Bjork

[candysays]

I don't think about Bjork much. I bought Debut and Post way back when but haven't listened to her since. But I did like this NYTimes feature on her. It's mostly about her music, which is very interesting, but also contains some more personal quotes:

Even those who ignore her music can’t forget her fashion statements, like the swan-shaped dress she wore to the 2001 Academy Awards. She also set down ostrich eggs along the red carpet. “People didn’t find it very funny,” she said. “They wrote about it like I was trying to wear a black Armani and got it wrong, like I was trying to fit in. Of course I wasn’t trying to fit in!”

Bjork is suspicious of the word pop, and doesn’t sell her songs to advertisers or accept sponsors for her tours. “I don’t want to be the conqueror of the world or be the most famous person on earth,” she said. “I’ve got no ambitions in that direction. Otherwise I would have done things very differently, I think.”

She also sings to her two children: her daughter and her son, Sindri, who is 20. In “My Juvenile,” a ballad accompanied by sparse clusters on a clavichord, she chides herself for the way she treated Sindri — “Perhaps I set you too free too fast too young” — while Antony sings “The intentions were pure” by way of reassurance. “You sort of let go too much when they’re 14,” Bjork said. “And then suddenly when they’re 16, you behave again like they’re 8. And then when they’re 18, you think they can fly across the world on their own. And then when they’re 20, you tell them off because they’re wearing a dirty jacket. It’s clumsy.”

[Ladybug]

I can't believe her son is 20. It seems like just yesterday she was whacking that reporter in Thailand for getting too close to him. Ah, memories.

[thecupcakekid]

I agree ladybug, I thought that was a typo. Twenty? Oy I feel old.

[GirlyGhoul]

And I remember when she wore her hair up in Mickey Mouse ears because she said it was the only thing that would get his attention.

[glitterbug]

I love her. I don't think I'll ever understand her, but I think she's glorious. I loved her swan dress and I love the name Sindri and her daughter's name Isadora.

[Deleted]

If you get a chance to borrow (or rent) one of her concert DVDs, do so. Not only do you get her awesome live performances -- for which I would pay any amount of money -- but there are usually extras and interviews and whatnot, which strip away the soundbite kookiness the entertainment media like to reinforce, and a fiercely intelligent and creative woman is revealed.

[Deleted]

Her South Bank Show interview on British TV in the late 90's was also amazing/one of the best doc's I have ever seen, especially when she would goto the lake with a strange musical instrument, just to make odd tunes that later become the backing for her tracks: www.amazon.ca/Bjork-South-Bank-Bj%C3%B6rk/dp/B0000E32W3

Sometimes it pops up on youtube too!

[Augustus]

Personally I never got the brooha about her swan dress. When I saw her appear on the red carpet in that, all I could think was "That's so Bjork." It fits so well with who she is, so the fact that in general people thought she was serious in her fashion choice just amused me. It just showed they had no idea who Bjork was, besides being this quirky singer from Iceland.

[kostgard]

I pretty much figured she wasn't serious when she laid an egg on the red carpet. That was kind of awesome.

Strange that this thread popped up now since Dancer in the Dark just came up on my Netflix queue and I watched it yesterday. The movie definitely had its flaws, but...damn. I can see why Bjork said she'd never do another movie - she definitely poured every fiber of her being into that role and had me crying like a baby.

[Deleted]

"I'm not that kind of mother" (Dancer in the Dark) == waterworks