Bike Portland has the scoop on an upcoming event from Mr. Big Suit himself, David Byrne. Not long after he melted our hearts at the Schnitzer, Byrne rolls into Portland to promote his new book, Bicycle Diaries. Teaming with Powell’s, the September 30th event is entitled “Where We’re Going and Where We’ve Been – Bicycles, Cities and Transportation in Portland” and will take place at an intersection that I am utterly afraid to ride my bike down, Hawthorne and 37th (at the Bagdad Theater, to be exact).
Copy and paste that press release here:
From David Byrne, the renowned musician and visual artist, comes Bicycle Diaries —part travelogue, part journal, part photo album—a behind-the-handlebars celebration of seeing the world from the seat of a bike.
Byrne is fascinated by cities, especially as visited on a trusty fold-up bicycle. In Bicycle Diaries, musings from his years cycling through such places as Sydney, Australia; Manila, Philippines; San Francisco; or his home of New York, the former Talking Head offers his frank views on urban planning, art and postmodern civilization in general.
Joining Byrne for a conversation on Portland’s bicycle culture are Mia Birk (Alta Planning & Design), Jonathan Maus (BikePortland.org), and Timo Forsberg (City of Portland Transportation Options Division).
Tickets go on sale on the 29th and will set you back $26 (but that gets you a copy of Bicycle Diaries and priceless indie cred). After the show, Byrne will set up some sweet BMX jumps outside the Bagdad and watch a screening of Rad in my living room.
i have rad on vhs
Ironically, unlike his biodiesel bus tours with his band (the joys of which he just wrote about on his blog, which include arriving in new towns in the Am and having all day to ride around), this book tour is a jet-setting one – we in Seattle get him the day after Austin, then San Francisco-Portland-LA.