David Bowie Diaries 1973-1974-1975 1975
January
February
MARCH
April
May
MY WORLD by David Bowie

A WEEKLY DIARY EXCLUSIVELY WRITTEN FOR MIRABELLE MAGAZINE

Spectrum Arena, Philadelphia 1974 David Bowie Diaries 1975 David Bowie Los Angeles 1975

1st March 1975

   I've been having a great time grovelling around on the floor with bits of paper, glue, cardboard and marking pens. Yes, I'm in the midst of designing sets for my new movie and to see what I'm doing I must make tiny designs (they're called mock-ups) of what the set will look like. So I'm building miniature buildings, ruins and suchlike and having the time of my life. I'm turning into quite and architect! Of course, I'm working under adverse conditions. Zowie doesn't understand that his dad is doing very serious work and insists on playing with the sets whenever I'm not looking but, aside from that, things seem to be going along rather smoothly.

   I've even begun casting for my film. Zee, MainMan's president, used to be an actor before he became a businessman, and this film is going to be his screen debut. He's really a good actor (the first time I met him was when he was in London appearing in Andy Warhol's 'Pork') - and both he and I are really excited about this project. I love putting all my friends to work!

   As it stands now, I've decided not to have any music in the movie. Won't that be a change of pace? This is going to be terribly dramatic you see!

   I've been watching all my favourite movies in my film library to learn the techniques I like, and I've even been watching telly again. They show a lot of really old films on television over here. The problem is that sometimes I find myself tuning into these really silly quiz shows and I become so mesmerised that I waste hours and hours. I still can't understand what makes people get dressed up as tomatoes and grapefruits to win prizes!

   Back to my movie - I haven't yet decided where it will be filmed, but probably I'll choose some warm sunny place like Mexico or Spain. Or maybe this time I'll really have a chance to get to South America. I'm still waiting for my vacation!

   Let's see what else is new? Oh, yes I did take some time out to see my old friend Cherry Vanilla when she was appearing at Reno Sweeney's. Cherry recites poetry and she's absolutely fantastic!

   That's about it for today. More news next week.




8th March 1975

   I must tell you the most wonderful news! I've bought a new house! It's in a section of New York called Chelsea. The area isn't a chic as Chelsea in London, but it is really comfy. I'm living on a tree-lined street (not easy to find in New York City) and the houses around me are really very quaint and attractive. It seems to be a really friendly area, too. I've already met some of my neighbours and they seem to be quite nice. Of course it helps that my good friend, Cherry Vanilla, just lives a few doors away from me! She knows absolutely everyone - and any friend of Cherry's is a friend of mine - so I've been given the royal treatment!

   Anyway, I must tell you about the house! It's enormous! I have six floors - and right now I really don't know how I'm going to take advantage of all this space, but I'm sure Angie has some ideas about how to do it!

   My favourite part of the house is the top two floors. The sixth floor is a great big bedroom and this room has a gigantic hole in the centre with a trellis around it and plants streaming all the way down through to the fifth floor - it gives the whole thing a balcony-loft type of effect and it's just great. It's almost like sleeping in a tree-house! The fifth floor is my studio. Finally, I have enough space for all my equipment - video tape machine, cameras, stereos, my piano and guitar and I can go in there and disappear for hours!

   I have to say that I'm very satisfied with this new place and I plan to spend many enjoyable hours here!

   Let's see, what else have I been doing? Oh yes, I just saw an absolutely charming new stage play. It's called 'Man On The Moon' and it's a musical. The songs were just fabulous - very '40s. In fact, the whole show has a '40ish flavour. It's about an astronaut who lands on this planet that is exactly like earth was about thirty or forty years ago. He meets a girl and they fall in love and everyone lives happily ever after! The show is full of weird space creatures and everyone sings very sweetly and dances very energetically - it's really a perfect show for children, so I think I'll send Zowie off with Marion some afternoon to see it!



15th March 1975

   I went to the wildest party the other night - and gained a bit of culture as well. The party was for the opening of an art gallery and the whole affair was terribly ritzy and totally mad. It took place way across town, so all the people who were invited to this event were picked up and taken there by horsedrawn carriage. That was strange enough as it is. People aren't used to seeing horses trotting along New York City streets, but even stranger was the incredible variety of people riding in the carriages! Yoko Ono was in one, being very quiet and ladylike; David Cassidy shared a carriage with me - it was the first time we'd met and was quite an interesting experience; and various artists, actors, actresses, society people and celebrities took up space in the rest of the carriages.

