A Very Bowie Battle

We’re big fans of David Bowie at HQ, so after the Man Who Fell to Earth got called back to the stars, it naturally warmed our hearts to see players choose Ziggy Stardust for name of the January marathon cell. It was an apt cell, too: explosive, beautiful, and larger than life. But, of course, we realized that Ziggy is only one guise under which the world knew this musical legend. We’re wondering… of his most famous personas, which should we be celebrating most at Eyewire? It was even hard to choose just three.

Ziggy Stardust

• Perhaps the incumbent Bowie character because of the marathon cell, but also the figure par excellence of the glam rock era.
• Flamboyant, androgynous fashion icon, symbolic of a revolutionary era for personal identity and self-expression.
• Most associated with music from the albums Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and Aladdin Sane.
• Is he an alien? Is he a human? Who cares!
• To be played at maximum volume.

Major Tom

• The longest-enduring character, not so much a “look” as the guy who keeps popping up in Bowie’s lyrics decade after decade.
• An astronaut on the surface, but also a metaphor for various highs and lows in the musician’s celebrity life.
• Found in the original Bowie classic “Space Oddity,” then later in “Ashes to Ashes,” “Hallo Spaceboy,” and the cryptic music video for “Blackstar.”
• His first appearance was released mere days before the Apollo 11 moon landing.
• Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield performed “Space Oddity” on the International Space Station, thus filming the first music video made in space.

The Goblin King

• Not a character of Bowie’s invention, but probably the way many people born or raised in the 1980s first met him.
• The inexplicably fabulous antagonist of Jim Henson’s cult movie Labyrinth.
• Skills include contact juggling (invented for the film), transmutation, shape shifting, and tossing babies in the air.
• Shared the screen with future Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly in her first major film role.
• Why do all the goblins have a humanoid king? Maybe this isn’t even his final form.

If you’re a Bowie fan (or if you just want some sweet bonuses), pick a character and join the Bowie Battle, starting at 11:00 AM EST on 3/10 and running for 24 hours! We can be heroes, just for one day.

The usual bonuses
Earn 5,000 points – 2,500 bonus
Earn 15,000 points – 5,000 bonus
Earn 25,000 points – 10,000 bonus
For every 25,000 points above 25,000 – 5,000 bonus
Member of winning team (if you’ve scored at least 2,500 points) – 10,000 bonus
Highest scorer on each team – 5,000 bonus
Player with #1 overall score – 10,000 bonus
Player with #2 overall score – 5,000 bonus
Player with #3 overall score – 2,500 bonus