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May 7, 2007

David Bowie: Cracked Actor, High Line Curator

For one week beginning this Wednesday, the first annual High Line Festival will take place at venues near and not-so-near the High Line, a pigeon shit encrusted, 22-block strip of elevated railroad running from Gavnsevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to 34th St. set to become a nightlighted, foliage-fettered public park in the sky. Though the festival's connection to the High Line project is tenuous (5% of ticket proceeds go to Friends of High Line, supporting the area's development, otherwise they share a name and some geography) this first installment -- featuring performances by the Arcade Fire, Air, the Polyphonic Spree, Ricky Gervais -- is curated by David Bowie, making it, by definition, cool.

And the media loves it. New York has a lengthy article (worth reading) on the history of the High Line project; and Time Out New York has a sweet Bowie cover, a Festival-based feature, and bits of Bowie interviewing Laurie Anderson and email interviewing (sorta) Ricky Gervais.

Not everybody is in NYC, nor does everybody have tix to the High Line events, but unless your job loves firewalls and hates freedom, everybody can enjoy some good old fashioned YouTube. A good Samaritan recently upped the BBC's Cracked Actor, a tour doc from 1974 showing David during his coke using years. So we go from the High Line to seeing David high on lines -- twitchy, emaciated, strung out and still more eloquent than most. An an arresting, awesome watch. Part one here, parts two through four after the jump. Enjoy.

BONUS: 15 Reasons Why David Bowie Is The Man. Bet you can come up with better.

Posted at 5:42 PM in
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6 Comments

Anyone know if Bowie is playing Andy Warhol in the upcoming movie Factory Girl?

Posted by: uwmryan at 05/07/07 5:45 PM  | Reply
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432402/fullcredits#cast

Check this out. It looks as though Guy Pearce is playing Andy.

Posted by: Rochelle Nikita at 05/07/07 5:57 PM  | Reply
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I love Andy Warhol but if Bowie is going to play a song from Hunky Dory in a movie it should be Life on Mars.

Posted by: Taylor at 05/07/07 8:01 PM  | Reply
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why are you guys talking about this movie as if it hasn't already been in and out of theaters? old news, kids.

Posted by: saul at 05/08/07 1:10 PM  | Reply
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Saul: I almost wondered that myself since the IMDb page said "2006", but since I've made enough blunders already, I wasn't going to say anything about it. But I'm glad someone else noticed.

Posted by: Rochelle Nikita at 05/08/07 1:37 PM  | Reply
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Who has a copy of the whole movie? Sad, but brilliant.

Posted by: D Watts at 11/03/07 9:55 AM  | Reply
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