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Washington Square Park.CreditRobert Wright for The New York Times
(THE NEW YORK TIMES) David Bowiewas a New Yorker for over 20 years. In Bowie years, that is practically an eternity considering the multitude of lives he lived — musically, geographically and otherwise — since he first set out to become a star in the late 1960s.
“I can’t imagine living anywhere else,” Mr. Bowie, who was born in Brixton, in South London, and had stints in Berlin; Lausanne, Switzerland;and several other cities,saidin a 2003 interview.“I’ve lived in New York longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker.”
He somehow managed to settle into a domesticated life that resembled that of many others living in and around SoHo (though most do it without the supermodel wife and penthouse apartment), browsing the books at McNally Jackson and shopping for groceries at Dean & DeLuca, among other low-key adventures that he undertook in what the playwright John Guare called“this cloak of invisibility.”
Soon after news spread of Mr. Bowie’s death on Jan. 10, two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his album “Blackstar,” fans starteda makeshift memorialoutside the SoHo apartment where he had lived with his wife, Iman,since 1999,joined the following year by their daughter, Lexi. Mr. Bowie and Iman purchased their first city home in 1992, a ninth-floor apartment at Essex House Hotel on Central Park South, which they sold in 2002.
“Just as each and every one of us found something unique in David’s music, we welcome everyone’s celebration of his life as they see fit,” Mr. Bowie’s familywrote in a statement.
Should you be looking for a way to honor him in the city he called home, there is no shortage of activities to partake in, many of which Mr. Bowie enjoyed doing himself.
The exterior of Mr. Bowie’s apartment, with an outdoor memorial.
Take a Walk
From his apartment building on 285 Lafayette Street, Mr. Bowie was in walking distance of many of his favorite neighborhood haunts. Topping his list,according to The Independent,was Washington Square Park.
He wrote of the park ina 2003 essay for New York magazine:“It’s the emotional history of New York in a quick walk.”
Walking in general (the earlier in the day the better) was a preferred way for Mr. Bowie to experience city life.
“The signature of the city changes shape and is fleshed out as more and more people commit to the street. A magical transfer of power from the architectural to the human,”Mr. Bowie wrote.
The park is about a 10-minute walk from the apartment on Lafayette, where fans continue to leave notes, photos and flowers outside of the building and where the musician Glen Hansard paid tribute last Tuesday withan acoustic performance of the Bowie classic “Ashes to Ashes.”
Strand Book Store.CreditRobert Wright for The New York Times
Buy a Book
The Strand(828 Broadway) was another one of Mr. Bowie’s destinations of choice. Hewrote in 2003:“It’s impossible to find the book you want, but you always find the book you didn’t know you wanted.”
He also frequentedMcNally Jackson Books(52 Prince Street). After his death, the book store tweeted:
Consider one of Mr. Bowie’s many biographies, or you could try one of his favorite books, like“A Clockwork Orange”by Anthony Burgess,“The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao”by Junot Diaz, or one of the 98 othersthat were posted on his website in October 2013.
David Bowie performed at the Concert for New York at Madison Square Garden following the Sept. 11 attack.CreditNancy Siesel/The New York Times
See a Band
Mr. Bowie first performed in the city in 1972, and madehis Carnegie Hall debutlater that year, and countless notable New York performances followed, including a memorable appearance at the Concert for New York at Madison Square Garden following the Sept. 11 attack.
Before Mr. Bowie’s death, a concert atCarnegie Hall(881 Seventh Avenue) featuring the Roots, Perry Farrell and others was being planned to honor his career on March 31. It has since turned intoa two-night tribute:an additional night of performancesis scheduled at Radio City Music Hall for April 1 featuring Cat Power, Cyndi Lauper and others.
Carnegie Hall.CreditRobert Wright for The New York Times
Tickets for both nightsare pricey on the secondary market,so consider doing what Mr. Bowiewas known to doand stop by the Bitter End (147 Bleecker Street), the city’s oldest rock club, wherelive music happens just about every night.
Numerous tributes at city music venues have sprouted up since Mr. Bowie’s death, and are likely to continue in the coming months.
There will bea three-night performance by the Loser’s Lounge,a long-running revue that pays tribute to pop stars and cult artists and is led by the former Psychedelic Furs keyboardist Joe McGinty, at Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette Street) from Feb. 18 through Feb. 20. Tickets are $25.
While not a tribute, one performance may appeal to fans of Mr. Bowie’s “Blackstar.” The jazz saxophonist Donny McCaslin, whose group provided the musical backing to Mr. Bowie’s critically acclaimed final album, is at the Village Vanguard (178 Seventh Avenue South)from Jan. 19 though Jan. 24.Tickets are $30.
Mr. McCaslin “has been a stalwart on the New York jazz scene for more than 20 years — an improviser with an aptitude for controlled abandon, often uncorking solos that feel both wild and cogent,”The Times’s Nate Chinen wrotebefore the album’s release.
Carnegie Hall.CreditRobert Wright for The New York Times
Buy a Record
Mr. Bowieenjoyed shopping for rare vinylat Bleecker Bob’s beforeit closed in 2013after 45 years, only to be turned into a frozen yogurt shop.
As sad as that was, there are plenty of fine vinyl purveyors still operating in and around Greenwich Village, includingBleecker Street Records(188 West Fourth Street).
