Remembering David Bowie

My favorite picture of David Bowie, from the sleeve of the Absolute Beginners single.

A note from the Wingman: Why would we do a celebrity obituary on this blog? Because David Bowie was an icon, the sort of creative and artistic genius we all wish we could be, and the sort of dapper gentleman of style and cool that we should all strive to emulate.

Like most of the world, I awoke last Monday morning and received the terrible news, and received it in the blunt, impersonal way most of us did: a notification on my cell phone that came in while I slept. And like the rest of the world, I had to open up a couple of news apps to confirm that it wasn’t a hoax or a false report.  

Sadly, the news was true. David Bowie had passed away just days after his 69^th birthday, finally succumbing after 18 months to the aggressive cancer none of us knew he had.

Now, admittedly, I wasn’t a huge Bowie fanboy. I wasn’t a disciple of his myriad incarnations throughout the decades. I never owned a Bowie album, never saw him in concert, and had only really seen a couple of his films. But David had always been a presence throughout my life. There had never been a time in my memory that there was no David Bowie. I was born in 1969, just a few weeks before the moon landing. Bowie recorded his first #1 single, Space Oddity, on the 20^th of June (3 weeks after my arrival) and released it on July 11^th. So yes, Bowie was always a celebrity my entire life on this rock.

Although I really liked “Under Pressure”, his 1981 collaboration with Queen, I only really started to pay attention to any of his music when Let’s Dance came out in 1983. I quickly tired of the title track and the equally inescapable China Girl, but Modern Love was a pop masterpiece to me. Plus, there was something very cool about this dude with the immaculate suit and perfect hair. I never completely warmed to Blue Jean and thought that the Dancin’ in the Streets cover with Mick Jagger was abysmal, mostly because Jagger’s aging rock-god histrionic flailing dance moves couldn’t be taken seriously by a 16-year-old me who was deeply entrenched in the synth-driven world of Depeche Mode and New Order. However, in 1986 I found out that Dave Gahan, singer of Depeche Mode, was recruited to sing for the band when they formed based on his singing Bowie’s song Heroes. I decided to give this Bowie fellow some more consideration, and at about the same time he released the title track to a film he was in….Absolute Beginners. It became the one and only time I ever purchased a Bowie single. The song was lush and gorgeous and achingly beautiful. To this day it remains my favorite Bowie track, followed closely by the aforementioned Modern Love.

In the 90s, I was still clinging to electronic music and rebelling against the grunge movement. That said, Bowie still managed to catch my ear in 1995 with Hallo Spaceboy and its remix by synth legends Pet Shop Boys, and The Heart’s Filthy Lesson from the soundtrack of the movie Se7en, with remixes from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Dave Ogilvie from Skinny Puppy, and in 1997 with I’m Afraid of Americans also done with Nine Inch Nails. Just a couple years ago, I reconnected with the classic track Heroes when it was featured in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Ironically, I never cared that much for the cover of that same song by the band The Wallflowers. 

Always dapper and put together, and always with that huge smile. Taken just before his death.

While those may have been the last songs of his I truly paid attention to, I still maintained a deep respect and admiration for the man and his body of work. He never stopped working, always with some sort of project or another going on. Even while dying from the cancer that ended his life, he was putting an album together that was to be his final goodbye. Released on his 69^th birthday, and just a couple days before he passed, Blackstar is being hailed as a masterpiece, hitting the charts at #1 and dethroning Adele after several weeks atop the charts. The album’s lead single, Lazarus, with its accompanying video, alludes to his impending demise. 

A very private man in his later years, no one outside his closest inner circle even knew he was sick. Even in his last publicly posted photographs, coincidentally also released on his birthday, he looks robust with that gigantic engaging smile of his and immaculately dapper as always. 

Bowie with Dave Gahan, circa 1997

 So, so very many acts that were influential in my life were influenced by David Bowie. Many are quoted here in a write up by the BBC.  As I said before, Dave Gahan’s rendition of Heroes got him the frontman gig for Depeche Mode. Not only did The Cure do a great cover of the Bowie classic Young Americans, former Bowie guitarist and collaborator Reeves Gabrels is now a touring member of The Cure. Bowie and Smith performed together live in 1997 for a Bowie anniversary concert. Smith has been quoted as saying:

Bowie's Low is the greatest record ever made. I bought it on cassette and the same day I went to a garden centre with my mum. I’d ordered it from the local record shop, and Paul, who was in the band, and is my brother-in-law, had dropped it through the letterbox. It’s like one of those weird days. I walked home from school, there was the cassette and we had a cassette player in the car. I went with her to a garden centre, and I listened to 'Low' while she went and did whatever mums do in garden centres, and I was like utterly, my whole perception of sound was changed. Just how something could sound completely different, like 'Breaking Glass', everything on there in fact, 'Sound And Vision', everything on there, everything I heard was astonishing, really astonishing. When I put it on now the sound, dunk dunk, everything is just fucking genius! There are other albums that I love much more, like viscerally much more, like 'Axis: Bold As Love', or 'Five Leaves Left', albums that I can cry to, but 'Low' was the album that had a huge impact on me, just how I saw sound. No other album has done that to me.

