#Laurie Anderson: I see Lou all the time. Hes a continued

[melodiousmonk]

LAURIE ANDERSON on her life with LOU REED:

′′Lou and I played together, became best friends, and then comrades, we traveled, listened and criticized each other's work, studied things together (butterfly hunting, meditation, kayaking). We made ridiculous jokes; quit smoking 20 times; fought; learned to hold our breath underwater; went to Africa; sang opera arias in the elevator; made friends with unlikely people; followed each other on tour when possible; we had a sweet dog playing piano; shared a house that was different to our respective apartments; we protected and loved each other. We often went to see art, music, shows, theatre and I watched how he loved and appreciated other artists and musicians. He was always so generous. He knew how difficult the environment was. We loved our West Village life and our friends; and we always did everything in the best way we could.

Like many couples, each of us has built a way of being: strategies, sometimes compromised, which allowed us to be part of a couple. Sometimes we lost a little more than what we were capable of giving, or gave in a little too much, or felt abandoned. Sometimes we really got angry. But even when I was out of my mind, I was never bored. We learned to forgive each other. And somehow, for 21 years, we've intertwined our minds and hearts together.

It was spring 2008. I was walking down the street in California feeling knocked down and talking on my phone with Lou. ‘There are so many things I never did and want to do?’ I told him.

′′ Like what, for example?"

′′ I don't know, I never learned German, I never studied physics, I never married ′′

′′ Why don't we get married?" he asked. ′′ We could meet halfway there. Arriving in Colorado. How about tomorrow?"

′′ Uhm... don't you think tomorrow is a little early?"

′′ No, I don't think so ".

And so the next day we met in Boulder, Colorado, and married in a friend's garden on Saturday, wearing our normal Saturday clothes, and although I had to play a show right after the ceremony, Lou was ok with it. (Musicians marrying is like when two lawyers marry. When you say ′′damn I have to work in the studio until 2am,” or cancel all your appointments to close the case. You know exactly what it means and you don't necessarily jump for joy).

I guess there are many ways to get married. Some people marry someone they barely know, which can even work. When you marry what's also your best friend for several years, there should be another name for it. But the thing that surprised me the most about getting married is how time changes. And also how it somehow adds a tenderness that was, in some way, completely new. To paraphrase the great Willie Nelson: ′′ 90 % of people this way end up with the wrong person, and that's what still makes juke boxes play." Lou's Jukebox was full of love and many other things : beauty, pain, history, courage, mystery.

Lou had been sick for two years now: first for interferon treatment, a series of vile but often effective injections to treat hepatitis C which is equipped with a good series of annoying side effects. Then a liver cancer took over, which was added to an advanced form of diabetes. We achieved good results in the hospital. He learned everything about these diseases and their treatments. He continued to do Tai Chi every day for two hours plus photographs, books, recordings, his radio broadcast with Hal Willner and many other projects. He loved his friends, and called, texted, emails when he couldn't be with them. We tried to understand and apply the teachings that our master Mingyur Rinpoche imparted; especially the most difficult ones such as ′′ you must learn to master the ability to feel sad without actually being sad ".

Last spring, at the last minute, he received a liver transplant that seemed to have worked completely and instantly regained health and energy. Then even that started working badly, and there was no escape. When the doctor said, ′′ It's over. There are no options anymore ", the only part Lou heard was ′′ options ". He didn't give up until the last half hour of his life, when he suddenly accepted it: suddenly and completely.

We were at home. I had taken him out of the hospital a few days earlier. And even though he was very weak, he insisted on coming out in the morning blinding light.

As people used to meditation, we were prepared for this: how to move energy from your belly to your core and then push it out of your head. I've never seen an expression as full of wonder as Lou's when he died. His hands were doing the shape 21 of Tai Chi, that of flowing water. Her eyes were wide open. I was holding in my arms the person I loved more than anything in the world and talking to him while he died. His heart stopped beating. He wasn't scared. I was able to walk with him to the end of the world. Life - so beautiful, painful and spectacular - can't give anything more than this.

What about death? I think the purpose of death is to free love."

~Laurie Anderson~

[curious-minx]

October 2010s Music Deep Dive!

A mock up poster for the only possible music festival line-up I would be willing to risk my life attending. Tony Allen’s passing has caused the entire Octoberfest to be cancelled indefinitely, but all proceeds from ticks will be given back to the community. 

Hope all of you special nobodies and overblown somebodies reading this right now are having a smashing start your first o November. All last month I had taken it upon myself to listen to as many albums and fragments of albums released sometime during the month of October spanning the entire 10’s decade, 2010 through 2019. This is all probably a result of drinking too much dead water, Quarantine brain, undiagnosed Autism, magical thinking and the death of boredom. I have created a Spotify playlist sporting 25 hours and 4 minutes worth of music with an arbitrary amount of albums getting multiple songs, but largely one song/album. This project did create a sense of madness because of the volume of music that gets cranked out. How can we expect anyone to properly criticize music when it is nearly impossible to keep up with it all? I largely culled these albums from Allmusic’s Editorial Choice section, but I did have to use Rateyourmusic to fill out the hip-hop and R&B gaps. In gathering up all of this music I am attempting to see if spooky music was relegated to the October season and any other possible trends. Even though October has been laid to rest her swelling calendar breast still contains a treasure trove of music worth discussing. Grab your broom, sharpen your heels and get the cobwebs out of your ears because we’re going on a Deep Dive! 

