Author of David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God, published by Bloomsbury | Ents editor for NationalWorld
Leamington Spa
Joined February 2013
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Peter Ormerod retweeted
This - for me - is the perfect song. I love it.
Peter Ormerod retweeted
My new album, As We Once Were, is released today!
14 tracks. One massive concept. 21 vintage synthesizers & 4 generations of women. All wrapped up with some really special guests including James Dean Bradfield from Manic Street Preachers, Hannah Peel, Gwenno, and Eaves Wilder.
Peter Ormerod retweeted
It was a privilege to chat with John Maggiore about my David Bowie journey From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads for his superb interview series. John is such a source of DB knowledge and a keen cyclist to boot. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! youtube.com/watch?v=_q7WJgsw…
@iconbooks
Peter Ormerod retweeted
Marjane Satrapi died today.
Her work incredibly matters, she showed millions of people what the regime hides.
In fact, Persepolis was so controversial that Iran’s government sent a letter to the French embassy in Tehran to protest it and pressured organizers of the 2007 Bangkok Film Festival to remove it from the lineup.
Peter Ormerod retweeted
In September 1963, a 21-year-old John Cale—then a budding avant-garde musician and future founding member of The Velvet Underground—appeared as a guest on the CBS game show I've Got a Secret.
The "secret" shared by Cale and his fellow guest, actor Karl Schenzer, was their participation in a grueling 18-hour and 40-minute piano marathon organized by John Cage.
Cale was one of 11 pianists who performed the first-ever full-length recital of Erik Satie’s Vexations.
Vexations is a short, 80-second piano piece that Satie’s manuscript suggested should be played 840 times in a row.
While Cale was one of the relay team of performers, Karl Schenzer was the only audience member who stayed for the entire 18-hour duration.
During the broadcast, Cale performed the piece through just once for the panel and viewers.
Peter Ormerod retweeted
FAREWELL TO CHIME RINPOCHE
“Child of Tibet, you’re a gift from the sun…”
Sad to learn of the passing of Lama Tulku Chime Rinpoche, who died yesterday at 85 years old.
Tony Visconti had this to say of his and David’s mutual friend...
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“I just received news that my meditation teacher, Lama Tulku Chime Rinpoche, passed today at 85 years old. He was introduced to me by David Bowie when we were very earnest about Tibetan Buddhism. In David's song "Silly Boy Blue" David incants Chime's name several times. Chime was born in Kham, Tibet, in 1941. He is a Tulku High Lama, meaning he is able to consciously reincarnate. I have so many good stories to tell about him.”
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And here’s a bit from Chime himself following David’s passing in 2016...
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“This morning I heard the news that David Bowie passed away…I cannot express the words, I am so sad…”
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Over the years David and Chime would occasionally meet and talk on the phone. His main contact was through Tony Visconti, who had been a student of Chime’s since 1969.
In a February 1966 interview, Bowie told Melody Maker: “I want to go to Tibet. It’s a fascinating place, y’know. I’d like to take a holiday and have a look inside the monasteries. The Tibetan monks, Lamas, bury themselves inside mountains for weeks, and only eat every three days. They’re ridiculous—and it’s said they live for centuries…As far as I’m concerned the whole idea of Western life—that’s the life we live now—is wrong. These are hard convictions to put into songs, though.”
Read more about Chime Rinpoche via this superb in-depth article by Mick Brown: bit.ly/3Psw5Da
Condolences to Tony Visconti and Chime’s friends and family.
📸 Chime Rinpoche by Anna Huix - David Bowie at the 2001 Tibet House show at New York’s Carnegie Hall by Kevin Mazur.
FOOTNOTE: The Chime, Chime, Chime, chant that Tony recalls isn’t actually a part of the original release of Silly Boy Blue, but it is in the 1968 BBC radio version and the 2001 live and studio versions.
