As I write this, my Facebook feed is full of heartfelt tributes to David Bowie, whose untimely passing at the age of 69 from an 18-month battle with liver cancer has shaken so many of us. Throughout his career, Bowie shape shifted through a multitude of personas, and silly as it is to say, I thought if any artist were to cheat death, it be him. Instead of cheating, however, he set out to create a final album, Black Star, demonstrating great courage, conviction, and generosity of spirit to work through on wax the fraught and freeing realizations that come when one faces their transition. As one tweet so memorably encapsulates: “Bowie looked Death in the eye and thought, ‘I can use this.’”
