David Byrne: He Rips! He Burns!

Here's an interesting tidbit, gathered from the blog entitled A VC. Mr. VC Blogger lives in Manhattan. He recently wrote:

"I stopped by the Apple store in Soho on the way back from a meeting today. If you haven't been to this store, it is Disneyland for a guy like me.

"I had to get some accessories for my iPod. I got in line to check out and David Byrne is in line in front of me, buying essentially the same stuff I am buying plus some blank CDs so he can rip, mix, burn.

"Beside the fact that David Byrne is one of the coolest people alive, and a great musician, and in his day one of the best punk rockers ever, he's a real person who stands in line, carries a backpack, buys his own stuff, and is a member of the iPod generation."

Wow, Mr. VC, I bet that was really cool. David Byrne is way at the top of the list of people I'd love to meet. Shit, forget just meeting him. I'd want an afternoon in the studio with him. That would be intense.

Which reminds me of some of my own past encounters with famous musicians. The most recent was Neil Young. He lives in my area. I figured I'd run into him one day. And sure enough, there he was, coming out of the local megaplex with his wife. He was an arm's length away, dressed in his typical grungy Neil Youngian ensemble. I couldn't resist; I had to say hello. I wound up gushing the usual banal crap about how I've always loved his music, yada yada. He was very nice. He parked his old white Cadillac way out in the middle of the parking lot, near my minivan. When I got home, I realized that I hadn't asked him the obvious question: "So Neil, which movie did you see and how'd ya like it?" Doh!

It's cool to run into a famous person doing the same mundane things each of us does: going to the store, watching a movie, grabbing a pizza, catching the subway; whatever. Ironically, you never seem to run into the people you'd most like to meet.

Which gives you yet another reason to get out in the world and stir things up. You just never know who will wind up in front of you, buying stuff for his iPod.