TO MAJOR TOM AND THE HALF
BLOOD PRINCE
In a
short window of time we have seen two people who
have earned my deep respect depart for the period
in which they are awaiting rebirth. David Bowie
and Alan Rickman were both talented in different
ways and both were an influence on me over the
span of their careers. It is hard, if not
impossible, to do justice to their contributions
to society so I will keep it personal and just use
this space to reflect on their contributions to
myself and my growth. There are links that connect
us all to one another, unseen and unknown links
created by those with the vision to bring their
imagination to life. Millions of people have heard
the music of one and seen the movies of the other,
the sounds and images left to us have been
ingrained into the DNA of our collective
consciousness and those of generations to come.
What it did for my DNA was provide a path of
escape where I could go for an hour or two and
leave the mundane world behind.
David
Bowie’s music impacted on my life like a freight
train just as I was in a transitional phase of my
life. His music expressed that transition as I
went from a teenager to a life of independence.
Deeply moving both mentally and physically, his
songs said a lot of what I was thinking at the
time. That he had little need for conformity gave
me the courage to ignore the branding I was being
pressured to accept. His movie roles too had an
effect on my consciousness such as “The Man Who
Fell to Earth”. Relating to his character in the
film was easy as I too had a sense of not quite
fitting into my surroundings of the planet I found
myself. Throughout my life I have had a great
affinity for the work of this great man who has
touched the lives of so many and influenced
countless other artists so as to create
ever-expanding waves of inspiration that can only
but move us forward with them.
While
Bowie gave my mind a mental backdrop to build on
through his music, Alan Rickman provided the
foreground built by somebody else. Whether as Hans
Gruber in the movie “Die Hard”, Alexander Dane in
“Galaxy Quest” or Professor Severus Snape in the
“Harry Potter” series, he gave us a persona that
fit each role perfectly. I, an avid reader of the
“Harry Potter” books, had a mental image of Harry
Potter’s antagonist up until the very end that was
brought to the screen in such a realistic fashion
that I can honestly point to a role that could not
have been written for anyone else. Now he has
reprized his role as the angel Metatron in the
movie “Dogma” and earned his very, deserved wings.
It was
individuals like these, unique among the billions
who bravely took on the challenges of stardom,
bringing their creative genius to either transform
our minds or transform themselves for our
entertainment. Robin Williams, Janis Joplin, John
Belushi, Jerry Garcia and John Lennon, other
examples of humans who honed their skill into an
art form and gave us performances that would never
be forgotten. To them, each of those performances
was another chance to excel both personally and
professionally. We can take from their examples a
look at how we interact in each scene of our own
movie by putting as much dedication into each
chance to share ourselves with the world and give
it the attention to detail each of those chances
deserve. The endless rehearsals life has had us go
through to get to that moment have not been a
waste and now it is time to step out onto the
stage and hold nothing back, to give as the saying
goes, “the performance of our lives.”
In love and light as one,
Russ and Karra
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