hedwigencyclopaedia

[hedwigencyclopaedia]

Milky Way

“And lying on my slab were three Milky Ways, a roll of Necco Wafers, some Pop Rocks, and a Giant-Sized Sugar Daddy…named Luther.” [1]

In 1923, the Milky Way candy bar was created by Frank Mars in his home kitchen. Mars patterned his recipe after the then popular Milky Way milkshake, also known as the Milky Way malt. Their first tagline echoed this inspiration: “A chocolate milkshake in a candy bar.” [2]

Mars introduced the bar at a nickel a piece and it was an overnight success. [2] By 1926, the bars came in chocolate and vanilla flavors. Ten years later, the vanilla was moved onto a new brand name of Forever Yours, which it was sold under until 1979. [3]

Milky Way bars are currently sold under three flavours: the original milk chocolate bar, Simply Caramel, Milky Way Midnight (the reintroduced name for Forever Yours), the seasonal Caramel Apple, and the limited edition Milky Way Fudge. [4, 5, 6] In Australia, you can find flavours such as Banana and Berries and Cream. In Europe, the original British Mars bar is in fact closer to the American Milky Way than Milky Way’s own British formula. European Milky Ways float. This fact was used heavily in their marketing campaigns. [4]

Discontinued flavors include the recently produced French Vanilla and Caramel. [7]

Not to be confused with the Milky Way galaxy in which planet Earth resides nor the bassist from My Chemical Romance, Mikey Way.

[1] Hedwig and the Angry Inch: Broadway Edition (2014). Book.

[2] https://foodchannel.com/2008/sweet-milky-way-bar-celebrates-85th-anniversary

[3] http://gbnfgroceries.blogspot.com/2012/01/from-candy-aisle-forever-yours.html

[4] http://mentalfloss.com/article/70206/10-gooey-facts-about-milky-way-bars

[5] http://www.milkywaybar.com/products

[6] https://www.delish.com/food-news/a19853810/milky-way-fudge-bar/

[7] https://www.candyfavorites.com/candy/candy-bars/milky-way-bars

Further Reading:

Recipe for a replica of the original Milky Way milkshake:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/good-stuff-eatery-milky-way-malt/15263/?utm_term=.672e4fcf1a80

[hedwigencyclopaedia]

Young Americans (song)

“To be a Young American in Muskrat Love….” [1]

“I wanted to get into that Warholism of Polaroiding things… Young Americans was my photograph of American music at the time.” [2]

Opening the 1975 album of the same name, “Young Americans” tells the story of an imagined young newlywed couple who in Bowie’s own words “don't know if they really like each other.” [3] Their relationship doubts and subsequent struggles color the lyrics as the song follows them in vignettes. 

In this introduction to his “plastic soul” career phase, Bowie references parts of American experience mentioning cars such as the Ford Mustang, Chrysler, and Cadi, short for Cadillac; politics with lyrics referencing McCarthyism by asking “now have you been the un-American” and asking if his audience remembers the very recently resigned President of the United States Richard Nixon;  American television program Soul Train, on which he would later appear; and in what makes for a unintentional call forward to the lyrics of “Angry Inch”, Barbie dolls. [4, 5, 6]

Not all of the references managed to stay in America though with the opening line “they pulled in just behind the fridge,” a sly reference to a Peter Cook/Dudley Moore theatre presentation Behind the Fridge on May 9th, 1973 and the more overt Beatles reference when in the bridge the chorus exclaims “I heard the news today, oh boy!,” a direct lift from “A Day in the Life” from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). [7, 8] Notably, Bowie worked with Beatles member John Lennon on Young Americans “Fame” and “Across the Universe” appearing later on the album. [4]

Outside of cultural references, the song also features a distinct theme of violence both against others (“ain’t there a woman I can sock the jaw?) and against the self (“would you carry a razor…just in case of depression?”), a possible holdover from the American violence he had witnessed while touring The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. [9]

Frequent mondegreens for the song include debates as to whether or not “they pulled in behind the fridge” or “the bridge” and whether he’s “blushing at all the Afro-Shelias” (“a Shelia” being slang for an attractive woman”) or the “Afro-Sheeners��� (Afro-Sheen being a popular hair product for afro styled hair and the first black sponsor of Soul Train.) [10, 11]

And as well as being referenced in text, this song has been used in the preshow music for Hedwig shows on Broadway, for the 2017 Japanese Special Show, and rotating in and out of play as part of the preshow music for the behind the scenes show The Origin of Love.

