This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “bottled”.
“Now, Jeannie, we gotta get you bottled up. Dr. Bellows will be here any minute!”
(I would have completed this illustration over the weekend, but I was otherwise occupied HERE.)
He would have you believe that he landed on this planet from some far off galaxy, but in reality, Klaus Nomi was born in Germany (on planet Earth) in 1944.
In his youth, he worked as an usher at the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin where he’d entertain the other ushers and the maintenance staff by singing opera after the shows. He also sang in small clubs in Germany until he moved to New York City in 1972. He began performing in the arty East Village clubs showcasing an eclectic blend of operatic arias and pop classics from the 1960s. His shows featured strobe lights and smoke bombs and unusual costumes and was a word-of-mouth sensation. Klaus soon teamed with Joey Arias, a Fiorucci live model and drag queen turned singer/performance artist. Klaus appeared with Arias and his band Strange Party at various night clubs in New York City. Their otherworldly shows caught the attention of David Bowie and he asked the pair to accompany him on his upcoming guest appearance on Saturday Night Live. Klaus sang back-up with Bowie on “TVC15″, “Boys Keep Swinging” and “The Man Who Sold the World” on the show in 1979. Bowie wore an over-sized plastic tuxedo for his set and Klaus was taken by it. He commissioned one to be made for himself and it soon became his iconic trademark. Klaus released four albums and a slew of singles ranging from opera to show tunes to covers of early rock and roll classics. As his career progressed, he concentrated primarily on opera and displayed an incredibly wide vocal range.
In the late 1970s, Klaus’ health began to deteriorate and he eventually succumbed to the then-relatively unknown disease AIDS in 1983. He was 39.
In the nearly 30 years since his death, Klaus’ cult following has increased. A documentary of his life, The Nomi Song, was released in 2004. Several designers have used his unusual fashion as an inspiration for their lines. Many artists have recorded cover versions of his songs. A cartoon version of Klaus even popped up on The Venture Brothers in 2006.
Yet, Klaus Nomi remains largely unknown.
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “duet”.
Jeanne Deckers was a nun in the Dominican Fichermont Convent in Waterloo, Belgium. She wrote, sang and performed her own songs, which were so well received that the monastery decided to let her record an album, which visitors to the monastery would be able to purchase. In 1963, Jeanne (who chose the name Sister Luc Gabriel) released the song “Dominique”, which became an international hit. Radio stations embraced the song and in the United States it became wildly popular and brought a sort of distracting comfort in the days following the assassination of President Kennedy. Almost overnight, Sister Luc Gabriel, the Dominican nun, was an international celebrity with the stage name of Sœur Sourire (Sister Smile). She gave concerts and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in early 1964.
Sister Luc Gabriel’s unlikely rise to fame was chronicled in the 1966 film The Singing Nun starring Debbie Reynolds. Sister Luc Gabriel dismissed the film as pure fiction. In 1967, she released a second album that was poorly received. Meanwhile, her label, Phillips Records, kept a majority of the revenue from her debut release and maintained right to the name Sœur Sourire, forcing Sister Luc Gabriel to take the altered stage name “Luc Dominique”. Still determined to maintain a singing career, she released a third album, this time geared toward religious songs for children. Again, it went nearly unrecognized. Between her failing music career and her increasing criticism of Catholic doctrines, she left the Church. Still using the name “Luc Dominique”, she recorded an ode to her strong advocacy of birth control called “Glory Be to God for the Golden Pill”. It, too, was a commercial failure. Sister Luc reverted back to being plain old Jeanne Deckers and faded into show business obscurity.
With her music career in her past, Jeanne opened a school for autistic children with her friend Anna Pécher, also a former nun. In the late 1970s, the Belgian government claimed that she owed approximately $63,000 in back taxes. Jeanne countered that the royalties from her recording were given to the convent and therefore she was not liable for payment of any personal income taxes. Lacking any receipts to prove her donations to the convent, Jeanne ran into heavy financial problems. Despite being a solo act in her early days, Jeanne performed a suicide duet with Anna. The pair — friends for ten years — composed a note reading “We hope God will welcome us. He saw us suffer. He should show clemency”. Then, they each downed a fatal dose of barbiturates and alcohol.
Jeanne was 51.
The current challenge on the Monday Artday illustration website is “Peter Pan”.
Now you understand why Peter Pan bitched so much about not wanting to grow up.
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