More Ice from Rio

Laurie Anderson's skates in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 2011
photo by Cristina Granato

FYI: for more photos of the latest performance of 'Duets on Ice', click to the photo above.

Duets on Ice, Rio de Janeiro Version - UPDATED

Laurie Anderson treated the audience to another Duet on Ice as part of the vernissage of I in U / Eu em Tu, her retrospective exhibition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (let's hope there'll pop up a more extensive recording of the event on YouTube soon):

UPDATE #1: a longer video - from the second performance on March 29:

UPDATE #2: an HD video - the best one so far (presumably recorded on March 28):

UPDATE #3: another HD video; this one is from the second performance:

A Closed Circuit, Baby.

I'd rather not try to guess what the following performance might have meant to the average moviegoer in Western Germany, 1983...

Laurie Anderson performs 'Closed Circuit' in Rudolf Thome's movie 'System ohne Schatten' (English title: 'Closed Circuit'):

Visual Solace for the Remote and Deprived

A photo gallery and a video tour of the joint exhibition of the early works of Laurie Anderson, choreographer Trisha Brown and the late artist Gordon Matta-Clark at the Barbican Art Gallery in London:

The exhibition is called Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s. It opens today and it runs until May 22nd, 2011.

FYI: Tonight Laurie Anderson will re-perform one of her early trademark acts, Duets on Ice at the gallery.

Sigh.

Laurie in Austria!

Laurie Anderson will perform 'Transitory Life' on the weekend of May 5th-7th, 2011 as part of Donaufestival in Krems, Austria. For the time being, only early bird tickets are available for the whole weekend. Single tickets will be on sale after the 10th of March.

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.

Another Unconventional Reading

What a coincidence: I have just found another recording of a public reading by Laurie Anderson - this time from the PEN event 2004 State of Emergency: Unconventional Readings. So, Dearreader, enjoy this old/new eight-minute-long treat, a free podcast from the PEN archive:

• David Hickey's 'My Weimar' from Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy, read by Laurie Anderson (2004) (audio length: 8 mins 15 secs, file size: 7.6 MB)

Playing for the Genius of the Carpathians...

According to the English translation of this article in Romanian, Laurie Anderson once performed 'Duets on Ice' in front of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. Ha!

More 'Delusion' Concert Photos

Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion' in Los Angeles, October 2010

Photo by Sung

... just found even more recent concert photos of 'Delusion', this time from UCLA, Royce Hall in Los Angeles, CA.

I in U

A preview video of Laurie Anderson's forthcoming retrospective exhibition in São Paolo, Brasil: Eu em Tu. That is: I in U.

This Is Delusion.

TAS Interview

During the last couple days, I updated the 'Delusion' review list (see a few posts below) several times. Now here is The Alternative Side's interview with Laurie Anderson on the occasion of the NYC premiere of the performance: on "technology, capitalism, the idle life, dead donkeys and her ailing, but feisty rat terrier Lolabelle who really does play the piano" and a lot more.

Laurie's Territory

A recent documentary on Laurie Anderson in Portuguese (luckily, the interview is subtitled) - click to the picture to watch the video (it will open in a new window):

"Curious Tales and Observations" - the 'Delusion' Review List

Reviews of 'Delusion' at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, NYC (might add more later as they appear):

• Laurie Anderson's Delusion at BAM - Andy Horwitz calling Laurie Anderson "the queen of the epigram and the meaningful pause"

• Illusions Found in Our Narratives - Allan Kozinn pondering over "the episodic nature" of the performance

• Laurie Anderson Brings Her Delusion to BAM - Rob Harvilla proclaiming 'Delusion' "Better Than: Hearing anyone else on earth talk about their dreams"

• How Deluded Can You Be? - Saxon Henry recalling her "musical pilgrimage"

• Look Who's Talking - semi-impressed Elisabeth Vincentelli pronouncing 'Delusion' as the mark of "the evolution of Anderson from high-tech musician to high-tech spoken-word artist". Here is another shorter reaction from Elisabeth Vincentelli, calling the performance "a tedious theatrical event" but complimenting on Laurie Anderson being "amazingly ageless".