Robert Smith and David Bowie

You grunge fans will remember Nirvana covering The Man Who Sold The World on their famous MTV Unplugged episode. While I was never a fan of Nirvana or grunge as a genre, it’s not a bad cover. On their 360° Tour, U2 would play Space Oddity before the show to get the crowd going. U2 frontman Bono has been quoted s saying, “What Elvis meant to America, Bowie meant to Britain and Ireland. He was a radical shift on U2’s consciousness.”

Bowie and Bono

 

After hearing of Bowie’s death, Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore said:

David Bowie - Where does one start? Is it too obvious to state that he was the most influential artist for people of our generation and younger? Ziggy Stardust was the first album I owned and his ability to innovate meant that I was waiting patiently for the release of Blackstar just a few days ago.

I have heard Bowie blasting from Mr. Gahan’s dressing room way too many times to begin to count. Heroes was the first song that we ever played as the original Depeche Mode. We were all much more than casual fans.

He is the only artist who compelled us to rush to a record store on day one of a release back in the days of vinyl and beyond. His music is what grabbed us but he was so much more than just a musician.

To follow Bowie, to be one of his fans, was to be led on a magical, winding journey. He constantly pushed boundaries and introduced us to styles and genres we were unaware of or didn’t exist before he invented them.

He was a star - the star of stars. For us, he was the greatest legend. A legend who never rested on his laurels but continued to experiment up until his death.

We, along with the rest of the world, mourn the loss of our greatest talent. This will be a hard one to recover from.

Bowie and Martin Gore

 Many of my friends were/are much more die hard in their Bowie fandom than I ever was and took his death much harder than I. 

Pollyanna Denison had this to say:

Once upon another life, in 1997, through a set of circumstances in which the stars aligned, my guardian angels pulled all their favors, and luck was a lady to me, I wound up front row, standing against the stage, at a David Bowie concert. One which had been sold out for ages, and to which I had no tickets 3 hours prior. Soon after the show began, the Man himself reached out to me, grasped my hand, and held it in his warm, amazing, and magical palm; pantomiming that it was I who would not let go. He held my blessed hand so tightly that he pulled the ring off of my finger. He then smiled at me, held up my ring for the entire screaming audience to see, and walked the stage, proudly displaying it and laughing with his many admirers before he placed it back on my finger. He gave me the most charismatic wink I have ever received. Were it not for what seemed like a million people pressed against me, holding me upright on non-existent knees, I would have surely fallen, both lifeless and more alive than I had ever been, in that moment. To David, wherever he may be, I say this: Goodnight sweet prince. My heart will never be the same knowing you have left us, but is at the same time curious and hopeful for your soul's new journey. God speed.

And also sharing a close moment with David was Chris Huddleston:

To have held your hand in mine, even for that briefest of moments a lifetime ago, for just a handshake. To have shared a single moment, brief as it was...to look directly into those sparkling eyes and be met with that dazzling smile, meant just for me...for only a moment...a flicker in time. It is all I had but it is enough to hold me for a lifetime.

To have been here, in this life, to have crossed your path. To have watched the showman, the artist, sharing yourself and your art so many times. To have lived a life molded by your presence. That is a gift for which I can never repay you. These tears are real and they are full of both joy and sorrow, as is the life you helped me to live.

Your brilliance and beauty are unrivaled in my world. Thank you, from the deepest recesses of my soul.

p.s. Your catalog takes on a new meaning today. Listening, yet again, with new ears and eyes full of tears...

Billboard outside Knoxville, Tennesee

 

Billboard outside Los Angeles

Singer, songwriter, actor, playwright, fashion icon, multi-instrumental musician, producer, author, painter, husband, and father. Indeed, the stars look very different today. 

In Memoriam: David Robert Jones, 8 January 1947 to 10 January 2016.

