grandmother.

The filmmaker Gemma Green-Hope says, "After her death in 2010, I helped my father and uncle sort through some of her possessions. I inherited some of her clothes to wear, books to read, a bicycle to ride. But how do you make sense of all the other things that someone leaves behind, the things nobody sees, boxes full of photographs, and bits of string?"

Indeed, the space left behind when someone you love dies is disorienting and bewildering. They may be gone, but all of their things are still here, making one wonder on a deeper emotional level, "Well, how can they be gone when their things are still here?"... that is one of the toughest parts of grief.

Green-Hope avoids being overly sentimental and by doing so manages to make her memories of her grandmother even more vital and important. This is the way to remember someone...

http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/

Julia Remixed

"This is what good cooking is all about."

In honor of Julia Child's 100th birthday, August 15th, 2012.

http://www.pbs.org/food/julia-child-100-birthday/
http://americanhistory.si.edu/juliachild/
http://melodysheep.bandcamp.com/

The Legendary Kate Bush

A beautiful tribute to the genius of Kate Bush by illustrator Elliot Dear for Music Matters.

http://www.elliotdear.com/

Kate Bush is magic. Kate Bush taught me how to fly.