• Laurie Anderson's Delusion Continues @ BAM - ardent words by Andrew Frisicano, emphasizing Laurie Anderson's "sonorous voice, and her ability as a monologuist to travel to different places (the moon, Iceland, dreams)". Along with photos by Rahav Segev - like this one:

"In this dream, I'm in a hospital bed"

• Thoughts on Laurie Anderson’s "Delusion" at BAM - Matthew Caron's "90 minutes in thrall"

• Laurie Anderson Tells Very Tall Tales at B. A. M. - Wayne Hoffmann hypnotized by the performance "but not always in a good way"

• Living, Waking and Dreaming - Queer New York Blog's author calling the show thoughtful, "introspective and wistful"

• Laurie Anderson's Beautiful Delusion - Judy Berman pondering over the performance that is "more than anything, a meditation on mortality", declaring the show "personal" and "accessible". More photos by Rahav Segev under the article

• Theater Review: 'Delusion' - Judd Hollander on "sensations [that] allow everyone in the audience to connect with the production on their own personal level"

• Laurie Anderson Dreams on - VillageVoice author Jacob Gallagher-Ross raving about "the kaleidoscopic projections, the virtuoso musicianship, and Anderson’s koan-like writing"

• Dream vs. Delusion - Alexis Clements' unmoored "Isn't it odd?" moments
  

• Sentimentalist's Review - Madeline Virbasius didn't manage to get "fully under the spell" of the performance

• Woe Man, Woah Man blogger is both excited and bored to sleep by Laurie Anderson's Delusion

• Patrizia Mazzuoccolo (A biatch in the Northern Sky) welcomed her "break from the testo-fuelled heavy metal gigs" she usually attends

• Created and Performed by Laurie Anderson - Don Shewey's review of his "re-encounter the deep strangeness of what [Laurie] does", claiming 'Delusion' "the strongest piece since 'Empty Places'"

A Review Candy

... a short but brilliant one: Greil Marcus featuring his review of 'Homeland' at the first place in his monthly column Real Life Rock Top Ten in the September 2010 issue of The Believer Magazine. The review focuses especially on an "unexpected pop song" ('Only an Expert') and the "soft-spoken jeremiad" called 'Another Day in America'.

(The only thing Mnemosyne begs to differ with Greil Marcus' article is that, in her humble opinion, 'The Ugly One...' Laurie Anderson's voice is one big raised eyebrow: just think of the pinpoint portrait of 'The Salesman' or her adventures in Israel and at various airport security checkpoints around Europe during the Gulf War in 'The Cultural Ambassador' - just to mention only the pieces that featured the Voice of Authority. However, all in all, she thinks it's pretty pointless to highlight any particular track of the album.)

Lolabelle goes solo

Left paw, right paw, treat? Sit. Right paw. Woof! Alright. Woof! Right paw. Treat? No. Let's try it one octave lower... Two octaves. Treat, pretty please?

Sit. Left paw. Can't feel the vibe. Now... yeah, that's better. Woof! Treat? No? Ok, now change the chord. Dominant note. Let's descend to D minor. Woof!

Seven Days in the Life (of Laurie Anderson)

Sunday morning light reading: Guardian (UK newspaper) has a show-and-tell made by Laurie Anderson about one week of her life (from sometime around the second half of June 2010). Some spoilers: leftover chocolate bunnies, volitility, two cats on a hot tin roof, a cartoon-shaped green J**p, Lolabelle and a yellow raincoat, and, of course, mermaids.

Laurie Anderson concert tomorrow?!

National Public Radio (i. e. public radio stations United States-wide) will broadcast a live performance of Laurie Anderson's 'Homeland' tomorrow. No clue if it's going to be a live or a pre-recorded act. Somehow I assume it's going to be the performance called 'Another Day in America' she did last month at World Café Live in Philadelphia, PA.

According to Radio WXPN's schedule, if my calculations are correct, the concert will be on air between 20:00 - 22:00 (Central European Time) on Thursday night, 19th of August, 2010. Which means it's freakin' tomorrow!! Rebroadcast from 7:00 until 9:00 on Friday morning.

Here is the live stream of Radio WXPN. (Click to the orange logo on the left.)

Just because it was there

Laurie Anderson on Canal Street near her studio on a chilly day sometime in the 80s.

Photo by Allan Tannenbaum

Stare with Your Ears

...This could be an excerpt from a Laurie Anderson lyrics but it's the title of a documentary on Ken Nordine, le doyen of spoken word, created by Pakistani-Canadian film director Omar Majeed, featuring interview excerpts of - amongst others - Laurie Anderson.

Extra: a recording of the Meltdown Festival that is mentioned in the documentary (created by Laurie Anderson in London, 1997) can be listened to here.