Modern Love

“I was up late at my desk, writing. I got a text at 1:43 A.M. from a friend (...). ‘Did you see the news?’ - that's never good. I texted her back "what happened" with one hand while googling "death" with the other. News had just come over, and it was bad news. I knew I wasn't going to be sleeping that night. I thought about waking up my wife to tell her. But I wanted her to sleep one more night in a world that had Bowie in it.
I pressed play on the tape that was already in the boom box next to my desk, "Bowie Mix 00." A driving tape, geared toward songs that sounded good in the car. Side A starts with "Five Years" and ends with "Scary Monsters"; side B starts with "Alladin Sane" and ends with "A New Career in a  NewTown." The tape has taken a battering over the past sixteen years, but it still plays. As the "Five Years" drums faded in, I thought of all my friends who were sleeping through this, wishing I could protect them from the news, hoping they'd sleep as long as possible. I started writing my memorial tribute for Rolling Stone.”

'On Bowie', 2016