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The 2010s Old Souls and Musical Auteurs 

I consider any musician or band that endures more than a decade worthy of this veteran label. Music biz lifers seem found solace in the October release schedule. A trend that has carried onto the new decade with October 2020 offering revitalized releases by Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen reunited with the E Street Band. All three main members of Sonic Youth, Moore, Gordon and Renaldo are still harnessing that spooky Bad Moon Rising energy and carrying it over into their solo releases. 

KIM GORDON’s NO RECORD HOME

The first truly proper solo album by Kim Gordon following up her pretty good noise rock releases under the Body/Head moniker with Bill Nace. No Record Home towers over Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo’s mostly okay solo releases because of how truly experimental and refreshingly modern sounding No Record Home is. This album sounds like it could easily have come out from a young Pacific Northwest Trip-Angle (RIP) label upstart. Instead, Gordon is defiantly aging gracefully and remains an all around important feminist voice in experimental rock music. No Record Home did not pop up on a lot of “Best of the Year” lists in 2019, nor did Gordon embark on any kind of touring for the release. I am hoping that more people will eventually discover this great album and realize that Gordon was truly the best, most truly experimental aspect of Sonic Youth. Her vocals on this album are the best she’s ever sounded because she built these songs and sounds with the intergral collaborator, producer Justin Raisen. A glimpse at Raisen’s Wikipedia page is a who’s who of great artists of the past decade: Yves Tumor, Charli XCX, and Sky Ferreira. The collaboration occurred at an AirBnB shared between Gordon and Raisen and birthed the first single of the project “Air BnB.” A song that completely sets the tone of the album and features one of those amazing music videos in the same line us Young Thug’s “Wyclef Jean. “

Björk - Biophilia

Can you name the last album the rolled out with its own app? Nine years have come and gone and I certainly can’t think of another album with such wholesome ambitions. Björk was getting passionate about ecological concerns in her native Icelandic home with Sigur Ros and using her sphere of influence to try to good. 2014 the app has found a permanent home in the MOMA, but outside of this curio status the album itself is still a worthwhile addition to the Björk canon. Biophilia finds Björk in musical scientist mode using sounds captured from a Tesla coil and making a whole musical universe onto herself. The rest of the 2010s found Björk going for bigger and more ambitious projects that continue to frustrate those who wish she would go back to her poppier roots. She remains one of those most consistent solo artists around and someone no one will be able to predict what she does next. The only thing is certain is that it will be visionary and will probably include a wildly ambitious rollout and a new piece of physical art like Biophilia’s $800 tuning forks.

NENEH CHERRY - BROKEN POLITICS

Featuring production duties for the second time from Four Tet (who also pops up in the October playlist with his 2013 album Beautiful Rewind). Broken Politics in Cherry’s words, “is about feeling broken, disappointed, and sad, but having perseverance. It’s a fight against the extinction of free thought and spirit.” The music video for single “Natural Skin Deep” was filmed in Beirut, a backdrop made even more painful given 2020’s Explosion. Cherry is an artist with deep spiritual and blood connections with artists central to jazz’s history. Broken Politics also features songs built around Ornette Coleman samples. This is all to say that Neneh Cherry is always going to be someone tapping into a creative cosmic vein that spans generations, and with that comes a hard wisdom. Two years later we’re still dealing with the same god damn guts and guns of history. 

OTHER NOTABLES:

(Cat Power - The Wanderer; John Cale - Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood; Tony Allen - Film of Life ; Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Psychedelic Pill ;Bryan Ferry - Olympia; Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen ;Yoko Ono - Warzone; Vashti Bunyan - Heartleap; Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Look Now; The Chills - Silver Bullets; Weezer - Everything Will Be Alright In The End;Laurie Anderson - Heart of A Dog;Janet Jackson - Unbrekable;The Mercury Rev - Light In You;  Rocketship - Thanks To You; Van Dyke Parks & Gaby Moreno - Spangled; Donald Fagen - Sunken Condos; Prefab Sprout - Crimson Red; Pere Ubu - 20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo; Negativland - True False )

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TRILOGY OF BLACKSTARS

Three last albums released by three titans of 20th century songwriting. Two of them follow the trajectory of an older artist getting rejuvenated by a younger backing band. Lulu is beyond a meme at this point and is considered one of the most confounding flops since Metallic Music. Like Metallic Music, Lulu will get a reappraisal and find its audience. Mr. Blackstar himself Bowie considered  Lulu one of his favorite releases. “Junior Dad” alone makes this album a worthy addition in Lou Reed’s discography. Scott Walker invited some similarly hairy and intense younger rock studs into his private castle and pulls off a far more natural combination. Soused fits like a velvet glove on a elegant corpse hand swirling thick slabs of guitar and demonic percussion. Scott Walker effortlessly orchestrates between elegance and moribundity whereas Lulu wallows and thrashes against  the ugly riffage. 

No riffs or oozing wall of sound are  anywhere to be found on the sparse and pointedly elegiac You Want it Darker. Leonard Cohen never went full on sleazy I’m Your Man ever again but he didn’t become adult contemporary either. You Want It Darker finds Leonard and his son Adam Cohen. When Leonard passed away he was the only one to get a full David Bowie like museum tribute, Lou Reed only got a corner of a library. Cohen is far and away the most accessible mystical Jewish Buddhist monk with a penchant for fedoras and having a masked man with a leather belt beat him in the recording booth [citation needed]. You Want It Darker is the only one of these mortality laden kiss offs to win a Grammy. I do wonder if Cohen would have ever allowed a more adventurous production to touch his staid and timeless old fashioned sound. Tom Scharpling divides Leonard Cohen into his Pre-Fedora and Post-Fedora days. If you are being literal about that demarcation that still gives you a pretty vast body of music I just want sad bloated blurry black and white Leonard Cohen with a banana or the smiling cad on Songs of Love and Hate. Even the floppy fedora era has worthwhile albums and he sounds like if Serge Gainsbourgh was a muppet Gargoyle, he’s reliable. I will always beat myself for not buying that official Leonard Cohen raincoat at the Jewish Museum Leonard Cohen exhibit, but I hope someone has and they are finding comfort with Cohen’s music. A lot of his latter day period is comforting in a sardonic sexy mind bending nursing home sort of way. 

