Bowing at the altar of Laurie Anderson

FW: You’ve produced an amazing amount of work. What keeps you going?

Anderson: I don’t mean to sound shallow, but it’s the best way to have fun, you know? For me it’s just sort of goofing around. It really is – it’s like “Oh I think I’ll make a cartoon today. No, I think I’ll make a song.”

You know, so when you call yourself this amorphous mutlimedia artist thing, you just do whatever you feel like and people go “oh that’s your work, ok fine,” and that’s how it is.

FW: One last question. As someone who’s been incredibly successful with their work, do you have any advice for those of us living here, holding down three jobs just to pay the rent and trying to find the time to make art?

Anderson: You know when I started being an artist I had this friend who said really irritating things to me. I would say “Look Richie, you don’t understand. I really wanna do my work, but, I’ve gotta pay my rent.

And he would just kept saying “Just do your work.”

And I’d say “No no, Richie, come on, it’s just not practical, I mean I have my rent is due in like a week, I have to be practical.”

And he would just keep saying “Do your work.”

And it made me so mad, but I finally realized what he was saying. He was talking about priorities. What do you really want? What do you put first? If you do your work, and you put all of your best energy into that, everything else will fall into place. And, you know, if you make paying your rent your very first priority, well then it will be harder to do your work. If you want this amazing apartment that looks like an artists loft or whatever, you’ll get that, but you might not be able to do any work because you’ll be putting all your energy into getting that place.

I found that at times very hard to take, but it’s really true. Because you know, it’s trusting yourself. That you have something good to say, and that it’s worth saying. That’s what you have to do as an artist. Nobody else’s really going to do it, everything comes from you.

[free williamsburg]

i'm on the other side of the world

so I'm in Thailand. have been here for about a week although the first five days don't really count because i spent them with 14 other Americans in one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed at, in Bangkok. Of course right outside the hotel were slums and the like, which I spose is the standard experience of Americans/Europeans abroad. Also there's a 7-11 on just about every corner here where me and the chill bros I met would go every night to get four packs of Chang ("thailand's finest") for about 2 bucks-- sort of tastes like natty light.
Also learned that we're not allowed to be loud, drunk or messy which may mean I'm in for a very long five months. Now that I'm in my host community I likely won't see another Chang before I hit the Bangkok airport on my way out. Also, my host mom literally handed me a hairbrush. Was kind of planning on a chill time in Thailand and then I found myself shopping for business casual clothes in the mall because I have to dress up for school. what the fuck, sort of.

Anyway, it's 98 and humid. I started school today which was pretty fun and hilarious. I was facing about 40 thai tweens and repeating "my name is Emily. how are you?" about 20 times and definitely wondered how the hell I got here. Planning on inundating these kids with some scandalous music at least, just to keep myself entertained. Hoping to meet up with other american bros ASAP but apparently it's rude to travel from your host family or something. I knew the host family would be a tad difficult since in America we demand independence from age 15, but here you pretty much life with your parents forever here if you're not married, and even if you are. Thai culture is ingrained with all sorts of non-verbal signs that I obviously have no idea how to read. Did I mention no one speaks English? Hoping to become proficient in Thai, just for a fun party trick.

It's still new and exciting at the very least-- the market is pretty cool and has all sorts of crazy stuff-- definitely noticed a 14-inch wooden penis carving with stuff written all over it-- made me wish I had a digital camera and that I wasn't with my host mom and her sister. Everyone here rides motorbikes which seem totally badass and I totally want to get one when I'm back in the states.

You should send me your number because I got a hella cheep phone deal going on and i'll give you a call. Wanna meet in LA in late Oct and travel up the coast for a while?

Copy this and send it to all parents and relatives

cause the NYT sez it's ok to fuck around for YEARS after schoolin:


After graduation, I spent five years wandering around doing nothing — or getting as close to it as I could manage. I was a cab driver, an obsessed moviegoer, a wanderer in the mountains of Colorado, a teacher at a crazy grand hippie school in Vermont, the manager of a movie house (who didn’t do much managing), a crewman on a ship and a doorman at a disco.


Thanks, NYT!

World To People:

"MONEY IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS!"

I made the mistake of reading this, then puked.

Where's the chart of professions of "people who are fucking awesome", drink PBR at 10 am on a Tuesday and lie to their grandparents/bosses/parents' friends about their life goals/career plans/relationship status?

Cause THOSE people are winning at life.

RE: lost generationz

defeated? resigned? no fuckin way, broad.

"Mothers, don’t let your children grow up to be hipsters. We are a lost generation, desperately clinging to anything that feels real, but too afraid to become it ourselves. We are a defeated generation, resigned to the hypocrisy of those before us, who once sang songs of rebellion and now sell them back to us. We are the last generation, a culmination of all previous things, destroyed by the vapidity that surrounds us. The hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture so detached and disconnected that it has stopped giving birth to anything new."


