Voyager: the green room: seattle

Monday February 6 and Tuesday February 7

The Fifth Avenue Theater

The first "official" show. It actually worked! Somewhere in the back of my mind there's always this creepy voice that nags, "You may think this show is OK but once you're on the road you'll realise that it's not going to work at all, that nobody but you is going to get it, that you made some really big miscalculations about it." It's a relief to find that "The Nerve Bible" does what I hoped it would do.

Voyager: the green room: vancouver

Wednesday February 8th

Orpheum Theater

The first "Big Compromise" show. We couldn't fly our set- no hanging points- so we put up some inflatables. It was a pleasant surprise to see that without the fireworks the piece manages to survive.

Voyager: the green room: bellingham

Friday February 10

Mt. Baker Theater

Happened to be reading "Last Refuge" a sci-fi book by Elizabeth Scarborough. Tibet after World War III. Most of the people in the world are ghosts looking for something to reincarnate in. The author seemed pretty familiar with Bellingham and two of her ghosts, Toni-Marie and Mike, are flying around the world viewing the destruction. Right now they're over the west coast. "They were leaving the ruins of Tacoma behind now, a mud-colored wreck against a swift-moving sky with just a spot of blue landward to the southeast. 'Bellingham's beyond Seattle, it seems to me, up closer to Canada.' But they went farther and farther north and all they saw were some very tall mountains, a lot of ash, and dirty water pustuled with whitecaps. Toni-Marie hovered above the water and scratched her head. 'It's got to be around her somewhere. I just don't seem to remember there being quite so much water. There was the Pacific Ocean and then this bay and harbors and lakes and stuff, but I was only through here once, and geography was never my strong suit, but I'm almost sure there used to be mountains over there too.' She pointed out to sea. All sorts of debris and bloated organic matter Mike preferred not to think about clogged the waterways, riding the top of the wind-tortured waves in the same way that the logs had jammed the lake back by the volcano. As they looked around them the wind pounded the water and clouds, blowing them away from the eastern horizon." from "Last Refuge" by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Maybe it was the time of year or the weather or the weekend or the part of town we were in, but nobody seemed to be around. Bellingham seemed deserted! I began to wonder if anyone would show up. They did; but I'm always sort of amazed that people find their way to theaters at all.

Voyager: the green room: portland

Saturday February 11

Civic Auditorium

Voyager: the green room: eugene

Monday February 13

The Hult Center for the Performing Arts

The theater here is on of my favorites- very strange interlocking woven ceiling. Like being inside a very large purse. Pretty cosy. Big snowstorm the day of the show- the fluffy kind. The kind with enormous flakes that cover everything and make the whole city look like it was drawn by the same artist in thick white paint. The promoter was nervous and wanted to cancel because of the weather, but of course we did the show anyway and then set out through the drifts for California.

Voyager: the green room: berkeley

Wednesday February 15, Thursday February 16, and Friday February 17

Zellerbach Auditorium

Got the web site working and had a conference with people at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Since everybody signed on as "Laurie Anderson" it was a bit chaotic.

Voyager: the green room: san francisco

Saturday February 18

The Warfield Theatre

At the Warfield. Old memories of being here on tour with John Giorno and William Burroughs in the early 80's. Touring with Burroughs was always, let's say, interesting. He always carried a gun and kept disappearing to go out and practice at shooting ranges. Funny how I don't feel safer when people I know are carrying guns. It just makes me nervous.

Voyager: the green room: santa cruze

Sunday February 19

Civic Auditorium

The playground beach town. Every time I see an amusement park, I like to look around and try to think of ideas for the Real World park we're designing for Barcelona. Excerpts from an interview with Virginia Eubanks, KZSC Santa Cruz One of the filters I was using-which I still use-is this male voice of authority filter which is just a way of looking at authority. Actually, it's a way of looking at a bunch of windbags. You know, people who are just trying to puff themselves up and tell you what to do-so making fun of that is fun for me. And I realized that when I talked with my own voice people would say, "Oh, that's perceptive-oh, that's an interesting thing to say." But when I used that filter-the voice of authority-they would really perk up in a very different way. Fundamentally different. Puppet Motel. It's a love song for my computer. I feel like I'm getting slowly sucked into computers. I have eleven computers-they all talk different languages and I love learning the languages. It began just with words and then music and then pictures and then friends-on the net. But it's more about one of my oldest themes: that love/hate affair with technology. You go around and everybody has a TV-they don't have heat, they don't have plumbing. Computers won't be the same way because they're not passive. They're very aggressive. I mean, you must be aggressive with them. You must know how to talk to them. And it's not so hard. It would be just an incredible thing if there were thousands of little libraries all over the place and everyone could go in and for the price of a cup of coffee you could get on and find something that you wanted. Or not.

