Everyone has their Bowie moments. This happened to Laurie Rosenwald circa 1981 (spellings and punctuation are hers, as appears in an email to me).
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martha voutas, a lovely art director i knew, knew someone who knew someone, and all of a sudden i was working for #davidbowie. i met him at his manager’s office at 250 west 57th street. he opened the door and proceeded to charm the socks off me, in spite of his still-british teeth. no- it was more than that. i adored him profoundly and instantly. he was so friendly, so warm. we discussed the project, an album cover and poster for a re-release of the 1973 of #bowie as #ziggystardust, called, appropriately, #Ziggy. we also chatted about soul music and gospel and clothes and colors and art and plenty of other stuff for two and a half hours. see.
he asked me if i was hungry. “always!” i said. he then ordered cheeseburgers deluxe and cokes for us. we ate junk food and laughed. then i took the subway downtown and he flew back to switzerland.
this was way before e mail. i’d fedex different poster ideas to him. he’d phone me at odd hours, and say things like this:
“you know that poster you sent me last week?”“yes.”“well, could you do something that’s like, the opposite of that?”“what do you mean?”“well, you know the way it is?”“yes.”“well, that’s exactly what i don’t want, so could you do something that’s as different from what you did as possible?”“um, sure thing, mister bowie!”
so that’s how i met david bowie, genius music legend and one of the world’s worst art directors. that said, i’ve worked with several hundred horrible art directors, see.
and not one of these can sing “rebel, rebel” worth a damn. i’m a bowie fan for ever. they ended up with someone else’s boring solution, using a mediocre photograph, but still. i’ll dine out on that cheeseburger as long as i live.
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#Ziggy #WeekendHeller #DailyHeller #Rosenwald #StevenHeller #Bowie