About the Book:In this eloquent and passionate volume, Bob Ostertag explores the common ground and points of friction among music, creativity, politics, culture, and technology. In terrain ranging from the guerrilla underground in El Salvador’s civil war to the drag queen underground in San Francisco and New York, these essays combine journalism and autobiography to explore fundamental questions of what art is and what role it can occupy in a violent and fragmented world, a world in which daily events compromise the universality toward which art strives. Drawing on his intimate engagement with political conflict in Latin America and the Balkans, Ostertag identifies an art of “insurgent politics” that struggles to expand the parameters of the physical and social world. He also discusses his innovative collaborations with major modern performers, filmmakers, and artists around the world. Part memoir, part journalism, and part aesthetic manifesto, Creative Life is a dazzling set of writings from a musical artist who has worked on the cutting edge of new music for thirty years.Table of Contents: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiINTRODUCTION 1 Art and Politics after September 11 2 Early Years 151. CENTRAL AMERICA 25 El Salvador, 1988: Absolute Diabolical Terror 25Sooner or Later 38 Nicaragua 1990: Power Outage 40 Creative Politics 542. THE BALKANS 69 The Balkans 2000: Tour Journal 69 Program Notes for Yugoslavia Suite 1013. QUEERS 105Desert Boy on a Stick105All the Rage, Spiral, and PantyChrist 115 Why I work with Drag Queens 1304. MUSIC AND MACHINES 134Between Science and Garbage 134 Living Cinema Manifesto 147 Human Bodies, Computer Music 149 Why Computer Music Is So Awful 159CONCLUSION 163 The Professional Suicide of a Recording Musician 163NOTES 173BIOGRAPHY 177SOURCES 187CREDITS 190INDEX 191