Voyager: the green room: los angeles

Tuesday February 21, Wednesday February 22, & Thursday February 23

The Wilshire Theater

There seemed to be even more Angelyne billboards than ever before. Is this possible? Missed seeing her cruising town in her pink Cadillac which apparently also has a larger than life picture of her on the both sides. The town that specialises in self-promotion. Went to the Eames House to look around. Got their video "Powers of Ten" which I vaguely remember seeing - maybe in grade school? Charles and Ray Eames- the inventors of the molded plastic chairs - the architect/visionaries who designed the perfect house out of spare parts. Made for GIs returning from WWII - the idea was to make a cheap and beautiful house full of light and illusionary space. Got the spiral staircase surplus from the Navy. Now their grandson is working in the house designing his own "Powers of Ten" CD-ROM. Look for it next year on the Voyager label! Did the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, who I really like. He's a real sport and if you don't feel like talking about the agreed-upon subjects, he's game. Here's the script for the "performance" part.

THE TONIGHT SHOW - DRUM SUIT (:30) DAT:

Howls DAT: Drums at "directory assistance" LA picks up microphone

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TALKING (:30)

You know I've been doing a lot of tours in Europe lately and because of all the recent terrorist attacks, security in the airports there has gotten really tight. Usually I travel with a lot of odd-looking homemade electronics and the customs agents are always asking me to unpack everything and plug it in and demonstrate how it all works. So I've done quite a few of these sort of impromptu new music concerts for small groups of detectives and customs agents and bomb squads. And I'd set everything up and play and they'd listen for awhile and then they'd say "So what's this?" and I'd pull out something like this filter and say

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VOICE OF AUTHORITY (:30)

LA stands on small stage; puts mic on stand H3000 .72

Now this is what I like to think of as the voice of authority and it would take me a while to tell them how I used it for songs that were about you know various forms of control and they would say: Now why would you want to talk like that? And I looked around at the swat teams and undercover agents and dogs and I'd say: Take a wild guess.

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VIOLIN SOLO (1:00) H3000 627

Twelve String LA picks up violin/ plays/ gives bow signal DAT (drums) out after bow signal

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THE DON'TS (:30)

LA continues plucking on violin

Recently there have been a lot of US government directives about how to protect yourself from terrorists. I got one of these directives from the U.S. Embassy in Madrid and it was a list of tips designed for Americans travelling through international airports. The idea was not to call ourselves to the attention of the numerous foreign terrorists who are presumably lurking all over the terminals. So the Embassy tips is a list of mostly "don'ts," Things like: Don't wear a baseball cap. Don't wear a sweatshirt with the name of an American university on it. Don't wear timberlands with no socks. Don't chew gum. Don't yell ("Ethylll!!! Our plane is leaving!!!!!") I mean it's weird when your entire culture can be summed up in eight giveaway characteristics.

LA bows 2x/ hits drumsuit heartbeat 2x

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One of the nice things about Jay is that he really pays attention to what you're doing. He came over to the little stage and watched while I did this performance (that is, instead of spending the time rifling through his notes or getting his nose powdered) which made me feel like he was actually interested. After that I gave him the recipe for "Hotel Hot Dogs" which he wrote down. I mentioned the recipe because earlier in the day I'd seen him taping something about hot dogs. He was gutting Twinkies and re-stuffing them with the hot dogs which was disgusting enough to convince me he'd appreciate "Hotel Hot Dogs." Here's the official recipe: (I invented this recipe when I was on a press tour in Germany. Usually the interviews went on all day and into the night and by the time they were over all the restaurants in town would be closed. So here's how to cook a pretty good dinner right in your hotel room.)

