David Bowie | The New York Observer

The Man Who Fell to Moon

Tue, 05 May 2009 13:56:55 -0400

Nestled within this season of blockbusters—Wolverine! Spock! Terminator robots!—is a more modest film called Moon (in theaters June 12) that might just blow your mind. It wasn’t made with a giant studio budget, nor does it feature the CGI effects of a typical sci-fi spectacular. But the movie—about a lonely astronaut living on the moon—is the kind that brings on all sorts of unsettling feelings that stay with you, in a good way, long...

Punk's Not Dead, It's At Christie's!

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:59:01 -0400

Once in awhile we happen upon a little piece of news or even just a realization about a seemingly mundane fact of life that makes us feel like we really are living in the future. For instance, 10 or 15 years ago we were probably thinking thinks like: "Wow, I bet someday everyone will be carrying around little mini-computers that double as telephones and can provide your exact coordinates on planet earth at any...

Wall Street, Part Duh

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:19:49 -0400

August
Running time 88 minutes
Written by Howard A. Rodman
Directed by Austin Chick
Starring Josh Hartnett, Adam Scott, Naomie Harris, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Rip Torn, Robin Tunney, David Bowie

Worse still, there’s a deadly, amateurish infection going around called August, with yet another novocained performance by zombified Josh Hartnett as a dot-com Internet star named Tom Sterling, who invents a company called Landshark with his brother Joshua (Adam Scott)....

Did Real Estate's Wonkiest Web Site Inspire New Josh Hartnett/David Bowie Film?

Thu, 29 May 2008 13:45:54 -0400

Besides the thrill of watching David Bowie lean forward all Bond-villian-like and say, "We don't much like the way you conduct your business," the trailer for the new Josh Hartnett film August will thrill New York real estate wonks that use the research Web site PropertyShark.

Mr. Hartnett plays Tom Sterling, a luxury car-driving, babe-bedding start-up mogul behind an Internet start-up called LandShark. It's not clear what kind of Web site it is ("What do...

Remember the 90’s? Indie Stars R.E.M., The Breeders, Moby, Morrissey Return; Scarlett Works With Bowie

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:33:46 -0500

As late winter’s doldrums penetrate the city, it’s becoming harder to find a reason to leave the house at night. But what if we told you Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were headlining the Plug Independent Music Awards tomorrow at Terminal 5? And then what if we told you it was only $10? Well, the bad news is the show sold out in about two seconds. But those of you who scored tickets...

Heroes Soundtrack, With Bowie, Wilco, Hits Stores March 18

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:00:21 -0500

The soundtrack for NBC's popular superhero drama, Heroes, will hit stores on March 18, bringing fans 18 songs from the show that mix the old (Bob Dylan and David Bowie -- the Bowie track is "Heroes," obvs!), with the new (Wilco, Panic! at the Disco, and Imogen Heap), according to The Hollywood Reporter. More notably, the disc will also include a track by '80s fuzz-rockers the Jesus and Mary Chain, which is the duo's...

Wish Iman a Star! Feeling Safe Is 'State-of-Mind'

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:57:09 -0500

Tim Gunn wasn’t the only recognizable pillar of style at last night’s Safe Horizon gala. Iman, who is married to skeletal singer David Bowie, was there too! The former model’s towering frame, visually striking as it entered the venue, bedimmed her vintage silver dress and faux fur-lined coat. Glowing as she was, we thought she looked nothing of her 52 years.

Being safe in Iman’s view doesn’t involve a security detail,...

Alicia Keys Dates Herself at Rock 'n' Roll Benefit

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:55:41 -0400

“You know service is the best Prozac, or any drugs that are out there for stress. Service! It’s cheap, it’s good!” AIDS activist and Keep A Child Alive founder Leigh Blake told audiences yesterday at Condé Nast’s Black Ball in support of her organization.

Ms. Blake, who left school at 14 to follow the Who and subsequently spent her life surrounded by artists like Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and the Talking Heads, knows a thing...

It's Curtains for Little Italy's Little Charlie's; Bowie-Backed Burlesque Show Replacing It!

