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thehefnerI'm at a loss to guess if my recent discovery of Laurie Anderson will elicit which of the following responses:
A.) You don't know Laurie Anderson?!
B.) Hell yeah, Laurie Anderson is awesome!
C.) Good lord, ew, no, Laurie Anderson is crap!
D.) Who the hell is Laurie Anderson?
E.) I like pie.
Whichever response it is, the point is simply this: I think I absolutely fucking love Laurie Anderson, and must travel back to 1984--during which period I would be one year old--and make her mine.
Because this... I gotta say, this gets me a li'l moist. Just a li'l bit.
I hated that song when Peter Gabriel covered it (with her) on his seminal album SO. Turned out, I just wasn't on their wavelength then, because watching that now, I feel like... what Amanda Palmer does to her fans, Laurie Anderson is kinda doing to me. She hits all my drag king points, coupled with my love of 80's prog rock and general wackiness.
She's like if Peter Gabriel and David Byrne raised a daughter together. She's like Peter if he ever looked like he was having fun doing any of his wacky shit.* And to make her even more awesome, look who she's married to:
Lucky, lucky man. God, that is a couple in rock 'n roll love right there.
Yeah, I can't compete with that, even with a time machine. All I can do is watch these, swoon, hope that my swooning isn't meant with reactions as if I just discovered Phil Collins, and pray for HOME OF THE BRAVE coming out on DVD soon.
*even in the videos for "Sledgehammer" and "Shock the Monkey," he just seems so intense; this is a man who treats walking around stage in a Zorb and going bouncy-bouncy-bouncy as SERIOUS BUSINESS.
A.) You don't know Laurie Anderson?!
B.) Hell yeah, Laurie Anderson is awesome!
C.) Good lord, ew, no, Laurie Anderson is crap!
D.) Who the hell is Laurie Anderson?
E.) I like pie.
Whichever response it is, the point is simply this: I think I absolutely fucking love Laurie Anderson, and must travel back to 1984--during which period I would be one year old--and make her mine.
Because this... I gotta say, this gets me a li'l moist. Just a li'l bit.
I hated that song when Peter Gabriel covered it (with her) on his seminal album SO. Turned out, I just wasn't on their wavelength then, because watching that now, I feel like... what Amanda Palmer does to her fans, Laurie Anderson is kinda doing to me. She hits all my drag king points, coupled with my love of 80's prog rock and general wackiness.
She's like if Peter Gabriel and David Byrne raised a daughter together. She's like Peter if he ever looked like he was having fun doing any of his wacky shit.* And to make her even more awesome, look who she's married to:
Lucky, lucky man. God, that is a couple in rock 'n roll love right there.
Yeah, I can't compete with that, even with a time machine. All I can do is watch these, swoon, hope that my swooning isn't meant with reactions as if I just discovered Phil Collins, and pray for HOME OF THE BRAVE coming out on DVD soon.
*even in the videos for "Sledgehammer" and "Shock the Monkey," he just seems so intense; this is a man who treats walking around stage in a Zorb and going bouncy-bouncy-bouncy as SERIOUS BUSINESS.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 03:29 am (UTC)oh, hell... in 1984 i was just about to go to college and was staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning watch PBS's Left of Center...
dude. A) and B)
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Date: 2009-04-17 03:33 am (UTC)Considering that I frequently encounter people who've never heard of Peter Gabriel, I think I can that can lessen the A.) stigma somewhat. This isn't like a few months ago when I discovered Europe's "The Final Countdown."
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Date: 2009-04-17 03:36 am (UTC)you SO should have been born closer to 1970
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Date: 2009-04-17 03:48 am (UTC)Then again, no. My love of 80's-tastic synth music in movies and (certain kinds of) prog rock--plus my obsession with Oingo Boingo--would have just made me one of a preexisting cluster of weirdos and outsiders. At least this way, I'm weird AND special!
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Date: 2009-04-17 04:31 am (UTC)Alive from Off Center, 1987.
w00t!
my fave was "as seen on tv" with Bill irwin
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Date: 2009-04-17 04:55 am (UTC)It even features drive-by William H. Macy! I'll need to check the whole thing out later!
Wow, this was the guy who did VIRGINA WOOLF with Kathleen Turner a couple years back? I'd heard it was utterly brilliant, but now I'm even sadder for having missed it.
You forgot one.
Date: 2009-04-17 03:30 am (UTC)Re: You forgot one.
Date: 2009-04-17 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 04:02 am (UTC)Seriously, Amanda Palmer is great and all, but no, Laurie is SO much more my wavelength it's not even funny. I adore her, and must now see her live. I hear she's still performing and is still awesome.
Totally crushing, like whoa.