Song: https://turnonthe8-track.tumblr.com/post/166466637974/misfitsfiend-all-the-way-from-washington-her

[1] Hedwig and the Angry Inch: Broadway Edition (2014). Book.

[2] The Complete David Bowie by Nicholas Pegg (2011 revised edition). Book.

[3] https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-151127/david-bowie-young-americans-153526/

[4] https://www.soultracks.com/flashback-soul-david-bowie

[5] Young Americans. David Bowie. 1975.

[6] https://www.thinwhiteduke.net/1589/david-bowie-songs/young-americans/

[7] https://www.instagram.com/p/BikvaXIHNCG/

[8] Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Beatles. 1967.

[9] https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/how-america-inspired-david-bowie-to-kill-ziggy-stardust-with-aladdin-sane-230827/

[10] http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/songs/misheard.htm

[11] http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_209542

Further Reading:

A breakdown of the song from a musical perspective:

http://tonyconniff.com/bowie-a-songwriting-look-inside-young-americans/

[hedwigencyclopaedia]

Altoids

“…the immune reaction was curiously strong….” [1]

The small minty candy now known for its breath freshening, Altoids, were first introduced to Europe in 1780 as a relief for intestinal pain. [2]

Current flavours include Peppermint, Wintergreen, Cinnamon, and Spearmint, while seasonal, regional, discontinued, and limited edition flavours include/have included: Ginger, Creme de Menthe, Liquorice, Dark Chocolate Dipped, Cool Honey, and the beloved Altoid Sours line of candy. [2, 3, 4]

Their marketing campaign as “Curiously Strong Mints” was started in the 1920s and what Hedwig was referring to when she told her audience about Phyllis’s immune response to one falling into her “exposed eye cavity” starting in the spring of 2015, during JCM’s Broadway turn. [1, 2]

The empty tins have a curiously strong fandom of their own seeing the containers turned into art kits, playable video games, survival kits, and mini guitar amps amongst home crafters. [5, 6, 7, 8]

[1] HATAI performance. March 27, 2015, Broadway at the Belasco Theatre.

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20180419112414/www.wrigley.com/ea/brands/altoids.aspx

[3] https://www.candywarehouse.com/altoids/

[4] https://www.bustle.com/articles/95869-why-were-altoids-sours-discontinued-heres-the-sad-truth-about-the-puckery-candys-mysterious-disappearance

[5] https://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-sized-Watercolor-Altoids-Tin/

[6] https://thetakeout.com/student-makes-a-playable-wii-in-an-altoids-tin-1829551918

[7] https://www.bladehq.com/cat--How-to-Make-an-Altoids-Survival-Kit-1--2778

[8] https://reverb.com/item/236890-ampoids-blue-altoids-blackface-guitar-amp

[hedwigencyclopaedia]

David Bowie (Pt. 2)

“There’s old wave. There’s new wave. And then there’s David Bowie.” [1] 

After his brief foray into “plastic soul” with 1975’s Young Americans, Bowie released Station to Station— the first in a string of albums heavily influenced by both contemporary German musical artists like Kraftwerk and Neu!, often referred to as krautrock, and German philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche. [2] Bowie was no stranger to philosophical references in his work, having previously referenced Nietzsche’s works with “Oh! You Pretty Things,” “Quicksand,” and “Supermen,” all off of 1971’s Hunky Dory. [2, 3]