Thu, 10 May 2007 10:48:22 -0400

It's official. Sting, David Bowie and club owner Ivan Kane have finally gone to contract to bring Kane's burlesque show Forty Deuce to New York. Late yesterday, the trio signed on with New York Commercial Realty's James Famularo to open Kane's Las Vegas-based show at 19 Kenmare Street in the space that currently houses Little Charlie's Clam House. The contract is for approximately 5,500 square feet on the basement and first...

The Great Gervais

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500

At 3 p.m. on Dec. 15, Ricky Gervais stood opposite a picture of his own round face, blown up to three times its size and resting on an easel in the lobby of the HBO building in midtown. “Look what they’ve done to my teeth,” he said, jabbing a finger at his jaw, his voice tripping into a squeal. In the picture, part of a poster advertising the Jan. 14 second-season premiere of his...

Destroyer's Topsy-Turvy Idea Redeems Bejar's Theatrics

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 19:00:00 -0500

There are performers you can’t enjoy unless you learn to ignore or tolerate some aspect of their music. If the challenge is worth it, what seemed at first annoying or bewildering later seems essential. In the case of Destroyer, the obstacle is the voice of singer and songwriter Dan Bejar. A native of Vancouver, Mr. Bejar sings in a concocted, faux-British rock-’n’-roll accent, a melodramatic delivery that’s part David Bowie, part dungeon master. His...

Rogers Sisters, Mission of Burma; Morrissey Follows Up Comeback

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 19:00:00 -0500

New York’s cool kids have been keeping busy: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Fiery Furnaces, the Walkmen (who are saying goodbye to their Harlem studio) and Liars (who relocated to Berlin to work on their latest) are all getting ready to grace us with new records throughout the spring, while TV on the Radio’s sophomore album, still without a release date, shouldn’t be too far beyond the horizon. Don’t let the Rogers Sisters’ The...

Destroyer’s Topsy-Turvy Idea Redeems Bejar’s Theatrics

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Kay Street

Sun, 12 Oct 2003 20:00:00 -0400

Kay LeRoy is spreading her wings. Again.

Ms. LeRoy, ex-wife of the late restaurateur Warner LeRoy, has bought a third unit in her Greenwich Village apartment building, increasing her holdings there to a total of 7,200 square feet. In late July, Ms. LeRoy paid $1.33 million for a 1,600-square-foot one-bedroom apartment at a loft building called the Greenwich, at 65 West 13th Street. The eighth-floor unit sits directly next to the other two apartments that...

Bottoms Up

Sun, 07 Sep 2003 20:00:00 -0400

"What was that all about?" a man in a black button-down shirt hollered over the obligatory bass of Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" at the Chelsea nightspot Suite 16 on a recent summer evening. His friend looked down at the glass of red liquor he'd just been handed and shrugged. They both gazed back at the dimly lit dance floor: Four long-legged, notably attractive women were working themselves into quite a fervor dancing. All four...

Bowie's Bower

Sun, 20 Jul 2003 20:00:00 -0400

David Bowie, the grandfather of glam-rock, and his wife, the supermodel Iman, have bought a 64-acre mountain in a secluded area outside the onetime rock mecca of Woodstock, N.Y. Iman and Mr. Bowie fell in love with the property, known as Little Tonche Mountain, when he laid down the tracks for his latest album, Heathen , at a recording studio that sits atop the larger mountain next-door in the summer of 2001.

But it may...

Just Remember These: Most Desirable Discs of 2002

Sun, 22 Dec 2002 19:00:00 -0500

The boy bands, the Britney clones and even the original navel-barer-all started their slow parade to the digital bone yard this year. And that wasn't the only reason to celebrate. There was a lot of good music released this year, much of it from a bunch of old warhorses who were big when analog was still king: Bowie, Waits, Wolf & Springsteen. Here now, the best of 2002-in alphabetical order-as chosen by The Observer...

Ziggy Gold Dust: David Pullman Made a Fortune on Bowie Bonds; Roll Over Marvin Gaye!

Sun, 19 Nov 2000 19:00:00 -0500

David Pullman is going through his press clips. He is

multi-tasking at the close of another busy day in his capacious Fifth Avenue office overlooking Central Park. He has an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles on the speaker phone, a downtown art broker on hold and an executive assistant (one of five that work for him) waiting to get an O.K. for his weekend itinerary. But it is the folder of news clips that he keeps coming back to. ...

