Oct. 2nd – Meet David Byrne, bring your bike and sing Burning Down the House with us

Just passing along an interesting sounding lecture coming up in a few weeks at the Japanese American National Museum.  We may not have enough money to pay for this but if sales are good this weekend we might be able to get a ticket or two and ride from the Birds’ Nest to downtown and take advantage of the valet parking for bicycles.

[ALOUD] at The Aratani/Japan America Theatre
Fri, Oct 02, 8:00 PM
CITIES, BICYCLES, AND
THE FUTURE OF GETTING AROUND

An Evening with: David Byrne, artist/musician, and special guests Jimmy Lizama, Michelle Mowery & Donald Shoup

Share Share

Tickets: $25 General Admission/$20 Library Associates

Proceeds support free ALOUD programs at the Central Library
More

Musician, artist, author and devout bicyclist David Byrne turns his attention to the fractured, car-mad city of Los Angeles. How can LA—with one of the world’s most challenging transportation systems—become a more bicycle-friendly city? How might the city change if more people made a bicycle their primary mode of transportation? Join David Byrne as he leads a panel of bike advocates, city officials and urban planners in examining the bicycle’s role in transforming the urban experience.

Panelists: Jimmy Lizama, co-founder, the Bicycle Kitchen; Michelle Mowery, Senior Bicycle Coordinator, LADOT; Dr. Donald Shoup, Professor of Urban Planning, UCLA.

Bicycle valet services provided by the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.

Signed copies of David Byrne’s book, Bicycle Diaries will be available for purchase courtesy of The Library Store

The Aratani/Japan America Theatre

244 South San Pedro Street

Los Angeles, CA CA 90012

Box Office: 213.680.3700

www.jaccc.org

David Byrne is a musician, visual artist and filmmaker. A co-founder of the musical group Talking Heads, he has also released several solo albums and garnered an Academy Award for his score to Bernardo Bertolucci’s film The Last Emperor. His art includes photography and installation works, and has been published in five books, most recently Arboretum. His is working on a musical collaboration with Fatboy Slim invoking the life of former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, and is currently touring the world in support of “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today,” a second duo album with Brian Eno. Byrne was recently commissioned by the New York City Department of Transportation to design artistic bicycle racks for the city which were installed last August.

Jimmy Lizama has spent the better part of the last decade romancing Los Angeles with a bicycle as his instrument of choice. Whether whirling away on his messenger bike anywhere between down town L.A. and Santa Monica or wrenching as a co-founding “Cook” at the Bicycle Kitchen or hosting randomly-themed group bicycle rides, you are sure to find him exploring all the nooks and crannies Los Angeles has to offer aloft one of his two-wheeled steeds. One thing is certain: he loves L.A. and bicycling is what he does to prove that love to her.

Michelle Mowery has been the Sr. Bicycle Coordinator for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation since 1994. She works with the City’s engineering staff on the design and development of bikeways throughout Los Angeles. Michelle is responsible for the City’s bicycle legislation, parking, maps, web page and other bicycling related programs. In 1995 she developed an artist designed bicycle rack project in downtown Los Angeles conjunction with the Southern California Institute of Architecture; established a program to put LADOT Traffic Officers on bicycles; worked with LADOT Transit and Metro to install bicycle racks on the agencies’ buses; and is working with City Planning on the development of the City’s new Bicycle Plan. Michelle learned to ride at age four in the Los Angeles area and her first bike was a purple Schwinn Stingray.

Donald Shoup is a professor of urban planning at UCLA, where he has served as Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and as Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies. His research has focused on parking as a key link between transportation and land use. This research has drawn widespread praise for revealing how parking policies can help or harm cities, the economy, and the environment. A growing number of cities have adopted Shoup’s recommendations to reduce off-street parking requirements, charge fair market prices for curb parking, and dedicate the meter revenue to finance added public services in the metered districts.