Transplanted "like a tender perrenial" from item 196, and gently pruned:

#9 of 19: by Gratuitous Saxon Violins (orinoco) on Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (11:32):
 "Sharkey's Night" by Laurie Anderson.

#10 of 19: by Mike McNally (mcnally) on Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (13:03):
   Hey, Kemosabe!  You connect the dots!  You pick up the pieces!

#11 of 19: by Ken Josenhans (krj) on Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (13:54):
 I really love those first two major-label Laurie Anderson albums,
 but I've rarely been able to connect with her since then.

#13 of 19: by Mike McNally (mcnally) on Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (20:44):
   I presume by "first two major-label Laurie Anderson albums"
   you mean "Big Science" and the "Home of the Brave" soundtrack.

   I also liked "Strange Angels" and think that a fair amount of
   USA I-IV is good (though listening to it straight through would
   be an ordeal..)  I agree, though, that most of what she's done
   lately hasn't wowed me.

   According to the kiosk outside of Hill Auditorium she's scheduled
   to come there sometime early next year and do four nights' worth
   of performances having something to do with Moby Dick (!)  Anyone
   know anything about that?

#14 of 19: by Ken Josenhans (krj) on Tue, Jul 13, 1999 (21:39):
 "Big Science" and "Mister Heartbreak," please!  :)

 I read something about Laurie Anderson's MOBY DICK, and all I
 recall right now is that the University Musical Society co-commissioned
 the work.

#15 of 19: by Gratuitous Saxon Violins (orinoco) on Wed, Jul 14, 1999 (11:20):
 I fell in love with Mister Heartbreak the first time I heard it, and I've
been
 looking for other albums of hers that are as good.  "Big Science" had a few
 good tracks, but none of it really stood out.  "Home of the Brave" was the
 same way.  "Mister Heartbreak" is the only album I've heard where she gets
 the repetitiveness of the music to work - where it's catchy rather than
 boring.  And I checked out a more recent album of hers from the library, but
 it was too soft-rock for my taste.

#16 of 19: by Michael Griffin (otaking) on Wed, Jul 14, 1999 (11:40):
 I liked "Strange Angels" desipte the fact that it had more of a soft-rock
 sound to it. Has anybody watched any of the Laurie Anderson videos?

#17 of 19: by Mike McNally (mcnally) on Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (00:30):
   How ironic..  We finally get a more-than-a-few-responses discussion
   going in the music conference and it's stuck in the "What are you
   listening to" list item..

   Whoops..  Forgot about "Mr. Heartbreak".  Perhaps I should check it out
   again, all I remember right now is that I didn't like it nearly as much
   as "Big Science" at the time and that a lot of it was shared with either
   "Home of the Brave" or "USA I-IV"


#18 of 19: by Gratuitous Saxon Violins (orinoco) on Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (17:19):
 Should I make a Laurie Anderson item?...

 Mr. Heartbreak shares one song - Sharkey's Night - with Home of the Brave.
 I don't know about USA I-IV, since I've never found a copy of it.

15 responses total.

  I wonder if the USA set is still 'in print'?  I'm guessing not..

  So other than "The Ugly One With the Jewels" what else has she done
  since "Strange Angels"?  I really lost track..

I saw a copy of USA I-IV at Tower just last week. BTW, "Big Science" is an
album with tracks from "USA I-IV"

Does anyone remember her performances on "Alive From Off Center?" (I miss that
show.)

"Off Center" was pretty good. I saw an interview w/ Anderson once, where
she talked about the relationship between the music and the visuals in her
shows. If a duck is walking across the stage, and it takes twelve steps to
make the trip, then the music will have twelve beats to that particular
part. Some times the music, without the visual to go with it, doesn't 
make any sense. The video of 'Home of the Brave' is fun, and the album is
good after I saw it. Belew and his rubber guitar!

At a recent music lesson, I listened to one of the tracks from "Stories from
the Nerve Bible", which I liked a lot.  I'm gonna have to track that one down
now...a review soon, I hope.