Bowie, Murdoch et Al. Spend Millions to Make Art Enclave Their Own

Sun, 12 Mar 2000 19:00:00 -0500

ERIC NEDERLANDER, ON MOVING DOWNTOWN: IT'S LIKE A NEW CITY In the race to lure millionaires below Houston Street, the developer of 285 Lafayette Street, which actually is an old artist-in-residence loft building with actual loft-law-era artists still in residence , did something right. As of last April, the list of residents read like a Howard Rubenstein guest list: David Bowie and Iman, Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch, Pat McEnroe and Melissa Errico, I.B.M. heiress...

All the Old Dudes (And One Old Crow)

Sun, 10 Oct 1999 20:00:00 -0400

Avenue B , Iggy Pop (Virgin/America).

Hours … , David Bowie (Virgin/America). Vagabond Ways , Marianne Faithfull (It Records/Virgin U.K.). James Jewell Osterberg (Iggy Pop), David Robert Jones (David Bowie) and Marianne Faithfull (Marianne Faithfull) are all 53 years old. Each has just released a record that confronts the state commonly referred to as middle age. "It was the winter of my 50th year," begins Iggy Pop's Avenue B , "When it hit me–I was...

Sharper Image: Joe Jackson Makes Case for His Own Career

Sun, 18 Jul 1999 20:00:00 -0400

Joe Jackson likes big gestures. He badmouthed MTV and music videos when everyone else was embracing them; he switched gears almost every album, from new wave to reggae to swing music to Latin disco to instrumentals to movie scores–as if to remind everyone that he's not just some dumb rocker, he studied at music school. After scoring a Top 10 hit with "Steppin' Out" in 1982, Mr. Jackson beat a slow retreat from pop...

Web-Site Upstart Tries to Fill David Bowie's Loft

Sun, 14 Mar 1999 19:00:00 -0500

Greenwich Village

INTERNET UPSTART TRIES TO FILL DAVID BOWIE'S LOFT. We've fallen to earth. Internet executives are living like rock stars. Or at least trying to. On Feb. 26, Michael Odell, a vice president at Sapient Corporation–a Cambridge, Mass.-based Internet systems builder and software developer that made the 1998 Forbes 200 list of small companies to watch–paid about $1.85 million for David Bowie's 5,000-square-foot, ninth-floor condo at 704 Broadway, near East Fourth Street. And he's using it as a pied-à-terre . ...

Ziggy in SoHo! David Bowie Buys Two Penthouses for $4 Million

Sun, 17 Jan 1999 19:00:00 -0500

SoHo

DAVID BOWIE, FICKLE LOFT BUYER, SIGNS $4 MILLION DEAL ON LAFAYETTE STREET. Rock star David Bowie has signed a contract to purchase two penthouses under construction at 285 Lafayette Street between Prince and Houston streets for $4 million, according to real estate sources. Meanwhile, Mr. Bowie's 5,200-square-foot loft at 704 Broadway–purchased just last February for $1.5 million but never lived in–is back on the market for $1.85 million. The two apartments Mr. Bowie has...

Blimey! Freud Scorned Again; Nary a Well-Connected Charity

Sun, 19 Apr 1998 20:00:00 -0400

"I didn't intend to write a book that would upset Lucian Freud," said Matthew Collings, author of Blimey! From Bohemia to Britpop: The London Art World From Francis Bacon to Damien Hirst .

On March 31, Mr. Collings, the 43-year-old British author and television personality, was escorted by none other than aging-rocker-turned-art-impresario David Bowie into Jeff Koons' 10,000-square-foot loft on the corner of Broadway and Houston Street. Inside, a full-tilt art-world party was under way...

David Bowie's New Loft Sits in the Middle of NYU's Playpen

Sun, 22 Feb 1998 19:00:00 -0500

DAVID BOWIE LANDS A LOFT

David Bowie and his wife, supermodel-actress Iman, are moving into their golden years-Major Tom turned 51 last month, after all. And to celebrate, they've bought themselves a 5,000-square-foot loft at 704 Broadway, near East Fourth Street. The loft was on the market for $1.7 million, and the couple were said to have paid about $1.5 million. It's a bargain for the Man Who Fell to Earth, who last year crash-landed...