HOTEL HOT DOGS

The ingredients: 2 bratwurst (Oskar Meyers will also do). The utensils you'll need are: one lamp, a pocket knife, and wire strippers. Unwrap the bratwurst and place on bedside table. Unplug the floor lamp. Using the pocket knife, cut the lamp cord approximately 3 feet from the plug. With wire strippers, peel the insulation from the cord, leaving about 10 inches of exposed wire. Thread the wire through the bratwurst and tie off the wire at the end. Then, just plug it in! Cook until the bratwurst is crispy on the outside (approximately 2 seconds)* Make sure the cooking time doesn't exceed 3 seconds since the meat will explode at very high temperatures. Then just relax and enjoy! This dish is excellent accompanied by a glass of cool tap water. *In the US or other territories where 110 is used, add 2 additional seconds to cooking time. One more note about the "Tonight Show." Why do all the late night hosts sit at desks? Is it some reference to working in an office? I mean it's the middle of the night! Shouldn't they give it up and relax a little? They've got phones too and pencils although they rarely use them. The whole set-up does of course make the guests seem like they're there for a job interview, which, in fact, they are. Applicants for Professional Famous Person.

Voyager: the green room: san diego

Saturday February 25 & Sunday February 26

The Spreckels Theater

Igor Valmos, the artist who masterminded the Barbie/Ken microsurgery. Remember this? He bought hundreds of Barbies and Kens and then switched their "voice" chips and sent them to friends around the country who then took the dolls back to stores and- in an operation that Igor describes as "shop-giving"- put the dolls back on the shelves. So a lot of unsuspecting little kids began to get Kens that said, "Let's go shopping" and Barbies who bellowed, "Kill! Kill! Kill!". Brilliant. Igor took us to meet the Unarians. I'll write a bit about these folks later. "Great energies are now flowing into this earth's atmosphere. We will have a communion - a landing - with other planetary craft that are a confederation of worlds." - Marian Kymas, Unarius The Unarians explain their academy and their teachings: "This is the central hub to the entire world for the Unarius publications. We have our own printing, we do all of our printing here and we have over 175 volumes of the most fascinating scientific understanding of life on other worlds and your person-centered relationship to other dimensions and what life and man is all about - men and women. We all have the common thread of infinity that is the very life force that generates and has caused life to be. And we life in countless countless lifetimes through the process of reincarnation. "We are building up to a grand apex - a cycle where we are now at a time when we are going to become more and more aware of intelligent life in other worlds. Truly our government knows. We've had visitation from spacecraft in this world and we've had communication with people from other planetary systems, but some of this is kept under cover. And of course the true communication of Unarius is the communiction of the mind. Now Unarius teaches the principles of life that they life by on these more advanced planets. Now 2001 is a projected time in our earth's history where this paralax cycle occurs. Great energies are now flowing into this earth's atmosphere. When you get into the books, if you are so interested, it explains in the most beautiful way that transcends you and you understand in your higher consciousness as you study Unarius. We will have a communion - a landing - with other planetary craft that are a confederation of worlds. There's 33 key planets in this system."

Voyager: the green room: scottsdale

Monday February 27 & Tuesday February 28

The Center for the Performing Arts

A kind of resort. Right next to an excellent cappucino bar. Met Alex who is eleven years old and was sitting at the light board with Sid our lighting director. He was introduced as the theater's lighting assistant. Alex said he'd been interested in lighting "for several years." Which means he started when...five? Six? What is several?

Voyager: the green room: albuquerque

Wednesday March 1

Kiva Auditorium

The Kiva- aptly named since it was very low slung and had a stage that stuck way out into the audience. We redesigned the show so that there was 70 feet of playing space. I was pretty busy running the length of this field during the show but since we have a lot of cable we could get almost anywhere. One of the pieces, "World without End" is played on a violin that has a bow with a camera attached to it Went looking for a beer making kit because I thought it would be something fun to do on the bus- make and bottle our own "Nerve Bible Brew." We found a brew-it-yourself store but the owner said there are reasons these things are called "stills" and that brewing on the road would be "one hell of a mess.” So instead, we got one of those automatic bread making machines so we could bake on the bus. Tried it out and it drove the driver nuts. He said the smell of baking bread when you're at the wheel all night and couldn't get to it was a little too overwhelming. Can't remember the name of the cookbook written by the cross country car race team. The team didn't stop to eat during the race and got tired of sandwiches so they designed some recipes using combustible engines. Things like "wrap your pork roast tightly in 30 gage aluminum, tie next to engine, roast at 70 mph for six hours." Anybody seen this in a bookstore? It may be in the same section as "How to Cook Road Kills" written, I think, by some people in the northeast who wondered how you could tell if the tread marks on the deer or opossum made it inedible; how to tell if the animal meat was salvagable and if so how to prepare it.