I am glad that these men were ultimately spared from having to deal with Covid times and even someone as tasteless as Brian Wilson’s Ghost can acknowledge that it’s more important than ever to keep your elderly loved ones locked away in a well ventilated pod. 

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(INSERT ARTIST HERE) SEASON

For a few sticky sweet select few artists the month of October proved to be a suitable release launch pad for more than one album. The Mountain Goats and clipping. have just joined the October two-timer club this year. The reigning queen of October releases is Taylor Swift and Adrianne Lenker. In chronological order swift released Speak Now, Red and 1989 probably Swift’s biggest run in terms of critical and commercial success. None of these albums have a particularly big place in my heart, in fact speaking on behalf of Brian Wilson’s Ghost Ltd. I’m not the biggest fan of America’s Sweetheart, Sweet Tea Poet Laureate.  All three of these albums all came out in the latter part of October and based on the Target brand synergy roll-out felt as inevitable as pumpkin spice. Haunted. Sad Beautiful Tragic. Out of the Woods. These are either song titles taken from these three albums are the names of the under utilized Romantic Halloween Horror Comedy genre. Lady Gaga might have been spooking it up on American Horror Story, but Swift gives a far more chilling performance in Tom Hooper’s midnight madness of Cats and I could envision Swift excelling really well as a horror film actor. Especially in a role like Scarlett Johansson’s Under the Skin. 

You cannot get more polar opposite from Swift than Adrianne Lenker. Who released her first solo album abysskiss   and the second Big Thief album of 2019 Two Hands. Lenker will have also gone on to make her third October release this year with her second solo album songs & instrumentals. Striking that such a ghostly autumnal band would have only released one album in October, but autumnal feeling albums are not beholden to release calendars. The song “Not” from the Big Thief album Two Hands is a watershed breakthrough moment for the band and put Lenker and her band on the map. In 2019 Big Thief became a band that could get booked onto a Goodmorning American performance slot and more or less made Big Thief one of the rare 2010s indie bands to become more or less a household name. 

Other notable artists to have released more than one album on October 2010s:

Less notable artists to have multiple October releases: James Blunt Korn

Calvin Harris 

Kings of Leon

Pentatonix 

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FORMER HARBINGERS OF HYPE

These are October releases from artists that once felt like whenever they put out an album a wider array of outlets and publications seemed to care more and would spill more digital ink over them. The big three artists that had the biggest drop off in attention and acclaim that stick out to me the most are Titus Andronicus,  Justice and Why? All three artists debuted with strong starts back in the aughts, but according to critical reception more or less crashed and burned. Titus Andronicus’ Local Business was one of the last times Titus Andronicus would get positive marks from Pitchfork. Local Business a fun and shaggy follow-up to one of the most self-serious concept albums of the 2010s. 

Justice’s Audio, Video, Disco similarly is a follow up to a highly acclaimed album that set the bar high enough to doom Justice into never living up to the hype. Justice’s 2007 s/t heralded them as the next Daft Punk, but unlike those soulful and thoughtful robots Justice mainly wanted to make big ridiculous unfashionable synth prog rock. Audio, Video, Disco is simply cheesy fun and even though we live in a world better off without parties and gatherings this album helps you feel like you are in high-def IMAX monster mash on the moon. 

The leaves us with Why?’s Mump’s Etc. an album that already had the job of following up an already divisive follow up record Eskimo Snow. Why’s Alopecia is a really important 2008 indie blog rap album that helped thrust the online indie blogs into the hip-hop genre hybrid experimentalism. Why? would never make another universally beloved album again and with Mump’s Etc. ended up permanently in Pitchfork’s hate pit. In the original release review the Pitchfork writer essentially deems this album an act of “career suicide.” The whole review is essentially an assignation of Why?’s figurehead Yoni Wolf and taking him to task for all of his awkward lyrical blunders and the fact he is narcissistic enough to be a musician writing about his career in a meta fashion. Yet when I listen to Mump’s Etc. I am more or less enjoying Yoni Wolf’s personality and find the whole thing to be pretty charming. A perfectly serviceable 3.5/5 release that a media outlet like Pitchfork turns into a flexing opportunity to show how that they have the power to make or break a career. 

A.C. Newman, an artist who appears on this playlist with his terrific 2012 Shut Down The Streets took to Twitter to scoff at the idea that a good Pitchfork review has done anything for his career. Shut Down The Streets currently remains the last solo album Newman has released under his name choosing to focus on his main gig with the New Pornographers. The Internet based hype machine is even more ADHD addled and twitchier by the day. The joy of doing this deep dive allowed me to revisit a lot of these artists and acts that I had fallen out of touch with. I had completely forgotten about King of Convenience’s Erlend Øye who released the album Legao in 2014. I rediscovered a good deal of bands like the Editors, The Dodos, Kisses, Black Milk, Crocodiles, Empire of the Sun, Juana Molina, Jagwar Ma, Here We Go Magic, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., YACHT, Peaking Lights, The Twilight Sad, Elf Power, Swet Shop Boys, Radio Dept, Allo’ Darlin, Foxes In Fiction, and HOMESHAKE are all bands not trying to change the world or challenge listeners with avant garde experimentation. Instead I feel like I maintaining relationships with old friends on the edge of obscurity. 

