The Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed-curated Vivid LIVE festival continues at the Sydney Opera House this week, with performances from Anderson every day for the rest of the week and through the weekend. Tonight and tomorrow night at the Opera House's Drama Theatre, she performs Transitory Life. On Thursday, she will offer selections from her new work, Delusion, followed by a Slow Music Night concert with The Blind Boys of Alabama, My Brightest Diamond, Mark Ribot, and others on Friday; the world premiere of Music for Dogs, her collaboration with Reed and their dog Lollabelle, on Saturday; and a day of film and music on Sunday.

Here at Nonesuch, the countdown to the June 22 release of Homeland, Anderson's first studio album in nearly a decade, continues with the second in a five-video series featuring Fenway Bergamot, Anderson's male alter ego. The series launched last Tuesday with Bergamot examining the financial crash of 2008. In today's segment, "Pictures and Things," he talks about the cultural shift that has taken place over the past few decades towards the abstract, as money has transitioned to numbers on a screen and pictures have replaced the things they represent. Hear it straight from Bergamot and find out what Richard Nixon has to do with it all at nonesuch.com/media.

"Pictures and Things" is also the title of the non-album track, featuring Antony Hegarty, on the B-side of the limited-edition "Only an Expert" 12" vinyl single, available now. To pick up a copy of the single or pre-order Homeland, head to the Nonesuch Store.