Voyager: the green room: dallas

Saturday and Sunday, March 4 and 5

McFarlin Theater

The nicest crew so far! They actually gave us all presents when we left! Bags of coffee, candy. We're moving fast.

Voyager: the green room: houston

Monday March 6

Cullen Auditorium

Found the house I'd really like to buy. Across from the NPR station. Looks like a Corbusier that's seen better times. Two enormous raggy palm trees in front. Bombed out front yard. Gorgeous! Met Pinque, a striking local artist dressed in- you guessed it- who gave me her CD and a bunch of pink tulips. Another Rock Doc- Dr. Mark- stopped by to distribute antibiotics for the crew. We're going through so many types of weather so fast, we never have a chance for the flu to disappear. Seems to hang on whether it's tropical -like here- or freezing like in Austin.

Voyager: the green room: austin

Tuesday March 7

Bass Concert Hall

Bass Concert Hall is one of the most beautiful places we've played so far. We got to spread out all our masses of cables to their full length instead of coiling them in huge pythonic piles backstage. Got some pictures of The Bull Ring- the giant football stadium. The local word is that they built classrooms under the stadium so it could be a "multi-use" structure. But it sure looks peculiar. Talked to some people at a VR facility and taped something for them to use in their next tech conference. As usual I went on about how important I think it is to keep software and hardware cheap. Cheap! Cheap! Cheap! I kept repeating this because I wish more people could afford it. And we're the ones inventing it! I mean, when you look around at available gear there's not a lot of German or Japanese stuff. Not to be nationalistic, but here we are in the Information Age and it's actually being invented by Americans! (It's been, what, thirty years since we led the way to the moon?) So I really believe it's important not just to design great software but to make it available to people. I loved the on-line coffee shops I saw in Seattle. For the price of a cup of coffee, you can get on-line. So even if you have no idea what the net is about, you can cruise around a bit. Think what it would be like if there were thousands of "electronic libraries" all over the country! Did an emergency at a radio station. "This is only a test of the Emergency Broadcast Network. If this were an actual emergency, you would tune to ( ) for further information." I also suggested that I do a "cover" version of the announcement, "just in case." This freaked them out but we did it anyway: "This is not a test..." and so on. I asked them where the codes were for a national emergency and they pointed to some shelves. Have no fear, radio is prepared!

Voyager: the green room: kansas city

Thursday March 9

Music Hall

Best barbeque in the world!

Voyager: the green room: columbus

Saturday March 11

The Palace Theater

Went to the German Village and a terrific maze-like bookstore "The Loft." Got ten books, all small, so they can be opened and read in the bus bunk. (available reading space 2')

Voyager: the green room: milwaukee

Sunday March 12

Riverside Theater

Got to meet about fifty girls from "Discovery World." They came on a field trip and people from our crew described their jobs to them. They were especilly interested in Sid's work. Wow! A woman who gets to program a computer and climb up on trusses! It was great to see kids who are picturing themselves doing dangerous things.

Voyager: the green room: detroit

Monday, March 13

Fox Theater

The police academy was right across the street. They kept running in and out doing the coolest chants. When cops start rapping you know that rap is finally everywhere.

Voyager: the green room: kalamazoo

Tuesday, March 14

State Theater

Performed in an old hemp house theater. We noticed during the load-in that the ropes looked a little bit, let's say, frayed so Bill Berger, the stage manager, tried to simplify some of our fly cues. Unfortunately the fly guys missed their mark and one of our set pieces- a 12 foot I-beam came swinging in at a crazy angle. At the time I was facing the audience and I saw this look of horror on the faces of the first few rows of the audience. This is definitely not a good sign. Surprise, puzzlement, even boredom are expressions I can deal with. But horror? I turned around (slowly) and watched this I-beam swaying around on its thin lines and just decided to keep playing the violin piece I was doing anyway, trying to imagine that this was a new and interesting part of the show. Even though I knew there wasn't really a danger this would come crashing down, there's always that nagging one in a million odd (can "odd" be in the singular? or is this one of the nouns that only comes in groups, like "scruples?").