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A HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS IN OCTOBER 

A tradition stretching back as far as 2014 not October’s Idina Menzel’s Holiday Wishes, but Seth McFarland’s Holiday For Swing sweatily released on CD, digital, and vinyl on September 30, 2014.  2015 then brings us a Chris Tomlin and Ru Paul Christmas albums because every force of Neo-liberal good must be balanced with evangelical contemporary Christian music *shutters.* 2016 finds the Christmas in October era reaching a complete and utter nadir with R. Kelly’s final official LP 12 Nights of Christmas and A Pentatonix Christmas, but also buffered by Kacey Musgrave’s Christmas. 2017 only had time for Gwen Stefani’s You Make It Feel Like Christmas and no one else could evoke this feeling in October. On 2018, Michelle and Barack Obama’s combined one and only Christmas wish comes true, no not cancelling those drone strikes, but getting John Legend to join the October release jamboree; Eric Clapton claps open his guitar’s butt cheeks and hatefully squats out a half assed Xmas album defiantly opening the album with “White Christmas” [eyeroll emoji]; and finally 2018 found the Pentatonix announcing in October that Christmas Is Here. I apologize for all of that crude butt talk about the hateful racist Eric Clapton, but(t) I have festive gluteus Maximus on the mind, because in 2019 Norah Jones got her alternative country gal trio back together to remind us to shake our Christmas butts. Eat shit commercial shit, today’s Santa’s birthday! That’s the magic of the October release schedule! 

The hallowed Christmas in October tradition continues on in 2020 with Dolly I-Beg-Thee-Pardon  releasing A Holly Dolly Christmas right on time on October 2, 2020 (Carrie Underwood missed the memo and unwraps her unwanted My Gift in September 2020). Meghan Trainor, Goo Goo Dolls, and Tori Kelly released Christmas albums. Can you believe Seth MacFarlane comes up twice in this article, because his sleazy J. Michigan Frog croon is processed and grated like Parmesan cheese snow flakes all over a rendition of White Christmas.  What a time to be alive! 

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WHERE DID THEY GO?

A Brief Case For Class Actress’s Rapproacher

Among my October music travels I encountered one artist that really impressed me with her proper LP debut Rapprocher. The trio fronted by Elizabeth Vanessa Harper is essentially peddling the kind of competent moody 80’s inspired synth pop that belongs on a lost Donnie Darko sequel. Harper’s vocals are striking and expressive and they are melded with constantly propulsive bed of shiny synths and glossy barely-there gated percussion. Outside of an 2015  EP called Movies featuring exciting production contributions from Italo-disco icon Giorgio Moroder there has been nothing else from Class Actress. Highly recommend you check them out especially if you want to find the sweet spot between Chromatics and Kylie Minogue. 

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THE OCTOBER 2010s MASTERPIECES 

(Robyn - Honey, Big K.R.I.T. - 4eva is a Mighty Long Time  ,Miguel -  Kaleidoscope Dream, Crying - Beyond The Fleeting Gale , M83 Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming ,SRSQ - Unreality, Sufjan Stevens - age of adz, Joanna Newsom - divers, VV Brown Samson and Delilah, Kelela - tear me apart , Neon Indian - VEGA Intl., Fever Ray - Plunge , Antony and The Johnsons - Swanlights (goodbye album) , Caroline Polachek - Pang , Sky Ferreira - Night Time, My Time . Bat For Lashes  Haunted Man, James Ferraro - Far Side Virtual , Grouper -  Ruins , Kero Kero Bonito -Bonito Generation , DJ Rashad - Double Cup)

Maybe if I surround this VV Brown album with more well known artists she’ll finally get some more clicks? I should also mention that Joanna Newsom’s Divers is nowhere on my Spotify October Music playlist because Joanna Newsom thinks Spotify is bananas, and she hates bananas. I know I should also mention Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city and Tame Impala’s Lonerism. That’s the maddening thing about October music that just when you think you covered all your ground you find another hidden hump underneath the carpet.  I feel remiss without mentioning striking debut and instant hidden gem Tinashe’s Aquarius, which did you know has a new album art on Spotify. Death Grip’s No Love Deep Web. T_T I didn’t even get around to making a big verbal mosaic to Thom Yorke’s witchy Suspiria soundtrack.Corpus Christi! I forgot to highlight The Orb album in the collage with my other veteran artists!  As you can see this project nearly ruined me. I did not necessarily listen to all of these albums from front to back, but I did listen all of the songs on the playlist and chose them from the immense collection of October releases. I am pretty sure this is the kind of content for no one in particular but I really needed to get it out of my system. Let’s meet back up October 2030!!!!!

(Thank you to my beloved partner, best friend and Spotify provider Maddie Johnson XD)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7sdLaNNaqWpKEKXRZ3jNqY?si=SLZxUwLMQYOQ5wA1xuZc7w

[viralhottopics]

Laurie Anderson: I see Lou all the time. Hes a continued, powerful presence

Over seitan and tofu in New York, the avant-garde performance artist talks about her Buddhism and loss and love for her mother and her late husband Lou Reed

