Djurdjevich: January 2016

David Bowie was one of my favorite artists. I never saw him live in concert but I heard him when he was performing near the building I used to work in May 2002 in downtown Manhattan. It was a free concert encouraging people to visit downtown Manhattan less than a year after September 11. I couldn’t get out of work on time to see him in person but I was glad to hear his music. He had many great songs. My favorites were "Heroes", "Changes", "Let's Dance", "China Girl", a Christmas medley with Bing Crosby, and many more. His encouragement was one of the reasons that I moved from Manhattan to downtown Manhattan in May 2003 and stayed until early June 2005.

Another David Bowie related story was when I met Iggy Pop in late 2009 at a book signing in downtown Manhattan. During the Question and Answer period afterwards, I asked Iggy about his time in West Berlin, Germany. He talked about David and the time they spent there in the 1970s. He loved it there and said it was like NYC with a fraction of the people and cars.

Before running the 2004 Berlin Marathon, I visited the former site of the Berlin Wall. David had performed there in 1987. The music was cranked loud so people on the eastern side of the Wall could hear it. A week after David’s performance, President Reagan told Soviet Premier Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall”. It was gone two years later on November 9, 1989.

David Bowie's opening tandem of Paul Simon's "America and his own "Heroes", dedicated to David's local ladder company in The Concert for New York City on October 20, 2001.

Please find this link with a video of David’s performance at the Berlin Wall in 1987 and a photo of David at The Concert for New York City on October 20, 2001.

In addition to being a great singer, David was a great actor. IMDB lists 40 acting credits. My favorite was his portrayal of Nikola Tesla in The Prestige (2006). This is a photo of Tesla and David from Pinterest.