Station to Station introduced the Thin White Duke persona; a character he later referred to as “a nasty character for me.” It was during this era he made controversial comments referring to Hitler and had the infamous incident at Victoria Station that took what was meant as a wave at the gathered crowd and alleged it to instead be a Nazi salute. He had also been detained in Poland for having Nazi paraphernalia. [4]

Having picked up Iggy Pop on his Isolar Tour, David took a short break from producing his own music to help Pop produce his first solo album The Idiot (1977) and to an extent workshop the new sound he had wanted to explore. They headed to Switzerland to create the album with Iggy often “scribbling lyrics” while David and the other musicians worked at crafting the sound of the album. [1]

For Bowie’s next album, he picked up frequent collaborator and producer Tony Visconti as well as newcomer Brian Eno to work on the first of what would become known as the “Berlin Trilogy” or the “Berlin Triptych” in Low (1977). Although known as part of the Berlin Trilogy, work on Low started at the same Swiss chalet that had seen the creation of The Idiot. The move was partly inspired by Bowie’s larger goal to get himself and his friend off of their respective drug addictions and largely to give them both a new mindset away from the fame, fans, and record labels they faced in either the US or the UK. After its completion, Bowie sent a copy of Low to Nicolas Roeg with a note stating “This is what I wanted to do for the soundtrack,” referring to The Man Who Fell to Earth, the film they had completed the previous year and for which Bowie had initially been promised he’d be able to write the soundtrack. [1]

The release of Low was delayed by Bowie’s record label RCA not caring for half the album being instrumentals and the critical reception — what little there was due to a lack of promotion — was mixed to the point that over the years, it was referred to as almost entirely negatively received upon release. [5]

Bowie’s next album, “Heroes” (1977) expanded on the themes explored in Low, distilling and blending them into the next phase of his career. Recorded ‎at Hansa Studio, which overlooked the Berlin Wall, it loosely used the same format as Low with more accessible lyric songs on Side A and instrumentals making up the majority of the B side. Furthering the similarities, both albums featured use of the “cut-up technique” of writing in which an author takes a poem or written work and cuts it up, rearranging the pages to form an exquisite corpse. [1, 6] Where it differed was while Low’s lyrics were largely inspired by Bowie’s life and current troubles, “Heroes” was considered as a whole to be a less personally inspired project and heavily informed by the culture, history, and “essence” of Berlin. [1]

Bowie continued his experiments not only with sound techniques, but recording and writing styles with the final album in the Berlin Trilogy, Lodger (1979). In writing it, he used techniques such as having his band switch instruments to create a more “garage band” “just learning their instruments” feel for “Boys Keep Swinging,” playing chords from “All The Young Dudes” backwards to create new song “Move On,” reusing the musical track from Iggy Pop’s Sister Midnight, from Bowie-produced The Idiot for “Red Money,” and taking further inspiration from producer Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies cards, which Eno had introduced while he, Bowie, and Visconti worked on “Heroes.” [1]

Going into the 80s, Bowie was determined to have a hit record. [5] Despite previous fame and relative successes, Bowie wanted to not just be a hit artist; he wanted to be the hit artist. And with his divorce from Angela and his split from MainMan officially finalized, now was the time. The next album, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980), reached #1 on the UK charts going platinum [7] and #12 in the US. [8]

The follow up three years later, Let’s Dance (1983) outdid its predecessor, both reaching #1 in the charts and going platinum in both countries. [7, 9, 10] The supporting tour, the Serious Moonlight Tour had the distinction of selling out every one of the 96 shows and being one of the largest shows of the time. [11]

The two subsequent albums Tonight (1984) and Never Let Me Down (1987), offered diminishing returns in terms of chart performance [12, 13] and critical reception, with Bowie later disowning Never Let Me Down saying in 1995 “My nadir was Never Let Me Down. It was such an awful album. … I really shouldn’t have even bothered going into the studio to record it. In fact, when I play it, I wonder if I did sometimes” [13] and later in 2002 “There was a period when I was performing in front of these huge stadium crowds and at that time I was thinking 'what are these people doing here? Why did they come to see me? They should be seeing Phil Collins'…And then that came back at me and I thought 'What am I doing here?” [14]