Long after shes left, Ill still be thinking about Laurie Andersons pumpkin-coloured jacket. I see it through the window of the restaurant, this big daub of colour amid all the greys and blacks of a New York winter. Then that colour is inside and here, emerging from it, is Laurie Anderson 69 years old, small, sparkling and wide awake. Her hair, a spiky coronet, stands on end as if permanently electrified by the brain beneath. When shes smiling, which is most of the time, she looks even more impish. The jacket, this big fat orange thing, puffy to the point of spherical, should be plain absurd, but on her I cant help seeing it as extension of her own being. For decades, Anderson has been disarming us with searching and playful work that dovetails these same qualities: the spiritual and the silly. In the early 80s she was hailed as one of the most exciting figures in experimental art and she remains our foremost performance artist, inspiring something so often lacking in avant-garde work humour and affection. Thats certainly the tenor of her most recent work, Heart of a Dog, which the New York Times called a dreamy, drifty and altogether lovely movie. Narrated by Anderson and comprising animated drawings and old home video, its a roaming, looping consideration of various loves and losses: her dog, her mother, and her husband, the musician Lou Reed, who died in 2013. It opens with Birth of Lola, in which Anderson recounts, in detail, a dream about giving birth to her rat terrier. I imagine many women must feel that intense, bodily love for their pet yet its not exactly socially acceptable to admit to it.

Thats why its good to start a film or a book that way, she whispers. Just to kind of go right on out there.

Were in Blossom, a vegan mainstay where Anderson is a regular, even if she isnt, strictly speaking, vegetarian. I have been known to eat steak, she says, although it doesnt happen very often, especially not since she read her friend Matthieu Ricards book, A Plea for the Animals. Hes a Buddhist monk and writer, she says. He just demolishes every single argument that we have for eating meat.

We have a quick look at our meatless menu. I wonder what a soy bacon cheeseburger is! she says, amused. I might get that, it sounds ridiculous. Then again: Maybe theres something thats not pretending to be something else, lets see. They make seitan really well here, actually, I might have that.

And from processed wheat gluten, we somehow easily move to the topic of maternal love. Or lack thereof: in the film Anderson makes the calm revelation that she didnt love her mother. Its true, you know? she says. Women are meant to be all-loving, always no one else is, but women are. I think its even harder for people just to say, My mother didnt love me. Because then youre questioning the whole system.

Did her mother love her?

She was not someone who really knew how to do that, she says. She taught me other things. She taught me how to love books, music.

Anderson grew up in a small town in Illinois, with three sisters and four brothers and, after college in California, made her way to New York where she studied sculpture. By the 70s, shed found her tribe among the avant-garde artists of downtown New York. Her contemporaries included musicians such as Philip Glass and she began experimenting with technology and performance. None of us thought we would ever make a living doing art, she says.

Nor did she ever think she might become a pop star. O Superman, a stark, eight-minute track, based on a Massenet opera,, reached No 2 on the UK singles chart in 1981. To Andersons astonishment, a seven-album deal with Warner Brothers followed. The soundtrack to Heart of a Dog constitutes her 12th album.

And then here comes our lunch.

Oh wow, nicely done! she says, her face lighting up at the two little faux-hollandaise suns of my tofu Benedict. Her seitan isnt quite as pretty but, she assures me after a few forkfuls, its delicious. Food is important to her: I cook not as much as I used to. I used to make lunch all the time for the people at the studio. It was taking a huge chunk of the day so now I have someone else do it, but its really important for us at the studio to eat together.

She often talks about how her work is about stories, and what happens when they are told and retold, and I wonder about the stories around how a widow should grieve. Those stories must be compounded, I imagine, when youre the widow of a public figure. As Im saying this a look of blank confusion comes over her face. Its the word widow.

I know I am a widow but thats not my identity, she says. But it also wasnt my identity to be husband and wife although we were. Partner would be more what I thought.

Reeds death seems to have granted her not sadness so much as a kind of rapture. In an essay for Rolling Stone she wrote: I had gotten to walk with him to the end of the world. Life so beautiful, painful and dazzling does not get better than that. And death? I believe that the purpose of death is the release of love.

Those doors open maybe once in your life, she tells me, or if youre lucky, twice, and you get to see all this stuff. And that door will open again when you have to face your own death, but you get a chance to think about it and see it and feel it. Its overwhelming. It filled me with happiness. I wasnt prepared for that I was supposed to be grief-stricken. Instead, it was kind of an ecstatic experience, and it continues to be. It caused my world to open up, and I understood things or began to understand things in a different way.

Such as?

For example, were supposedly here eating lunch in some way, but were actually not here, right? and her smile grows wider in invitation. Life is a constant hallucination.

It doesnt surprise me that she speaks about Reed in the present tense.

Lou is the most wonderful person Ive ever met and I think of him all the time and hes completely inspiring to me. I miss him enormously, but theres no point in being sad. I see him all the time, hes always here, a continued, really powerful presence. I think a lot of other people feel the same way because he was such a strong character that just doesnt dissipate that quickly. I just wish I could hear what he would have to say about Trump. That would be something.

For her, the biggest shock of the US election was the misogyny.

People get swayed pretty easily to think what the so-called norm is. So when people are screaming lock her up [at Hillary Clinton] its so hideous. Or hang her I dont think people are outraged enough about that. Almost half the country talking that way.

She admits that this has been a challenge to her Buddhist practice: how do you find loving compassion for someone shouting sexist invective? And yet: I feel guilty what was I doing the last 20 years? Had I noticed that people had slipped out of the middle class? I was saying that to a friend about Trump supporters theyre just hungry. And she said, Yeah, but a lot of them are just assholes who just hate women. Dont try to make it so sweet.

I dont think, though, that Anderson can help that sweetness. Its part of her.

Particularly at the end of your life, she insists, theres always this idea of goodness, you never feel like you deserve it, and the fact is, you do. One of the things that blew Lous mind is the idea that were here to have a good time. Not to suffer. No, to be here for total joy, bliss.

