This an acoustic version of David Bowie’s masterpiece, “Quicksand,” from his 1971 album, “Hunky Dory.”
Had an album release party today at the lovely home of Maia Panos, a wonderful gathering of friends. The album came out on Friday. We premiered the video, the first one for the album, at the party today. It is now live on YouTube, etc. This an acoustic version of David Bowie’s masterpiece, “Quicksand,” from his 1971 album, “Hunky Dory.” The inspiration for the video was Heinrich Boll’s 1963 novel, “The Clown.” The novel follows, in a series of flashbacks and ruminations, the downfall of the protagonist, Hans Schnier, once an A-list entertainer who toured Europe and performed at the finest concert hall and stayed in the best hotels. He has lost the only woman he ever loved to his stubborn refusal to sign an agreement to raise their future children in the Catholic faith. Additionally, his alcoholism has progressed into the realm of hopeless variety, with the concomitant spirtitual and emotional collapse. In the last scene of the book, he is performing on the sidewalk outside a train station, his make-up smeared and cracked, with tears streaming down his face. Quite a book, beautifully written, and I highly recommend it.
Every year, NPR has a contest for people, independent musicians, to send in videos of themselves (or their bands) performing a piece of original music, with a desk nearby. It’s in the rules: there must be a desk. The winner gets flown to Washington, D.C., to perform in the studio and be broadcast all over the country. A friend sent me the link, so I made this video and entered.
Another friend saw the video and called me Mr. Rogers. Everybody is a comedian.
Created from a seven-and-a-half hour hi-res video made available by Channel NRK2, on the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. I felt it would be perfect for “winter blue,” from the album “the seasons [remixed/remastered].” Finally got around to doing the edits. Yes, very happy with it!
Watch full-screen with a good sound system!
From the NRK2 website: Friday November 27th, over 1,2 million Norwegians watched parts of «Bergensbanen» on NRK2. The longest documentary ever? At least the longest we have made, almost 7 1/2 hours, showing every minute of the scenic train ride between Bergen on the Norwegian west coast, crossing the mountains to the capital of Oslo.
Original download page: http://nrkbeta.no/bergensbanen
English: https://nrkbeta.no/2009/12/18/bergensbanen-eng/
