Bicycle Diaries

David Byrne, by Bike, Makes Sense of How We Live

Wherever David Byrne travels, on tour as a musician or pursuing other creative interests, he brings along his folding bicycle.

Byrne, best known as the leader of the iconic new wave band Talking Heads, is an avid urban cyclist. Bicycling -- meandering, exploring, just getting from place to place -- has become his "panoramic window" on life around the globe. He explains: "Through this window I catch glimpses of the mind of my fellow man, as expressed in the cities he lives in."

Each chapter of Byrne's new book, Bicycle Diaries, centers on a major city: London, Buenos Aires, Manila, etc. The book might be labeled a travelogue, or an enthusiastic piece of bicycle advocacy or a meditation on cities as embodiments of our collective psyche. However, most of all, page by page, it reads as a peek into the thought processes of an exceptionally creative individual. The worth of such an inside view could be measured by Byrne's success as a composer, performer, filmmaker and visual and conceptual artist.

In each chapter Byrne arrives in a new city, rides around and records a free association of ideas stimulated by the things he sees and people he meets. Open this book at random and you will inevitably find an amusing, thought-provoking or intriguing passage.

An exhibit of Soviet magazine layouts from the 1930s sets him to pondering history, hindsight and context; dinner with a Berlin gallery owner leads to a consideration of ephemeral beauty versus absolute beauty; the behavior of dogs at the Buenos Aires waterfront generates questions about human violence and posturing. Readers can follow Byrne from idea to idea to idea -- sharing in the busy life of the mind that consumes him as he wanders through the urban landscapes of the world. His skill as a writer is to keep all of this interesting almost all of the time.

The section headings that subdivide each chapter, such as "Ugly Modern Buildings as Religious Icons" or "Being Your Own Billboard" imply an ironic pose, but Byrne's actual thoughts and observations always read as earnest and honest without any layers of self-consciousness artiness.

He does not do much to bring to life the actual experience of physically riding a bike through so many cities. Nor does he do much to bring the cities to life as lived-in places. As a writer he is not very visual and does not go deep into the physical or emotional detail of the moment -- he is constantly distracted by the life of the mind.

Taken in its entirety, Bicycle Diaries comes into focus as something more than just a personal journal of ideas. It reaches toward a vision of a better world -- the big picture of the book shows us a David Byrne who truly cares about the shape and meaning of all of our lives. With biking as his own personal focal point, he succeeds in making us see our cities as an essential part of who we are -- making it an imperative that we think about, and work toward, ways to improve our living environments.

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