{"id":940,"date":"2004-11-23T10:48:15","date_gmt":"2004-11-23T18:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2004\/11\/song_of_the_week\/"},"modified":"2004-11-23T10:48:15","modified_gmt":"2004-11-23T18:48:15","slug":"song_of_the_week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2004\/11\/song_of_the_week.html","title":{"rendered":"SONG OF THE WEEK"},"content":{"rendered":"

When “Cybeline” had its world premiere last March in Los Angeles at the Walt Disney Hall
\nconcert complex, I offered a rundown about its authors<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>, a
\ncouple of friends of mine — composer-musicologist-technical-wizard Bill Osborne and
\nsinger-actress-artist-lyricist-musician Abbie Conant. The premiere, a multimedia music-theater
\nperformance, was part of the cutting-edge REDCAT Musical Exploration Series<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>.
\n

<\/P>
\n

According to Osborne’s program notes:<\/P>
\n


\n

Cybeline is about a cyborg trying to be a talk show host to prove she is
\nhuman. It is about nature, virtual reality, biotechnology, and the mass media — and about finding
\nthe heart and poetry in technology as it also contemplates its horrors. What does a fifty-year-old
\nstructure of silicon have to teach a five-billion-year-old structure of carbon?<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/P>
\n

The reply is a mixed-media message involving:<\/P>
\n


\n

Schubert Lieder, the Egyptian Goddess Maat, Native American poetry,
\ndismemberment, trombone playing, a cyborg talkshow host, a talking hand, sacred cartoons, a
\nvengeful opera singer, a martyred math geek, Hildegard von Bingen, fighter jets, commercials for
\nsynthetic flesh, cyborgian attack dogs, and personality-enhancement chips, psalms, a country
\nwestern song, Mother Nature, and a tribute to Joni Mitchell . . . all integrated into a 45-minute,
\nsurround-sound, mini opera with computer-generated accompaniment, video and live
\nelectronics.<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/P>
\n

<\/A>This morning it is a pleasure to bring you the
\ncountry-western song from “Cybeline” called “Number-Crunchin’ Cowboy.<\/FONT>“<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> The lyrics and cartoons are by Conant, who also does the
\nsinging. The music, video and sound design are by Osborne.<\/P>
\n

(Turn up the sound level on your computer, click on the song title, follow the lyrics, and
\nenjoy.)<\/P>
\n

“NUMBER-CRUNCHIN’
\nCOWBOY”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A><\/I><\/P>
\n

Just the other day I was surfin’ on the bay
When a big roan horse came a gallopin’
\nmy way
The cowboy on his back had a rhinestone power mac
And I could clearly hear
\nhe was callin’ out my number<\/I><\/P>
\n

He’s a number crunchin’ cowboy,
And if I calculate just right
He’ll be workin’ at
\nmy keyboard
His arms around me tight.
<\/I><\/A><\/I><\/P>
\n

He’s a number crunchin’ cowboy,
He’s the man up on my screen,
He’s the best of
\nall statistics,
He’s the email of my dreams.


He’s no Microsoft when we
\nhead up to the loft.
He’s the best programmer out of greater Albuquerque.
Exchangin’
\ngigabytes on his laptop late at night,
He’s got my heart on-line and I’m learnin’ some
\ntrigonometry.

He’s a number crunchin’ cowboy,
And if I calculate just
\nright
He’ll be workin’ at my keyboard
His arms around me tight.
<\/I>
Back
\nnext week after the Thanksgiving weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When “Cybeline” had its world premiere last March in Los Angeles at the Walt Disney Hall concert complex, I offered a rundown about its authors, a couple of friends of mine — composer-musicologist-technical-wizard Bill Osborne and singer-actress-artist-lyricist-musician Abbie Conant. The premiere, a multimedia music-theater performance, was part of the cutting-edge REDCAT Musical Exploration Series. According […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-fa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}