Bowie-mania in NYC!

“I’ve had a sentimental attachment to this city since I was, like, 17” Lafayette station, New York

On Wednesday 18  April the MTA (New York subway) launched 5 subway tickets in honour of Bowie and to celebrate the exhibition currently at the Brooklyn Museum.

Bowie’s wish was that he should have an exhibition starting at the V&A in London, travelling to Paris and finishing in his beloved adopted city of New York.

 

 

The photos show all 5 of the subway tickets (each one cost $1 plus $5.50 for 2 subway rides).

 

 

The queues at Lafayette subway station, where Bowie lived, were very long for several days, until all of the tickets ran out (in the machines and at the booths).

 

 

 

Managing to get several full sets with a lot of effort, I had good fun chatting with the people queueing up with me.

 

 

Lafayette station has a brilliant photo exhibition, my favourite one being of a very young (and emancipated – no doubt from too much cocaine-use: he admitted that he had to leave Los Angeles and live in Berlin for a while because of his use of drugs was having a very detrimental effect) Bowie with John Lennon (another Brit who loved New York).

 

Whereas John Lennon lived in the upper west side, Bowie loved SoHo where he felt he could go about his life with no hassles.

 

Debbie and I made our way to the Brooklyn Museum to the exhibition itself, no doubt the same one that started at the V&A.

 

We were there for 3 hours as there is so much to see and experience.

 

You are supplied with headphones programmed so that you hear his voice and his songs as you go from wall to wall.

 

There is also a huge screen in one of the final rooms where you can watch him performing and dance along if you feel like it – Debbie and I did.

 

Photos were not allowed inside the exhibition and there was an opportunity to take a couple of photos once you were outside.

 

 

 

I went back to his home at Lafayette Street (the duplex at the top of the building is the last photo in this blog) but there is now no trace of him, no street art, nothing. It is, no doubt, as he would like it.

 

 

 

Bowie’s “Blackstar” for cello and orchestra will be performoned in a free concert on 9 June in Central Park. I shall be there!