David Bowie & Me - & Fake Gray Hair
Before this
event, which I'd already put on FB, goes down in LA art-party-history as another evening
of sweat, beer and tattoos, I want to mention something about what I think I will call the "Gray Hair Mystery" of this city. Part of this blog, not necessarily
always the most important one - that would be boring - is life amongst the mostly
non-gray Angelenos, being brought to you by either Nature or L'Oreal. But at this 95-degree
heat-event at the very nice TASCHEN Gallery (www.taschen.com/gallery) showing truly spectacular David Bowie (who I totally love!) photos (by Mick Rock) I officially started my personal gray-head-countdown I will occasionally do. What can I say? Mostly, there were some strange, ill-fitting outfits,
too much naked skin, too many ugly high heels, a lot of big egos, and lots
and lots of young people (between 20 and 35).
OK, this is what
I'm driving at. How many gray-haired people did I see? About 8 at the most
(there were a few hundred people), the ration being 3 women to 7 men.) But, and this is more interesting, even if not new. There were
quite a few young women with artificial slate-gray hair. I have heard
from a New York friend that it's big on the L train to
Brooklyn, too.
Most of us have read about
that phenomenon of young women dying their hair silver or gray (that would
include Lady
Gaga and Pink) - to emulate whom? Us? Or is it like a story
of Age Foretold?
I think it's cute and a bit flattering. I loved the color silver too when I
was 16 and messed with Halloween silver spray on my hair, actually went to school like that, leaving teachers and classmates baffled. However, now being a REAL silver head, I like it way better. Sometimes you become what you had wished for, no matter whether you still do! So, there!
The funny thing
is, of course, that David Bowie is MY AGE (and the photographer's, too), I actually have
seen him live
a long long time ago. So, can David's contemporaries be counted in, too, and brag a little bit? I
know from experience, that it is VERY unpopular to tell younger people who are in
the throes of the thrill of discovering an icon and making him their own, that
one knows it all - first time around. I understand that. Nobody really holds the privilege and exclusivity of
ownership when it comes to beloved icons.
So, in the end only one person spoke to me (I myself had approached the silver folks - plus one misbehaving young man in a wool cap who I'd asked about his sartorial choice). After I've gotten over the surprise of all these snubs, I sat down on the leather couch, next to 3 young men with huge iPhones or whatever they were, who were probably text-messaging the entire world that they were in a hip, sought after (by invite only!!) photo-show in LA about the mesmerizingly cool dude David Bowie - while I leaned back, grinned like a Cheshire Cat, sighed nostalgically, and was very happy, and privileged indeed, to be of Dave's generation and having been there the first time around! So, it turned out to be a nice evening - Alone among the non-gray Wolves of Los Angeles!
So, in the end only one person spoke to me (I myself had approached the silver folks - plus one misbehaving young man in a wool cap who I'd asked about his sartorial choice). After I've gotten over the surprise of all these snubs, I sat down on the leather couch, next to 3 young men with huge iPhones or whatever they were, who were probably text-messaging the entire world that they were in a hip, sought after (by invite only!!) photo-show in LA about the mesmerizingly cool dude David Bowie - while I leaned back, grinned like a Cheshire Cat, sighed nostalgically, and was very happy, and privileged indeed, to be of Dave's generation and having been there the first time around! So, it turned out to be a nice evening - Alone among the non-gray Wolves of Los Angeles!
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