In 1987, as part of the Glass Spider Tour, Bowie had one of the most profound experiences of his touring career while playing a stage that butted up to the Berlin Wall. The sound from the fans on the East side singing along was so loud that Bowie could hear it about the din of his own concert. Part of the concert lives on on YouTube as well as a clip of David’s speech in German addressing both sides of the Wall. The influence of this show was acknowledged by the German Foreign Office in 2016 after Bowie’s death with a tweet reading “Good-bye, David Bowie. You are now among #Heroes. Thank you for helping to bring down the #wall” and linking to a live performance of David performing the song. [15]

As the 80s came to a close, Bowie chose to take some time away from his solo career and formed the band Tin Machine with Reeves Gabrels, and the brothers Hunt and Tony Sales.

He married his second wife, Somali supermodel, philanthropist, and entrepreneur Iman, twice in 1992; the first in a private ceremony and the second in a lavish ceremony in Tuscany. According to David, he was already naming their future children the night he met her. [16] His next album Black Tie, White Noise (1993) was as much a wedding album as it was a reflection of the things currently going on in his life from being in LA when the Rodney King riots started to the death of his beloved half-brother Terry and was a distinct return to “eclecticism” over marketability. [17]

The nineties continued the theme of “eclecticism” with 1995’s Outside, an exploration into the budding industrial movement framed by a murder mystery in support of which he toured with alterative/industrial band Nine Inch Nails [18], 1997’s Earthling, which examined electronic music, and 1999’s hours… which while more conventionally mainstream than its two predecessors in tone, was less well received. [19]

Between albums, Bowie was expanding his horizons beyond his music and film careers such as 1997’s release of Bowie Bonds, an early return for him on future earnings that was presented as an opportunity for the bearer to receive a 7.9% return on their investment [20]; BowieNet, a dial-up internet service provider that also gave subscribers exclusive content and a BowieNet email address [21]; and Omikron: The Nomadic Soul, a futuristic video game that featured songs from ‘hours…’ and featured David and Iman’s voices and likenesses. [22]

Bowie also had started work on Toy which would become his first unreleased album since The Man Who Fell to Earth soundtrack had been scuttled in the mid-70s. Some of the tracks from Toy ended up on his next album, 2002’s Heathen. [23]

His last album before taking a ten year hiatus was Reality (2003) During the supporting tour, he had a lollipop thrown in his eye, (later memorialized in a self portrait) [24], and had the heart attack that stopped him from touring his own music outside of occasional guest appearances with other artists such as David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and at events such as Fashion Rocks in the US. His last live performance was at a benefit for Alicia Keys’ Keep a Child Alive campaign where the pair sang a duet of Bowie’s song “Changes.” [25]

In 2013, he ended his hiatus with the unexpected release of The Next Day, the cover art for which featured a large white box overtop of the iconic “Heroes” album cover. The same year, he partnered with the Victoria and Albert museum in London to exhibit the David Bowie Is collection that later that year began a world tour with stops in Chicago, Paris, the Netherlands, Melbourne, and ending at the Brooklyn Museum on July 15th. [26] A digitized version of the collection became viewable on January 8th 2019 with the David Bowie Is app with narration by Gary Oldman. [27]

Despite the album reaching #2 on the US charts [28] and #1 in the UK [29], producer Tony Visconti said that Bowie had no intention of touring the album [30], a comment that music magazine Pitchfork chose to run with to mean that Bowie would never tour again. [31] Regardless of the intent of the statement, Pitchfork ended up being correct in saying the Bowie would never tour again.