Voyager: the green room: louisville

Wednesday, March 15

Palace Theater

The most notable thing about this part of town is the large number of wig stores. Sid (the lighting director) and I decided to get some disguises. It's surprising how effective hair can be. We hung around the theater in our new wigs and even though we both know our crew pretty well (living together on a bus makes everybody pretty familiar) most of them didn't even recognize us. Hey, are men naive or what?

Voyager: the green room: st. louis

Thursday, March 16

American

Got together with a friend from high school and we started to reminisce about the old days but soon realised we could only remember a few names and mostly we just said things like, "Remember what's his name?" Which didn't get us very far. I think there must be something like a statute of limitations in the memory department - more than ten years ago you were almost literally a different person and so no one should expect you to take responsibility for any of it - much less even remember it very well.

Voyager: the green room: chicago

Friday, March 17

Chicago Theater

Ken Nordine came to the show. One of the all time great Amrerican voices. I've always wanted to do an opera with him playing God. Don't know what my own role would be. Check out "Word Jazz" and all his classics - especially "The Stranger."

Voyager: the green room: buffalo

Sunday, March 19

SUNY-Buffalo Center for Performing Arts

The promoter kept asking why more people don't come to Buffalo. So why don't they? Hallwalls, by now one of the countries most established alternative art centers in the country, is expanding and they're doing some great new stuff. No, the underground has not disappeared yet!

Voyager: the green room: toronto

Monday, March 20

O'Keefe Center

The city where my current favorite writer - Michael Ondaatje - lives. Just finished "The English Patient" and a collection of poems "There's A Trick With a Knife I'm Learning To Do." Check him out!

Voyager: the green room: montreal

Tuesday, March 21

Theatre St. Denis

Got a shipment of beaver tail from the frozen north courtesy of a fan. She delivered a big plastic bag of them along with photographs of how the Eskimos trap beaver. Here's how to do it in case you find yourself needing to trap beaver: Sharpen all the ends of two large twisty branches. Cut two holes in the ice near the beaver dam, insert the branches through the ice and down into the water. Cut a piece of poplar (the bait) and insert that between the two branches. Wait for the ice to freeze again. The idea is that the beaver will start to eat the poplar but get caught in the twisty branches and drown. Checking the trap: after a certain amount of time (this wasn't exactly spelled out so use your intuition) cut a hole around the branches. Pull the piece of ice up. If you're successful there will be a drowned beaver frozen stiff on the bottom of the ice. Pretty appetizing, eh? Nobody else wanted anything to do with this present. But I thought why waste this and besides maybe it's actually edible. I asked the caterer if the chef knew how to cook beaver tail and he said he did and that he recommended a wine sauce. So we sent the tails off to be stewed. What came back was possibly the most revolting thing I've ever seen or smelled. Although the presentation was pretty elegant. Not a recommended recipe.

Voyager: the green room: cleveland

Thursday, March 23

Palace Theater

Got a tour of the I.M. Pei building soon to be The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Dennis Barrie, the director, took us around in hard hats and we tried to imagine how this shell full of bare wires, cement mixers, and stacks of sheet rock would be transformed (by Labor Day!) into the high tech video and audio displays that he was describing. The building itself is daring, angular. They seem to have an awful lot of media and I'm curious what it will look like when it's put together. The whole idea of a rock and roll hall of fame, when you think of it like baseball or football, seems sort of sweet. Autographed tour jackets, pr photos, old videos, posters, vintage guitars and amps, all this stuff that has become memorabilia - how will that look in a museum that looks exactly like an art museum? Of course that's only a small part of the plan. The idea here seems to be to make a record of a cultural phenomenon. But will it seem as lively once it's enshrined in an institution? A couple of months ago, I went to the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in New York. Al Green, Janis Joplin, the Orioles, Frank Zappa were among the new members. And it was quite an evening. On the one hand it seemed like any other convention (How many shoes (records/stoves/cars) have you sold this year?) as well as a chance for record people to get together and say hello/party/gossip etc. On the other hand, it was almost a weird ceremony whose question was: What happens to old rock 'n rollers? Will they live on somehow? Will the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame preserve them for future generations or is pop culture really just disposable like the rest of the products? There were two answers that night. The first from the only surviving Oriole who came on stage and said he was sure that the other members of the group were "looking down from heaven" and that they were as grateful as he was for this great honor. The second from Zappa who was represented by his daughter Moon but also by himself in a haunting video made last year. He said (something like) "There are a lot of guys who spend their whole lives trying to arrange things so that they'll be remembered well- guys like Ron Reagan and Richard Nixon...but I don't give a damn if anybody remembers me - I really don't care if they do or not..." So which is it? The grateful Orioles looking down from heaven? Or Frank Zappa who says: Erase me.

