《The Cultural Ambassador(Live)》歌词

歌曲： The Cultural Ambassador(Live)

所属专辑：The Ugly One With The Jewels And Other Stories

歌手： Laurie Anderson

时长： 06:47

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The Cultural Ambassador (Live) - Laurie Anderson[00:00:00]

Anyway I was in israel as a kind[00:00:00]

Of cultural ambassador[00:00:03]

And there were lots of press[00:00:06]

Conferences scheduled[00:00:07]

Around the performances[00:00:09]

The journalists usually started things off[00:00:10]

By asking about the avantgarde[00:00:13]

So what's so good about new they'd ask[00:00:16]

Well new is interesting[00:00:20]

And what they would say is so[00:00:25]

Good about interesting[00:00:27]

Well interesting is you know it's interesting[00:00:29]

It's like being awake you know[00:00:34]

I'm treading water now[00:00:37]

And what is so good about[00:00:38]

Being awake they'd say[00:00:39]

Finally I got the hang of this[00:00:41]

Never answer a question[00:00:43]

In israel always answer by asking[00:00:45]

Another question[00:00:47]

But the Israelis were vey curious[00:00:49]

About the gulf war[00:00:51]

And what americans had thought[00:00:52]

About it and I tried[00:00:53]

To think of a good question to[00:00:55]

Ask and answer to[00:00:56]

This but what was really on[00:00:57]

My mind was that the[00:00:58]

Week before I had myself[00:01:00]

Been testing explosives[00:01:02]

In a parking lot in tel aviv[00:01:04]

Now this happened[00:01:08]

Because I had brought some[00:01:09]

Small stage bombs[00:01:10]

To Israel as props for this[00:01:11]

Performance and the[00:01:14]

Israeli promoter was very interested in them[00:01:15]

And it turned out that he was on weekend duty[00:01:19]

On one of the bomb squads and bombs were[00:01:21]

Also something of a hobby during the week[00:01:24]

So I said[00:01:27]

Look you know these bombs are[00:01:28]

Nothing special just just a little smoke[00:01:30]

And he said well we can get much[00:01:32]

Better things for you[00:01:35]

And I said[00:01:37]

No really these are fine and he said[00:01:37]

No but it should be big theatrical[00:01:39]

It should make an impression I mean[00:01:42]

You really just the right bomb[00:01:44]

And so one morning he arranged to have[00:01:46]

About fifty small bombs delivered to a parking lot[00:01:48]

And since he looked on it as a sort of[00:01:52]

Special surprise[00:01:54]

Favor I couldn't really refuse so[00:01:55]

We are on this parking[00:01:59]

Lot testing the bombs and after[00:02:00]

The first few explosions[00:02:02]

I found I was really getting pretty interested[00:02:04]

They all had very different characteristics[00:02:09]

Some had fiery orange tails and[00:02:12]

Made these low paah[00:02:14]

Paah paah popping sound others[00:02:15]

Exploded mid air[00:02:17]

And left long smoky slinky trails[00:02:19]

And he had several[00:02:22]

Of each kind in case I needed to[00:02:23]

Review them all at the end[00:02:26]

And I'm thinking[00:02:27]

Here I am a citizen of the world's largest arms[00:02:29]

Supplier setting off bombs with the world's second[00:02:34]

Largest arms customer and I'm having a great time[00:02:37]

So even though the diplomatic part of the trip[00:02:45]

Wasn't going so well at least[00:02:47]

I was getting some instruction in terrorism[00:02:49]

And it reminded me of something in a book by[00:02:53]

Don deLillo about how terrorists[00:02:55]

Are the only true artists[00:02:58]

Left because they're the only ones who are still[00:02:59]

Capable of really surprising people[00:03:02]

And the other thing it reminded me of were all the[00:03:06]

Attempts during the gulf war to outwit[00:03:09]

The terrorists and I especially[00:03:11]

Remember an interesting[00:03:13]

Liist of tips devised by the us embassy in madrid[00:03:14]

And these tips were designed for americans[00:03:20]

Who found themselves in wartime airports[00:03:23]

The idea was not to call ourselves to the[00:03:26]

Attention of the numerous foreign terrorists[00:03:28]

Who were presumably lurking all over the terminal[00:03:31]

So the embassy tips were a list of mostly don'ts[00:03:34]

Things like don't wear a baseball cap[00:03:40]

Don't wear a sweat shirt with the name of[00:03:44]

An american university on it don't wear[00:03:47]

Timberlands with no socks don't chew gum[00:03:50]

Don't yell ethel our plane is leaving[00:03:55]

I mean it's weird when your entire culture[00:04:00]

Can be summed up in eight giveaway characteristics[00:04:03]

And during the gulf war I was traveling around[00:04:10]

Europe with a lot of equipment and all the airports[00:04:13]

Were full of security guards who would[00:04:16]

Suddenly point to a suitcase and start yelling[00:04:19]

Whose bag is this I wanna know right now[00:04:22]

Who owns this bag[00:04:25]

And huge groups of passengers would start[00:04:26]

Out for the bag just running around in circles like a[00:04:29]

Skud missile on its way in and I was carrying[00:04:32]

A lot of electronics so I had to keep unpacking[00:04:35]

Everything and plugging it in and demonstrating[00:04:38]

How it all worked and I guessed[00:04:41]

I did seem a little fishy[00:04:44]

A lot of this stuff wakes up displaying led program[00:04:46]

Readouts that have names like adam smasher and[00:04:49]

So it took a while to convince them that they[00:04:52]

Weren't some kind of espionage system[00:04:54]

So I've done quite a few of these sort of impromptu[00:04:58]

New music concerts for small groups of detectives[00:05:02]

And customs agents and I'd have to keep setting[00:05:06]

All this stuff up and they'd listen[00:05:11]

For a while and they'd say[00:05:12]

So uh what's this[00:05:14]

And I'd pull out something like this sayfilter and[00:05:17]

Now this is what I'd like to think[00:05:20]

Of as the voice of authority[00:05:23]

And it would take me a while to tell them[00:05:26]

How I used it for songs that were you know[00:05:29]

About various forms of control and they would say[00:05:32]

Now why would you want to talk like that[00:05:39]

And I'd look around at the and the undercover[00:05:46]

Agents and the dogs and the radio in the corner[00:05:50]

Tuned to the superbowl coverage of the war[00:05:54]

And I'd say take a wild guess[00:05:58]

Finally of course I got through with this after all[00:06:06]

American made equipment and the customs agents[00:06:10]

Were all talking about the effectiveness no the[00:06:13]

Beauty the elegance of the american[00:06:17]

Strategy of pinpoint bombing[00:06:20]

The high tech surgical approach which was being[00:06:23]

Reported by cnn as something between grand opera[00:06:27]

And the superbowl like the first reports before the[00:06:32]

Blackout when tv was live and[00:06:37]

Everything was heightened[00:06:41]

And it was so euphoric[00:06:43]

The Cultural Ambassador(live版) - Laurie Anderson[00:06:45]