Starman: David Bowie, the shape shifting British singer songwriter who pushed the limits of style and sexual identity, has died of cancer at age 69.

Bowie Broke through in the early 70s with his album Ziggy Stardust, performing as a sexually androgynous character from another planet. He dyed his hair orange and wore women’s clothing. But he had a keen ear for the market in rock music and later released albums based on soul and dance music.

Bowie released his latest album “Blackstar” only on Friday. His hits included “All the Young Dudes,” “Changes,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Space Oddity,” “Starman,” “The Jean Genie,” and “Ziggy Stardust.”

John Pareles writes in the NY Times, “Mr. Bowie wrote songs, above all, about being an outsider: an alien, a misfit, a sexual adventurer, a faraway astronaut. His music was always a mutable blend: rock, cabaret, jazz and what he called “plastic soul,” but it was suffused with genuine soul.”

The Penn is Mightier: Rolling Stone Magazine is taking hits for the article actor Sean Penn wrote about his seven-hour interview with Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. A White House spokesman called the article “maddening” and Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said it was “grotesque”.

Penn is being criticized because he’s not a professional journalist, and his article was a bit of “gee whiz I’m meeting a drug kingpin,” but he got Guzman to admit in detail that he’s a billionaire drug dealer.

Interviews with wanted men have been done before. Former network news correspondent John Miller interviewed Osama bin Laden.

Still, Penn gave Guzman prior approval of the article, something professional reporters don’t do, and Rolling Stone should not have allowed, certainly not after publishing the fiction about the University of Virginia gang rape.

Ya’ll Qaeda: As the rancher “Patriots” settle in for winter at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge they’ve seized in the name of over-governed westerners, Oregon Rancher Keith Nantz writes reasonably in the Washington Post about the difficulties of working with the federal government and its ever-shifting land management rules.

While certainly not all ranchers endorse taking up arms, Nantz says, “Utilizing federal land requires ranchers to follow an unfair, complicated and constantly evolving set of rules. For example, a federal government agency might decide that it wants to limit the number of days a rancher can graze their cattle to protect a certain endangered plant or animal species, or they might unilaterally decide that ranchers can’t use as much water as they need because of a fight over water rights.”

While the “Patriots” may look a little silly, they are the manifestation of a growing movement, much of it pushed by Republican politicians, to hand over millions of acres of federal land to the states, along with the coal, timber, and grazing rights that go with them.

The Fro Bowl: The temperature was 6 below zero in Minneapolis yesterday afternoon at the kickoff between the Seattle Seahawks and the Vikings. The players’ visible breath drifted over the field during the third coldest game in NFL history. After a bone-crunching game, the Vikings shanked a field goal with 25 seconds on the clock and lost it 10-9. At the whistle the temperature had warmed up to zero.

Statue Season: At the Golden Globes in Los Angeles last night “the Revenant,” the grueling mountain man survival story starring Leonardo DiCaprio won Best Drama.

Brie Larson won Best Actress for her performance in “Room” and DiCaprio Best Actor in “The Revenant.” DiCaprio is still hoping for an Oscar. He’s been nominated five times and stiffed for every one of them.

The puzzler of the night was that “The Martian” won Best Picture Musical or Comedy, even though it was neither, and Matt Damon Best Actor in the same category.

Cate Blanchett — you’re great, but no one is good enough to get away with wearing that.

-30-