David Byrne always presents something new, something interesting, all wrapped in a consistent and genuine funky catchiness. He’s posted an mp3 of his song My Fair Lady to OurMedia, has a new album of opera-influenced songs and has been writing an online journal. From the latter, there’s introspection and honesty not common among his peers:
On reading Bob Dylan’s book
It’s beautifully written, though I think it should probably be filed under fiction. I always thought his persona, which early on was that of a young Woody Guthrie, was just that, a persona. … (Call me skeptical, but a Jewish guy from Minnesota talking and writing like a backwoods hick/poet, huh? What’s that about?)
On a Pixies show in NYC:
Charles had on some black eyeliner which I couldn’t see from my seat. (Michael Stipe does this too, is this something I should know about?) From the audience I thought it made him look like an Aztec or Mayan God, calmly but loudly issuing baffling cosmic pronouncements mixed with pain and rage.
On traffic in Southern California:
I wonder if people here realize that the rest of the world doesn’t live like this? I wonder if, as all this traffic just gets worse and worse year after year, if people will eventually confine themselves exclusively to their home communities – people in Silverlake will NEVER go to Santa Monica and vice verse, hell, people in Santa Monica will probably eventually stop going to west LA!. The area will revert to little isolated villages. It’s already somewhat like that, but as gas doubles and quadruples in price, as it’s bound to do in the not too distant future, well, then only the wealthy will be able to suffer these hellish commutes.