  I've been listening to "Big Science" again lately and had forgotten how
  much I like it, especially "Let X=X" and "It Tango"

Okay, I got the album which I thought was called "Stories from the Nerve
Bible" (the real title is "The Ugly One with the Jewels"), and it's not what
I thought it was.  It's a live recording from a tour where she just sat
onstage, told stories, and accompanied herself on keyboards and violin.  The
stories are fascinating, in a weird Laurie Anderson sort of way, but there's
only so long I can listen to her talking.....very......slowly....in
that....floaty.....voice.......of hers.....and playing the same three chords
in the same three echoey synth sounds before my brain starts to get tired and
nervous.  Maybe that's the point.  Anyway, I think this one's probably going
to grow on me, but I can't see listening to it very often even then.

  She released two albums about that time, I think..  "The Ugly One With
  the Jewels" is definitely more like a spoken-word performance than a
  musical album..

<nods>
It is growing on me, though.  

So is anyone going to see Laurie Anderson's upcoming performance in 
Ann Arbor?  Her new work, "Songs and Stories from Moby Dick," is a 
University Musical Society commission.

Unfortunately, I'll have left by then.

/remind self to obtain tickets

I have to work, so I didn't note the day, but I think it's tonight, Home
of the Brave will be shown at the library, with opening talk by someone
who knows something about the film. Run on and vague, eh?

Was last night.  Dammit.  I noticed it in the Observer an hour or two past
when it would have ended.  Grrr.

Anyway, I have a ticket for the Friday night show.

OK!  I went.  I enjoyed.  I asked a question.  I toured the backstage.  I
passed up a chance to "meet" the star.

It's a cool show, "Songs and Stories from Moby Dick".  Very sparse stage, a
few set pieces pushed in, but a lot of projections (visuals all done by Ms.
Anderson herself) and music.  And dance, etc.  I can't really distill this
down, but I enjoyed it a lot.  See it if you get a chance; you probably won't
be disappointed.  Not excessively "performance art" in the annoyingly
pointless 1980's style, but not exactly a play, a concert, or a slide show
either.

The big tech feature this time was the "Talking Stick", a "touch sensitive
interactive musical intstrument".  I thought this was a little overhyped,
myself.  The idea was to have some sort of interactive controller,
harpoon-shaped in light of the theme.  It turned out to be a 7-8 foot long
rod with a slider which played back small segments of a sound when moved. 
So if you moved it in a steady motion, you got the whole sample (maybe a vocal
phrase, or some noises, etc).  Moving it in little motions sounded like
somebody on a turntable doing scratching.  It only showed up 2-3 times during
the show, so during the Q&A session afterwords I asked for a demonstration
(which nobody else seemed to have thought of; my question got applause).

The guy who played Ahab (along with a few other characters) was pretty cool.
He sang Ahab in this ripped up Tom Waitsish voice, and did a really cool dance
on a pair of crutches (I don't normally care much about dance, but I thought
the crutch dance was seriously neat).

After the show I met up with Mark Ziemba (ziemba) who I'd run into the box
office earlier.  A few minutes later Eric Bassey (other) turned up and after
a bit of talk offered a tour backstage.  I used to work as a stagehand, so
nothing was really that strange to me.  It hadn't occured to me that all that
video projection needed some serious coordination, so I hadn't expected the
impressive video (and lighting) control setup backstage.

We ended up in the green room where a line of people were drooling on Ms.
Anderson.  I only had a geeky technical followup question about the Talking
Stick, so when it turned out she was a bit short on time I artfully neglected
to join the line of ardent fans (I did notice that out of the 5 audience
question, at least 3 of the questioners [including me] were also present in
the green room at that time).

Final summary:  When the CD comes out I'll probably buy it, but it won't be
as cool as the show was.  

Someone on Salon.com gave a really bad review of "Songs and Stories of Moby
Dick."

I hope that a DVD of the concert (musical?) comes out. I didn't get the chance
to see it, but I know that I prefer to watch her performance art rather than
merely listen to it. Her music is wonderful, but her visuals are even more
compelling.

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