In 2017, Bowie’s long standing ambition of writing a musical was realized when Lazarus opened in New York. Following what happens after The Man Who Fell to Earth, the plot sees lead character Thomas Jerome Newton in the modern day having not significantly aged since the events of the original story. Its composition took inspiration more the original novel by Walter Tevis than from Bowie’s role in the 1976 film. [32]

Bowie’s last album was released January 8th 2016, two days before his death from terminal liver cancer. ★, pronounced “Blackstar” incorporated some of the new songs Bowie had written for Lazarus with originals. Recent successes, past fame, and his very current death made sure that Blackstar placed #1 in 24 different countries including the US, UK, and Germany. [33]

After his death, Bowie was honoured not only with fan memorials and tributes, but with official plaques in Berlin and around England noting places of “historic significance.” [34, 35]

[1] Bowie in Berlin by Thomas Jerome Seabrook. 2008.

[2] David Bowie and Philosophy by Theodore G. Ammon. 2016.

[3] http://loudwire.com/songs-inspired-by-german-philosopher-nietzsche/

[4] https://www.thedailybeast.com/on-race-david-bowie-delved-deep-into-the-darkness-and-came-back-human

[5] Starman by Paul Trunka. 2011. Advanced Galley.

[6] https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/apr/13/construct-exquisite-corpse

[7] http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/faq.htm#m09a

[8] https://www.davidbowie.com/blog/2017/9/24/anciant-album-focus-scary-monsters

[9] https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&se=david+bowie#search_section

[10] https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8457017/david-bowie-no-1-hot-100-1983-chart-rewind

[11] http://www.electricmud.ca/2018/david-bowie-toronto1983/

[12] https://www.billboard.com/music/david-bowie/chart-history/billboard-200

[13] https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/how-david-bowies-biggest-disappointment-became-a-posthumous-reworked-album-702189/

[14] David Bowie interviewed on Jonathan Ross,  June 29th, 2002.

[15] https://twitter.com/GermanyDiplo/status/686498183669743616

[16] http://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-black-tie-white-noise/

[17] http://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-black-tie-white-noise/

[18] https://www.revolvermag.com/music/see-david-bowie-sing-hurt-nine-inch-nails-1995

[19] https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/881-hours/

[20] https://web.archive.org/web/20130620051917/http://www.commodityonline.com/news/david-bowie-bonds--ip-securitization-1896-3-1897.html

[21] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/11/david-bowie-bowienet-isp-internet

[22] https://www.polygon.com/2016/1/11/10749686/david-bowie-omikron-nomad-soul-david-cage

[23] http://www.davidbowieworld.nl/mijn-bootlegs-2-2/bbc/attachment/david-bowie-toy/

[24] https://twitter.com/dark_shark/status/692853482512977921?lang=en

[25] https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/inside-david-bowies-final-years-237314/

[26] https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/davidbowieis

[27] https://www.davidbowie.com/blog/2019/1/8/david-bowie-is-virtual-launched-today

[28] https://www.billboard.com/music/david-bowie/chart-history/billboard-200/song/775880

[29] http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/features/thenextdaycharts.htm

[30] https://www.spin.com/2013/01/david-bowie-producer-the-next-day-album-details/

[31] https://twitter.com/Tonuspomus/status/289810690338856960

[32] https://lazarusmusical.com/about

[33] http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/features/blackstarcharts.htm

[34] https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/aug/22/david-bowie-berlin-plaque-commemorates-singers-time-in-city

[35]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/15/david-bowie-three-blue-plaques-bbc-music-day

General Resources:

https://www.davidbowie.com/about/

[hedwigencyclopaedia]

David Bowie (pt. 1)

“…David Bowie—who was actually an idiom working in America and Canada. And now space.” [1]

David Bowie was the stage name of Brixton-born, Bromley-raised David Robert Jones. [2] Born January 8th 1947, Bowie found an early passion for music, encouraged by both his half-brother Terry and his father John. [3] At the age of 13, David learned his first instrument of many with the white plastic saxophone that he helped to pay for.

Before going solo, Bowie joined and formed bands such as: The Konrads (1962), King Bees (1963), later known as Davie Jones and the King Bees [4], The Mannish Boys (1964), The Lower Third (1965), The Buzz (1966), and sang with The Riot Squad (1967). He renamed himself David Bowie in 1965 after actor and Monkee actor Davie Jones became popular enough that using his given name would have led to confusion.

