David Byrne's Profile

We biked to a spot just downriver from the Jax Brewery where we could access the levee and see the city fireworks. We arrived a few minutes before midnight and found places to sit on the rocks that face the... Continue reading

Posted Jan 22, 2014 at David Byrne's Journal

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1.17.14: Update—The Impossibility of Security

A little while ago, I wrote here that when news broke that Target's database of credit card numbers had been hacked, 40 million cards were compromised. It was also claimed that no PIN numbers were stolen. Neither of those claims... Continue reading

Posted Jan 17, 2014 at David Byrne's Journal

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12.28.13: NOLA Part 2

What Divides Us New Orleans is wonderful; the folks are generally generous, talkative and enjoy life. Black folks and white folks mix and come in contact with one another more than in many other US cities. But it’s also the... Continue reading

Posted Jan 15, 2014 at David Byrne's Journal

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12.25.13: NOLA Part 1

My daughter and some of her friends rented a whole house in the Bywater neighborhood here through AirBnB—it’s a shotgun house with peeling paint and three bedrooms with a FEMA inspection sign spray-painted on the front: What do the symbols... Continue reading

Posted Jan 3, 2014 at David Byrne's Journal

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12.24.13: You Are The Target

A few days ago Target revealed that they’d been hacked—beginning before Thanksgiving and ending December 15th. 40 million credit and debit cards were compromised: names, numbers and expiration dates. The name of the store now seems prescient. Earlier incidences of... Continue reading

Posted Dec 24, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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Well Composed

A few years ago, when I was on tour performing the collaborative record I did with Brian Eno, one of the dancer/musicians with me passed on a request from a guy named Jherek Bischoff. Jherek was asking if I'd write... Continue reading

Posted Dec 17, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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12.03.13: No More Records

These days, it’s common to hear talk of the demise of recorded music as a source of income for musicians and the concurrent re-emergence of live performance as the primary way that we will hear and experience music (and by... Continue reading

Posted Dec 5, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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11.26.13: Diversify!

I went out to Corona Plaza in Queens this morning to be supportive of the neighborhood DOT’s neighborhood plaza partnership initiative that is expanding to the outer boroughs. There are a number of these pop-up plazas in Manhattan, the largest... Continue reading

Posted Dec 3, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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11.20.13: Smithsonian Award—Engine You-ity

A while back I got asked to present Annie Clark with a Smithsonian Ingenuity Award. I immediately said yes. The ceremony was Tuesday night in D.C., at the Kogod Courtyard of the National Portrait Gallery. The courtyard is a pretty... Continue reading

Posted Nov 26, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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11.05.13: A Tangled Web We Weave

What’s coming next from the NSA? Source Here are some of the names of the NSA surveillance programs: Dishfire Prism Snack Polar Breeze TAO Tracfin Transgression Whitetamale EgotisticalGiraffe Moneyrocket Yachtshop Steelflauta Stormbrew Blarney Sharkfinn Keystone Twistedpath Messiah Pinwale Blazingsaddles Nevershakeababy... Continue reading

Posted Nov 19, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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11.04.13: Fair and Balanced

About a week ago, there was a discussion between former New York Times editor Bill Keller and Glenn Greenwald, who wrote a lot of The Guardian pieces based on the Snowden leaks. Greenwald and Laura Poitras were also Snowden’s conduits.... Continue reading

Posted Nov 11, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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10.05.13: Back in NYC

Rode my bike all the way up to the cloisters to catch Janet Cardiff’s re-mounting of her piece, “The Forty Part Motet.” It’s a simple idea, simply executed—it’s all in the experience. Telling doesn’t do it justice. It’s a 40-track... Continue reading

Posted Oct 11, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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09.29.13: San Sebastián

Flying here from Madrid…the Spanish landscape below has been cultivated and molded by man for millennia—in contrast to the Great Plains grids we see in the US this is more of a patchwork: I’m reminded that Europe (except for a... Continue reading

Posted Oct 7, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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09.14.13: Venice, Day Two

The Russian Pavilion was wonderful and hilarious—it was all about money. On the lower floor only women visitors were allowed in. They were offered umbrellas and they were then invited into a space where it was raining coins. They were... Continue reading

Posted Sep 27, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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09.13.13: Biennale Overload

Took the train to Venice, as it is maybe 1½ hours by high-speed train from our final tour stop in Firenze and the art Biennale is still up. Upon arrival we ate lunch and headed to Arsenale, the former shipbuilding... Continue reading

Posted Sep 25, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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09.11.13: Roma

Bread and Circuses I biked by the Circus Maximus trying to find a church that had a Mithraic shrine in an underground area. Rome has so much history that the present seems barely able to wedge itself in between the... Continue reading

Posted Sep 24, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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09.10.13: D’Annunzio

The Poet Our show was at an outdoor amphitheater overlooking lake Garda. Source It’s a beautiful location. It was built by the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. It’s a whole complex, which includes his villa, his mausoleum…and much more. He dubbed it... Continue reading

Posted Sep 20, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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09.06.13: Barcelona

Canned food A much more bike friendly city than Madrid—there are lots of bike lanes and the bike share system seems to be used by everyone. I dropped off laundry and then set off in the morning after our all-night... Continue reading

Posted Sep 18, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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09.02.13: Electric Picnic

Another festival, this time in rural Ireland. Too far to bike to from our hotel in Dublin, but we did arrive in Dublin the afternoon before our show day, so we went to the site by bus and caught Bjork’s... Continue reading

Posted Sep 17, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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08.29.13: Glasgow

It was a beautiful day, so I went for a ride along the towpath that borders one of the canals that used to be the means of goods and coal transport on barges all over this former city of industry.... Continue reading

Posted Sep 11, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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09.01.13: The End of The Road

Salisbury Cathedral—this is where the Magna Carta is kept. There are serious gaps in my education, so I’m grateful for these little field trips that fill them in a bit. It seems the Magna Carta was an agreement made in... Continue reading

Posted Sep 6, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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08.26.13: London

Science, Civics and the Arts reunited Biked around town and caught a few exhibitions. The Alternative View of the Universe show was still on at the Hayward Gallery, so as a lover of work by “outsiders” I felt obligated to... Continue reading

Posted Sep 5, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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08.20.13: Oslo, Norway

Vita Oslo now has its own “Sydney Opera House” on the edge of the harbor. As with the one in Sydney, visitors swarm around the building and its surroundings but not with the aim of seeing an actual opera. Snøhetta,... Continue reading

Posted Aug 28, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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08.18.13: Iceland, part 4

Day 5: Showday The Little Country That Could? At a glance, Iceland seems to be doing fine economically. I am aware that they got hit the hardest and fastest of any “European” country. Yet they seem to have pulled through... Continue reading

Posted Aug 28, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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08.17.13: Iceland, part 3

Day 4: Golden Circle and Beyond Another day off, this time to visit the sights that are on the typical tourist bus agendas—Thingvellir, Geysir and the waterfall Gulfoss. Besides being the site of the first Icelandic parliament Thingvellir, is where... Continue reading

Posted Aug 27, 2013 at David Byrne's Journal

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