The so called ‘Tibet Version’ of Silly Boy Blue was recorded at The Looking Glass Studio at the time of the 2001 Tibet House show in New York.
You can listen to it here and read the impressive line-up for the recording: youtube.com/watch?v=jCcBczte…
#RIPChimeRinpoche #BowieChime #BowieTibet
Peter Ormerod retweeted
The paper I’ve been most obsessed with lately is finally out: nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/a…! Check out this beautiful plot: it shows how much LLMs distort human writing when making edits, compared to how humans would revise the same content.
We take a dataset of human-written essays from 2021, before the release of ChatGPT. We compare how people revise draft v1 -> v2 given expert feedback, with how an LLM revises the same v1 given the same feedback. This enables a counterfactual comparison: how much does the LLM alter the essay compared to what the human was originally intending to write? We find LLMs consistently induce massive distortions, even changing the actual meaning and conclusions argued for.
Peter Ormerod retweeted
Looking for interviewee!
I'm hoping to speak to someone who has come to consider themself a "cultural Christian"- appreciating the civilisational and moral inheritance of Christianity without affirming belief in God.
madeleine(at)churchtimes.co.uk
Peter Ormerod retweeted
At 8amET @ThatEricAlper's Show is on #SiriusXM 167! This week: @anidifranco on her new book “The Spirit of Ani,” books on David Bowie, Motown songwriter and producer Sylvia Moy, and more!
Listen on the #SiriusXM app: siriusxm.ca/ThatEricAlpersSh…
Peter Ormerod retweeted
My SiriusXM show: Interviews with musician/author Ani DiFranco; Dr. Margena A. Christian, author, It’s No Wonder: The Life and Times of Motown’s Legendary Songwriter Sylvia Moy; Peter Ormerod, author, David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God; Rising rockers The Space Between!
Sat 8am + 2pm, Sun 12pm, Wed 2pm + 7pmET, Channel 167, and anytime on the SiriusXM app.
Peter Ormerod retweeted
brett anderson barking like his life depends on it while the audience doesn’t move a muscle. it will never not fry me
#OnThisDay 1993
Suede played "Animal Nitrate" live on the Brit Awards
Signalling and end of the traditional old guard and ushering in the exciting changes on the way.
Remember watching it ?
Peter Ormerod retweeted
"There's so much to say about Bowie"
@EntsPeter takes us behind the scenes of writing David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God - and shares his playlist for the book!
Read his Q&A on our website now at the link below 👇
bit.ly/4reb5O4
Peter Ormerod retweeted
We're absolutely delighted to see this wonderful review of David Bowie and the Search for Life Death and God in this week's @spectator!
Make sure you pre-order your copy of Peter's brilliant book - out next Thursday.
Wow, lovely review of my book in this week's @spectator
'One of the best and most original books of those published to mark a decade since Bowie's death'
'The Bowie you thought you knew is recast completely'
Peter Ormerod retweeted
I got to know @DavidBowieReal a little. The man who changed my life on the 15th June 1972. David recorded a msg for the last R1 show @themarkrad & I did. So honoured. Imagine then finding out his script for it is in the V+A. 💥 Thanks @julianstockton
Peter Ormerod retweeted
Melvyn Bragg @BBCr4today : ‘I come from an ordinary working-class background which people didn’t seem to know was full of talented people’. Indeed. And if they did know, they have forgotten.
Peter Ormerod retweeted
“It’s so good… It’s wisdom.”
Reflecting on his guest edit and leaving In Our Time after almost 30 years, Melvyn Bragg gives an emotional reading of Thomas Hardy's 'She, To Him'.
Peter Ormerod retweeted
More wisdom about human learning in this exchange than in most education PhDs
Peter Ormerod retweeted
In DAVID BOWIE AND THE SEARCH FOR LIFE, DEATH AND GOD, @EntsPeter tells the incredible story of how David Bowie's lifelong search for spiritual meaning inspired him to write the music that defined a generation.
