Λόρι Αντερσον (UPDATED)

That bunch of characters in the title is the Greek translation of "Laurie Anderson" - just my sad attempt to be in style since Laurie performs 'Delusion' in Athens tonight ("one of my favourite places in the whole world", she says). In a recent interview made by ESC TV (Greek tv show) she recalls her memories of working on the 2004 Olympics ceremony in Athens, and talks about 'Delusion' and her alter-ego Fenway Bergamot:

UPDATE: a bunch of photos of 'Delusion' in Athens where Fenway Bergamot's section had an extra reference to the then-current protests on Athens' Syntagma square as a special one-time update (thanks for the vigilance, timeiswide!).

'Delusion' in Athens, Greece
Badminton Theater, June 8, 2011
photo by Alexandra Katsarou 

Ilusión o engaño?

"It's in-between."

(Laurie Anderson's answer to the question in the title, which is "illusion or deception?"

in English translation and refers to the meaning of 'Delusion')

Listen to this morning's interview with Laurie Anderson on Radio 3 Espagna (it's partly mostly :( overdubbed in Spanish):

Studiogast bei radioeins

Yesterday Laurie Anderson was the guest of radio eins' studio in Potsdam / Berlin, Germany:

• German-English interview with Laurie Anderson, radio eins (audio length: 15 mins 23 secs)

"Here We Go", She Said (and She Meant It Literally)

"From a program recorded on September 14, 1981, Charles Amirkhanian gets a demonstration of the Eventide Clockworks Harmonizer from Laurie Anderson. The Harmonizer is the piece of equipment that Anderson has used, with such great effect, to lower the pitch of her voice in real time, during her concerts", says the description of Ode To Gravity's September 14, 1981 issue at archive.org.

Before that, the program also features Fenway Bergamot's first ever public appearance at the Nova Convention in 1978 (at that time he was just "a pompous blowhard" (quote from L. A.)). The recording, titled 'Song from America on the Move', a two-part performance piece by Laurie Anderson and Julia Heyward, can be found on the LP 'The Dial-A-Poem Poets: The Nova Convention'; Laurie's part was later titled as 'The Language of the Future' (in 'United States Live I-IV.').

• 00:45 - 07:02 The Language of the Future 

• 07:03 - 09:23 interview

Meanwhile, on the GRIT...

"I would love "explorer" but on my passport it just says "artist". [...] I try to just be a good journalist, really, and look at what's going on. [...] I'm a storyteller. I'm not tapdancing around, I don't do that. Maybe I'm fooling myself. Hm..."

(Laurie Anderson's attempts of self-description to Laura Flanders, 2011)

Nostalgia, techno humiliation, art and politics, alter-egos as ways of escape, Laurie Anderson's saddest musical experience and many-many more in Laura Flanders' recent interview on GRIT tv:

P. S.: Hm. Looks like the original Talking Stick is still in the hands of Homeland Security.

UPDATED: More from Krems

Two Four more excerpts of 'Transitory Life' in Krems an der Donau, Austria:

First, the frantic instrumental ending of the concert:

And 'Flow', the mesmerizing reprise violin solo:

Fenway Bergamot's first section: a specialized German-Austrian version ("should I buy a second BMW?") of 'Mambo and Bling' - you'll appreciate it especially if you're interested in the German translation of the piece since the video features mostly the subtitles on the background screen:

'Hey Ah', the story of the old Cree Indian, plus Loscha, the 'Ugly One with the Jewels':

UPDATE#2: Here's Donaufestival's official press photo album of the 5th of May - click below for more photos of Laurie's performance:

Laurie Anderson performing 'Transitory Life'

Krems an der Donau, Austria, May 2011

photo by Florian Schulte

Mabou Mines Benefit

Speaking about recent public appearances: Laurie Anderson invited Fenway Bergamot to perform at the Mabou Mines Benefit at Paula Cooper Gallery:

FYI: This is a resized and cut version of the original video by Andy Horwitz, which can be found here.

Switching Channels

Read a story of "a morning of ventriloquism, conspiracy theories and the presidential ambitions of a blowhard named Bergamot" by Jonathan T. D. Neil in Art Review Magazine's online archive.*

Photo by Nick Haymes

(more photos of Laurie
and a pair of beautiful red shoes
 at ArtReviewDigital*)

* FYI: You'll need to register to be able to read the magazine's online archive. (It's free.)

The (Late) Night America Got Its Insanity Fix

A woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a wo... whatevs. Laurie Anderson is the master of confusion. Performing as her male alter-ego Fenway Bergamot on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night (February 24, 2011), (s)he stirred a tidal wave of WTF among the viewers of the show which, for a few hours, sent the term "Laurie Anderson" among America's top trending topics on Twitter.

Super wicked creepy awesomeness - or just 'Another Day in America':

If you are interested what people thought about Fenway Bergamot, check these out:

• Prefixmag's review of the performance
• Tweets posted during and after the performance, collected by Mnemosyne (some seriously hilarious genuine reactions - explicit language!)

A Second and a Third Self

Excerpts of an interview made in Lublin, Poland during the KODY Festival last year:

Happy to Be Geeking out

"I don't mind being a little off."

(Laurie Anderson)

Mainstream culture and social identity, audio drag and "the physical way", plus a bucket list - this is Laurie Anderson's random two (three, four...) cents to OUT Magazine.

Homecoming #2

"... and then, ['Delusion' is about] the stories you tell yourself about to find meaning in what you're doing, who you are, the way you define yourself. And those are delusional, as we all know. But we need them because otherwise things fall apart without stories."

