Today, we say goodbye to Talking Heads Tuesday with a few odds and ends collected from the web.
1.
Would you like to know David Byrne's take on the current situation in Egypt? Now you don't have to wonder.
2.
From the very timely, to an idea whose time may never come...
I've always thought of Talking Heads as the band that will not reunite. Between artistic reasons (Byrne has moved on), acrimony (Tina says that David "doesn't love her") and motivation (these guys were never really in it for the money), there seems to be enough signficant barriers to staging a reunion, that fans will have to settle for solo tours and Tom Tom Club.
Though I wouldn't put any money on a Police or Van Halen style world tour anytime soon, I was surprised to learn that the core four had gotten together (and even performed) post break-up. Here is the evidence:
The band doing a presser a Stop Making Sense reissue...
Their performance at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2002...
3.
Finally, here's a quote that always sticks with me when I think of the concept of "cool nerd".
Lisa: Nerds are nothing to fear, Dad. In fact, some nerds of note include popcorn magnate Orville Redenbacher, rock star David Byrne, and Supreme Court Justice David Souter.
Homer: Oh no! Not Souter! (buries face in hands) Oh nooo!
Rummaging around in the dark corners of the Internet, I found two things that are worth sharing which elevates David Byrne to "super cool nerd". First, and interesting TED talk, which explores the theory that the acoustics of the places where music is perform actually influences the type of music that is written by performers in those spaces. Here him recount the days of Talking Heads in CBGB and explain why arena rock sounds "that way", while acknowledging the magnficent halls constructed for symphonic music. Makes you think...
And finally, we all know Byrne is a visual artist as well as a musician. I remember seeing an article in Wired several years ago which explored an exhibition curated by him called Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information -- but I'll call it what it is: PowerPoint art.
It's amazing that something as soul-crushing and flacid as business oriented presentation software can be subverted to create interesting art that says as much about the medium as it does the artist. Some examples are included below.