And as we talk a little more about death I start to feel Im cocooned inside a big orange jacket a lifejacket, in fact.

The film and album Heart Of A Dog are out now on Nonesuch

Read more: http://ift.tt/2iWbbbp

from Laurie Anderson: I see Lou all the time. Hes a continued, powerful presence

[1hatlady]

When Lou Reed asked me, “Emily Haines, who would you rather be, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones,” I shot back, “The Velvet Underground.” Quick thinking, sure, but also the truth. In our song “Gimme Sympathy,” we lament the fact that none of us living today are likely to achieve the stature or saturation the signature acts of that era enjoyed. But for me none of that music comes close to the contribution Lou Reed has made to the world. It’s immeasurable. Famously cranky, his integrity is unrivaled. He irritated everyone with difficult music. He refused to spend his life re-writing “Walk on the Wild Side,” effectively sparing himself a lifetime of boring conversations with fools. Anyone who couldn’t see that his tough exterior was an essential shield for the man who gave us “Pale Blue Eyes,” with all its intimacy and relatable sadness, has missed the point of his life completely. I’m not one to proclaim fated encounters, but it seems as though everyone I know who had the power to bring Lou and me together used it to make it happen. A strange combination of forces channeled Hal Willner through Kevin Drew through Kevin Hearn through Neil Young’s “A Man Needs a Maid” and that was that. When we finally did meet, it was obvious and easy, like an idea that’s been floating around for years and then one day emerges effortlessly, fully formed. Our connection was free of the fawning fandom and nauseating idolatry that so often characterizes such show biz interactions between a young woman and an older man. He was never condescending. I didn’t worship him. We talked about my late father Paul Haines’ recordings of Albert Ayler, we talked about Escalator Over the Hill, we talked about Roswell Rudd and Henry Grimes. This thin man with gold teeth and clear engaging eyes was a thrill to be with, and his barbed wire wit made hanging with him like a tightrope walk. You couldn’t drift. People always seemed afraid to be straight with Lou but I wasn’t. At the rehearsal for our performance at Vivid Festival at the Sydney Opera House in 2010 (an event he curated with Laurie Anderson), he couldn’t remember the guitar part for “Cremation,” the song he wanted me to sing with him. I said, “You have to remember. You have to play the guitar,” and the room fell silent as though I had hit the height of blasphemy. But he just looked at me and said, “You’re right.” Persuading him to play “Pale Blue Eyes” when he joined Metric onstage for “The Wanderlust” at Radio City Music Hall in 2012 required a more nuanced approach and I’ll always remember the golden look of approval he gave our guitarist, Jimmy Shaw, when he played that delicate guitar line onstage that night. An essential thing people seem to miss when they think of Lou Reed is the scope of his sense of humor. When he invited me to play with him at the Shel Silverstein tribute concert in Central Park in 2011, I was the straight man, backing him up on piano and vocals as he turned the song “25 Minutes to Go” into a roast of Mayor Bloomberg’s New York for billionaires. Near the end, there were things Lou wanted to do that his poor health prevented. We had planned to perform together at Coachella but he wasn’t well enough and had to cancel. More recently, his visit to Toronto became impossible and I found myself standing around talking to Mick Rock instead, looking at photographs of the glamorized Lou when really the person I wanted to see was the man that had made it through all those years and married Laurie Anderson, the man who continued to live and love and create. I hijacked the DJ’s playlist at the gallery, forced everyone to listen to “O Superman” and gave a big drunk speech about it. I guess you could say it was an early expression of the grief that was to come. Kevin Hearn has played in Lou Reed’s band for years. Hearn and I have been working on some new recordings of my songs, just vocals and piano. A survivor of blood cancer himself, Kevin visited Lou and Laurie many times throughout Lou’s treatment in Cleveland. It appeared for a while there that Lou was on the mend, but in recent weeks his condition declined. When Lou called for him a few days ago, Kevin feared the worst. He wrote to me late last night, “I went to see Lou in Cleveland. He had to go back in the hospital. He is not doing too well I’m sad to say. Laurie was there too. They asked what I have been up to and I told them about the songs. They wanted to hear something so I played them ‘Dedicated.’ I hope you don’t mind. They really liked it.” I fell asleep last night hoping my voice had been of some comfort to him. And when I woke up, I found out he was dead. The first time I sang “Perfect Day” for him, Lou said, “You have to bring more pain to it. You’re not singing about a fucking picnic.” Consider it done. Playing “Cremation” with Lou was heavy enough at the time, but now that he’s gone the lyrics just break my heart. “The coal black sea waits for me me me/ the coal black sea waits forever/ when I leave this joint/ at some further point/ the same coal black sea/ will it be waiting?” In his last message to me, Lou wrote, “I’m so sorry Emily I would’ve if I could have but I’m a little under the weather but I love you.” I love you, too.

Emily Haines

[cucamonga-springs]

Reed’s death seems to have granted her not sadness so much as a kind of rapture. In an essay for Rolling Stone she wrote: 'I had gotten to walk with him to the end of the world. Life – so beautiful, painful and dazzling – does not get better than that. And death? I believe that the purpose of death is the release of love'. 'Those doors open maybe once in your life,' she tells me, 'or if you’re lucky, twice, and you get to see all this stuff. And that door will open again when you have to face your own death, but you get a chance to think about it and see it and feel it. It’s overwhelming. It filled me with happiness. I wasn’t prepared for that – I was supposed to be grief-stricken. Instead, it was kind of an ecstatic experience, and it continues to be. It caused my world to open up, and I understood things – or began to understand things in a different way'. Such as? 'For example, we’re supposedly here eating lunch in some way, but we’re actually not here, right?' and her smile grows wider in invitation. Life is a constant hallucination.' It doesn’t surprise me that she speaks about Reed in the present tense. Lou is the most wonderful person I’ve ever met and I think of him all the time and he’s completely inspiring to me. I miss him enormously, but there’s no point in being sad. I see him all the time, he’s always here, a continued, really powerful presence. I think a lot of other people feel the same way – because he was such a strong character – that just doesn’t dissipate that quickly. I just wish I could hear what he would have to say about Trump. That would be something.'