In 1967, David Bowie released his first self titled album, David Bowie. After an initial underwhelming response from both record companies and the general public, he chose to take a short break from music instead taking up dancing, mime, performance art, and acting under the tutelage of Lindsay Kemp. [5, 6]

By 1969, David had returned to music with his second self titled album, David Bowie; later renamed Man of Worlds, Man of Music to avoid confusion. Later still, the album was renamed Space Oddity after its most famous track. “Space Oddity” the song was used for the BBC coverage of the NASA moon landing. [7]

The early 70s saw David releasing two more albums The Man Who Sold the World (1970), an album heavily influenced by his brother’s mental illness [8], and Hunky Dory (1971), which included songs dedicated to Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, and his son Duncan, then going by nickname “Zowie.” [9]

Reportedly after a London show at the Friars Aylesbury, where he debuted the newly formed Spiders From Mars, Bowie announced “That was great. And when I come back, I’m going to be completely different.” [5] And with the release of 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, he certainly had. David had embraced the burgeoning glam rock movement creating his own concept album and equally importantly, a very distinctive look that when added to the music and choreography kept audiences engaged beyond listening to his albums and attending concerts.

Ziggy Stardust, both as a character and an album, was geared to make David a star. And his management company MainMan engineered every step along the way to make it seem like he already was. [5, 10]

In advance of Ziggy’s June release David came out in British music magazine Melody Maker as bisexual, notable at the time not only because of the rarity of out musicians, but because homosexuality had been decriminalized only five years previous. [11] After coming out, Bowie continued to play up the bisexual image in the press telling reporters that he and his then-wife Angie had met while sleeping with the same guy [12], kneeling in front of Mick Ronson and playing the musician’s guitar with his teeth in a mock fellatio display [13], and perhaps most tame sounding to a modern audience, wrapping his arm around the same Mick Ronson, implicitly implying that they were in a relationship on national television. [14]

His sexuality also spurred rumors that he was sleeping with Mick Jagger, of the Rolling Stones, [15] and his former teacher Lindsay Kemp. [6]

Following the success of Ziggy, David released Aladdin Sane (1973), which he said was meant to be Ziggy in America and a way for him to move on as “I didn’t want to be trapped in this Ziggy character all my life.” [16]

Bowie famously killed off Ziggy and his Spiders From Mars on their last show at the Hammersmith Odeon July 3rd 1973 announcing “Of all of the shows on this tour, this particular show will remain with us the longest because not only is it…not only is it the last show of the tour, but it’s the last show that we’ll ever do. Thank you. Thank-you very much. Bye-bye. We love you.” [17] The other members of the band did not have forewarning that they were about to be dismissed from Bowie’s employ. [5]

The last Bowie album to be released under the Ziggy persona was 1973’s Pin Ups.

The next era of Bowie’s music was ushered in with 1974’s Diamond Dogs. Originally conceived as an adaptiaton of George Orwell’s 1984, the project was quickly recycled into the dystopian Diamond Dogs set in the fictional Hunger City after Orwell’s widow, Sonia Brownell, rejected the idea out of hand having so hated the 1954 Peter Cushing adaptation of 1984 that she vowed to allow no further adaptations of her late-husband’s work in her lifetime. [18]

Taking a brief break from his new found nihilism, Bowie released 1975’s Young Americans featuring a sound he dubbed “plastic soul” [19] and became one of the first white artists to ever perform on popular US music program Soul Train [20]

[1] HATAI performance. November 25, 2016, Los Angeles at the Hollywood Pantages

[2] http://www.southlondonguide.co.uk/brixton/davidbowie.htm..

[3] https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/david-bowie-early-years-boy-7159819

[4] https://www.discogs.com/Davie-Jones-And-The-King-Bees-Liza-Jane/release/2785408

[5] Starman by Paul Trunka. 2011. Advanced Galley.

