Re: Excellent Birds

> Does anyone know the complete history behind "Excellent Birds"?

I don't know the whole story behind "Excellent Birds", but what I know I'll
pass along.  The first time I heard about "Excellent Birds" was some news
about LA and PG colaborating on a song that was to appear in Public TV.
This was as much as I knew until turning on the TV on January 1st, 1984,
and catching an add for "Good Morning, Mr. Orwell", a show that was to
feature PG and LA, as well as Oingo Boingo (one of my favorite bands),
Thompson Twins, a French Avante Garde group, Merce Cunningham, John Cage,
and more.  George Plimpton was the host, and the program was produced live
from New York, San Francisco and Paris.  (Still bleary eyed,) I decided to
tape the show which started at 2 PM.  It was a mind boggler.  It all started
with the "Excellent Birds" excellent video.  After this, Paris joined in and
we got to see the French Avante Guard group (I don't remember their name);
during their performance there were many apparent video problems, though I
think these were on purpose to accentuate the group's song ("Tell me can you
see me now ... I'm eating up your brain, TV's eating up your brain" or
something along those lines.  The show went on.  During it you had a chance
to see a brass orchestra that performed in space-like suits (looked like
full fencing gear), Merce Cunningham danced with his echoed image, a lady
played a cello built out of TVs (she was pretty terrible).  They tried
to do an intercontinental yoddle using the satellite delays to produce the
echoe, unfortunately they forgot to disable the echo-cancellers until after
the yoddle was over (this I believe was a true f*ck-up).  George Plimpton
introduced the John Cage menagerie by saying "It is said that listening to
John Cage is like chewing sand" (I'm sure that John would take this very
much as a complement).  Thompson Twins and Oingo Boinge performed a song
each.  Finally, what was to me the second highest point in the program
was Laurie Anderson doing the "This is your pilot speaking; have you lost
your dog?" piece,  I thought she was wonderful and I have been an admirer
of hers ever since (this was the first time I've seen or heard (of) her).
"Good Morning, Mr. Orwell" was quite a unique show, though it was a bit 
of a shock to the senses for that early in the afternoon on January 1st.

					Dan Vanevic
					Inuxj!rael

"As I cuddled the porcupine
 he said I had none to blame but me"