And the next day, and the next, and another day.

I'm in a movie theatre. Thankfully, I seem to have appeared here at the end of the long run of commercials. The theatre is well packed with popcorn-munching spectators, their eyes all trained up at the screen. I wonder if they all made a conscious choice to be here today, or if they suddenly appeared here, like me. Regardless, we all know the drill. All hush up as the movie begins.

I've got an empty seat on either side of me, no one sitting directly in front of me, and a full bag of hot popcorn in my lap. I've found myself in some pretty strange adventures throughout this journey, so I'm quite happy to sit back and watch the story unfold before my eyes this time.

The movie opens with a split screen. Not a technique that gets used a lot in modern filmmaking. Both sides of the split show only a close-up of a face. The man on the left is crying. He's older, maybe in his 70's. He's thin and disheveled and not looking particularly well. Behind him, darkness with a blue flickering light off to one side... television light.

The crying woman on the right is about the same age, but her appearance is stunningly beautiful. Her tears shine  brightly as they fall from her eyes. Behind her, golden light. Flashes of light illuminate her face from different directions intermittently and then all at once, in random bursts... camera flashes.

The camera pulls back on both sides of the split simultaneously. He's alone in the living room of a modest looking but unkempt house, sitting still as a statue except for the tears that roll down his lined cheeks. There is no sound coming from the TV at which he gazes.

On the other side of the screen, the camera pulls back to reveal that she's standing amid a sea of people, all as beautiful as she is, all dressed in sparkling finery of the highest quality. Her glowing golden curls match her shimmering golden gown. Her red lips match the red carpet. The camera flashes continue unabated, and she appears numb, blind, and paralyzed in the frenzy that surrounds her.

What connects these two people?

The split screen widens from the middle, pushing the crying woman out of the way, showing us more of the crying man. Flash back. A small boy is running to school. The bell is ringing and he's late... again. As he enters his classroom, the teacher looks at him with a disapproval that is soft and gentle around the edges. The boy takes his seat, and we can see how much smaller he is compared to the other children. The desks all have hand-drawn nameplates on them. The nameplate on the small boy's desk says Valentine. Valentine is the runt of his class.

Everyone calls him Val for short. Val gets bullied in the way you expect a boy who is smaller than the rest to be bullied. He knows he's small and he avoids getting into scrapes. He prefers to get by on his charm. The girls like him, though they won't admit it. He tries hard and his teachers are sympathetic to him. He has a few friends, but his status in life seems secure: he's not going to amount to much. But Val has other plans.

Val eventually goes on to high school, and chooses a different school from his primary school classmates. In his freshman year, Val decides to drop the sweet, charming runt act. The girls are nice to him, but no girl wants to date a boy who is smaller than she is. Val realizes that he can't do much about his height, but he can make himself strong. Lucky for Val, he puts on muscle easily, and he's a fast and agile runner. He spends his spare time working out and training, and he makes the football team as a running halfback.

Val's popularity reveals a bit of a dark streak, however. He falls in with a crowd of misfits from a neighbouring rival school. He begins living a strange double life. By day, Val is a much-lauded member of his high school football team, popular with just about everyone, making everyone proud. By night, he smokes dope, smashes mailboxes, and eggs houses with the greasy-haired loser kids from the other school. Somehow, he manages to keep both lives completely separate.

By the age of 16, Val has managed to get a few dates under his belt (if you know what I mean) but has yet to have a serious relationship. He's nominated for Homecoming King at the prom, but he has zero interest in the buxom, air-headed cheerleader who will likely be crowned Queen (been there, done that, fears her teeth). He attends the dance solo, expected to put in an appearance. He's got plans to get drunk and partake in some mischief with the St. Joe's boys later.

Then he meets Sophie. She's slightly shorter than Val -- five foot nothing to his five foot two. Immediately drawn in by his broad, charming smile, Sophie -- not from this school, or the rival school either -- exuberates a quality that you don't often see among the masses of regular folk. She seems to have an inherent glow about her... a star quality.

Like a magnet pulling them together, Val and Sophie spend the evening getting to know each other, inside and out. He's absent for his homecoming coronation, choosing instead to lay with Sophie on the top of a car in the parking lot behind the school, gazing at the stars in each others' eyes.

Sophie is from the country. She's spending the weekend with her cousin Christie who goes to Val's school. She doesn't get to come to the big city often, and her cousin invited her to the dance as a "girl date", which she happily accepted, because she adores dressing up in fancy attire and getting her hair done up. She's going to be an actress one day, and plans to own an opulent collection of award show gowns and jewels.

