Where Are We Now? The State of this Blog on the Anniversary of Bowie’s Death

This blog probably would not exist if David Bowie was still alive. On the day he died, nine years ago today, I had the impulsive idea to post the name of a Bowie song every day on Facebook for a year in his honor. Almost immediately, a friend of mine suggested that I write something about the songs, so I did. I also realized that YouTube had videos or audio recordings of almost any Bowie song I could think of, so I posted those along with my commentary. The posts picked up a following and, after the year ended and I stopped, another friend of mine, Bill Tuman, suggested that I keep writing about Bowie. Bill is a web designer, so he designed this blog as a gift.

I started populating the blog in 2018 with my old Facebook posts (they are still here), and then started writing commentary on every album I could think of that was connected to Bowie in any meaningful way. To date, I have written about more than 100 such albums. But I’d write intermittently and for nobody in particular. Facebook posts appear in peoples’ Facebook feeds, but you have to search out a blog. And few did, at least for a while.

At some point during the Covid lockdown, I decided that I was going to commit to a new post every day. I’d have to write about more than songs and albums. This was, in part, a writing exercise and in part an exercise to help myself think straight. So, once again, I hatched a plan and stuck to it. Things changed about a year ago when a French mashup artist who goes by DoM discovered a post of mine about one of his Bowie mashups. We had an exchange, which led to my “interviewing” him, which in turn led to me launching a weekly interview feature that I’ve been able to maintain ever since. I’ve been posting reviews of those interviews over the past few weeks, and I have a few more on deck. Part of my plan for 2025 is to see if I can maintain a schedule of a new interview every week.

The interviews have become the central feature of the blog, and, indeed, its affiliated YouTube Channel (which gets more traffic than the blog itself). It takes time pitching interviews, prepping for them, conducting them, editing them, and promoting them. This, however, is time well-spent. This entire project is a hobby, and it is never more enjoyable than when I’m doing these interviews. I mean, I’m talking about David Bowie with people who know more than me. Bring it on!

So, I’m hoping to be able to keep that going. There are a couple of other regular features I expect to also continue without deviation:

Cover of the Week. I am heartened that artists ranging from international superstars to “guys in their basement with a guitar” cover Bowie on a weekly basis. New covers are posted on YouTube every day. In this feature, I select one posted within the past seven days, share it, and write some commentary. The point is that the artists are keeping Bowie’s music alive. Much as Bowie himself borrowed from others to make his own art, these professional and amateur musicians use Bowie for inspiration. I fully expect to continue this feature every Monday.

I Heard the News. I wasn’t sure if this would work, but it has worked, and I will continue with it every Sunday. This is my weekly post containing links to stories from the past week about Bowie. I work on this one throughout the week, and next to the interviews it has become the second-most time-consuming feature. But I learn a lot, and this feature seems to have an audience, so it will continue to be a regular Sunday feature.

So, my intent is that I will continue to post interviews on Saturdays, the news summary on Sundays, and Cover of the Week on Monday. The following series will continue intermittently:

Free-Form Friday. I thought I’d want a day not to write about Bowie, and usually when I post about something else, I post it on Fridays. But as today shows, I often have too much Bowie material to use Fridays for something else. Still, Free-Form Fridays will return. Over the past year, I used this slot to write about all manner of topics, but especially politics. My professional career is in government and politics, and if I wasn’t still working, I might just be writing a political blog. The repeat concept I addressed throughout the year is how 1980s professional wrestling has informed Trumpism. I have seen very little written about this topic (a little, but not much), so for the few people who read what I wrote, I think I made a contribution. We’ll see what 2025 brings.

Hooked to the Silver Screen. This started as my series of reviews of Bowie’s movies. I largely got through that, though there are a handful outstanding for one reason or another. The series evolved into a review of his videos. I am doing them in chronological order, but not on any kind of regular schedule. Next up is “D.J.,” which I’ll get to sooner or later…

Drive-in Saturday Tuesday Movie Review. This is literally a feature in which I review movies I see at the drive-in on Saturdays, which posts on Tuesdays. Drive-ins have a season where I live (in Albany, New York) which begins in the spring and ends in the fall. Since we’re in winter right now, this feature is on break, but will return.

Lyrics Series. I started this series with a few sets of lyrics in mind, which I covered. It is now an occasional feature. I’ve been thinking about picking it up more regularly with posts about obscure references in Bowie songs—there are a lot!

I also used the Lyrics Series last year to write a long series on Bowie and politics. I thought it might actually make for a good book and have pulled it together in that form. If you want to read it, let me know and I’ll send you the PDF, though the original posts are still available in the blog. I do think it needs work, and I’m not sure that I’ll get to it. There is so much more to do, so I don’t know that I’m going to publish a book off this blog, at least for the foreseeable future.

And then there’s everything else! There was and will be a lot of everything else. Seven years in, and nine since the original Facebook posts, I have much more to write about David Bowie. So stay tuned.

I’ll close with what has become a familiar quote from Bowie himself: “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise I won’t bore you.”