Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Des Moines Cycling Gets A Celebrity Endorsement

This just in: David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame, among other things) seems quite impressed by the biking to be had here in central Iowa.

Mr. Byrne was in town for the 80-35 Music Festival, headlining the first night with St. Vincent, not to mention a whole heap of horns. Sousaphone? Sure! Flugelhorn? Why not? French horn? Well, the town has a French name, so oui! Hey, anybody got a bass clarinet back there? Bust that out too!

Nobody comes here for my music reviews, but I'd put the 80/35 David Byrne/St. Vincent set way, way up there on my list of favorite all-time concert experiences. If I know how to do this bloggering thing, you should be able to hear a song from their Love This Giant album by making the clicking on that linky-text. Said album comes highly recommended by yours truly, and if DB/SV come to your town with their herd of horns, go see 'em. 

Of course, while I'm well out of my depth reviewing music, Mr. Byrne is no slouch when it comes to reviewing a cycling scene. He is, after all, the author of the bike-travelogue-musing Bicycle Diaries (as reviewed by yours truly), not to mention a frequent target of mockery from BikeSnobNYC (a fine metric of cycling-scene-relevance if ever there was one). I'm glad his travels took him to Ichi Bike, maybe one of the most original bike shops I've discovered in my not-nearly-as-wide-ranging travels.

So, we have hip shops. We have great trails. And David Byrne, International Man of Bicycle, says we're cool. Being Midwestern and all, I'm not one to brag, but that's not too shabby.