Back in the gym-turned-dance hall, Christie spies her dear cousin with Val, and she takes her aside to offer a warning: Val seems sweet, but he's got a dark side. He thinks no one knows that he hangs out with the bad boys from the Catholic school around the corner, but everyone whispers about it behind his back. He wants everyone to think he's good, but he's really a bad boy, Christie tells her. But this information only heightens Sophie's attraction to Val.

Sophie goes back to the country, but she and Val keep in touch until the summer, when she decides to move to the big city to be with him, and also to pursue her dream of becoming a movie star.

Sophie has focused her studies on the arts, namely drama. She has always played the female lead in the annual school play. In the big city, she's begun auditioning for theatre companies, and her inherent star quality does not go unnoticed. Sophie explodes into the local acting community, and finds herself being approached by theatre and film directors. She's not just a pretty face after all... the girl has talent.

With Sophie becoming the talk of the town, Val begins to find himself somewhat playing second fiddle to her. With high school graduation looming, Val is thinking about his future. He's not likely to become a professional football player -- he's just too small. He's neglected his studies and his grades are proof of that. Val reveals to Sophie that he's thinking of joining the military. She is, of course, not in favour of this, and tells him so on no uncertain terms.

To keep her happy, Val applies to college, but his heart's not in it. He's done with school, he decides, and he tosses away his acceptance letters without even opening them. Sophie is so busy with her acting career that she barely notices him anymore anyway. He serves as arm candy for her at the opening of her wildly successful indie film, but the spotlight is all on her, and Val feels like she's stolen something from him.

Despite her protests, he enlists in the armed forces anyway. At the age of 17, Val breaks up with Sophie and leaves for boot camp, and then immediately ships off on his first tour to the Middle East. Sophie appears devastated by the break up, but she's a good actress, and Val's not convinced that she'll really miss him.

At first, Val feels satisfied with his decision. He feels at home as a soldier, exercising his physical prowess through sanctioned violence. But as the days wear on, he begins to feel that something is not quite right inside. Barely a man, the hard, cool exterior that he has spent so much time cultivating as a boy, begins to crack. His initial excitement has worn away to fear and dread.

And something else... he misses Sophie. Val remembers the girl before she realized her dreams of fame and stardom, and he pines for her. He wonders if she misses him too.

If Sophie misses Val, she's hiding it in the deepest recesses of her heart. Her latest movie is being touted as an Oscar contender, and she and her co-star, Lev Moritz, are rumoured to be up for best actress and best supporting actor as a result of their steamy on-screen chemistry in the film. Of course, that chemistry comes from a real-life source. Sophie and Lev are the hottest couple in Hollywood, where they've just bought a multi-million dollar abode together. Tonight, they adorn the red carpet, arm in arm, sparkling and shining and beaming like two golden balls of light fallen to earth.

(Note: the opening number in this video is the song Plan, also from The Next Day)

Val would know this if he was plugged in to pop culture, but he's too busy shooting people and running for his life. After a particularly bloody day that has debilitated and maimed his squad, Val settles in for a night of much needed sleep.

He doesn't talk much about his life before the army. His squad members could be forgiven for thinking that Val was born all grown up, wearing camo and brandishing a rifle. As the rest of the squad joins Val in their makeshift home for the night, one of them reveals that he no longer has a reason for living. He just heard that his movie star crush, Sophie Jensen, is engaged to that fake Hollywood cad, Lev Moritz. She could do so much better. She has, Val thinks, and rolls over to nurse his aching heart.

The years have passed and Val has dutifully continued his military service in tours across the Middle East and Africa. He's seen some things. So far removed from his old life as a high school football star and arm candy to a rising movie star, Val doesn't know who he is anymore, and his world view has become dark, cynical, and packed with nightmarish realities.

Hope arrives in the form of a Christian missionary named Jackie. She's working in the small African village where Val is currently stationed. For the first time in years, Val begins to feel something other than the daily fear, dread, and anxiety he has come to know. Jackie's there to convert the locals to Christianity, which Val thinks is ridiculous. But her sunny cheerfulness and optimism make Val feel all a flutter, like a little boy chasing butterflies in a vast green field.

He visits Jackie just to see her smile. She offers him an ear and a shoulder, but he refuses to talk. He just wants to be near her. Eventually, Val's innocent fascination turns to lust, however, and his attempts to get Jackie to sleep with him lead her to distance herself from him. She's not that kind of girl.

Val probably should have availed himself of the body parts Jackie did offer him - the ear and shoulder, namely - for the body parts she has withheld leave him deeper in despair than he was before they met. No longer able to focus on the task at hand, Val makes a poor decision on his next mission, rushing in too early and getting him severely injured. He is sent home with an honourable discharge for medical reasons, having won no particular medals or awards to speak of.

