I’m going to enjoy digging into those slides - thanks!
― christopher.ivan, Friday, 27 November 2020 16:03 (three years ago) link
I don't think the show was actually 8 hou
― Hideous Lump, Friday, 27 November 2020 16:34 (three years ago) link
...rs long. My memory of the show was that it ran for about 3 1/2 hours each night over 2 nights, and that includes the break between acts. It was really probably more like 6 hours. The United States book showed that very little text was deleted from the albums, and I think that most of what got omitted was repetition and trimming the fat between tracks.
― Hideous Lump, Friday, 27 November 2020 16:40 (three years ago) link
excellent revive, thanks all
I loved this record SO MUCH when I was like 19, I would just listen to my tapes on an auto-reverse boombox at night
― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Friday, 27 November 2020 16:59 (three years ago) link
Looooove this thread, thanks so much, def. incl. links which I must check, esp to xpost presentation. I've never heard the whole thing as such---mainly the single albums w same material, but also some of it (video x audio) was excerpted on 80s cable TV, some concert series(s): believe it or not, but the USA Network used to be esp. good for this kind of thing, also she had some videos on MTV, don't think they quite knew what to do with her, but the videos were state of the art and distinctive and the Warners backing sure seemed to help (yall know all the vids back then were pay-for-play, right? Commercials, not payola, all good with the FCC; IRS Records even had its own show, The Cutting Edge). Also some of that on PBS, and she hosted their Live From Off Center, all manner of compatible Downtown etc. hipness.A couple of things I read somewhere: back when she was still mainly or exclusively a visual artist, she meant to counter the massive male-seeming works of Richard Serra etc., with things she considered more feminine: witty, cheeky, sly, fluid, disconcerting, yet beguiling too, like, come along if you can, in-joeks for however many get 'em (reminding me of one of Warhol's very early colleagues saying that they meant Pop Art to counter the male dominance (incl. by righteous Cold War closet cases) of Abstract Expressionism).The other thing she said that I remember: she was teaching one of those monster Art courses that everybody took because they had to choose an elective and thought it would be some easy credit hours, and her microphone commentary for the slides started sliding more and more through her own associations (reminded of this by the xpost sperm commentary upthread), and while there were no complaints to the Dean etc., she knew it was time to go.I knew some people who saw the shows and said the box worked much better as stand-alone than, say, Einstein On The Beach
― dow, Friday, 27 November 2020 17:40 (three years ago) link
Excellent revive, thank you!
― Karl Malone, Friday, 27 November 2020 18:10 (three years ago) link
i still prefer the way Big Science uses those particlar tracks, especially "Let X=X" and "Example" and "It Tango" but this show is its own very special thing, the difference between Albums by Artists and what you can do outside of those confines
― Bandscamp Fryday (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 November 2020 18:19 (three years ago) link
xpost to dow: Your memory is correct. In an interview she did with William Duckworth for his book Talking Music, Anderson talks about her Columbia MFA sculpture days, when that massive welded steel aesthetic (believe she used the term "machismo") was very much in vogue. If you want to see the kind of work Anderson was exhibiting before her turn to performance art, RoseLee Goldberg's 2000 book (which someone has helpfully/illegally scanned in its entirety) is the place to start.
The art history lecture story recurs frequently. The first place I recall finding it was in a Christian Science Monitor interview from 1983, where Anderson told the interviewer: "I was a horrible teacher, because I didn't keep up with the field and I couldn't remember anything. So I improvised. And I found I really enjoyed being in the dark with people, talking to them and showing them pictures."
― handsome boy modelling software (bernard snowy), Friday, 27 November 2020 18:33 (three years ago) link
... one last thing while I'm nerding out: I know plenty has been written about the NYC loft scene of the 1970s, but I want to put in a plug for Toni Sant's book, Franklin Furnace and the Spirit of the Avant-Garde. Almost 1/3rd of the book is taken up by a long interview with Martha Wilson, which I found invaluable for understanding how performance art fit into the cultural landscape during that moment in time when Anderson was crossing over to mainstream success.
― handsome boy modelling software (bernard snowy), Friday, 27 November 2020 18:45 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR6zVM1MFo8
― Maresn3st, Thursday, 14 January 2021 14:14 (three years ago) link
Haven't spun this in 20+ years, really enjoying it but it's a commitment - 4.5 hours! I love what sounds like non-performers reading their lines. "You're walking, and you're falling"
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 21 February 2024 02:00 (four months ago) link
Anyone here see the original production? I was under the impression it had been filmed, but possibly more for preservation than anything else and that the film has never been made available to the public.
― birdistheword, Wednesday, 21 February 2024 16:04 (four months ago) link
it was! Home of the Brave, on VHS, is from the United States tour
― the absence of bikes (f. hazel), Wednesday, 21 February 2024 16:07 (four months ago) link
(or maybe it isn't?)
― the absence of bikes (f. hazel), Wednesday, 21 February 2024 16:11 (four months ago) link
I think that was a later tour, yeah
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Wednesday, 21 February 2024 16:13 (four months ago) link
There's discussion upthread including a confirmation from Anderson herself that USA Live was not filmed.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 21 February 2024 16:16 (four months ago) link
Aw man
― birdistheword, Wednesday, 21 February 2024 17:11 (four months ago) link