Know Your Poisons: Vodka

Quite simply, vodka is a distilled beverage composed primarily of water and ethanol.  The name "vodka" is a diminutive form of the Slavic word voda (water), interpreted as “little water.”  This isn’t an uncommon theme, as the word “whisky” is derived from the Gaelic “uisge beatha” or water of life.

Vodka may be distilled from any starch- or sugar-rich plant matter; most vodka today is produced from grains such as sorghum, corn, rye or wheat. Among grain vodkas, rye and wheat vodkas are generally considered superior. Some vodkas are made from potatoes, molasses, soybeans, grapes, rice, sugar beets and sometimes even byproducts of oil refining or wood pulp processing. That sounds appealing, no?

 In some Central European countries, such as Poland, vodka is sometimes even produced by just fermenting a solution of crystal sugar and yeast. In the European Union there are talks about the standardization of vodka, and the Vodka Belt countries insist that only spirits produced from grains, potato and sugar beet molasses be allowed to be branded as "vodka", following the traditional methods of production.

In the United States, many vodkas are surprisingly made from 95% ethanol produced in large quantities by agricultural-industrial giants Archer Daniels Midland and Midwest Grain Processors. Bottlers purchase the base spirits in bulk, then filter, dilute, distribute and market the end product under a variety of vodka brand names. Think about that a minute. The stuff you’re paying top-dollar for because some rapper held up a bottle of it in a video might have started off as the same stuff they make that crappy gasoline from that’s 30 cents a gallon cheaper but destroys your engine over time. Buyer beware.

I like how the 85% ethanol is at a minimum 70% ethanol. WTF?

Vodka is the chameleon of spirits and blends seamlessly with just about anything. This is no accident, friends. While there are no universal rules for producing the spirit, the final product is supposed to be colorless, odorless and tasteless. With that said, vodka isn’t completely neutral, and a number of distillers actually leave in a good amount of flavor. (The best way to taste these subtle differences is to drink vodka neat at room temperature.) Unlike Scotches and cognacs, which are made in pot stills, vodka is usually produced in a high-volume, continuous column still. After distillation, the spirit is filtered to remove any remaining impurities and congeners. Coal is a traditional filter, but brands today use a range of materials, even including diamonds. Vodka isn’t aged and can be bottled and sold immediately after production. What’s also helping to drive sales in America is the wide range of flavored vodkas now on the market, because God knows we Yanks can’t drink anything without added flavors and sugars in it.

A common property of the vodkas produced in the United States and Europe is the extensive use of filtration prior to any additional processing like the addition of flavorants. Filtering is sometimes done in the still during distillation, as well as afterwards where the distillate is filtered through activated charcoal and other media to absorb trace amounts of congeners that alter or impart off-flavors to the vodka. However, this is not the case in the traditional vodka-producing nations, so many distillers from these countries prefer to use very accurate distillation but minimal filtering, thus preserving the unique flavors and characteristics of their products.

The master distiller is in charge of production and directing the filtration, which includes the removal of the "fore-shots", "heads" and "tails". These components of the distillate contain flavor compounds such as ethyl acetate and ethyl lactate (heads) as well as the fusel oils (tails) that impact the usually desired clean taste of vodka. Through numerous rounds of distillation, or the use of a fractioning still, the taste is modified and clarity is increased. In contrast, distillery process for liquors such as whiskies and rum allow portions of the "heads" and "tails" to remain, giving them their unique flavors.

Repeated distillation of vodka will make its ethanol level much higher than is acceptable to most end users, whether legislation determines strength limits or not. Depending on the distillation method and the technique of the stillmaster, the final filtered and distilled vodka may have as much as 95–96% ethanol. (Hey, kinda like that stuff I mentioned above.) As such, most vodka is diluted with water prior to bottling.

So yeah, like with any liquors, some of it is lesser-grade and some is considered ultra-premium. If you can get it for ten bucks for a 750ml plastic bottle, it probably isn’t really ready to be drunk neat and is better off as a mixer ingredient. However, I hasten to add that mid-range reasonably-priced vodkas are readily available and those over-the top super-premiums distilled half a dozen times and filtered through diamonds are just a way to part you from your money as you attempt vainly to look like a high-roller at the club.

Whattaya’ mean, Wingman? The more times it’s done, the better, right? I mean, it’s purer and they used diamonds, bro…

Seriously, guys, read between the lines.

