LAURIE ANDERSON LIVE IDEAS

Laurie Anderson is curating the 2015 Live Ideas festival in NYC. Events are scheduled to start on Wednesday April 15th with performances and work by Anderson, Julian Schnabel, Pauline Oliveros, Chris Marker, and John Zorn. Readers on the west coast can see Laurie Anderson during her four-night run at SF Jazz in May (info here). NYC Live Ideas info here. 

LAURIE ANDERSON: MACH 20

Laurie Anderson performs "Mach 20" from United States Live (1984) on a short-lived program called The New Show. Her ability to use science as societal lens and story-generator is endlessly fascinating. Her performance art has often used science as form, kind of proto-Ted Talks about nature, behavior, anxieties, and life-changing experiences. Like cartoonists Roz Chast and Gary Larson, who also have scientific and sociological interests, Anderson's observations can be insightful, hilarious, but also haunting. Enjoy!

MEMORY

Laurie Anderson's The Beginning of Memory, from the album Homeland (2010). I recently saw her perform the piece in an intimate theater designed like the interior of a Japanese temple. She covered the stage with small candles and the low-light against wood really brought me back to the years I lived in northern Japan. Anderson's story held such a mythological quality that, combined with the atmosphere of the room, created a mesmerizing, almost ecstatic experience. It felt like I was listening to a creation tale told around a primal campfire. Homeland was produced by Anderson, Lou Reed, and Roma Baran, and featured contributions by Lou Reed, Omar Hakim, John Zorn, Eyvind Kang, and others. Enjoy!