Laurie Anderson in conversation with Hermione Hoby

[haroldgross]

New Post has been published on Harold Gross: The 5a.m. Critic

New Post has been published on http://literaryends.com/hgblog/oscars-2018-first-round/

Oscars 2018 (the first round)

This year has been an embarrassment of riches film-wise, especially during the final quarter of the year. From a movie-goer point of view, it is fantastic.

With The Shape of Water leading the noms this year, with 13, you’d think there are some locks, but there aren’t. There are no clear Oscar front-runners and a lot of potential upsets in the making. Who wins is going to be a strange alchemy of talent combined with the political winds of race, equality, and #metoo that may shift or split votes. It’s just reality and it already has had some affects, deserved or not.

From a predictor’s point of view, it is all a glorious kind of hell, but I’m going to continue my rather public shaming (or celebration) as I have in years past and make my predictions. Keep in mind, they are somewhat wild hare at this point, but you gotta start somewhere when analyzing what’s on offer. Expect at least one final update prior to the 4 March awards ceremony.

THE MAJORS (or what we all care about)

Actress in a Leading Role Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) Meryl Streep (The Post)

My Choice:  There just isn’t a bad choice here. Sally Hawkins, however leads the pack for range and challenge in her role.  Likely Winner: Sally Hawkins

Actor in a Leading Role Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name) Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread) Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq.)

My Choice: Gary Oldman just disappeared into Churchill. That is the ultimate accomplishment for any actor. He is the closest thing to a lock this year. And, despite it being Lewis’s last role, he already has several statues to play with. Kaluuya did a great job, but it was a job done within the boundaries of genre, which just doesn’t carry the same weight or allow for the same range. And Franco was frozen out, despite his amazing turn in The Disaster Artist.  Likely Winner:  Gary Oldman

Actress in a Supporting Role Mary J Blige (Mudbound) Allison Janney (I, Tonya) Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird) Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water)

My Choice: Up until I saw Phantom Thread, my money would have been on Metalf out of this collection of great performances. Manville, however, really does an astounding job supporting Lewis and the story. Still, in terms of range and subtlety, and if pushed to the wall (cause Janney was amazing too), I’m sticking with Laurie Metcalf. Likely Winner: Laurie Metcalf

Actor in a Supporting Role Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water) Christopher Plummer (All the Money in the World) Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

My Choice: I know Rockwell has been snagging a number of the awards, but I was glad to see Harrelson sneak into this group. He’d been getting overlooked so far this season. Richard Jenkins, however, was my favorite performance in this batch. Again, it comes down to range, layers, and quiet control, which is harder to do well than losing it on screen.  Likely Winner: Sam Rockwell

Directing Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk) Jordan Peele (Get Out) Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread) Guillermo del Toro (Shape of Water)

My Choice: I don’t even know where to break what I see as a three-way tie. Gerwig, Peele, and del Toro each have solid cred to walk with this award. And two are here with their, essentially, first film (Gerwig has one other co-director credit). Guillermo del Toro is my favorite, however, and he had a long history behind his talent, which helps me break the tie in his favor. Given all the other nominations for his movie, I’m expecting that will also go with him.  Likely Winner: Guillermo del Toro

Best Picture Call Me By Your Name Darkest Hour Dunkirk Get Out Lady Bird Phantom Thread The Post The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

My Choice: There are so many ways to argue this one. Honestly, though, I think it is a death match between Shape of Water, Lady Bird, and Three Billboards. Shape of Water has one major advantage, beyond its 13 nominations. Shape is about all the things that the other films are about, all rolled into one, rather than as a single, primary theme. So I’m going with The Shape of Water, but I won’t be surprised by something else taking this home. By the time the DGAs are announced we may have a better sense of where the momentum is. Likely Winner: The Shape of Water

Animated Feature Film The Boss Baby The Breadwinner Coco Ferdinand Loving Vincent

My Choice: I’m still catching up here, but Coco is likely the winner, despite some good word of mouth around Vincent and the political cachét of Breadwinner. Likely Winner: Coco 

Foreign Language Film A Fantastic Woman (Chile) The Insult (Lebanon) Loveless (Russia) On Body And Soul (Hungary) The Square (Sweden)

My Choice: Not a clue yet. I have somehow missed all of these so far, though Square has the most recognition so far. Likely Winner: Not a clue yet.

THE MINORS (or what the rest of us care about)

Documentary Feature Abacus Faces, Places Icarus Last Man In Aleppo Strong Island

My Choice: Not a clue yet.  Likely Winner: Not a clue yet.  

Documentary Short Subject Edith and Eddie Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 Heron Knife Skills Traffic Stop

My Choice: Not a clue yet.  Likely Winner: Not a clue yet.  

Animated Short Film Dear Basketball Garden Party Lou Negative Space Revolting Rhymes

My Choice: Not a clue yet.  Likely Winner: Not a clue yet.  

Live Action Short Film Dekalb Elementary The Eleven O’Clock My Nephew Emmett Silent Child Watu Wote (All Of Us)

My Choice: Not a clue yet.  Likely Winner: Not a clue yet.  

