Well I was watching this talk show the other day
And on it there was this guy and he was saying
When you let other people tell you what’s right
When you leave your instinct and your own truth behind he said
That’s a virus of the mind. that’s a virus of the mind
I guess it’s kind of like losing your sight; for a
Second you think that they might be right, and it
Feeds the doubts you have inside, and it
Almost starts to feel like a crime
To follow your own rhythm and rhyme
Yeah I’m pretty happy living in my own sweet time I’m pretty happy
And I don’t need your virus of the mind
Well I went to this party thing last night
A lot of people I hadn’t seen in a long time
And they wanted to know about my life,
But making me feel like it wasn’t quite right
Like where’s your kids and where’s your car?
I said I don’t have either but I have a guitar
And I ended up feeling like I was a freak
So I found some wine and something to eat
And I talked to a dog to pass the time
Told myself I’m doing fine,
It’s just a virus of the mind
It’s just a virus of the mind
Yeah I’m pretty happy living in my own sweet time I’m pretty happy
And I don’t need your virus of the mind
It’s in the deep of your soul
It’s on the tip of your tongue
It’s the feeling you get when you feel young
It’s in the sound of the beat
It’s in the base of your spine
It’s in your gut reaction, yeah every time
But they tell you what you should have,
They tell you who you should be
It’s in the pictures and ads and in the magazines
I’m kicking it off like a bug in the breeze
’cause is anyone out there inside me?
I said is anyone out there inside me?
I say is anyone?
Didn’t have a chance to blog yesterday, but here is the Laurie Anderson Saturday video post – one day late.
To make it up to you, I’ll post the one that – overall – meant the most to me. This is what happens when Laurie Anderson is exposed to William Burroughs….
Paradise Is exactly like Where you are right now Only much… much… Better.
I saw this guy on the train And he seemed to gave gotten stuck In one of those abstract trances. And he was going: “ooahh…ooahh…ooaughh…”
And Fred said: “I think he’s in some kind of pain. I think it’s a pain cry.” And I said: “Pain cry? Then language is a virus.”
Language! It’s a virus! ooo..oo Language! It’s a virus! ooo…oo
Well I was talking to a friend And I was saying: I wanted you. And I was looking for you. But I couldn’t find you. I couldn’t find you… And he said: Hey! Are you talking to me? Or are you just practicing For one of those performances of yours? Huh?
Language! It’s a virus! ooo..oo Language! It’s a virus! ooo..oo
He said: I had to write that letter to your mother. And I had to tell the judge that it was you. (It’s a charm. It’s a job) And I had to sell the car and go to Florida Because that’s just my way of saying That I love you. And I Had to call you at the crack of dawn (Why?) And list the times that I’ve been wrong. Cause that’s just my way of saying That I’m sorry. (It’s a job.) Sorry?
Language! It’s a virus! ooo..oo Language! It’s a virus! ooo..oo
Paradise Is exactly like Where you are right now Only much… much… Better. (It’s a shipwreck. It’s a job.)
You know, I don’t believe there’s such a thing as TV. I mean – They just keep showing
The same pictures over and over. And when they talk they just make sounds That more or less Synch up with their lips. That’s what I think!
Language! It’s a virus! ooo..oo Language! It’s a virus! ooo..oo Language! It’s a virus! ooo..oo
Well I dreamed there was an island That rose up from the sea. And everybody on the island Was somebody from TV. And there was a beautiful view But nobody could see. Cause everybody on the island Was screaming: Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!
Because they all lived on an island That rose up from the sea. And everybody on the island Was somebody from TV. And there was a beautiful view But nobody could see. Cause everybody on the island Was saying: Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Why?
Paradise is exactly like Where you are right now Only much… much… better.
In Santa Fe, Michael told me that at some point Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson had gotten married. Huh? Whew. Can anyone confirm? I guess they’ve been an item for some time – I don’t know how I could have missed that. Two of my favorite talents, but so very different.
I’ve been listening to a lot of both of them in the last few days. I’ve really been enjoying the music from Anderson’s “Strange Angels.” Then I discovered her series of public service announcements. Heh-heh. I’m going to post one a week.
Until then, here’s some of my faves.
I think my favorite is “The Dream Before” – about fairy tales (Hansel and Gretel here), Bellamy’s angel of history, and “progress”:
And I adore “Strange Angels”
I couldn’t find “Closed Circuits” – which I also love, but no blog post on this – at VirusHead – would be complete without…. “Language is a Virus from Outer Space.” (grinning)
And of course – “O Superman.” Two versions – I like the delivery of the first (close up) one better, but it looks like it was part of some kind of documentary. Oh hey – does anybody know what the name of this was or where I might get it? The second video is the full version -a very powerful performance.
I’m lingering on Lou Reed, too, especially the tracks on “New York.” I’ve always thought he had a really sexy voice. When we saw him in Paris, I wore black boots and a mini-skirt (and looked at an Parisian audience swearing tee shirts and jeans – so disappointing).
Here’s an interesting video that was made of “Satellite of Love.”
I couldn’t find a video of “Sick of You” anywhere. It has always been my very favorite Lou Reed song. It’s a bit dated now in terms of the references, but I still enjoy it just as much as I always did. Note the Rudy Giuliani comment – hmmm. The bit on the President’s head works a little differently now than it did for Reagan.