But if you’re stopping there for vinyl on your Bowie crawl, do not expect much from the man himself, at least not for a while.
Nino Perez of Bleecker Street Records said the store quickly sold out of most titles in the days after his death and they did not expect to have more copies of “Blackstar” until the end of February, because of the high demand.
It’s a similar story atGeneration Records(210 Thompson Street).
“I sold out of his new album right away,” Jason Primavera said, referring to the vinyl edition, though he added that customers were asking for it even before he died, asits positive reviewspiled up.
Before stocks are replenished, consider taking home one of Mr. Bowie’s contemporaries, like Iggy Pop or Lou Reed, both of whom he met and befriended during a 1971 visit to Manhattan.
Mr. Reed and the Velvet Underground’sdebut albumwas one of Mr. Bowie’s first exposures to New York music, in the form of a gift from his then manager, Ken Pitt, in 1966.
“Everything I both felt and didn’t know about rock music was opened to me.”Mr. Bowie wrote in 2003.“I was hearing a degree of cool that I had no idea was humanly sustainable.”
David Bowie rehearsed a scene for “The Elephant Man” in 1980.CreditMarty Lederhandler/Associated Press
See a Play
The theater had long been part of Mr. Bowie’s creative world, dating back to his pre-stardom daysworking with Lindsay Kemp at the London Dance Center.
In 1980 heearned positive reviewsfor his performance in “The Elephant Man” at the Booth Theater (222 West 45th Street).
“Yes, more young people in designer jeans and leather now show up at the Booth Theater than before, and yes, they probably show up because Mr. Bowie is a celebrated rock star,”John Corry wrotein The Times in 1980.“Fortunately, he is a good deal more than that, and as John Merrick, the Elephant Man, he is splendid.
More recently, Mr. Bowie co-wrote“Lazarus,”a sequel to the 1976 feature film “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” in which Mr. Bowie, in his first major film role, portrayed Thomas Jerome Newton. The show closes at the New York Theatre Workshop (79 East Fourth Street) on Jan. 20.
But there are other options. The Booth Theater has “Hughie,” starring Forest Whitaker, opening on Feb. 8. You could also go see the comedy “Noises Off,”a Times Critics’ Pickfeaturing Andrea Martin anda Roundabout Theater Company production. The space formerly known as Studio 54 is also owned by the company, and Mr. Bowiemay have spent a night or two at the famed discoduring its heyday.
Caffe Reggio.CreditRobert Wright for The New York Times
Have a Bite
Mr. Bowie relished his ability to blend in and not be bothered by his fans and fellow New Yorkers during his years in the city.
“It’s so easy to be a person here, a regular guy. The family and I have no problem going out and eating,” Mr. Bowietold The Miami Herald in 2003.
Some of his usual spots included Caffe Reggio (119 Macdougal Street)for coffee or breakfastandOlive’s(120 Prince Street), wherea chicken sandwich with watercress and tomatoes wasa favorite of his.
AtBottega Falai (267 Lafayette Street),an Italian cafe and grocery thatMr. Bowie used to frequent, he would regularly order the prosciutto di Parma sandwich, a cappuccino and a bomboloni, the restaurant’s owner Danilo Durante said.
Mr. Bowie was also knownto shop for weekly groceriesat the nearby Dean & DeLuca (560 Broadway).
View Art
Mr. Bowie was a well-known lover of art, between collecting the classics andapplying his own skills to paint and brush.
Metropolitan Museum of Art.CreditRobert Wright for The New York Times
“Art was, seriously, the only thing I’d ever wanted to own,” Mr. Bowietold Michael Kimmelman in 1998.“It has always been for me a stable nourishment. I use it. It can change the way that I feel in the mornings.”
To see some of Mr. Bowie’s favorite painters, your best bet is likely theMetropolitan Museum of Art(1000 Fifth Avenue), which currently has several works from Picasso, Rubens and Tintoretto on view.
Stay at Home
Ten years had passed between 2003’s “Reality” and 2013’s “The Next Day,” leaving some to speculate that Mr. Bowie had either retired orbecome a recluse.
Neither was really true, as he still made his rounds around SoHoand was secretly working on “The Next Day,”but he seemed to enjoy his alone time more in his later years.
“David is even more of a homebody than I am. At least I go to parties once in awhile,”Iman told The Guardian in 2014,adding that he liked his own company.
“I also think there is nothing that he hasn’t seen,” she said.
Therefore, if you want to honor Mr. Bowie with a quiet night at home, you have every right, and several ofhis moviesand concert films are available on streaming services.
An entire generation of ‘80s kids were first introduced to Mr. Bowie via Jareth the Goblin King in Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth” (1986), available to renton Amazon Instant Video,iTunes and Vudu.
If you don’t have one already, you probably can’t get a ticket to the play “Lazarus,” but you can see the prequel, Nicolas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (1976), in which Mr. Bowie “gives an extraordinary performance,” according to Richard Eder’sreview in The Times.It is currently available on Vudu andAmazon.
Other Bowie-related titles available to stream include “The Hunger” (1983), “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1986) and “The Prestige” (2006).
The documentary “David Bowie: Five Years” (2014) can also be viewed on Huluand Amazon via a Showtime add-on subscription.
