This may be a bit of a niche book, to be honest. It features art from the drop curtain of the Broadway show David Byrne’s American Utopia, with text from the show sprinkled throughout. There isn’t really a story or a narrative arc to tie everything together; it’s just an assortment of text and images. I found it paired best with the Spike Lee film, which I was lucky enough to be able to record off HBO the one weekend that channel was available on free preview. So I’m not about to run out and recommend this to everyone, but it’s something I’ll take out for a bit of a puzzle every now and again. ( )

This book is intended as a companion volume to David Byrne’s Broadway production of the same name.

It begins:

“Despite all that has happened,
despite all that is still happening,
I think there is still possibility—
we are still a work in progress.

We’re not fixed,
our brains can change.

Who we are thankfully extends
beyond ourselves...to the
connections between all of us.”

The rest of the volume consists of single words, and occasionally phrases or place names that are as sparsely illustrated as the text itself. Some of the statements are more enigmatic than others, but many harken back to the theme: “I’m not alone and we’re all the same.”

This quirky volume seems to be closer to a book of poetry and are reminiscent of David Byrne’s songs with their exhortations to “stop making sense” and allusions to “speaking in tongues.”

Appropriately, he also references Dada in one of the longest entries in the book. The page says: “the poet Hugo Ball said the Dadaists’ aims were ‘to remind the world that there are people of independent minds — beyond war and nationalism — who live for different ideals.’"

This plea to embrace difference and eccentricity is not for everyone, but fans of the Broadway show and film by Spike Lee will no doubt appreciate it. ( )

My review of this book can be found on my Youtube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/le1GbEcLetY

Enjoy! ( )

This one the text is by David Byrne, not Maira Kalman, so it has a different flavor. I did enjoy it though. Nice rhythm. I loved the town names. I see where the idea for the curtain for David Byrne's show came from. I'd love that curtain for wall paper. So much to see. ( )