Luchtfietsen

David Byrne stapte begin jaren tachtig op de fiets in New York en is al die jaren blijven fietsen in steden waar bijna niemand dat doet. In zijn Bicycle Diaries doet hij verslag van fietstochten door steden over de hele wereld: Buenos Aires, Sydney, Istanbul, Manila. En Berlijn:

,,Flying into Tegel Airport in Berlin I look down at the neatly ordered fields and roads - even in the surrounding forests the trees are in neat rows - and I think to myself how this entire country, the landscape, everything as far as one can see, has beeen ordered."

Fietser Byrne keek in 1978 al graag uit vliegtuigraampjes. De lapjes wildernis die hij toen nog waarnam, lagen klaar om ontwikkeld te worden:

I see the shapes,
I remember from maps.
I see the shoreline,
I see the whitecaps.
A baseball diamond, nice weather down there.
I see the school and the houses where the kids are.
Places to park by the fac'tries and buildings.
Restaurants en bar for later in the evening.
Then we come to the farmlands, and the undeveloped areas.
And I have learned how these things work together.
I see the parkway that passes through them all.

(Uit: The Big Country van More songs about buildings and food) van Talking Heads)