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Bicycle Diaries
Along with producing his own music and engaging with others through his label Luaka Bop, David Byrne continues to delve into the world of art and installations while regularly putting his thoughts into print. This is his seventh book - it’s a neat little hard back with a text punctuated by lots of snapshots. If the Motorcycle Diaries documented Che Guevara’s Latin American travels and the emergence of political commitment, David Byrne’s Bicycle Diaries is a more leisurely affair that allows us to engage with his thoughts and reflections on various cities around the world.
Byrne began cycling in New York City back in the early 80s and a hazardous business it was back in the day. Though he kicks off the book with other American cities, he appropriately leaves his own town to the last chapter and it’s on his home ground that he’s at his most pro-active. The New Yorker-sponsored event he organized at the celebrated Town Hall brought out his own quirky humour (check the helmet designs and street sculpture bike racks!) and must have had its moments. I can definitely imagine Eddie Gonzalez and the Classic Riders rolling onto the stage on their antique accessorized Schwinn bikes, boomboxes blazing salsa and merengue…blow those horns!
Byrne has a bike with full size wheels that folds away into a suitcase. It’s this that he takes with him on tour or to various exhibitions where he’s involved as a curator or participant. It’s from the vantage point of a bicycle seat that we get to explore different aspects of cities like Berlin, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, Manila, Sydney, London and San Francisco. Being on a bicycle immediately dictates a set of priories. Not least of all one’s personal safety. But he shares with most cyclists that cavalier attitude which pushes one into the unknown. As a musician and artist he has actively been travelling the world since New York’s new wave arrived in the mid 70s. He has a host of interesting friends and contacts plus he has eye for the obscure and the bizarre. The fact that he’s willing to hop on his bike and head off for a particular destination – the Topkapi Palace in Instanbul (to see its harem museum and discover an incredible display of religious relics), Karl Marx Alee in Berlin (in search of Stasiland), the Malacanang Palace in Manila (the former residence of Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos), the Taqueia Cancun outside San Francisco (incredible tacos and burritos) – is great.
In all these cities he dips in and out of suburbs exploring and encountering that which you inevitably miss if driving. He loves art and architecture and readily speculates on the political and theological nature of all things. There is always a quiet element of surprise at work. Though Byrne fans may be hoping for a strong musical thread to underpin the book they won’t find it. Of course there’s music in the mix, especially in Buenos Aires (the City of Vampires) where he encounters Charly Garcia and Mercedes Sosa. There’s a festival in Istanbul that’s on, then it’s off and then on again…There are discussions in Berlin about the future or lack of future for the CD. And he does, to my delight, give techno (with its repetitive metronomic thump) a bit of a dissing. This is not a roller coaster ride. It is a book aimed at those who cycle. It assesses each city in relation to cycling and the future of cycling. He simply takes us along for the ride and we get a taste of what people now define as cultural tourism. That said, David Byrne has got a refined and challenging palette and that makes the world portrayed in the Bicycle Diaries a more interesting place.
Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne is published by Faber.
Paul Bradshaw / Straight No Chaser
cultural tourism book bicycle
// ALSO
- 21st Century, 21st Year
- The No-Nonsense Guide To World Music
- Nobody, "Jerusalem"
- Womex !
- New Awards for World Music
- WOMAD at the TOWER OF LONDON 19 & 20 September 2009 - win tickets!
- Darbar Festival, Darbar | Arts Culture Heritage – Book
- City Sounds : London, City Sounds: London
- Maga Bo, Interview
// ALL DAVID BYRNE'S REVIEWS
Bicycle Diaries
16/09/2009
// DISCOGRAPHY
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David Byrne (Album)// BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bicycle Diaries (Book)
Faber -2009
>> Read review
// LINKS
RELATED ARTISTS
>> Luaka Bop
>> Caetano Veloso
>> Lansine Kouyate
>> David Neermann
>> Kouyaté - Neerman
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