Puppet Motel (PC / Mac CD-Rom) [CD-ROM]

Laurie Anderson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1581250401 | ISBN-13: 978-1581250404 | Publication Date: October 15, 1998 | Edition: Mac/Windows

Crafted by cutting-edge performance artist/musician Laurie Anderson and designed by Hsin-Chien Huang, this CD-ROM eschews the gaming conventions of most interactive CD-ROMs in favor of casting the user adrift on an ocean of repeated images, ubiquitous voices, and mesmerizing rhythms. Navigating PUPPET MOTEL is a challenge in itself; the map is your memory of what you've already seen, with objects functioning as signposts. This surreal experience includes plenty of music by Laurie Anderson and is linked to her website where the user can download videos, pick up hints, share discoveries, and view information on her upcoming projects and performances.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A wild, wondrous romp into the darker reaches of the surreal realm." -- Billboard

"Creatively, it should do for CD-ROMs what the Beatles' 'Sergeant Pepper' did for rock'n'roll." -- National Public Radio

"PUPPET MOTEL is the work of a true artist...it's complexity challenges your mind, and its offbeat humor makes you laugh." -- Computer Shopper

About the Author

Laurie Anderson is a Grammy-nominated, critically lauded performance artist/musician, whose enormous volume of work defies category. She has performed all over the world, and worked in many media with with many different artists, such as William S. Burroughs, Spalding Gray, Jonathan Demme, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Gidon Kremer, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, and Andy Kaufman, to name only some. She graduated from Columbia University with an MFA in sculpture, and was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

Previous Record Albums: Brighter Red (with Brian Eno) Strange Angels Home of the Brave Mister Heartbreak Gravity's Angel (Grammy nominated); Big Science The Talking Book

Previous Books: Words in Reverse Stories from the Nerve Bible

Product Details

• CD-ROM
• Publisher: Learn Technologies Interactive Llc; Mac/Windows edition (October 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581250401
• ISBN-13: 978-1581250404
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,854,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spooky and mind-altering, September 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Puppet Motel (PC / Mac CD-Rom) (CD-ROM)

At first I was a bit perplexed by a CDROM that's more an interactive objet-d'art than a game; and in the first night I played with this for like eight hours, until I thought I'd played it to death and would never touch it again. But I found its strange imagery coming back to me, and I tinker with it more and more now, sometimes just to hear the interesting background music, of which there is a LOT.

The packaging for this CD says it contains over two hours of instrumental music or spoken word performance, and it's true. Some of the music I recognize from "Ugly One With The Jewels", and some of it was even background music that Laurie Anderson did for Spalding Grey's movie "Swimming to Cambodia" (and as far as I know, no soundtrack CD was ever released of that).

If you find yourself wanting to hear the music on its own, it's straightforward to sift thru the CDROM's directories, find the AIFC files (*.AIF), decompress them (easy on a Mac with SoundApp -- I don't know what you'd use for handling AIFCs on other platforms), and burn them to audio CD for your personal listening fun. Now, there's not many CDROMs where the music is so good that you'd want to do that! But this is sure one of them.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, October 30, 1999

By 

Douglas J. Mihok (Kalifornya) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Puppet Motel (PC / Mac CD-Rom) (CD-ROM)

When I bought this I was a little worried it would be out of date because it is a few years old, but WOW! Incredible, awesome, always surprising, entertaining. I love it more than her CDs!

6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazon can't supply . . ., January 26, 2006

By 

Robin Whittle (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Puppet Motel (PC / Mac CD-Rom) (CD-ROM)

I would love to be able to review this CD-ROM, but 2 1/2 months
after placing my order, Amazon wrote that they could not supply
it.

So why does Amazon still have it for sale?

Clicking the "used and new" link, I find some used versions for
more than the "new" price". It seems there was originally a
Macintosh only version, and then a Windows/Mac version.
A "new" Mac/Windows version is available from Amazon seller
"amana2" for USD$225.

Googling indicates that the Voyager company which produced
"Puppet Motel" no longer exists. I can't find a mention of it at
Laurie Anderson's site, though apparently in the past there was
a reference, pointing to Amazon as the place to purchase the
CD-ROM.

"Puppet Motel" is highly regarded, so I gave it five stars in
absentia. But Amazon deserves a negative number of stars for
pretending to be able to supply it.