Laurie Anderson

I met Laurie Anderson last night. I felt like such a fanboy nerd stalker walking up to her and put on a posh voice as she made me nervous. To put it in perspective I was sorry I didn't have my camera with me as I wanted to see what she had called the settings programmed into her effects unit. However she was so pleasant and animated that I was put at my ease. You know the way she talks on the records? Well she really does simply talk like that. The caesurae, the odd accents placed on words, the measured pace. But with permanently arched brows and an infectious smile. She was performing at the opening of her show in IMMA in Kilmainham. I didn't go to the show after as the place was crowded and I live accross the road so I can go and experience it at my leisure. It's a funny thing, Michael Durand - a photographer friend - mentioned that she was playing in the gallery and I assumed that I wouldn't be able to get in without tickets, that I'd be spotted as an interloper, rather than given not bad wine, a free performance, and a chance to talk to someone whose work I have loved for years. I get that feeling about art galleries and film festivals, they accidentally exclude people; I always thought it was strange that the theatre festival got people going to the theatre even if they didn't normally do it while the film festivals always seem to make a demotic activity elitist.

So what did we talk about? Unfortunately I didn't add to her store of happiness. I was wondering had she tried to do anything about the obnoxious Ford Ka ad that soundalikes the title track from her Bright Red album. This song has background sythesiser washes and male and female voices, disturbingly uninflected and changing mid sentence without warning or break in the rhythm, saying 'get into the car little girl: it's a brand new cadillac'. The Ford ad has similar synth sounds and a similarly disembodied voice going 'get into the Ka'. There's no way that an ad agency can really think a song about a paedophile child abductor is really a good idea for an ad for a family car? A small and young family car at that. Her attitude was that it happens all the time and if you spent your time following up on all of them you'd never get anything else done.

Great to meet her.