Voyager: the green room: indianapolis

Friday, March 24

Murat Theater

Shriner auditorium with supposedly the world's biggest coffee maker in the basement. On investigation it seemed to be some kind of boiler, but then I'm not sure I'd recognize coffee on this scale.

Voyager: the green room: pittsburgh

Saturday, March 25

Palumbo Theater

Did the show in a sports center with a portable truss and again we had to improvise with the set - putting the fly beam on the edge of the stage. Pretty disorienting but then again I couldn't hear much of the show through the fog of a bad flu. It's strange to be singing and not able to hear what you're doing. Take a guess at what might be the pitch and hope for the best. Took a tour of the Warhol Museum. I'd forgotten about those silver pillows! A whole room full of them. Got to see Andy's teenage scrapbook - all movie stars, most of them virtually forgotten by now "To Andy - all the best!"

Voyager: the green room: cincinnati

Monday, March 27

Taft Theater

Been reading my e-mail. Thanks to Chris Spurgeon for the title of the book about cooking on the road: "Manifold Destiny." And to all the people who wrote with ideas about the theme park. Janet Hess's idea about making sure there were plenty of places to sleep is a great one!

Voyager: the green room: northampton

Thursday, March 30

Smith College

The show was in an auditorium that looked a lot like our high school assembly hall. Testing our smoke machines set off the fire alarm several times, a computer voice monotonously warning everyone of fire. Reminded me of Abbie Hoffman who talked about the meaning of yelling "Theater!" in a crowded fire.

Voyager: the green room: boston

Friday, March 31

The Orpheum Theater

Marvin Minsky, America's funniest and most creative intellectual, came to the show. When I first met him, maybe 1983/4, I remember having an amazing conversation with him about dogs and how they learn things. By the way "The Hidden Life of Dogs" is a pretty cool book that's been making the rounds here. The writer's idea was: we think we know everything about dogs since we use them in all kinds of experiments, but do we know where they go when they go out? Not really! So the author followed her dog, on foot and on her bike, and learned, among many other things, about how they navigate huge distances. The most disturbing thing to her was finding out that if given the opportunity, dogs genuinely prefer to be with other dogs as opposed to people and that they quickly drop their slavish, "empathetic" qualities when they find their true place within the pack.

Voyager: the green room: providence

Sunday, April 2

Veterans Memorial Auditorium

Talked to a few RISD students who were kicking off an art festival. Just wished there had been more time to find out what kind of work they were doing.

London

Jumped off the tour and went to London for a couple of days for the opening of "Self Storage," an installation I did with Brian Eno and some students from the Royal College of Art. It was in a huge u-store-it warehouse out near Wembley Stadium, one of those eerie deserted parts of town filled with huge clumps of concrete buildings, no people in sight.

My part in the show was pretty minimal really. I sent a bunch of recorded stories to Brian who cut them up and made them into a kind of narrative that pulls you through the installation. The building itself is a maze of various sized rooms. "A postmodern building," said Brian. Now there's a word I've never understood. But in this case it made sense. Because it describes something that's on the cusp- a situation that hasn't yet been described enough or understood enough to enter the lingo. And that situation is this: people don't live only in their houses or apartments. In London, especially, where the apartments are especially tiny, a lot of people store the rest of their stuff elsewhere. Indians like to keep their food- which they import from Indian via friends and family- in these units; there's a Japanese guy who keeps his porno collection there, visits it once a week. And so on. A huge warehouse stuffed with the stuff that just won't fit or that you want to hold onto and maybe sort through later. The exhibition was a wonderful conglomeration of things and sounds. Open one metal door and there was a huge mummy, courtesy of the British Museum. It was really great to see it in that context, which seemed more in the spirit of its original purpose- body storage. It had a lot more meaning and mystery somehow than when it's lit, placed, and labelled in a museum. Open another door and several electric drills pointing right at you suddenly start to screech and whiz around. Close it and they stop. In another room there's an odd metal curtain activated by an unobstrusive button. Push it and the wall moves away revealing a much larger, very dark room, its angles defined by glow tape. In another, several hundred alarm clocks are suspended almost to the floor by wires, their dials an eerie glow, their alarms occasionally going off.

