Here’s the reason I’ll always think well of David Bowie: back in the fall of 1980 I was on an NYC theater tour with some other Detroit burbs high schoolers. We saw Bowie’s performance in The Elephant Man, which was a physical marvel. The next day, the lead actress (Patricia Elliott) spoke to our group, and it came out that one of our group had the Elephant Man’s condition, which had to be treated with continual surgeries. The actress arranged for her to meet with Bowie (which was of course very kind of her as well). Now, as the actress had explained to us, Bowie was spending hours before and after each performance dealing with the exhausting physical demands of the part–massages, stretching, etc. Yet he took time to meet with this young woman from the Midwest, and I can see no other real motivation besides the kindness of all concerned. So talk all you like about the cold Thin White Duke–I’m not buying it.

Tom Doyle (author of American Craftsmen and The Left-Hand Way) and Lawrence Schoen (author of Barsk: The Elephant’s Graveyard) will be in Lansing, MI at Schuler’s Books at Eastwood on Jan. 21st. An informal gathering will follow at Tony Sacco’s, also at Eastwood (north of the cinemas). The next day (1/22) we’ll be at the ConFusion SF convention in Novi, MI
http://www.schulerbooks.com/event/tor-author-highlight-tom-doyle-and-lawrence-m-schoen-eastwood
http://confusionsf.org/