The more you distill it the purer it gets. At a certain point is it 95% ethanol….just like the ethanol made in the giant factories and turned into the crap ruining your car engines at 85%. Either way, they have to water it down to make drinkable vodka. And really? Wasting diamonds on filtering alcohol? That’s the vodka equivalent of a tequila worm or a scorpion in the bottle. A marketing gimmick. Diamonds are better served as part of a saw blade or in jewelry. And you know what a diamond started off as? A hunk of coal. Squeezed by tectonic plates for a few million years, it becomes a diamond. Stick to the stuff filtered through charcoal.

If you drink something because a dude who wears sunglasses indoors says so, stop reading and kill yourself now

 

However, if you’re truly one of those concerned about status symbols and looking like a baller (But why the hell are you even reading my advice site if you’re like that?) there’s stuff like Kors Vodka. I’m paraphrasing this from their website because their sentence structure & syntax leads me to believe it wasn’t originally written in English:  “A top-guarded recipe (from a Czar and his brother) that was once considered lost, water from the Italian Alps, diamond-filtered distillation, hand selected grains from 12 countries, and gold distillation tubes make Kors like nothing you have ever tasted. No wonder it is one of the most sought after Vodka drinks on the Planet.”

 Kors is quite simply the most expensive vodka on the market. Pundits say the taste is superb and like nothing you’ve ever tried before (something tells me it tastes like vodka) but it’s the shape of the crystal bottle that makes people turn their heads when you have it on the table. And after all, that’s why you spend half a year’s salary on a bottle of booze; to be looked at like you’re special. 

Half a year’s salary, Wingman?

Well, the Silver Edition, of which only 1250 bottles were made, runs you $12,500. The Gold Edition of 750 bottles goes for $16,500 a bottle. And if you’re really so rich you can wipe your ass with hundreds, the 24K George V Limited Edition of just 250 bottles runs you a mere $24,500 a bottle. Digest THAT morsel a minute...For something that will be urine a couple hours after it passes your lips. 

Less expensive and only slightly less pretentious is elit, the super high-end from Stolichnaya. Ordinarily, Stoli is a reasonably-priced and quality vodka, but this is catering to that Hey Look At Me crowd. The newest elit offering is the Himalayan Edition.  It’s distilled from untainted water collected from a tank over 10,000 feet in the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal’s Langtang National Park, originating from snowmelt and naturally filtered through layers of stone during its journey down the hill. The water is then combined with the purest winter wheat from the Tambov Region of Russia. Limited to just 300 bottles, it comes in hand-blown Bohemian Czech bottles, each sealed with an attractive golden ice pick and supplied in a numbered, hand-carved walnut case. And at just $3,000 a bottle it’s a steal. 

Still too steep? Try Crystal Head vodka, the brain child of none other than Dan Ackroyd, who wanted to drink a vodka made without any additives like sugar, glycerol, or citrus oils.  A product of Newfoundland, Canada, Crystal Head is made with a variety of corn called Peaches & Cream grown in Ontario and after distillation is diluted with Newfoundland glacier water before being filtered seven times. Of course, three of those times is through (of course) diamonds. Because why? Because diamonds, that’s why. Actually, in Ackroyd’s case, the Herkimer diamonds are supposed to impart magical healing qualities. The vodka gets its name from the impressive skull bottle made in Milan by Bruni Glass. A 750 ml bottle is a little more expensive than most of the decent brands but at about 45 bucks, it’s a hell of a lot better than 4 and 5 digits.

Back down here amongst the commoners, you can get outstanding vodkas without breaking the bank. One can never go wrong with the products of Absolut, Smirnoff, and the aforementioned Stoli. One of the finest vodkas I’ve ever tried is from, of all places, Ireland, distilled five times and filtered through ten feet of Irish oak charcoal. I highly recommend Boru vodka; I normally eschew sipping vodka neat and prefer mixers, but this was smoother than smooth, without that characteristic burn of straight alcohol. 

If flavored vodka is to your liking, there are a myriad of flavors to choose from, almost an embarrassment of riches in the number of varieties.  You name the fruit and somebody has added it to vodka. Birthday cake? Yup. Whipped Cream? Cinnamon? Vanilla? Chocolate? Yes, indeed. Chili Pepper? Why not. 

Between Stoli and Absolut they cover damn near every flavor

Seriously, cucumber vodka is quite the rage these days.

Locally here in South Carolina, Firefly has made a name for itself with Sweet Tea vodka featuring tea from the Charleston Tea Plantation, and has started making a vodka from native muscadine grapes at their distillery on Wadamalaw Island.

Need something more exotic? There’s a rye-based vodka very popular in Poland and Belarus flavored with bison grass, with a piece of the grass in the bottle. Of course there’s bacon vodka. Why? I dunno; it’s bacon. Does there ever really have to be a reason for bacon?