The installation will be there for a few more weeks so check it out if you're gonna be in London.

Voyager: the green room: philadelphia

Wednesday, April 5

The Academy of Music

The Academy of Music is probably the most beautiful theater we've played in so far. Got a book of its history- the oldest continuously running opera house in the country. This town is really the home of "The Nerve Bible" since it was originally commissioned by the American Music Theater and an early version of it was performed for several nights at the Annenberg Center in the spring of 1993.

Voyager: the green room: new york

Thursday, April 6 through Sunday, April 9

The Neil Simon Theater

Played at the Neil Simon Theater here in my home town and the tickets were (gulp) $65!!! Sorry about that. Didn't even get comp tickets for my friends so I skulked around not answering my phone. Did a short piece for Channel 13's new art show based on seeing some of the pieces at a retrospective of performance art at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center. I can't remember the name now of the duo who did a very long piece about a piano. There was a grand piano covered with feathers and surrounded by plates. A Tibetan man with a small mic attached to his glasses explained that pianos get out of tune because they are possessed. Not by devils but by some sort of angels (he wasn't being very specific about what kind) but he was obviously annoyed with them because he took out a hatchet and began to chop the piano into tiny pieces. Which took quite a while. Meanwhile his German "wife," dressed like a Wagnerian bride, is strolling around talking about how much she hates spots and wrinkles, wrinkles and spots, and how she will get them out out out. After the piano has been reduced to splinters, the men in the audence are invited to break eggs into the plates and scramble them. Man, I really miss the 70's. There were so many of these truly mystifying performances. It never mattered to me what they meant. It still doesn't. I just like to watch and let my mind go wandering about. In fact, I'd be very disappointed if there were hidden meanings, if this was all in an obscure code that hid things that could have been said much more simply. I'm just pleased that people go to the trouble of making mysteries.

Voyager: the green room: washington

Tuesday, April 11 & Wednesday, April 12

The Lisner Auditorium

Tried to see the Holocaust Musuem but didn't have reservations and after seeing the one in Jerusalem I guess I was sort of relieved not to take it on today. My friend Richard said he thinks the fourth floor- dedicated to the rise of Nazism- is sort of a textbook for how to build the party and that he gets nervous watching the Nazis goose-stepping in their parades around D.C., because he imagines them just dropping in at the musuem and studying how to build ground support.

Voyager: the green room: asheville

Friday, April 14

The Thomas Wolfe Auditorium

Finally we're in what seems like an idyllic peaceful Southern town. That is until I noticed our hotel was right next to "Old Kentucky Home," 48 Spruce Street. I had wandered over there, drawn by the smell of freshly mown grass and curiosity at the turn of the century perfectly preserved architecture: clapboard with big old gables, sprawling porch with a bunch of rockers. It looked like the boarders in their bowlers had just stepped out for a minute. Then I noticed the rocking chairs were chained together and a plaque that said: "Home of Thomas Wolfe." And suddenly it came back to me...the controversy surrounding "Look Homeward Angel" in which Wolfe based many of his characters on folks in town and when the book came out, it gave clairvoyant meaning to his later book "You CanŐt Go Home Again." Small towns! You gotta love em. The inside stories, the gossip. When the book came out the townsfolk hit the ceiling. Wolfe himself saw it coming and wrote his attempt at an explanation.</p> "I am intensely sorry that the other people in Asheville have attempted to make the book an almanac of personal gossip, I think it is only fair that a book should be read in a writer's home town in the same spirit that it is read outside...Certainly I feel more strongly than ever the truth of the book's meaning- it is not written about people North, South, East, or West but about all the people who have ever lived- and that meaning is clearly put at the very beginning. It is that we are strangers, that we are born alone, live alone, and die alone, and that we never come to know one another."</p> Wolfe tried the "Write-about-what-you-know" defense. But since it was clearly "who-you-know" it didn't go over very well. It took the town many years to forgive him and it was F. Scott Fitzgerald who broke the ice. When he tried to get Wolfe's books at the library and was told they weren't available, he walked over to the bookstore, bought several copies and donated them to the library. By now all seems to be forgiven.

