To the Luddite’s surprise, nary a single one of the first-years in his “Writing Detroit” course had ever heard of David Byrne or the Talking Heads. He shouldn’t really have been surprised as he’s found the generation gap usually manifests itself most blatantly in music. Why David Byrne had come up as a conversational topic was because the Luddite had forwarded his students a post from Mr. Byrne’s blog that Sweetland’s own Patrick Manning had forwarded him. (The careful reader of this Sweetland blog will already know of the Luddite’s paranoia concerning attribution, so this link to Mr. Byrne was found by Mr. Manning on the blog of one Mark Maynard—which makes for an awful lot of “M”s in this sentence.)
Among other things mentioned in Mr. Byrne’s blog, which is quite fine and smart and far more visually satisfying than any post the Luddite has yet to produce, is the Tour Detroit, a 30-mile bike jaunt through the city, and which, it so happens, the Luddite participated in last weekend with SCW colleague Gina Brandolino, her partner Ellen Muehlberger, and their cat Sweet Pea Brandolino.
During the drive to Detroit, Sweet Pea whined the majority of the time, especially during I-94 construction traffic. But, curiously enough, once he was set up in his carrier on the back of Ellen’s bike, the only sound he emitted the entire time was an unequivocally contented purr. Thus, the question alluded to in this post’s title: Do felines, or at least Sweet Pea, prefer to turn back the clock to a pre-mechanized stage when it comes to transportation?
Though the Luddite has a digital camera, unsurprisingly, he depends on others to schlep theirs along and then forward him the photos. In the slide show below are pics from the Tour Detroit courtesy of Gina Brandolino.
Tags: David Byrne, Detroit, The Luddite, Tour Detroit
October 4, 2010 at 7:59 AM |
Sweet Pea looks positively regal.
October 4, 2010 at 8:10 AM |
Sweet Pea, who, like all cats, considers himself royalty, considers it entirely appropriate to be ferried around in luxury. Few know that he rode behind Floyd Landis during the Tour be France–but Pea was heavier then, hence Floyd’s need for doping.