BLACK STAR : ONE THOUGHT

by Maria Badasian
May 7, 2016

David Bowie had a long life of experiences and continual self-education. And so do we all, each in our own way. It is possible that Bowie was presented the video based merely on aesthetics or maybe its just a recollection of all the things he found interesting from his life. But, you'll see later that all the examples that are told have a few things in common. There are stories of Egyptian gods, contemporary artists, native american architecture, etc. All these topics revolve around the idea of life and death, mostly death. When I first tried to watch the David Bowie music video, Blackstar, I could not for a long time. I didn't even go through a David Bowie phase when he died; I did watch the movie Velvet Goldmine which is a movie that led to my obsession with Bowie in the first place! However, I did not listen to his music or read articles continuously and forever. It wasn't until the David Bowie tribute, and there I felt the power of Bowie. In the end of the show, everyone was singing Space Oddity in unison (we were told to) and it was a fantastic finish. It was then where I was ready to listen to his final album and watch the videos. Bowie does this thing where he looks you straight in the eyes through the screen. That moment is a bit intense. Austronout in the beginning, reminding us instantly of Bowies like for space; it reminds us of Space Oddity. We are no longer on Earth as we realize the beautiful creature approaching the object. "On the day of execution, Only women needn't smile" .. Which women? Her? Who's execution? Bowies?! She opens the helmet of the astronaut and finds a bejeweled skull. It's Magnificent and beautiful but what is it? She takes it away. Then we see him with bandaged eyes and needs to make for eyes, therefore hiding his peculiar eyes from the world! (He ends up taking them off later). He then says "at the center of it all, your eyes, your eyes." While in the background there are three people who seem possessed in some way. In The Villa of Ormen? Where is that? He proceeds to hold a blackstar-bible-looking-book ... "Something happened on the day he died," in the sky which reminds one of God, is Bowie saying he is God? We see him look us in the eyes next but it's not as intense, the mood starts to lighten up. We see the creatures eyes, his eyes, him making silly faces, she winks, she smiles. Everything seems to be going backwards through zooming out on Bowie, and the candle. Now Bowie is kind of telling us a funny story that ended in "I'm the great, I am." The song then slowly transforms into something of a sexual nature to it. We see scarecrows on crucifixes made of wooden branches but the scarecrows are dancing intensifying the idea of sex. Bowie sings "we were born upside down, born the wrong way round." Something else that's interesting is that the scarecrows seem to be enjoying the state their in and we see that since the bottom half of their faces are exposed. Hmm this might be something about Isis? There is rumore that he mentioned something about that to Donny! Again getting to a slightly more powerful state, the beautiful bejeweled comes back into the shot being part of what seems to be a ritual performed by witches. Again saying "on the day of execution, only women kneel and smile," perhaps he's talking about these women, these witches. The interesting thing is is that the stories seem to be climaxing at the end of the video - the scarecrows are visited by a wild creature, the spell of the witches progresses The skull was just brought back. The music however winds down and ends with a flicker of the Blackstar logo. What is a black star anyways? Also, check out that saxophone!