1974 January February March April May June July August September October NOVEMBER December

MY WORLD by David Bowie A WEEKLY DIARY EXCLUSIVELY WRITTEN FOR MIRABELLE MAGAZINE

2nd November 1974

   There's a brand new addition to the Bowie household. Her name is Miss Jones and she's a pretty little Persian kitten. To tell the truth, I've never been much of a cat fancier myself, but Angie and Zows are - so I was absolutely overruled when the family decided to get a cat. It's a good thing, too, 'cos I must admit this cat is a charmer and I've pretty well fallen in love with it along with everyone else.

   She's the tiniest little ball of white fur with the brightest blue eyes, and the high spots of every day for Zowie are Miss Jones' meal times 'cos Zowie gets to feed her all by himself. My only complaint is that I keep tripping over her all the time. I'm not used to watching where I'm going and Miss Jones has developed this nasty habit of chasing feet. I suppose that pretty soon she'll have me trained well enough to avoid mishaps.

   Another new event in the Bowie's lives is the fact that we've got cameras and are busy getting into photography. Angie bought me a camera to take on tour, and when she saw what fabulous pictures I'd taken of all our friends and all the places I'd gone to, she rushed out and got a camera for herself. She's decided that we should have a family album and I must say she's very good about recording all the happenings in our lives.

   I never knew how difficult it was to take really good pictures. I thought all you had to do was pick up the camera and sort of vaguely aim it in the right direction and shoot. After many pictures of people with their heads cut off and pictures of people's left arms, I realised there had to be more to it than that. Now, I'm getting into the right way of doing it, with a little help from my photographer friends, thank goodness - and I've advanced to the stage of making sure I've entire bodies and scenes into the camera's line of vision.

   Angie and I really are a sight in New York these days. We've taken to running around the city with our cameras slung around our necks, snapping pictures of unsuspecting persons and exciting things. We really do look like your typical crazy tourists.

   Actually, Angie learned how to take pictures quite a while ago when she was in school, so she's really quite good at it. Her favourite is of me after just getting out of bed, looking rather untidy and playing with Zows and the cat walking across my shoulder. I plan to make very sure that that picture never falls into the wrong hands!

9th November 1974

   I had a fabulous gift delivered to me the other day. It came in a huge box which quite surprised me because I don't usually get anything of that size in my mail. Eagerly I ripped the package open to find a rather large stuffed toy dog, complete with a diamond-like necklace around its neck... Get it? Diamond Dogs!

   It was a great looking toy - but the best part of it all is that it was sent to me by Anthony Newley, the famous actor-singer who I've been a fan of for years.

   Well, it turns out that he'd come to one of my concerts and really enjoyed himself, so this was a token of his appreciation. He said he even made the dog himself.

   I can tell you I was absolutely astonished! How flattering it is to find that one's idol turns out to be one's fan. Excuse me while I pat myself on the back! I'm feeling quite big-headed at the moment.

   I've been enjoying the old New York night-life once again. Angie and I went to a super party the other night in honour of Stevie Wonder and it certainly was an all-star evening.

   My old friend, Mick Jagger was there - and we discovered that we're practically neighbours. He's living over here now and likes it quite a lot, although he misses Britain, as do I.

   Anyway, it was great seeing him and having a bit of the old country over here.

   After the party Angie and I took Mick to that Latin dancing place we like to go to and introduced Mick to the art of Latin-American dancing, a talent I'm not perfect at yet myself, but I do enjoy it. Mick picked it up right away, though, and pretty quickly he looked like one of the regulars.

   I really must go now, one of my favourite old movies is on the telly and I want to tape it so I can show it to my friends in the future. As you know, my video-tape machine is my greatest craze these days and I can't resist using it constantly.

   So until next time...

16th November 1974

   You've probably recently seen photographs of me posed with the lovely Elizabeth Taylor. I must admit, that meeting her was quite a thrill. You see, ever since I was a tot I've wanted to meet Miss Taylor and I'm still quite a fan of hers, so when I found out that she'd come to see my show and was inviting me to tea the next day, I was really flabbergasted!

   It turned out that she's not as notorious as everyone thinks. In fact, she's very nice and sweet, and she seemed quite nervous at meeting me. She must have thought that I was pretty notorious, too! She's also giggly at times and very little-girlish. By the end of the tea I was giggling right along with her. It really was amazing to discover that she's not the vamp she nearly always portrays on the screen, but that's the nice thing about being a performer. One gets to meet some of the people one has admired and find out what they're really like.

   We're finally starting to use the new set in the show. It's really impressive - an all-white backdrop made of a plush fuzzy material. Ava and Geoffrey and I stand on sparkling stainless steel platforms while we're performing and the whole effect is very dramatic. I've instructed everyone not to go near the white material with shoes on or it won't be white for too long!

   The new shows have been going really well - I've added some new songs and changed the format and so far everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. There has been one minor set-back, though. Yours truly came down with a very bad sore throat and I thought I might have to cancel a show. Luckily, Angie came to the rescue. She started travelling with me by train - fearless Angie usually flies to my concerts - and treated me with Vitamin 'C' tablets, aspirins and throat sprays - and I felt quite healthy in no time.

   I'm so glad it was Angie who nursed me back to health, though. When I'm sick I'm rather unbearable to be around. I get really grumpy and want everything to be done for me and the only person who can stand being around me is Angie. Now that I'm sufficiently recovered she's taking planes again, because trains are just not fast enough for the lady of perpetual motion!

   Well, I must bid you all adieu for now as I seem to be running out of room, so stay tuned until next week.

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Created: July 1997 © Paul Kinder

Last Updated: 23/4/98