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Date: 2009-04-17 12:53 pm (UTC)(I had to find out about her that way. In 1984, I was completely hypothetical.)
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Date: 2009-04-17 03:39 pm (UTC)(BTW, I GOT LEONARD COHEN TICKETS! I'M FINALLY GONNA SEE HIM BEFORE HE DIES! PRESUMABLY!!!)
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Date: 2009-04-17 03:59 am (UTC)Oh, how I did love Duran Duran. XD
icon battle!
Date: 2009-04-17 04:06 am (UTC)See, yeah, my 80's-fetish isn't across the board. There's very little in the way of hair band rock that I like, but give me any of these kinds'a songs and I am GOOD. But that ties into my love of Meat Loaf as well.
And I do have a soft spot for Duran Duran. I wouldn't buy any of their albums, but I'm always up for rocking out to "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "View To A Kill."
Re: icon battle!
Date: 2009-04-17 04:29 am (UTC)GradeSkool!Me totally used to rock it out to all those.
The following was the first Duran Duran song I heard/video I saw. Being the budding sci-fi, borderline transhumanist nerd that I have always been, it was love at first sight.
(Also, apparently the Canadians have joined in the icon fight.)
Re: icon battle!
Date: 2009-04-17 04:47 am (UTC)Have you heard Paul Stanley's new song? It was most famously featured as the montage music in the brilliant WORLD OF WARCRAFT episode of SOUTH PARK. It sounds like a lost sibling from that list that landed in an iceberg during the 80's and was thawed out last week:
It's written by Desmond Child, who recently did new songs for Meat Loaf. One of my goals in life is now to have Desmond Child write me a concept album which will surely make me huge in Oslo.
Re: icon battle!
Date: 2009-04-18 02:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 04:14 am (UTC)It's one of my immutable laws of the universe: everybody loves pie, it's impossible to hate Ringo, and it sucks to be Harvey Dent.
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Date: 2009-04-17 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 04:24 am (UTC)It's so wacky that in WYATT EARP, a main member of the Ringo gang was played by Jeff Fahey, who would go on to play Biehn's brother in GRINDHOUSE: PLANET TERROR. They need to team up more often, damn it. Truly a power duo.
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Date: 2009-04-17 04:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 04:37 am (UTC)Man, I must have set some kind of record at Potomac Video for the number of times I rented that damn film. For, uh, research. Yes. Hrm.
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Date: 2009-04-17 06:15 am (UTC)1993.
But I swear I don't remember where I was in 1983.
I think she was working on Nerve Bible. God, it was great.
(here via
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Date: 2009-04-17 03:27 pm (UTC)I'm so very new to her that I have no idea what Nerve Bible is just yet. I'm that green!
(Howdy-ho!)
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Date: 2009-04-17 03:50 pm (UTC)Stories from the Nerve Bible is a retrospective book, and she was doing performance-arty readings and stuff from a couple of her then-current albums.
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Date: 2009-04-17 07:15 am (UTC)She sounds rabidly awesome on vinyl.
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Date: 2009-04-17 03:31 pm (UTC)Dude, I'll bet. If vinyl keeps making a comeback (yay hipster douchebags!), I may have to track down a new player and some records.
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Date: 2009-04-17 08:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 03:33 pm (UTC)Based on these reactions, I'm just trying to figure out how I'd never heard of her. My only guess is that she never had any big crossover into movie soundtracks nor radio nor was even referenced in THE SIMPSONS, but remained purely fixed in her corner of the music world, which I never visit.
And again, considering how many people don't know who Peter Gabriel is (or think he's just a soft rock musician on par with Phil frickin' Collins), I'm still amazed by this reaction. But pleased, nonetheless!
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Date: 2009-04-17 12:25 pm (UTC)This is a sort of apology.
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Date: 2009-04-17 03:35 pm (UTC)I presume you saw the Gabriel video? I saw him do that live. Old man Gabriel, bouncy bouncy bouncy! Who WOULDN'T want one?! Just get liquored up, hop in your Zorb, and head into town! None would dare stop you!
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Date: 2009-04-17 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 10:21 pm (UTC)GET.ME.ONE.NOW!
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Date: 2009-04-17 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-17 10:20 pm (UTC)Language is a Virus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZkjoXyexKk
Of course Cronenburg played on the Anderson/Burroughs connection for the trailer for his lovable adaptation of Naked Lunch using Gravity's Angel (Gabriel did backing on the album version)
Home of the Brave Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY7uTO_GuDg
Naked Lunch Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh-Q07iVQws
A tall glass of Mugwump gism for your happy discover of her!
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Date: 2009-04-17 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-19 03:17 am (UTC)