Voyager: the green room: atlanta

Saturday, April 15

Symphony Hall

Went over the CNN studios and did a "guest spot" on Space Ghost, the Cartoon Network's all-animated talk show. There was a human stand-in for the cartoon host and no sign of the cartoon house band. So it was really an act of faith to talk to these guys, trying to imagine what the set would look like once it's all animated (takes a month). The guest, in case you haven't seen the show, appears on a cartoon video monitor that hangs in the usual "guest" position (left of host) and attempts to answer questions like "What is your favorite color (and why?)." Gee, can't wait to see it!

Voyager: the green room: atlanta

Saturday, April 15

Symphony Hall

Voyager: the green room: knoxville

Sunday, April 16

The Bijou Theater

Played at the Bijou, a tiny hemp house with pictures of all the Sevier County greats hanging in the lobby- Dolly Parton among them represented by an oil painting and a dainty pair of high heeled boots with bows. Easter Sunday meant that the town was pretty closed down but we decided to take our chances on visiting Dollywood anyway, in nearby Pigeon Forge. We were about a week early and decided the $37 entry fee was a bit steep for a once around whirl so instead we went to an amazing place that I'd seen last time I'd been in town and swore I'd visit if I ever found myself in Pigeon Forge again. It's a ride- a huge cylinder with a wire floor. Under the floor there's an extremely powerful fan. You put on billowy nylon suits, they switch on the fan and you're lofted up into the air- fifteen feet or so. Exactly like flying. Exactly like your dreams. Flying is great and somehow flying on Easter is even better. Stopped by Cyberflix and saw their new projects. They're working on something about the Titanic and are building the wire frames now. They said it took only about two hours for the ship to sink and that that was also the length of the game but I'm not sure what the connection actually is. Also saw some scenes from "Dust," their new wild west game which has some beautiful spooky wind sounds.

Voyager: the green room: tampa bay

Tuesday, April 18

The Performing Arts Center

Got to try a Wave Runner (large Jetski) out on the bay. It's funny how the things you hate the most at a distance are actually the most fun. Jetskis are absolutely the most obnoxious (next to snowmobiles) machines out there. Spewing fuel, scaring the fish, shattering the silence. But the minute you get on one of them and open the throttle and start to skim over the glassy surface of the water until you feel like you're about to lift off, there's nothing like it. When I've watched them from the shore, it looks like people riding little wild ponies, bucking the waves. Riding on them is a lot more stable than it looks. And after a few minutes you forget what a pest you're being. I rode over to an island to take a closer look at a beautiful heron poised in an oyster bed and somehow I thought I'd be sneaking up on him. Then I remembered I sounded like a broken sportscar and that I'd surely scare him away. In fact, I didn't. The heron didn't move. Either he was deaf from the constant roar or just didn't care anymore, or worse, was completely accustomed to horrible loud noises and just assumed they were part of nature.

Voyager: the green room: fort lauderdale

Thursday, April 20

The Broward Center

Our last stop! We arrived a day early since the show in Orlando (at the Tupperware Convention Center!) was cancelled. The last time I was here was spring break in high school when a friend and I bullied her mother into taking us. We spent the whole time, naturally, trying to lose her. Things seemed to have mellowed here since then. More likely, actually, is that I've done the mellowing because the only thing I really wanted to do was Parasailing. And it's lovely up there in your rope chair sailing along, like the man who went up in his lawnchair. Probably the most privacy I've had in half a year. Came down and dropped in at the beach bar where the news on TV was all about the terrorist attack in Oklahoma City. Unimaginable. It didn't occur to me for a while that a long section of "The Nerve Bible" centers around the nightmare of surprise attack so I quickly made a lot of edits in the text. Observations like "Terrorists are the only true avant garde artists left because they're the only ones who are capable of really surprising people...." and so on, seemed so crude and beside the point in the face of the smashed building that had crushed so many people. Also deleted a long section about how to protect yourself from terrorists which in the light of the tragedy seems next to impossible.