Talking Head Shares Thoughts on Latin America

In his new book Bicycle Diaries, former Talking Head’s front man David Byrne writes about his perceptions of cities throughout the world as viewed from his bicycle. One of the cities he rides through and writes about is Buenos Aires.

Although I haven’t read it yet, the book is on my radar screen because one of Byrne’s central themes is the need for cities to be safer for bicycles and pedestrians.

As an avid runner whose had some close brushes with cars, I couldn’t agree more.

He has more musings about Latin America on his blog or “journal”–as he refers to it. For instance, he has an informative post about Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogotá (Colombia) who revolutionized the transportation and parks in that city. I wrote this post about Peñalosa earlier in this year.

But Byrne’s interests extend well beyond urban planning. Other topics that he opines about on his journal include his thoughts about:

• the paucity of art and music produced by Costa Rica. He compares the so-called Switzerland of Central America to its more artistic neighbors Panama and Nicaragua and wonders if one has to experience pain to produce art or music.
• Mexican newspaper reviews of one of his performances, which include quotes of him saying things he never actually said. “One paper quotes me as saying ‘Mexico, los quiero, mi desea es que esta noche sea magica’, translated loosely as, ‘I love Mexico… and my desire is that this night will be magic!’ Well, it goes on but I never said anything remotely like that.”
• racism based on skin color in Brazil as compared to the same type of racism in the U.S.