If you’re a New Yorker, you might have seen David Byrne cruising around the city on a bike. It’s been his primary mode of transportation since the ‘80s. Taking it one step further, after discovering folding bikes a few decades ago he’s since been traveling around the world with them on a regular basis. Awesome.
If you’ve spent any amount of time pedaling through a city no doubt the greatest thing about the whole experience is the change of perspective. There’s something about riding a bike that gets you in touch with the inner workings and rhythms of a city’s geography and population. There’s an intimate link between city and cycle. The buildings, the stores, the people, alleyways … Bikes have a way of making a familiar landscape and environment (too often ravaged and noxious) seem not-so-familiar.
The recently released Bicycle Diaries chronicles David’s observations and insights—what he is seeing, whom he is meeting, what he is thinking about—as he pedals through and engages with some of the world’s major cities. In places like Buenos Aires, Istanbul, San Francisco, and London, the focus is more on the musicians and artists he encounters. Politics comes to the fore in cities like Berlin and Manila, while chapters on New York City, and on the landscaped suburban industrial parks and contemporary ruins of such spots as Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Columbus are more concerned with history in the urban landscape. Along the way, DB has thoughts to share about fashion, architecture, cultural isolation, globalization, and the radical new ways that some cities, like his home town, are becoming more bike-friendly—all conveyed with a highly personal mix of humor, curiosity, and humanity.
Being a big bicycle advocate, civic leader, urban theorist and all that jazz, David Byrne will be speaking for about 10 minutes followed by a Q&A with audiences. This isn’t a book reading, though.
22 September @ 7pm, New York, NY Barnes & Noble, Union Square
27 September @ 7pm Austin, TX Paramount Theater
28 September @ 7:30pm Seattle, WA Town Hall
29 September @ 8pm San Francisco, CA Herbst Theater
30 September @ 7pm Portland, OR Bagdad Theater
2 October @ 8pm Los Angeles, CA Aratani Theater
23 October Ottawa, Canada The Ottawa Writers’ Festival
24 October Toronto, Canada International Festival of Authors
Here’s a video David Byrne made a few years back on his way to his “How New Yorkers Ride Bikes” event. From a bicycle seat perspective, of course.
[podcast format=”video”]http://www.davidbyrne.com/journal/misc/10_07_07_DB_bike_video.mov[/podcast]
