Man, am I bummed about David Bowie.

His music has so often been the soundtrack of my life. Bowie told the interesting stories (“Major Tom"), told truth to power (“Changes”). 

I heard the news today and had to pull the car over and cry. 

The author Elizabeth Gilbert

put it best

, via Facebook:

“For the last 18 months (we learn only today) David Bowie has known that he was dying. He kept that information private, while spending his final months doing what he'd done his whole life — making outrageously original, beautiful, complicated art. He made a gorgeous album. He created a show, playing right now in New York. And then he released... his final video, just a few days before he died — on his 69th birthday.

"Look up here," he sings, "I'm in heaven."

Can you imagine, to be making art like this (fearless art that both comforts and challenges) right up to the moment of your death? How do you do that? How do you BE that? To work with your death so imaginatively, in order to perfectly time out the last beats of your life? What a magnificent creature of creation, right to the end.”

 Damn does it look like he's enjoying every minute of life (especially around the 5:26 mark):

 David Bowie pursued his art with relentless enthusiasm, precise attention, and great skill. He collaborated widely and with potent success. 

He was a demure British kid, and he changed the world. 

“I heard the news today… Oh boy.”