Dimen Designs

David Byrne Movie at Dr. Dremo's (Months Old Post)

  David Byrne @ Future of Music Policy Summit 2006 
  Originally uploaded by vonlohmann.

[Note: I wrote this months ago (mid-June) but never posted it. Given DCist's most recent coverage of Dr. Dremo's imminent closure, I wanted to put this out there.]

I will admit that I had never heard of David Byrne until a few years ago.

Did I know The Talking Heads? Barely. The 80s was my childhood and the 90s was my teenager years and I didn't really become musically engaged until freshman year at college. Music wasn't something that brought my family together; I remember trying to listen to a Simpsons CD with the song 'Bart Man.' I think, while doing my homework in the living room floor and my Dad yelling at me. The first album/tape that I bought was probably the Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff, because someone on the school bus said it was cool), my knowledge of 80s music is limited.

(Matt was a huge eighties fan and knew all of the essentials- wish he was around to read this, though I'm not sure that that David Byrne or The Talking Heads was his flavor of the eighties.)

From David Byrne's work with the Creative Commons, some mentions on Lessig's blog, and his contribution to WIRED's remix CD of CC-licensed songs from a few years ago, I've had David Byrne on my radar as a musician who gets it- gets the future of music and the future of new media and copyright.

(I'm embarrassed to admit that the other way that I know of David Byrne is thanks to Microsoft. When you're desperate for music to play at work, you'll find that Windows Media Player on a NT PC will almost always scour the local drive to find playable mp3s. Invariably, it will find David Byrne's song, 'Like Humans Do.' When you're deperate for music at work (this was a couple of years ago before Pandora- and I didn't internet access on the PCon't ask me which this company was), playing Like Humans Do on repeat for an entire Saturday at work sticks with you. I can hear the melody and The main chorus right now...)

I last posted about David Byrne when I was back in Rochester and missed his PowerPoint show at the George Eastman Museum. This was back before I realized exactly who he was and hence, I've regretted missing the show ever since. Then I read in the Express that the The Washington Psychotronic Film Society was screening Byrne's film, True Stories, at Dr. Dremo's and and couldn't pass it up.

My favorite moments or scenes from the film:

1. John Goodman singing a country song
2. Spaudling Grey's scene on the future of the networked world- hilarious and accurate
3. David Byrne's entire mindset and theme of the movie- not sure what it was but the movie was weird, in a good way- I forgot where I was when watching the movie because I became so engrossed-that's a good sign.

Hillman Curtis Video

Movies to See

In keeping with my distate for Holloywood's mainstream blockbuster crap (I watched/suffered  through X-Men 3 during a recent Cape Cod trip-- it was rainign and there was uttelry nothing else to do), here are a few good movies that 'd like to see that may be mainstream, commercial films but at least they're not the typical crap:

1. Little Miss Sunshine (via Fred’s raving review that it’s “the best movie I've seen all year”
2. Half-Nelson (via NPR)
3. Puffy Chair (saw in NYTimes and recently referenced in a WIRED article)

Puffy Chair reminds me a little of the film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, because it also sounds like it's a little quirky. But it's the setting of Puffy Chair, a road trip with your brother, that really appeals to me.

[ Quick aside ]

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It was about a year ago that my brother and I embarked on the great 2005 Labor Day Trip from Denver to D.C. in a 10-ft U-Haul truck. There's something about road trips, especially with your brother, that are really great expereinces. You have all of these expectations things that you're going to catch up on and guess what, msot of those conversations don't happen. You talk about more the commonplace goings-on than about any deep, philosophical feelings about life and family.

Last year before the road trip, I had just finished reading Honeymoon With My Brother, which I recommend to anyone looking for a great story about saying screw it to the status quo and traveling the world doing what you love. Now, one year later I find myself living in the same city as my brother and even living together (he needed a roommate and I needed a cheaper rent).
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And for some good online video, watch the video from Burning Man TV which is culminating this weekend. Attending Burning Man is on my list of events/places to go to and I emailed Grant about it not loo long ago since he's attended before. If you're more a photos person, see WIRED's photo coverage of Burning Man 2006.