Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

Just ran across this and wanted to share it.

From Wikipedia's article on David Byrne:
In 2008, Byrne and his production team programmed the Battery Maritime
Building, a 99-year-old ferry terminal in Manhattan, to play music.
Essentially Byrne took the old New York City building, hooked the
entire structure - pipes, heaters, pillars and all, electronically to
an old pipe organ, and made a playable musical instrument of it, for a
piece called "Playing the Building".

How cool is THAT?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gea9SYUdJeY

R

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

"RicodJour" wrote in message
...
Just ran across this and wanted to share it.

From Wikipedia's article on David Byrne:
In 2008, Byrne and his production team programmed the Battery Maritime
Building, a 99-year-old ferry terminal in Manhattan, to play music.
Essentially Byrne took the old New York City building, hooked the
entire structure - pipes, heaters, pillars and all, electronically to
an old pipe organ, and made a playable musical instrument of it, for a
piece called "Playing the Building".

How cool is THAT?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gea9SYUdJeY

R

It's a cool idea alright but I'd like to have heard him play something.
Something recognizable - like Life During Wartime.
Art

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

In 2008, Byrne and his production team programmed the Battery Maritime
Building, a 99-year-old ferry terminal in Manhattan, to play music.

I was in Houston TX in 1985 when that French guy put on a laser
light/music show using the city-scape as the projection screen.
Imagine +1 million people with boom boxes all tuned to the same
station, watching the lasers, listening to the music, toking fat ones,
and carousing.

I had me a real good time.

-Zz

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

"Artemus" wrote in message
...

"RicodJour" wrote in message
...
Just ran across this and wanted to share it.

From Wikipedia's article on David Byrne:
In 2008, Byrne and his production team programmed the Battery Maritime
Building, a 99-year-old ferry terminal in Manhattan, to play music.
Essentially Byrne took the old New York City building, hooked the
entire structure - pipes, heaters, pillars and all, electronically to
an old pipe organ, and made a playable musical instrument of it, for a
piece called "Playing the Building".

How cool is THAT?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gea9SYUdJeY

R

It's a cool idea alright but I'd like to have heard him play something.
Something recognizable - like Life During Wartime.
Art


Not as cool as I first thought. In these videos he says it is not for
playing scales or songs. Just an artsy fartsy noise maker (my words).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1D30gS7Z8U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6cvCafcPGQ

Art

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

Is this Phase Two of More Songs about Buildings and Food?

Marc (who had a pleasant meeting with David Byrne back in 1979 or 80)

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 24, 9:47*pm, "Artemus" wrote:
"Artemus" wrote in message

...



"RicodJour" wrote in message
....
Just ran across this and wanted to share it.

From Wikipedia's article on David Byrne:
In 2008, Byrne and his production team programmed the Battery Maritime
Building, a 99-year-old ferry terminal in Manhattan, to play music.
Essentially Byrne took the old New York City building, hooked the
entire structure - pipes, heaters, pillars and all, electronically to
an old pipe organ, and made a playable musical instrument of it, for a
piece called "Playing the Building".

How cool is THAT?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gea9SYUdJeY


It's a cool idea alright but I'd like to have heard him play something.
Something recognizable - like Life During Wartime.

Not as cool as I first thought. *In these videos he says it is not for
playing scales or songs. *Just an artsy fartsy noise maker (my words).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1D30gS7Z8U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6cvCafcPGQ

You did see the part where he said it was for the audience to
participate, right? It wasn't meant to be a concert performance. It
was more about opening people up to listening to the sounds around
them.

Go back and look at it again. One of the things I noticed was a
couple of women pulling two kids' hands away from the keyboard so the
women could show them how it was 'supposed' to be done. That's the
exact opposite of what David Byrne would have wanted. It was meant to
let people experience music in a non-musical playful setting.

R

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 24, 10:36*pm, marc rosen wrote:

Is this Phase Two of More Songs about Buildings and Food?

Marc (who had a pleasant meeting with David Byrne back in 1979 or 80)

Elaborate please.

R

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On 1/24/2011 8:44 PM, Zz Yzx wrote:
In 2008, Byrne and his production team programmed the Battery Maritime
Building, a 99-year-old ferry terminal in Manhattan, to play music.

I was in Houston TX in 1985 when that French guy put on a laser
light/music show using the city-scape as the projection screen.
Imagine +1 million people with boom boxes all tuned to the same
station, watching the lasers, listening to the music, toking fat ones,
and carousing.

I had me a real good time.

-Zz

Are you talking about Jean Michel Jarre?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Michel_Jarre

--
"Our beer goes through thousands of quality Czechs every day."
(From a Shiner Bock billboard I saw in Austin some years ago)
To reply, eat the taco.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bbqboyee/

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On 2011-01-24 21:44:53 -0500, Zz Yzx said:

I was in Houston TX in 1985 when that French guy put on a laser
light/music show using the city-scape as the projection screen.
Imagine +1 million people with boom boxes all tuned to the same
station, watching the lasers, listening to the music, toking fat ones,
and carousing.

