My Favorite Bowie Album: Eleven Creative People Choose Their Favorite David Bowie Album

If you ask any one what their favorite David Bowie album is, they'll have an almost immediate response. Even people that don't have a favorite color, favorite artist, movie or dish - they have a number one favorite Bowie album. Of course, there will be a second favorite, a third favorite, a fourth favorite and beyond, but there is only one Bowie album in someone's life that means the most to them. Sure, each and every one of Bowie's albums changed music forever (and that is not an understatement) – even his last and final album Blackstar will live in the time vortex of some of the greatest music ever made. But, again, there is usually only one that rings the truest, like a personal message from Bowie himself. And it may take a while for Blackstar to be a favorite album, but wait until the new generation grows up, wait until the album ages and gets finer and finer with future musical epochs. There was literally no one like David Bowie. You can imagine his arrival on earth like a meteor's arrival, with the soil rippling and the air in waves from the shockwaves. When he left, it was like a crucial element, like oxygen, was missing from the atmosphere. Below, we asked a number of creative people what their favorite Bowie album is and here are their answers. 

1. Rosanna Arquette (Actress) / Favorite: Ziggy Stardust

2. Lucia Santina Ribisi (Artist) / Favorite: Hunky Dory

3. Sasha Frere-Jones (Writer and Music Critic) / Favorite: Station To Station

4. Clementine Creevy (Musician) / Favorite: Hunky Dory 

5. Jim Smith (Founder of The Smell In Los Angeles) / Favorite: Ziggy Stardust

6. Enoc Perez (Artist) / Favorite: Young Americans

7. Oliver Maxwell Kupper (Editor-in-Chief of Autre Magazine)  / Favorite: Scary Monsters

8. Andre Saraiva (Graffiti Artist and Hotelier) / Favorite: Heroes 

9. Brad Elterman (Photographer) / Favorite: Hunky Dory

10. Avalon Lurks (Musician) / Favorite: Bowie At The Beeb 

11. Devendra Banhart (Musian and Artist) / Favorite: Hunky Dory 

Cool T-Shirts: Vincenzo Peruggia Who Stole the Mona Lisa

Vincenzo Peruggia is resurrected on this amazing t-shirt designed by Oliver Maxwell Kupper for Free Gold Watch.  In 1911 Vincenzo Peruggia perpetrated what has been described as the greatest art theft of the 20th century. Common reports state that Perrugia hid inside the museum on Sunday, August 20, knowing that the museum would be closed the following day, and emerged the next day, entered the Salon Carre where the Mona Lisa hung, took the painting off the wall, and then to a stairwell where he removed it from a protective case, hid it under his smock and made a run for it.  In actuality, Peruggia did not hide in museum overnight, but simply walked in at 7 a.m. Monday morning with a workman.  Moreover, Peruggia did not hide the painting under his smock - the Mona Lisa is 21x30 inches - too big - he took off his smock and wrapped it around the painting.  He  then left the Louvre with it, passing a guard station which had been left unattended by a guard who had gone to obtain a pail of water.  Vincenzo hid the painting in his apartment in Paris.  Supposedly, when police arrived to search his apartment and question him, they accepted his alibi that he had been working at a different location on the day of the theft.  After keeping the painting hidden in a trunk in his apartment for two years, Peruggia returned to Italy with it. He kept it in his apartment in Florence but grew impatient and was finally caught when he contacted Alfredo Geri, the owner of an art gallery in Florence, Italy. Geri's story conflicts with Peruggia's, but it was clear that Peruggia expected a reward for returning the painting to what he regarded as its "homeland." Geri called in Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi Gallery, who authenticated the painting. Poggi and Geri, after taking the painting for "safekeeping," informed the police, who arrested Peruggia at his hotel. After its theft, the painting was exhibited all over Italy with banner headlines rejoicing its return and then returned to the Louvre in 1913. Peruggia was released from jail after a short time and served in the Italian army during World War I. He got married, and returned to Paris to continue his profession as a painter. He died on October 8, 1925 (his 44th birthday). Images of full collection of tees coming soon. As a special exclusive to Pas Un Autre readers inquire within on how to acquire the above t-shirt info@pasunautreblog.com

update: amendments (see below comment) to this post have been made by Joseph Medeiros who is currently producing a documentary about Vincenzo Peruggia entitled The Missing Piece which elucidates many of the falsehoods and rumors associated with the legend of Vincenzo Peruggia. www.monalisaismissing.com