Val returns to his homeland, broken all over, inside and out. Ravaged by war, and with no other discernible skills or education, he takes a series of odd jobs to try and earn his living. His recently acquired short temper takes the wheel often, and when he douses a customer in hot coffee at the Starbucks where he works, he is immediately let go from the job and arrested for assault. The charges are dropped when the victim learns that Val has recently returned from military service -- her own father suffers from PTSD.

But Val is unable to find more work after the incident, and he eventually finds himself living a meager existence on social assistance, lonely and forgotten.

Decades pass. Val thinks of Sophie, and in his mentally broken state, believes that she is his only true friend in the world, that she misses him as much as he misses her. She's trapped in a world from which she can't emerge, just like he is. They belong together, he knows it. But Val's attempts to contact Sophie, who has achieved a level of stardom so great that she has become untouchable and unknowable except to those within her tight inner circle, go unanswered. It's not her fault, he thinks. They're keeping us apart.

It's not stalking if it's true love.

Restraining orders follow. But Val knows that it's only her people, her handlers who are keeping them apart. He's a man of limited means, but Sophie can break free. One day, she will. She'll escape her captors and she'll find Val and they'll elevate each other to the very heights of admiration by all. Until then, he vows to stay connected to her by watching her on TV and monitoring her online social media presence. He's forbidden from contacting her, but no one can stop him from lurking.

On the evening of Val's 70th birthday, he is glued to the TV, as usual. It's Oscar night. Sophie has long since divorced Lev and has been involved in a number of relationships, but has kept them private -- a difficult feat for someone in the public realm.

Sophie has had a long and varied career, lauded as one of the best and most talented actresses of her time. She has no plans to retire, and this year she is up for Best Actress, yet again, for a career defining role. She has the satisfaction of knowing that she is a living legend, and will take the title of legend with her when she goes.

Sophie steps out of the limousine, gold shoes gracing the red carpet, the long gown cascading around her as she smiles for the cameras, beaming and waving to her colleagues and fans. She looks right into the camera and blows a kiss, which Val leans forward and accepts from the darkness of his living room. That was for me! His heart expands with golden sunshine and tears of joy well up in his eyes.

Suddenly, a commotion ensues on the red carpet. A long-established jewelry designer exclaims that the opulent bib necklace constructed of gold and diamonds around Sophie's neck went missing decades ago -- last worn by Sophie herself to another awards ceremony. A file photo of Sophie wearing the jewels has been located, and an expert declares that it is, in fact, the same necklace. A record of its disappearance was made, but Sophie was cleared of the charges after a series of burglaries occurred in Beverly Hills.

So many years ago. Sophie didn't think anyone would remember. The necklace was the right piece for this occasion, this dress. She had to wear it.

The world watches with slack-jawed shock and awe as a police officer places handcuffs on Sophie's elegant wrists. Cameras continue rolling and flashing, and for a moment, she looks right into the camera as tears of regret fall from her stunning, sparkling eyes.

*****

The Next Day is such a great album. Of its' 18 songs, there is only one that I don't dig (and I didn't include it in this story because it just didn't fit). Some of them have this "Dance Cave" vibe about them (back in the mid 00's when I used to go dancing beneath Lee's Palace in Toronto, some of these songs could easily have been in the mix, had they existed at that time). The writing and the singing is just as strong and chills-inducing as ever. I have really enjoyed spending my time with this album.

I took a little extra time with it, for a few reasons. First, like I said, the album has 18 songs on it. Two weeks was just not enough time to fully absorb it. Second, I went to New York City last weekend, and had too much fun to be worried about meeting my regular two-week posting schedule. Finally, Bowie fans waited 10 years for this album. So taking a bit of extra time with it seemed only fair.

Admittedly, there might also be one more reason. Since The Next Day is Bowie's last official album of all new songs, I've reached what you may want to call the official end of this project. Of course, that may not be true at all. I hope to be back with more adventures in the near future, but that depends on the man himself.

Whether Bowie graces us with future albums or not, I'm not willing to say that this is the full-stop end of The Bowie Project. I achieved my initially stated goal -- to listen to all of his studio albums. But there are a lot of things I've missed along the way... collaborations with other artists, films I've yet to see, and little bits and pieces from across the decades that aren't full albums but are worthy of mentioning (Sue... {Or in a Season in Crime} for example). I expect to be back... just maybe not at regular intervals.

Until then, I hope you've enjoyed this journey as much as I have! It has certainly transported me to some fun places, some dark places, and some utterly confusing places -- all of them worthy adventures. I can honestly say that my life is better for having done this project. I've been inspired in so many ways to be more creative in my own life, and to embrace the idea of putting new things out into the world for others to enjoy. Thank you, David Bowie! I'm so glad I finally took the opportunity to get to know you.