Laurie Anderson

Laurie Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is an American experimental performance artist and musician.

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Anderson was born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She attended Mills College in California, and eventually graduated from Barnard College magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, studying art history. In 1972, she obtained an MFA in sculpture from Columbia University.

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She performed in New York through the 1970s, becoming more popularly known in 1981 with the single "O Superman", which reached number two on the national pop charts in Britain. "O Superman" was part of a larger stage work entitled United States and included on the following album Big Science. Her more recent stage work includes a multimedia presentation inspired by Moby-Dick. She starred in and directed the 1986 concert film, Home of the Brave, and also composed the soundtracks for the Spalding Gray films Swimming to Cambodia and Monster in a Box. Her varied career even included voice-acting in the animated film The Rugrats Movie. In 1994 she created a CD-ROM entitled Puppet Motel.

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She wrote the New York City article for the Encyclop?dia Britannica and in the late 1980s hosted the PBS series, Alive from Off Center, for which she produced the short film, What You Mean We?.

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Anderson has collaborated with William Burroughs, Mitchell Froom, Peter Gabriel, Perry Hoberman, David Sylvian and boyfriend Lou Reed. She also worked with comedian Andy Kaufman in the late 1970s (with a romantic involvement hinted at in some of her spoken word performances about him).

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Anderson, who rarely revisits older work (though themes and lyrics occasionally reappear) went on tour performing a selection of her best-known musical pieces in 2001. One of these performances was recorded in New York City only a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and included a stirring performance of "O Superman" which contained lyrics that almost seemed to predict the events of 9/11. This concert was released in early 2002 as the CD, Live in New York, which remains her most recent album release.

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In 2003, Anderson became NASA's first (and, she says, last) artist-in-residence, which inspired her most recent performance piece, The End of the Moon.

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Rumors emerged of a possible new album release in the fall of 2004, but this turned out to be false as Anderson seems too busy mounting a succession of themed shows, as well as composing a piece for Expo 2005 in Japan.

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June 5: June 5 is the 156th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (157th in leap years), with 209 days remaining....

1947: 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar)....

American: :This page disambiguates the many uses of American. For an article about those various uses, please see Use of the word American....

Laurie Anderson related Images and Photos (experimental)

Anderson Varejao	Loni Anderson	Loni Anderson	Ottis Anderson
Derek Anderson	Garret Anderson	Pamela Anderson	Piper Laurie
Lindsay Anderson	Richard Anderson	UFC - Anderson Silva	Pamela Anderson Print