Jean-Michel Jarre... part of that concert was used on "Jean-Michel
Jarre in Concert Lyon/Houston", Disques Dreyfus/Polydor 833170-2
(1987). Thanks for the reminder -- I'm crankin' it up now!

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

Are you talking about Jean Michel Jarre?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Michel_Jarre

Yup.

-Zz

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

Are you talking about Jean Michel Jarre?

Although I got the year wrong (1986 vs. 1985). We'd been in Houston
since 1982. Freinds from home (California) came out to watch the
Giants vs. Astros on opening day. The laser concert was an
afterthought, but the highlight of hte visit.

-Zz

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 24, 11:02*pm, RicodJour wrote:
On Jan 24, 10:36*pm, marc rosen wrote:



Is this Phase Two of More Songs about Buildings and Food?

Marc (who had a pleasant meeting with David Byrne back in 1979 or 80)

Elaborate please.

R

Hey Rico,
The secong album by the Talking Heads is titled "More Songs about
Buildings and Food". I also thought I'd make my own Frank Zappa
reference with the quip "Is this phase two.......?" (For those Lumpy
Gravy/Money perusers)

If you want me to elaborate about meeting Byrne, I was working
(volunteering) at a college radio station and one of the other DJs was
a close friend of his so he was invited to hang out for an evening.
Nice time, can't recall too much of what was said.
Marc

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 24, 9:47*pm, "Artemus" wrote:
"Artemus" wrote in message



Not as cool as I first thought.

Well, at least he wasn't Burning Down The House... this time..

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 24, 11:35*pm, Steve Turner
wrote:
On 1/24/2011 8:44 PM, Zz Yzx wrote:

In 2008, Byrne and his production team programmed the Battery Maritime
Building, a 99-year-old ferry terminal in Manhattan, to play music.

I was in Houston TX in 1985 when that French guy put on a laser
light/music show using the city-scape as the projection screen.
Imagine +1 million people with boom boxes all tuned to the same
station, watching the lasers, listening to the music, toking fat ones,
and carousing.

I had me a real good time.

-Zz

Are you talking about Jean Michel Jarre?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Michel_Jarre

--
"Our beer goes through thousands of quality Czechs every day."
(From a Shiner Bock billboard I saw in Austin some years ago)
To reply, eat the taco.http://www.flickr.com/photos/bbqboyee/

I was also in Houston for Maurice Jarres' laser light show on the
building faces. Watched it from Buffalo Bayou.

Joe G

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 25, 7:08*am, marc rosen wrote:

Hey Rico,
The second album by the Talking Heads is titled "More Songs about
Buildings and Food". *I also thought I'd make my own Frank Zappa
reference with the quip "Is this phase two.......?" *(For those Lumpy
Gravy/Money perusers)

David Byrne said that as a youth he was probably borderline
Asperger's, and I think that ability to obsess about things, and the
ability to create from that obsession, is what makes an artist and
artist.

If you want me to elaborate about meeting Byrne, I was working
(volunteering) at a college radio station and one of the other DJs was
a close friend of his so he was invited to hang out for an evening.
Nice time, can't recall too much of what was said.

No problem - some of the best nights I ever had were a bit foggy
afterward...and after some I was also pretty damned sore. ;)

R

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 24, 7:52*pm, RicodJour wrote:
Just ran across this and wanted to share it.

From Wikipedia's article on David Byrne:
In 2008, Byrne and his production team programmed the Battery Maritime
Building, a 99-year-old ferry terminal in Manhattan, to play music.
Essentially Byrne took the old New York City building, hooked the
entire structure - pipes, heaters, pillars and all, electronically to
an old pipe organ, and made a playable musical instrument of it, for a
piece called "Playing the Building".

How cool is THAT?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gea9SYUdJeY

It's pretty cool the way he has it set up, although he could always
get the band to do a live performance with the audience in the middle
of the room. :)

I may have mentioned on here quite a long time ago something about the
idea of a band that moves around the room and the audience, maybe on
foot or even on some kind of film "dolly-track", so that the music
fluctuates and shifts in experience over time...

I bang on bus-stop windows and parts thereof sometimes when I get
bored waiting for the bus. Large glass windows can have a nice bass
sound when you bump them in the middle with the side of your fist, and
the metal components can sound nice (metallic snare when coupled with
the window's bass) when flicked with a finger-nail.

Someone mentioned Frank Zappa, and there's a bit of him on tv "playing
a bike", which I've also done when I once happened upon Montreal's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzJYYdLPLuU
The vid says 2007 and the time I was there was around the early 90's,
so they're still keeping up the tradition.

Zappa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izDvYokFU7U

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 24, 7:52*pm, RicodJour wrote:
Just ran across this and wanted to share it.

