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David Byrne on bikes, whore houses and crazy smart termites last night at ANS
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David Byrne on bikes, whore houses and crazy smart termites last night at ANS
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| Chris Buck |
| I <3 PowerPoint. |
I've been to Academy of Natural Sciences forums before, so I know that PowerPoint presentations are the norm … but still, was anyone else surprised when David Byrne started clicking off slide after slide?
Last night's bike lecture, led by the Talking Heads co-founder and author of Bicycle Diaries (Viking, $25.95) — which was only OK, despite what they tell you, and I'm a bike head — began a little late. There was a video montage of bikes in cinema (The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, unidentifiable '80s movies, etc.) to keep the audience placated, though. Then, at around 6:30, Byrne took to the stage, in a black button-up shirt and loose, comfy-looking black pants, looking as dapper as ever. Byrne hasn't really aged at all — he looks the same as he did 20 years ago, but with gray hair.
I was only able to stay for an hour, but here's what I learned:
— While writing Bicycle Diaries, the three books Byrne thought about most were Michael Sorkin's Twenty Minutes in Manhattan, Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and Christopher Alexander's The Timeless Way of Building.
— Termits build high rises in Australia.
— Frank Lloyd Wright may have made many beautiful buildings, but dude had wack ideas about how cities should look. He essentially wanted there to be a few skyscrapers dotted on various plots of farmland. In other words, no community.
— The General Motors pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair was frightening. They wanted highways everywhere. They got 'em.
— Byrne is fairly confident that cities will be less car-focused and more people- and bike-focused in the future. He kept uttering things like, "It will probably change soon, I hope" and "Some of the cities might come back."
— Italy seems like the perfect country to bike in (because of the small streets).
— In L.A., the actual streets are so anti-pedestrian that they build artificial streets.
— Byrne called the floating whore houses in Utretch "charming." It was funnier then than it sounds now.
Sadly, I had to leave after that. Cloggers, if you went, how was the roundtable discussion afterward?
RELATED: Head Over Wheels: David Byrne on what'll make Philly a great bike city, once and for all
Ah, yes, the city of Italy.
Oops. Thanks for catching that, Pete. All fixed.
David was good. The other panelists were better. Shame because his star power is what drew many to this event. Compliments to Alex,Ignacio,and Julie
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