I used to believe this, that our world was over and we were nothing but vultures picking at its rotting corpse... but I really don't anymore. The things that have formed our culture might be dead and dying-- sincerity, huge record labels, hypercapitalism, etc, but there are new, better things popping up in their stead. Self-awareness, self-distribution and small, community oriented projects are growing out of the ashes of those bloated tenets of our modern era.

I don't really know what hipster means in 2010, but in 1959 it meant someone who listened to jazz, liked drugs and wrote/read things that used the word "fuck." I have a feeling that when we say hipster we mean people who listen to noise/folk/punk/jazz, like drugs and read/write things that use the word "fuck." In much of the discourse that labels itself "concerned with American ideals", you'll come across phrases like "standing for something", "hard work" and talk of "freedom" "bravery" and "prosperity." Simultaneously, you'll notice that our armed forces kill civilians around the world with a frequency that suggests they enjoy it, while our elected officials have left a fifth of the children in their own country to live in poverty. And this is largely thanks to that "peace and love" generation who later built corporate America over former farms and forests and parked their SUVs in the driveway.

So if we are defeated, it's because we recognize the gross mismanagement of funds and passion by the people who call themselves leaders of the free world, and if we are destroyed it's because we don't know how to change that. Instead, we throw pebbles into the void, listen to noise/folk/punk/jazz, like drugs and read/write things that use the word "fuck." The more people who opt out of our modern corporate nightmare, the fewer bombs dropped in its name. "Hipsters" might not "stand for anything," but they've got my vote.

s00000 ghey for these bros

[when i was younger, i wanted to have 5 kids and name them for each member of the strokes. nick and nicolai could get confusing.]

My Roommates

Whenever you move into a new living situation, it takes some time to adjust to the quirks of your co-habitants. I'm still getting used to mine-- one of my roommates is always asking me to vaccuum and the other one thinks Ray Romano "gets it."

Sometimes we have dinner together. Here's an excerpt from a recent conversation around the dining room table:

The topic: Tiger Woods.


adrienne: well, he's still a good role model for college students who want to sleep with 14 women.

daniel: I doubt any college guys sleep with 14 women. I never knew any college guys who were into that.

emily: uuuuh, yes college kids are still into that.

daniel: today?!?! even with AIDS??!

emily: uuum, yeah.

daniel: well, if you sleep with one person, it's like you're sleeping with all the people they've slept with.

adrienne: kids today are probably more worried about... what are they called... STSs.

daniel: SDS! students for a democratic society.

emily: [cringe/chuckle/kill me plz]



But, Dan likes Fleet Foxes and Adrienne buys me beer, so I guess I can't complain.

Re: Crash and Burn

So what's a TOTALLY creative, complete renaissance girl Reagan's kid to do?

Well, you already answered your own question with that one. Go out and get laid anyway!

As your sister in living rent free/jobless/just tryna experience something real, grrrrl have I been there.

When criticism from the world at large (parents, other family members, clueless friends, etc) arises, I like to do two things: 1) look at their lives, and ask myself if that's something I aspire to, and 2) reach into my arsenal of humans who I do think lived badassedly ie the way I wish to live in general, and ask myself what they would think. More often than not, I think that they would be like, "fuck yeah. I never had a real job or a mortgage either!" If Allen Ginsberg ever walked up to me and was like, "what the hell are you doing? stop it!" I sure as shit would. Until then, I'm gonna keep believing that what I'm doing (or not doing) is ok because I'm ok with it.

Kinda just think that the world is full of people who just don't "get it" (as illustrated by the fact that the world is falling the fuck apart), so I'm not too quick to get down on one who decides to say "f that shit" and avoid the trappings of modern life at all costs.

Personally, I think your response of the creative realm being different is completely valid. The problem is that our dumb world places value on monies more that anything else so it's hard for people normalized by this culture to see the other things you've "earned" this year: an awesome portfolio, great experience and lots of contacts.

Maybe just in the interest of preserving your rent-free way of life for the time being, it would be worth having a sit down with the roommates and telling them your plans and your reasons for your life choices, internship, etc. All parents really want is their kids to have some idea of what they want to do, and surprisingly think that their kids are totally clueless. I've had SO many convos with my madre re: this topic, while I am FREAKING out because I can't do what I want to do and stress about "the future" ALL the time, while she's asking me if I ever think about "the future."

So yeah. You just gotta like do what you wanna do, while attempting to keep the roommates happy. Sucks that they don't understand the world, so you gotta do your best as a liason. Also, if you are interested in earning dollars, is there any after-school art program or something you could work at? Maybe not with li'ls, but high school kids could be fun.

(just read Dan Savage and am feeling all advice columny, apparently.)

Welp, I'm about to go to an interview for a barrista job! Hopefully my future co-workers will be 19 and hot.

Nez Perce Baby

I found this pic of a lil nez perce baby and it reminded me of those AWESOME papooses and other sweet Native arts we saw @ the PAM! Let's make things and grow food, k?