Sunday, January 14, 2007

Sometimes I think my head is so big because it is so full of dreams...


That's from the play, "The Elephant Man."

When I was 16 years old and of normal bone/skin/tissue structure and fascinated by David Bowie (I had just purchased "Scary Monsters..." new on vinyl obviously) after going to the Cary, NC library and repeatedly checking out and keeping their vinyl copies of "Stage," "Heroes, " and oh my god, "Lodger," I read an article in Rolling Stone about said DB doing "The Elephant Man" on Broadway.

Not even fathoming how to actually GET TO NYC at that point (it took going to see King Crimson in 1984 and then going to see the ARMS concert in 1985 and then actually attending NYU in 1986, but those are all other stories…) I made my family watch a "20/20" expose on Bowie, which I still have recorded on Betamax somewhere.

My mother actually told me, after he was "legitimized" as a crazy person/artist/nutjob on "20/20," that she actually respected him as a performer. She also basically told me that he was kinda cute...

Anyway, there was a clip of him from Broadway, doing that line - "Sometimes I think my head is so big..." no makeup, no David Lynch...yet...just Bowie, contorted, pre - "Let's Dance" and not cute at all. Compelling.

And it's always resonated with me. My head is pretty near normal size, give or take the years of abuse, but still, yeah, pretty normal...

The photo is of me shooting Stacy. Hey - I told you she was a photographer...However, unlike me, when she shot this, she wasn't wearin' nothin' 'cept some boots...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks James, you're awesome!!! I will probably have you look at an assignment or two, just to be sure I'm in the ball park.

The husband chickened out of the hip hop class at the last minute!!! I'm going alone this week...should be hilarious though.

Samantha Speed(that "model" I shot)almost rubbed one out to those photos you took of me on MM....She wrote me @ 3am to tell me so!!!

I shamelessly told a few people about those photos of me, so there will be a few new comments by some glamour folks...don't wince!!! We can all appreciate art of your calaber- you kick some serious ASS!!!!!!!!!

lotsa love,
Stacy

Anonymous said...

You are a BOWIE fan? My god, you impress me more each day. Though you can't possibly be a bigger Bowie fan than I am :)