[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/obituaries/lindsay-kemp-dead.html

[7] https://auralcrave.com/en/2018/06/07/space-oddity-when-david-bowie-accompanied-the-man-on-the-moon/

[8] https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/how-david-bowie-realized-theatrical-dreams-on-the-man-who-sold-the-world-121178/

[9] Hunky Dory back cover

[10] Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell by Dave Thompson. 2009.

[11] https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/jan/22/popandrock.davidbowie

[12] https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/david-bowie-icon-thin-white-duke

[13] https://www.morrisonhotelgallery.com/photographs/fkxu5I/David-Bowie-and-Mick-Ronson-Guitar-Fellatio-1972

[14] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/david-bowie-top-of-the-pops_us_5693ff52e4b0cad15e65ac86

[15] https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/new-book-takes-mick-jagger-affair-david-bowie-article-1.1109887

[16] https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/how-america-inspired-david-bowie-to-kill-ziggy-stardust-with-aladdin-sane-230827/

[17] Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture (1983). Film.

[18] https://www.geni.com/people/Sonia-Brownell/6000000001510497741

[19] https://www.soultracks.com/flashback-soul-david-bowie

[20] https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/01/11/when-david-bowie-played-soul-train/rdRpRG5GHZoinXPnhw7daN/story.html

[hedwigencyclopaedia]

The Angry Inch

“Please welcome those ambassadors of Eastern bloc rock, The Angry Inch.” [1]

Pictured: (left to right) David McKinley, Chris Weilding, Stephen Trask, John Cameron Mitchell, Miriam Shor, and Scott Bilbrey.

The Angry Inch is Hedwig Robinson’s backing band. Originally formed in Junction City, Kansas with a group of Korean Sergeant’s wives, the current line up is a mix of Eastern Europeans with musical director Skszp on keyboards and guitar, Jacek on bass, Schlatko on drums, Kryzyzhtoff on lead guitar, and Hedwig’s husband Yitzhak on tamberine and miscellaneous percussion. [2] They are managed by Phyllis Stein. [1]

Hedwig asserts her power over the band by verbally berating them and holding their passports hostage.

 Former members of The Angry Inch include Kwang-Yi and Tommy Gnosis. [2]

[1] Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001). Film.

[2] Hedwig and the Angry Inch: Broadway Edition (2014). Book.

[hedwigencyclopaedia]

My Tight Little Agenda

This site will be getting a new theme soon... But first, some actual posts. As this is the first month, we’ll be dealing with fundamentals of Hedwig. A brief biography for the characters and original actors; entries for settings like East Berlin, Junction City; background on venues such as The Belasco Theatre, Hotel Riverview, and the now-defunct Don Hill; and establishing (largely musical) points of reference for what Hedwig talks about within the show.

Once we get a better baseline for how quickly these posts can be researched and well written, we will put together theme weeks (so that the posts aren’t just Fully randomly made) and pre-write them for the weeks that the main mod will be away from the computer.

Right now, here is a list of the posts we have in the works (not to be confused with the 1984 Queen album The Works.)

[hedwigencyclopaedia]

New Year, New Project

This is a project I've been considering for a long time and figured the new year was the best time to launch it.

Hedwig Robinson is a character who loves a good pop culture reference and so do we! But as Hedwig expands in both age and international popularity, there are going to be references that ring less of a bell in 2019 than they did in 1998 or ones that make less sense in Korea than they did on Broadway.

The Hedwig Encyclopædia was created to explain all of the questions I've asked or been asked as a die hard fan for the last five years such as: What exactly is an 8-track? How does German university work (and how did it work in the now-defunct East Berlin??)

"Can two people actually become one again? And if we're driving on the Autobahn [when it happens] can we still use the Diamond Lane?"

This blog will be mirrored here and on WordPress. If you want a more social experience and the ability to ask public questions, follow us here. If you just want the references explained and the histories of a thing, follow us on WordPress.

[hedwigencyclopaedia]

Currently, the Navigation page has a small list of the articles we’re currently planning on putting out, ALL articles will go in the queue, but we are open for requests at the askbox.