(Laurie Anderson, January 2011)

WBEZ (Chicagoan radio) host Alison Cuddy talked with Laurie Anderson about the meaning of the word 'Delusion'; singing about the present in 2001: performing 'O Superman' on 9/11 in Chicago; Laurie getting sick of her own voice (wat!); her love-hate relationship with technology; mothers and (failed) expectations; challenge and experimentation: working at McDonald's, and seeing Chicago with the eyes of a child.

Homecoming...

Laurie Anderson was the guest of Chicago Tonight (talk show on a local Chicago tv channel) last night. She talked about the Grammy nomination of 'Flow', 'Delusion', Fenway Bergamot, singing 'O Superman' on the night of 9/11 in Chicago; Lou Reed, and curating at the Stone in New York. The show featured a snippet of an interview with Laurie from 1986, during which they presented some priceless photos from Laurie's high school yearbook.

Fenway Bergamot Sleeveface

Fenway Bergamot by Scarydan

... priceless! :) Along with Dan's personal reaction to 'Homeland'.

"Bafflingly Powerful Images"

Three random reviews of 'Homeland' from the recent past:

• Laurie Anderson Wants to Know Who You're Working for - how Laurie turned two of her favourite books about work into an album years later

• Making Contact - a lengthy description of Fenway Bergamot and a few words on the making process of 'Homeland' at Express Night Out

• "akin to walking around with near-sightedness all your life and then being granted a pair of corrective lenses" - Emmanuel Hapsis at KQED Arts is thrilled by the album

Drum Dance 2010!

Last night Laurie appeared as a guest on Brazilian talk show 'Programa do Jô'. After a conversation rambling on subjects like Fenway Bergamot, the story of the Singing Table, working at McDonald's and NASA, she even did a new version of her drum dance, too - see it in the second video.

"I like to do things that I don't know how to do for fun."

WKCR's (Columbia University's radio station) 'Arts and Answers' show featured a recent interview with Laurie Anderson on September 30, 2010. Unfortunately I missed the show by one day but Annie Minoff, the programme's host was kind enough to provide me with the stream which I am proudly presenting here, on Files on a String. Thank you, Annie!

Annie Minoff talked with Laurie Anderson in her studio about 'Delusion' and "the sensation she calls mental drift", Laurie's wunderhund Lolabelle who has just finished her Christmas record, various manifestations of one mother, Fenway Bergamot's "different ways", the "insane third of everyone's lives" (i. e. dreams), Laurie's retrospective performance called 'Transitory Life', audience personalites and many more.

• 'Arts and Answers' Interview with Laurie Anderson on WKCR (audio length: 30 mins 1 sec; the stream will open in a new window)

Stories and Dreams on WNYC

Laurie Anderson talked to John Schafer on WNYC (New York Public Radio)'s Soundcheck show on September 16th, 2010. In a week 'Delusion' will premiere in New York City, as the highlight of BAM's Next Wave Festival.

Topics:

- 'Delusion' - how "a series of plays for two people about things you just can't reconcile turned into a three-dimensional movie with stories", "a weird hybrid about things that I don't think I've really understood yet",

- Fenway Bergamot, who is not the voice of authority anymore ("I decided to accept blowhards"). He also performed a renewed / shortened version of 'Mambo and Bling' in the studio - this version might be known as "the Mambo and Bling without mambo and bling",

- 'Only an Expert' - a "pointed commentary on American society",

- the concert for dogs in Sydney, where "thousands of dogs showed up: they brought their people",

- plus a live performance of one of the most unsettling parts of 'Delusion': the movement which, for the sake of simplicity, I will call 'Mother's Death'.




Here is the show in its entirety, as part of the WNYC Soundcheck archive:






Or you can listen to an edited version of the interview here, on Files on a String, along with two live performances:

• interview part one (audio length: 7 mins 0 secs, file size: 9.63 MB)

• interview part two (audio length: 3 mins 46 secs, file size: 5.18 MB)

• 'Mambo and Bling' on WNYC Soundcheck, 16th of September, 2010 (audio length: 5 mins 16 secs, file size: 7.24 MB)

• 'Mother's Death' (excerpt from 'Delusion') on WNYC Soundcheck, 16th of September, 2010 (audio length: 3 mins 25 secs, file size: 4.69 MB)

'Mambo and Bling' Multimedia

Listen to...

• 'Mambo and Bling's "original" version, recorded in 2008 at Duke University's Page Auditorium *:

• Just a reminder that an updated version of 'Mambo and Bling' is also available online on the National Public Radio's World Café website, recorded at Laurie Anderson's recent appearance in the show on August 19th, 2010.

Watch...

Excerpts of Fenway Bergamot's not-so-aimless rambling on Nonesuch's website (some parts may be familiar from 'Pictures and Things', B-side of Homeland's 12" vinyl single):

• The Crash
• Pictures and Things
• Victory
• On the Road
• A Troubadour

* Along with the audio, there's also an interview made with Laurie Anderson in Independent Weekly, written by Grayson Currin, before the US presidential elections in 2008.

What to Read, According to Mr. Fenway Bergamot

Here are some of Fenway Bergamot's / Laurie Anderson's favourite books, along with Mr. Bergamot's comments:

• "Perfumes - The A-Z Guide"
  by Luca Turin & Tania Sanchez

"Fabulous book!"

• "Eating Animals"
  by Jonathan Safran Foer

"Highly recommended!"

• "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman"
  by Laurence Sterne

"My personal favourite. Kind-of my own role model."

(Note: this one can be entirely read at Google Books, just click to the title)

• "A Week at the Airport - A Heathrow Diary"
  by Alain de Botton

"I've spent a week at Heathrow myself and I know what this guy is talking about."

... for more, watch Fenway Bergamot's video made in Sydney, Australia at Facebook.

 (in the picture: fashion dictator Fenway Bergamot / screen capture from the video)