   There were sixty artists exhibiting at the art gallery, and the theme of this first show as, "The Condition Of The Tie Today" and the guests were dressed in accordance. In fact, one man there was wearing only a necktie. He was the hit of the party!

   I thought the whole thing was very '60s, myself. It was all very pop-artish, you see. There were ties made of every material imaginable. Ties made of oil paint, ties made of metal, ties made of hair - there was even a glass tie, until someone sat on it and crushed it to pieces. But the most spectacular tie of all was a bow-tie made out of beef liver - you could smell it anywhere you went!

   The artists were definitely obsessed with ties. Some of them loved them and treated them as objects of beauty and some of them hated them because they said they were symbols of society's repression!

   Finally, when everyone was almost falling asleep, the carriages came to take us all home. I did have a fabulous time, but I must tell the truth. If I never see another tie again, it will be too soon! I've seen enough to last me a lifetime!

   That's all for now.

Love On Ya!



22nd March 1975

   The other day I had Zows all to myself - something that very rarely happens. Usually, there's someone around to pick up his toys and to keep him busy while I'm working, but on this occasion I had full responsibility for his activities.

   It took only a few hours to discover that I wouldn't be able to get any work done with my darling son underfoot, so I decided to take drastic measures. I would take Zowie to the movies! Now, that sounds a lot easier than it really is, you know. First, of all, there are almost no movies around these days for four year olds. And secondly, I almost never venture out into the 'cold, cruel world' by myself - at least not during the day! I'm definitely a night person.

   At any rate, Zowie had been cooped up in the house all day long, so like a good father, I bundled him and myself up and started out to see what we could find. Luckily, there was a Disney movie - 'Dumbo' - showing right down the road, so that's where we landed. Well, there I was sitting in one of the first rows, feeling quite silly. I mean, really, what was a grown man doing watching a movie about a flying elephant? Zowie, was enjoying it though, and - I must be honest - by about halfway through the film, you couldn't have dragged me out of the cinema!

   After the movie, Zowie and I were both starving, so we went to this place that Angie has taken Zowie to in the past. It's called McDonalds and it's really just about a national institution. I promise I will never go back there again! I've never tasted anything so ghastly in my life! I had a hamburger - at least they call it a hamburger - and it took me about five minutes just to find the meat that they'd squeezed in between all the pickles, mustard, ketchup, lettuce and bread.

   Zowie really loved his hamburger, however, and Angie's told me that McDonalds is really the place to be, so I think that in the future I'll let those two have the pleasure of going together!

   That's how my son and I spent that day and we'll have to do it more often - daylight isn't so bad, after all!



29th March 1975

   I have the most exciting news about my lovely Angie! She's taking a trip into deepest, darkest Africa! She's not going alone by any means. Our old friend, Lee Childers, will be accompanying her on the journey and acting as her photographer. And there will be plenty to photograph! They're venturing not only into Africa but also to Arabia and Angie is bringing her most beautiful and wildest clothes along. It's sort of going to be a fashion tour, you see. Angie's thought it all up and can't wait to meet and be photographed with all the rich and mysterious African and Arabian princes. She's never been to either place so she really can't wait to explore all this uncharted (to her) area! Who knows what she may come up with! Perhaps some African natives will fancy her and kidnap her and she'll wind up living with some tribe in the wilds of the jungle!

   Seriously, though, she's promised to stay out of trouble and not wander too far into the jungle by herself! She's already received invitations from all sorts of royalty over there to visit, so she's prepared to live a life of luxury! It's partly business and partly pleasure, you know. Angie's really got a fabulous business head and so (with a little help from her friends) her trip is going to turn into a TV special in England and in the States. The 'Angie Bowie Takes You To Africa' sort of thing. So, you'll be able to see the whole trip, too!

   I'm sure Angie will have a new look by the time she returns from her adventure! She'll have traded in her dresses and toreador pants for some elegant robes and caftans - and the Arab sheiks' wives she leaves behind could possibly be wearing the latest in British attire! At any rate, it's a sure thing that Angie will make an enormous impression on those countries and vice-versa. I'm terribly curious to see what happens and I wish I had time to go along!

   As for me, I've become very houseproud lately. I've been busy overseeing the painting, the laying of rugs and the general putting together of my new house! My kind of overseeing means I take a quick look in at the progress of a certain room and then escape into another part of the house. I have the amazing knack of getting into mishaps whenever redecorating is concerned, so I've decided that the best course of action is just to stay out of the way! I've been very successful so far and the redecorating is coming along quite well - the house is really becoming quite beautiful!



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Created: July 1997 © Paul Kinder Last Updated: 15/7/17