From Wikipedia's article on David Byrne:
In 2008, Byrne and his production team programmed the Battery Maritime
Building, a 99-year-old ferry terminal in Manhattan, to play music.
Essentially Byrne took the old New York City building, hooked the
entire structure - pipes, heaters, pillars and all, electronically to
an old pipe organ, and made a playable musical instrument of it, for a
piece called "Playing the Building".

How cool is THAT?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gea9SYUdJeY

R

In the old Delta blues tradition of the "diddley bow," a one
stringed lap slide guitar, several musicians have made
instruments by stretching baling wire across houses.

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 26, 4:19*pm, Father Haskell wrote:


In the old Delta blues tradition of the "diddley bow," a one
stringed lap slide guitar, several musicians have made
instruments by stretching baling wire across houses.

Interesting. Were the wires attached to the walls and the walls acted
as the drum skin?

R

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

Warm Worm wrote:
I bang on bus-stop windows and parts thereof sometimes when I get
bored waiting for the bus. Large glass windows can have a nice bass
sound when you bump them in the middle with the side of your fist, and
the metal components can sound nice (metallic snare when coupled with
the window's bass) when flicked with a finger-nail.

While walking today I thought of a large pipe, about 3' dia x 12'
long, with identical 12" full range drivers mounted along the side of
that pipe, evenly spaced apart, the far end of the pipe would be
capped off so the sound would come out one end only. Then send a
single identical signal to each of the drivers at the same time. Would
the driver at the far end of the pipe have a lower sound then the
driver mounted closest to the open end of the pipe? If so, would that
then be a full range speaker?

What if, at the far end of the pipe, rather than a cap, a U was
installed, then another length of pipe, kinda like a folded horn.
Would this add volume?

Spring must be coming, I'm itching to make stuff.

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 26, 5:23*pm, RicodJour wrote:
On Jan 26, 4:19*pm, Father Haskell wrote:



In the old Delta blues tradition of the "diddley bow," a one
stringed lap slide guitar, several musicians have made
instruments by stretching baling wire across houses.

Interesting. *Were the wires attached to the walls and the walls acted
as the drum skin?

R

Yup. I'm thinking of replacing my doorbell with one.

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 27, 8:18*pm, Father Haskell wrote:
On Jan 26, 5:23*pm, RicodJour wrote:
On Jan 26, 4:19*pm, Father Haskell wrote:

In the old Delta blues tradition of the "diddley bow," a one
stringed lap slide guitar, several musicians have made
instruments by stretching baling wire across houses.

Interesting. *Were the wires attached to the walls and the walls acted
as the drum skin?


Yup. *I'm thinking of replacing my doorbell with one.

Now that's interesting! I suppose if the diaphragm was big enough the
tone would be very low hertz and vibrate your internal organs (are
there external organs? Don's answer that!).

R

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

Father Haskell wrote:
On Jan 26, 5:23 pm, wrote:
On Jan 26, 4:19 pm, Father wrote:



In the old Delta blues tradition of the "diddley bow," a one
stringed lap slide guitar, several musicians have made
instruments by stretching baling wire across houses.

Interesting. Were the wires attached to the walls and the walls acted
as the drum skin?

R

I had the impression that wires were attached to nails in the walls
(outside). I went browsing and all I came up with were electric ones on
YouTube. Anyone have a link to a version of an acoustic one?
Maybe they just don't make 'em like they used to?

Bill




Yup. I'm thinking of replacing my doorbell with one.

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 24, 10:36*pm, marc rosen wrote:
Is this Phase Two of More Songs about Buildings and Food?

Marc (who had a pleasant meeting with David Byrne back in 1979 or 80)

I've never met Mr. Bryne, but I did attend one of their Stop Making
Sense tour stops, the tour that the movie was made from.

We live a pretty conservative area, so selling out a large arena for
the Talking Heads wasn't going to happen. Instead, they cut the local
War Memorial in half, creating a horseshoe shaped arena that was
packed with about 8000 raucous fans.

I used to live in NYC and attended lots of concerts at MSG, Central
Park, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Fillmore East, The Meadowlands, etc.

The Stop Making Sense concert ranks amongst the top few concerts that
I've ever attended.

Playing the Building by David Byrne
 

On Jan 28, 10:29*am, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Jan 24, 10:36*pm, marc rosen wrote:

Is this Phase Two of More Songs about Buildings and Food?

Marc (who had a pleasant meeting with David Byrne back in 1979 or 80)

I've never met Mr. Bryne, but I did attend one of their Stop Making
Sense tour stops, the tour that the movie was made from.

We live a pretty conservative area, so selling out a large arena for
the Talking Heads wasn't going to happen. Instead, they cut the local
War Memorial in half, creating a horseshoe shaped arena that was
packed with about 8000 raucous fans.

I used to live in NYC and attended lots of concerts at MSG, Central
Park, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Fillmore East, The Meadowlands, etc.

The Stop Making Sense concert ranks amongst the top few concerts that
I've ever attended.

Whgat if you had a gig on the road? Hard to get that building into a
van.