I know this song stone cold – I’d love to perform it sometime, but it’s not the kind of song that is likely to show up on karaoke, and I doubt I could put together a back-up band anymore (lol) – so I sing it on the deck, iPod to my ears. My neighbors must really wonder about me. Anyway, here are the lyrics (emphasis added).
“Sick Of You,” Lou Reed
I was up in the morning with the TV blarin’
Brushed my teeth sittin’ watchin’ the news
All the beaches were closed
The ocean was a Red Sea
But there was no one there to part in two
There was no fresh salad
‘Cuz there’s hypos in the cabbage Staten Island disappeared at noon
And they say the midwest is in great distress
And NASA blew up the moon
The ozone layer has no ozone anymore
And you’re gonna leave me for the guy next door?
I’m Sick of You, I’m Sick of You
They arrested the Mayor for an illegal favor
Sold the Empire State to Japan
And Oliver North married William Secord
And gave birth to a little Tehran
And the Ayatollah bought a nuclear warship
If he dies he wants to go out in style
And there’s nothing to eat
That don’t carry the stink
Of some human waste dumped in the Nile
Well, one thing is certainly true no. one. here. knows. what. to. do.
And I’m Sick of You, I’m Sick of You
The radio said there were 400 dead
In some small town in Arkansas
Some whacked-out trucker
Drove into a nuclear reactor
And killed everybody he saw
Now he’s on Morton Downey
And he’s glowing and shining
Doctors say this is a medical advance
They say the bad makes the good
And there’s something to be learned
In every human experience
Well I know one thing that really is true
This here’s a zoo and the keeper ain’t you
And I’m sick of it, I’m Sick of You
They ordained the Trumps
And then he got the mumps
And died being treated at Mt. Sinai
And my best friend Bill died from a poison pill
Some wired doctor prescribed for stress
My arms and legs are shrunk
The food all has lumps
They discovered some animal no one’s ever seen
It was an inside trader eating a rubber tire
After running over Rudy Giuliani
They say the President’s dead No one can find his head
It’s been missing now for weeks
But no one noticed it
He had seemed so fit
I’m Sick of it!!!
I’m Sick of You
I’m so Sick of You!
bye, bye, bye
bye, bye, bye
I was looking at my dissertation today, wondering if I can yet make a readable book out of it. Now that I’ve got a little distance from what was an agonizing process (at least until the last bit, when I actually started enjoying it), it seems better than I thought at the time. Today I’m posting a very select few of the quotations I used as a kind of shorthand that helps me remember the train of thought that’s at the back of a novel I’m writing. Between mommy-brain and constant distractions, it might be helpful to keep this here – as a touchstone of sorts.
My general theory since 1971 has been that the word is literally a virus, and that it has not been recognised as such because it has achieved a state of relatively stable symbiosis with its human host; that is to say, the word virus (the Other Half) has established itself so firmly as an accepted part of the human organism that it can now sneer at gangster viruses like smallpox and turn them in to the Pasteur Institute.
– William Burroughs
This Snow Crash thing–is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?”
Juanita shrugs. “What’s the difference?
– Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
How does Gemüt, the mind, speak, how does the heart speak, how does the voice of the blood speak in the time of AIDS? Does the virus expose this voice to a cacophony, a cacophony that does not even form a negative unity within which it still resonates? How is such exposure possible? Can the voice of the blood recognize itself in the cacophony caused by the virus?
– Alexander Garcia Duttman
About all, we need to resist, at all costs, the luxury of listening to the thousands of language tapes playing in our heads, laden with prior discourse, that tell us with compelling certainty and dizzying contradiction what AIDS really means.
– Paula Treichler
Discourse, alas, is the only defense with which we can counteract discourse, and there is no available discourse on AIDS that is not itself diseased.
– Lee Edelman
If Amanda had cancer or a brain tumor, they’d be bringing her casseroles and cakes.
– Alice Hoffman
Sh*t, do you realize that only about a tenth of infected Americans can get these new drugs? It kind of makes you wonder about the other thirty million people on this planet with HIV. I mean, how many people in Africa or Asia do you think are able to get any of these cocktails?
– R.D. Zimmerman, Hostage
The brain works like a collection of viruses, the Consensus said one hundred and fifty years later, when viruses were difficult to avoid.
– Geoff Ryman, The Child Garden
For each illness that doctors cure with medicine, they provoke ten in healthy people by inoculating them with the virus that is a thousand times more powerful than any microbe: the idea that one is ill.
– Marcel Proust
The life of the flesh is in the blood.
– Leviticus 17:11
But you must strictly refrain from eating the blood, because the blood is the life; you must not eat the life with the flesh.
– Deuteronomy 12:23
Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.
– Matthew 26:28-29
Think on the nature of this great invisible thing which animates each one of us, and every blood drinker who has ever walked. We are as receptors for the energy of this being; as radios are receptors for the invisible waves that bring sound. Our bodies are no more than shells for this energy.
– Anne Rice, Queen of the Damned
It is along the frontier of blood – on the red line between pure and impure – that the inexhaustible drama between the sacred and the profane is played out: between the history of the divine, and the history of the human element that would struggle free of the human.
– Piero Camporesi
Medicine is magical and magical is art
The Boy in the Bubble
And the baby with the baboon heart
. . .
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don’t cry baby don’t cry
Don’t cry
– Paul Simon, The Boy in the Bubble, 1986