December 14ths (December Tornadoes)

12/14/1996

(From the article in Telegraph Magazine, A Star Comes Back To Earth):

“Bowie wants to play me some of the tracks from his forthcoming album, Earthling - a title that plays none too subtly to Bowie’s new persona as an ordinary, affable, if somewhat arty, bloke. In the studio an engineer cranks out the songs at full volume. It is always a potentially awkward moment, listening to a performer’s work when he is sitting beside you - how do you compose your face into a rictus of approval if the songs are awful? In fact, they sound like the strongest he has recorded in years: densely textured - “industrial rock”, says Bowie - yet rich with the sort of commercial hooks that have been absent from his more recent work. Bowie was always clever at appropriating musical styles and stamping them with his own signature— - the “white boy” soul music of Young Americans; the ambient electronic atmospheres of Low.”

[12/14/2024: In my view, the 2 mid-90s albums Outside and Earthling comprise one his best periods, even if it was only 2 years. Postmodern music at its best done at the fin-de-siecle]

12/14/2022

Swarms of tornadoes in Dixie. December tornadoes are starting to be an annual event.

High fidelity is sort of like salted and unsalted peanut butter: If you keep switching them people will start to think unsalted peanut butter has salt in it.  

12/14/2024