America

O Superman, Are You Our Mother?

Thanks to @BronwynFryer for bringing this unforgettable weird song to our attention. Laurie Anderson grew up in Illinois but reached fame in the UK as a performing artist. In this, you’ll see why. She wrote O Superman! in the midst of the Iran hostage crisis; a rescue helicopter had just crashed and burned. Don’t settle for fake fixes, she’s saying; electronics and war machines won’t save us. It’s especially pertinent now as technology’s billionaires grow bigger and more numerous while the natural world around us, the real mother, is dying by inches. A PBS special on Extinction points out that at least ten percent of insects are gone. So what? you say—but insects are food for birds and fish, and birds and fish are dying too, and birds and fish are food for….uh-oh. It’s time to put our faith in our real Mother, the earth and her life cycle, or it' is us who will crash and burn. Her album, BIG SCIENCE, is just being re-released. Leave a message at the tone!