Adapted Screenplay “Call Me by Your Name” James Ivory “The Disaster Artist,” Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber “Logan,” Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green “Molly’s Game,” Aaron Sorkin “Mudbound,” Virgil Williams and Dee Rees

My Choice:  Likely Winner: 

Original Screenplay “The Big Sick,” Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani “Get Out,” Jordan Peele “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig “The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Martin McDonagh

My Choice:  Likely Winner: 

Original Song “Mighty River” (Mudbound), Mary J. Blige “Mystery of Love” (Call Me By Your Name), Sufjan Stevens “Remember Me” (Coco), Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez “Stand Up for Something” (Marshall), Diane Warren, Common “This Is Me” (The Greatest Showman), Benj Pasek, Justin Paul

My Choice:  In years past, I’d have said Remember Me had a lock on the award. It was seen by so many people, figures heavily in the plot, and is a catchy tune. But this is a different kind of year. While This is Me certainly states out the themes of Greatest Showman, it is only heard the once in the story. Neither is particularly ground breaking or, at least for me, memorable. This is Me probably has more impact for me. Likely Winner: Given the climate, I’m going with This is Me

Original Score Dunkrik Phantom Thread The Shape of Water Star Wars: The Last Jedi Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

My Choice: Hands down, Dunkirk has the most effective score this year, but it may have been too subtle to win. Likely Winner: Shape of Water

THE CRAFT & TECHNICAL (or what we should all care about)

Cinematography Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049) Bruno Delbonnel (Darkest Hour) Hoyte van Hoytema (Dunkirk) Rachel Morrison (Mudbound) Dan Laustsen (The Shape of Water)

My Choice: Dunkirk has a great shot here; Nolan is nothing if not a brilliant framer and Hoytema’s work and challenges were huge given the various environments he had to navigate. However, for beauty and support of the story, Shape of Water and Blade Runner beat him out. Deakins, in particular, had to both create his own language as well as match the original enough to evoke the connection, which has me picking Blade Runner 2049 as my choice, though I don’t know think it will win. Likely Winner: Dunkirk

Costume Design Beauty and the Beast The Darkest Hour Phantom Thread The Shape of Water Victoria & Abdul

My Choice: Typically, this would go to a period piece (like old period). That thinking would put Victoria & Abdul in the front. But this year’s cadre are all over the place on era’s. Phantom Thread boasts some incredible 40s/50s creations. Beauty fantastical imagination. Shape of Water a range of clothing, much like Darkest Hour. For me, the invisibility of the costumes in Shape of Water is the most impressive of the lot. Likely Winner: The Darkest Hour

Makeup and Hairstyling The Darkest Hour Victoria & Abdul Wonder

My Choice: Though Wonder has some impressive make-up, Oldman’s transformation is jaw-dropping and seamless. Going with The Darkest Hour. Likely Winner: The Darkest Hour

Production Design Beauty and the Beast Blade Runner 2049 The Darkest Hour Dunkirk The Shape of Water

My Choice: Wow, you could just hit your head against a wall for ages trying to pick one here. Each film created solid, believable worlds. For complexity, Shape of Water and Darkest Hour had the most difficult challenges. While Darkest Hour brought the 40s back to life, Shape of Water did similar for the 50s but also added a hint of magic to it. And Blade Runner 2049 had to recreate a world and, as mentioned before, still do something unique on its own. My pick on this is Shape of Water for riding both the real and fantastical lines down to the tiniest detail. Likely Winner: Shape of Water

Film Editing Baby Driver Dunkirk I, Tonya The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

My Choice: Much like The Big Short, I, Tonya is a movie made by its editing. I’ve gone this route before and lost, but out of this field, it is the movie that stands out for me in this aspect of the craft. It isn’t subtle, but it builds the story out of snippets and pulls you along. Baby Driver has a good amount of effort in there as well, but it doesn’t stand out for me here. Similarly, Dunkirk. Shape of Water has an ethereal sense to its editing that may win voters as it added to the feel of the tale nicely. Likely Winner: Dunkirk

Sound Editing Baby Driver Blade Runner 2049 Dunkirk The Shape of Water Star Wars: The Last Jedi

My Choice: Editing and mixing are often the most troublesome picks to make. Each movie here had its challenges, but Baby Driver delivered one of the most interesting results in both categories. So Baby Driver for me on this one. Likely Winner: Baby Driver (low confidence here…suspect Dunkirk takes it)

Sound Mixing Baby Driver Blade Runner 2049 Dunkirk The Shape of Water Star Wars: The Last Jedi

My Choice: Baby Driver again here for me, Even more so than editing, the movie had to navigate a lot of layers and not lose us at the transitions. More confident the Academy will see that in this case than the previous. Likely Winner: Baby Driver

Visual Effects Blade Runner 2049 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Kong: Skull Island Star Wars: The Last Jedi War for the Planet of the Apes

My Choice: Lots of choices here, but War of the Planet of the Apes, for all its accolades, has few opportunities and this is likely going to be the one folks would give it. The seamless world it created out of our own probably beats out the broader worlds that are more obviously CGI. Likely Winner: War of the Planet of the Apes

[walnutandcarrara]

Laurie Anderson: ‘I see Lou all the time. He’s a continued, powerful presence’ Interesting interview about dogs, vegetarianism, love and death, and the arts. Laurie Anderson is such an amazing artist!!

[legacymusicstarts]

Tweeted

Laurie Anderson: ‘I see Lou all the time. He’s a continued, powerful presence’ https://t.co/vwXSKHwz06 http://pic.twitter.com/8d77XGYmMF

— Achieve This (@AchieveThis) January 15, 2017