I can’t believe that David Bowie is dead.

David Bowie Dies At 69 • 2016 Jan 11 • NPR

Bowie has always been somewhere in my subconscious. When I started listening to KROQ sometime in junior high, they would regularly play his stuff, especially on Richard Blade’s Flashback Lunch.

So I would regulary hear “China Girl”, “Let’s Dance”, “Modern Love”, “Rebel Rebel”, “Suffragette City”, “Changes”, “Ashes to Ashes”. I didn’t think too deeply on it, truth be told. He was just part of the aural landscape for me.

It’s possible that I heard “Under Pressure” by Queen and Bowie before I ever heard “Ice, Ice Baby”.

I loved “Labyrinth” as a kid.

When I was in college, KOME in the Bay Area played the crap out of Nirvana’s cover of “The Man Who Sold the World”.

And when “Life Aquatic” came out, I got obsessed with Seu Jorge’s Portuguese covers, especially “Life on Mars”.

I think I downloaded every single cover of “Life on Mars” that I could find. I’m not sure why, but I find the song really comforting. It’s got me through some really dark times.

But what really drove Bowie into my consciousness was Flight of the Conchords, which my sister got me to watch.

Flight of the Conchords • Bowie’s in Space • YouTube

And I might have heard it long before—it certainly sounds deeply familiar—but “The Martian” brilliantly used “Starman”

The world does seem like a darker, sadder place without him. But I know the music and the funky weirdness will live on and on.