Laurie Anderson is always a few years ahead

March 2, 2024 4:26 PM

Laurie Anderson has been working and playing with a model of her late husband for years. The results, Anderson says, can be hit and miss. “Three-quarters of it is just completely idiotic and stupid. And then maybe 15% is like, ‘Oh?’. And then the rest is pretty interesting. And that’s a pretty good ratio for writing, I think.”
posted by Tell Me No Lies (14 comments total)

A Laurie Anderson Bible sounds like fun.
posted by doctornemo at 4:34 PM on March 2

She already had a Nerve Bible, about 30 years ago. It was quite a tour, really. I still have the t-shirt that I wear from time to time.
posted by hippybear at 4:40 PM on March 2 [1 favorite]

Good read. I’m happy Laurie Anderson is in the world, now and forever.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 4:50 PM on March 2 [13 favorites]

To be clear how forward thinking she was, her tour was in 1995 and down the back of it was an entire list of URLs, and at the time when I first got it, I had to explain to people I met what URLs were.
posted by hippybear at 4:53 PM on March 2 [8 favorites]

I have started a writing project where I'm writing about a Laurie Anderson song a week for the entire year examining how prophetic her entire artistic project has been. In anybody else's hands, I'd have serious qualms about a project like this. However, given how much care Anderson has taken over her late husband's legacy, I do not question her motives here. It feels very much like a grieving widow dealing with unimaginable loss in a way that also matches up with her own artistic beliefs. I can see a clear line from this to her appreciation of Burroughs's cut-up projects and her own literary sampling over the decades.
posted by HunterFelt at 5:01 PM on March 2 [7 favorites]

I definitely read this as Loni Anderson. Still very interesting, though. Just a smidge less.
posted by atomicstone at 5:16 PM on March 2 [4 favorites]

Holy crap, hippybear. Wonder if/how many of those still work?
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:10 PM on March 2 [1 favorite]

Also thought of a Louie Anderson Bible, which reminded me that I should get back to Blankets.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:11 PM on March 2

Laurie Anderson is a beacon, no, a lighthouse, or a shaft of light from the only window in our solitary cell. She sees.
She sings what she sees. We can take it or leave it. I take it as far as I am able. I am always so happy to randomly be reminded that Laurie Anderson is in my world. I hope she's in yours.
posted by Hobgoblin at 5:22 AM on March 3 [3 favorites]

I recently had a brain-quirk where I could NOT remember Lou Reed's name. I kept referring to him as "Laurie Anderson's husband, instead, which was not at all going to help when trying to reference/recall his specific writing and vocal work with the Velvet Underground. It was frustrating, but I laughed about it. Thanks, feminist brain, for reinventing that thing where women are diminished into being only "the wife of". Sheesh.

I deeply wished, many many years ago, when a partner died, that I could have spun up a chatbot with his voice in order to get me through some of the grieving. If I'd had more of his words, I would have, so I understand the allure. I applaud her for delving into such an intimate space with researchers.

Even so, it's obviously not for everybody. After watching the general public, as it currently is, completely fumble understanding of Large Language Models, I suspect that a large portion of folks would not quite understand the fragility of the illusion of their magic-trick, applied-statistics ghost friends, and a whole new layer of chaos would add to the daily static.
posted by foxtongue at 7:59 AM on March 3 [1 favorite]

Laurie Anderson is a National Treasure. Good to see all these young TikToker kids seeing O Superman.

"let X = X"
posted by Windopaene at 9:14 AM on March 3 [1 favorite]

Coming on Record Store Day (April 20th, 2024) is The Power of the Heart: A Tribute to Lou Reed, an album of covers of his work by Keith Richards, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Rufus Wainwright, Lucinda Williams, Maxim Ludwig & Angel Olsen, Rickie Lee Jones, Mary Gauthier, Bobby Rush, Automatic, The Afghan Whigs, Rosanne Cash, and Brogan Bentley.

See also:

Keith Richards -- I'm Waiting For My Man.
posted by y2karl at 2:27 PM on March 3

I am surprised at the absence of Jonathan Richman from that line up. If, as the old saw goes, everyone who heard the Velvet Underground went out and started a band thereafter, The Modern Lovers were first in line.
posted by y2karl at 2:44 PM on March 3 [1 favorite]

I definitely read this as Loni Anderson

There was that episode of WKRP where Herb sold a commercial featuring a Lou Reed impersonator, and he had to keep calling the station to make the Big Guy think he booked the real star ... or at least there should have been.
posted by credulous at 4:06 PM on March 3