David Bowie's Charm and Donald Trump's Hair
Hello, Sweetie--
The Mets win! Also, as long as I'm on parochial issues, it is freezing cold
here, and the radiators in my apartment are making those knocking and
whispering noises that make all prewar buildings in Manhattan seem like they
were built on Native American graveyards. Furthermore, there is yet another
Op-Ed piece in the New York Times today on the Brooklyn Museum show,
this one by Philippe de Montebello, in which he characterizes the works on
display there as by artists "who deserve to remain obscure or be forgotten,"
boldly opining, "I have seen the exhibition, and I think the emperor has no
clothes." Strong words for a man whose institution not long ago devoted a
heavily promoted show to the designs of Gianni Versace featuring such
culturally important artifacts as the famous safety-pin-adorned dress worn by
Elizabeth Hurley to, I believe, the premiere of Four Weddings and a
Funeral .
I like your conspiracy theory, but where most such theories fall apart on
the unlikelihood of the conspirators being sufficiently organized to carry off
such a thing, yours falls apart on the unlikelihood of any alternative
candidate's being sufficiently disorganized not to understand the benefits of
serving the interests of corporate oil. Also, while I don't like to quibble, I
don't think W. is a self-admitted cokehead. Did you happen to catch Sam
Donaldson's interview with a tearful George Bush senior on 20/20 last
night? I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that you frequently see
grittier reporting on VH1's Behind the Music , especially the part where
Bush was so overcome with emotion while reading a letter he wrote to a
7-year-old girl whose father had been killed in battle during his
administration that he was unable to continue, and had to hand the task over to
the Donaldson (on 20/20 --that's never happened on Behind the
Music , although I didn't watch every minute of the one on Poison, so you
never know).
I think Pokémon are adorable, and also don't want to hear any more bad words
about those Gap ads. I like those Gap ads, because I always feel
sympathy for the zombie-like teen.
This morning I read your Mojo memoir of playing to 70,000 baffled
rock fans in Hyde Park as a member of the Deviants in 1969. I particularly
enjoyed the picture of you wearing a very 1969 garment that makes you look like
a giant amphetamine-crazed Q-Tip. What the hell is that thing? What were you
going to say about David Bowie? I interviewed him recently, and found him to
have a charm so forceful that it was akin to encountering a major climatic
condition, which surprisingly few of the professionally famous do. In fact, if
there is a sad thing to know about interviewing artists whose work you admire,
it is that their work may well be the only thing about them you do. Also, the
record that came out yesterday is very good.
Have you had any coverage out there of Donald Trump's possible presidential
candidacy, or is that just a New York story? Now, there's a man who understands
the benefits of corporate oil, since I don't see how he could get his hair to
stay like that without liberal applications of it.
Love,
Mim
