A lad insane

MANILA, Philippines - One man’s Ziggy is another man’s Madonna –– this woman’s, to be exact. I didn’t grow up listening to David Bowie’s music, but his androgynous style, messed-up teeth and overall oddity all added to his appeal, which has crossed over generations, including this one.

My pedestrian knowledge of David Bowie begged to be expanded when I saw The Runaways, a movie set in the psychedelic, bell-bottom-shaking, midriff-baring ‘70s, where Dakota Fanning channeled Aladdin Sane, one of Bowie’s many characters. As Cherie Curie, Fanning gave herself a spiky Bowie mullet and, with the help of her sister, painted on that now-ubiquitous lightning bolt down the middle of her face as she struggled between her responsibilities as a sister and daughter, and her incipient lust for the spotlight and the thrills of rock ‘n’ roll.

Before that day, all I knew of David Bowie were the following: 1) He was in Labyrinth, 2) Three songs: Heroes, from The Wallflowers cover, The Man Who Sold the World, from the Nirvana cover, and Starman, which a guy named Magni sang on a reality show called Rockstar: Supernova, and 3) That he was cool but kind of nuts. The next logical step in my journey through Bowie’s multiverse was to download his “greatest hits,” of course, to try to develop an appreciation for the original tracks –– but the only song I ever really loved is Starman. I like Ziggy Stardust but only because a friend sings a killer version of it on videoke, Little Wonder because of its epileptic shocker of a video, and now, The Stars (Are Out Tonight).

The hype that surrounds “The Next Day” is astounding. First there was the melancholic eponymous track, The Next Day. Then came the video for The Stars, the one that featured equally gender-bending art and fashion plate Tilda Swinton, and pieces by Yves Saint Laurent, Lanvin, Alexander McQueen, Raf Simmons and Rick Owens on Bowie, Tilda, and models Saskia de Brauw and Andrej Pejic.

Now there is “David Bowie Is,” an exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum that opens on March 23, and documents Bowie’s journey as man, musician and work of living art. The retrospective digs deep into Ziggy’s archives, (star)dusty though not forgotten, and displays 300 objects in the fields of fashion, sound, graphics, theater, art and film –– together!

So does the album live up to the hype? Better ask a music critic. I just love him mostly for his clothes, makeup and perfect hair, in the same way that a Madge die-hard must feel about the Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra from Express Yourself.