Of course, with so many vodkas being virtually equal, some distillers go out of their way with unsusual packaging to make theirs stand out even from the ones previously discussed.

The flat rectangle approach

 

Why not use a cylinder?

The bottle itself is artwork

The clever vodka log

The cap unscrews to become a shotglass in this Scottish vodka

Ed Hardy will fucking put a tattoo drawing on anything.

The artillery shell in an ammo box, with shotglasses

But Wingman, whatever shall we do with all this great and grand supply of vodka out there?

Oh, young tadpoles, the number of cocktails made with vodka rivals the number of dollars in the federal defecit. Here are but a few to get you started.

The Classic Vodka Martini

2 ounces vodka

3/4 ounce dry vermouth

2 dashes bitters (optional)

Lemon twist or 3 olives for garnish

Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice.  Shake well.

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist or olives.

Now, there are umpteen million variations on the martini. Most of these start with a sweet flavor and end with –tini, like the appletini, pomtini, or chocolatini. Not all of these are “chick drinks”, mind you, and many serve as a nice dessert cocktail. Mostly though, they work as a great refresher on a hot summer night.

The Ultimate Pear Martini

1 ounce vodka

1 ounce pear vodka

1 ounce pear nectar

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

 1/4 ounce agave nectar

Pour all ingredients into a mixing glass. Add ice and shake for 10 seconds. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a Chilean baby Pear.

 

This is my buddy Peter, who will be adding some articles here in the future, rocking a pear martini in NYC.

Another classic vodka cocktail is the Screwdriver, along with its cousins the Greyhound/Salty Dog, and Cape Codder. Vodka and orange juice, grapefruit juice, and cranberry juice. Your Wingman is quite partial to vodka and cran. 

Main Squeeze Cocktail (based on the classic Screwdriver)

2 ounces Orange Vodka

1/2 ounce Triple sec

2 ounces Fresh orange juice

Club soda

Add all the ingredients except the club soda to a tall glass and fill with ice.  Fill with club soda and stir. Garnish with an orange wheel

Since your Wingman operates out of the state of South Carolina, I feel the need to add a couple recipes from my local distillery. 

Blueberry Firefly 

1 ounce Firefly Sweet Tea vodka

2 ounces blueberry simple syrup (recipe below)

Freshly-brewed sweet tea, and not that powdered shit, either. Keep it real.

2-4 fresh mint leaves

Ice

Make blueberry simple syrup by bringing one cup of water and one cup of sugar to a boil over medium high heat. Add a 1/2 cup of blueberries (fresh or frozen) until they are soft. Use a spoon to mash them a bit. Strain out the blueberries and discard. Or save them for a smoothie.

Once the simple syrup is cool, mix the syrup and vodka over ice in a highball glass.  Fill the rest of the glass with sweet tea and garnish with mint leaves.

Firefly Cider

2 1/2 ounces Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka

2 ½ ounces Fireball Cinnamon Whisky

1 ounce Apple liqueur (I highly recommend Berentzen Apfelkorn)

Splash of soda

Mix over ice in a highball glass and stir. Garnish with an apple slice if desired.

Harvest Highball

1 ½ ounces lemon vodka

½ ounce lime juice

½ ounce simple syrup

2 ounces ginger beer

Add all the ingredients except the ginger beer to a shaker and fill with ice. Shake well and strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice. Top with the ginger beer and garnish with a lime wedge.

Cucumber Mojito

2 ounces cucumber vodka

1 ounce fresh lime juice

2 tsp sugar

6 mint leaves

Muddle mint leaves, sugar, and lime juice in a Collins glass. Fill with ice and add vodka. Top off with soda water. Stir lightly and garnish with a cucumber wedge.

The Cosmopolitan

1/2 ounce lemon vodka

1 ounce triple sec

½ ounce fresh lime juice

1 dash cranberry juice

Add all the ingredients to a shaker and fill with ice. Shake, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with a lime wedge.

And since everything in the universe seems to revolve around bacon…

The Shrimp and Bacon Bloody Mary

1½ oz. Bacon Vodka in a pint glass filled with ice.

Fill glass with tomato juice

1 dash each of celery salt and ground black pepper

2-4 dashes each of Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco

Shake and pour into an Old Bay-rimmed (optional) glass. Garnish with a celery stalk, a slice of thick-cut crispy bacon, and a chilled shrimp.

 So there you go, my legions. Now you're all vodka experts. Go forth and experience the Little Water, and do it responsibly. Who's got your back? I do.