I have several memories tied up with this album and the film of the same name, which was clearly intended to do for Laurie Anderson what Stop Making Sense
1. Buying the album as soon as it came out, and feeling disappointed by it after the previous ones. I didn't really get the first track. And a couple of the others seemed to be just souped up versions of old material from United States. (I still feel the same way.)
2. Getting tickets to see Laurie Anderson at the Hammersmith Odeon (she was no longer playing Hammersmith's Riverside Studios, where she performed United States two or three years previously — how I wish I'd been there), and going to the phone box on Bridge Street to call Directory Enquiries for the number of the box office. Just before they answered, a number flashed into my head 01 748 4081. Which turned out to be the number Directory Enquiries gave me a few seconds later. No telepathy involved, just memory; but I calculated that I had only called that number twice before in my life, and not for over three years. That's when I realised I had an unusual talent. I know it's slightly Rain Man to be able to do that, but there you go. My other unusual talent is being able to curl my upper lip into a sneer on both sides of my face. I have yet to find a way to convert either skill into a lucrative income stream.
3. The gig itself, starting very well with the very same Hansel and Gretel song that I mentioned at the very beginning. And Laurie came down off the stage, dropping things from her pockets into the hands of the audience. I had an aisle seat, and somewhere I still have the AA battery she gave me. Then I got slightly disappointed, because, like this record, I felt there was too much show and not enough performance art. At one point a song from the film was screened (the one where she plays drums secreted about her body) and Laurie Anderson mostly just watched it with us. Of course, that was performance art.
4. A few weeks later, the afternoon after we finished finals, L, drunk in the gardens of Sidney Sussex trying to explain, I think, that she'd heard Language is a Virus from Outer Space on the radio and liked it. But the only words she could articulate were "language" and "virus".
5. Following the line in White Lily, "What Fassbinder film is it where the one-armed man goes into the flower shop…?", I stayed up late watching Channel 4's Fassbinder season to find the answer. I never did, and still don't know to this day. I'd still like to know, but don't have the commitment any more.
6. Travelling to Bradford in the dark weeks following your wedding to see the one-off screening of Home of the Brave, the film, at the IMAX cinema there. I was hoping for a special extra-widescreen presentation, but all we got was a regular film projected onto the middle of a very big screen. I had to get a coach from Sheffield station to Bradford, stopping in Leeds or Wakefield on the way. The round trip took around eight hours, all in the service of a 90-minute film. And Bradford Bus Station's not a great place to hang around late on a Saturday evening.
As I said, I'm not so committed to tracking down culture these days. Or maybe I just don't have quite as much time on my hands.
p.s. much quicker than watching loads of Fassbinder films, use Google. This wonderful FAQ tells me the film in question is Berlin Alexanderplatz — not actually a film, but a TV series that goes on for ages, so no wonder I didn't track it down.
The FAQ also explains:
[The Home of the Brave video is] out of print, and very difficult to find. I get people asking me how they can get it all the time. The only advice I can give is to ask stores and ask around, but if you need to see it see it on laserdisc. Write WB and tell them you want it back on video-- they will if enough people request it.
I've got a copy. Just don't have a video player any more.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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