The Talking Heads musician turns out to be a student of cities. In the Wall St. Journal Friday, he put together the aspects of city life that he finds beguiling. He also takes a few shots:
In Dallas livability might mean that you live near an expressway that isn’t jammed up, at least not all the time, and your car runs most days. For some it might mean super fast Wi-Fi, the possibility of lucky and lucrative business opportunities and plenty of strip clubs. If that’s what rocks your boat then try Houston, though to me that city, oil money made physically manifest, is my worst nightmare.
Saying something disparaging about Dallas is merely a sign that one doesn’t know it well. Saying something disparaging about Houston is a sign of a discriminating intelligence.
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I was hoping your we’re going to post this paragraph by Byrne.
“If a city doesn’t have sufficient density, as in L.A., then strange things happen. It’s human nature for us to look at one another— we’re social animals after all. But when the urban situation causes the distance between us to increase and our interactions to be less frequent we have to use novel means to attract attention: big hair, skimpy clothes and plastic surgery. We become walking billboards.
Dallas = Houston. Houston=Dallas.
The people who believe one is better than the other, for the most part, haven’t lived anywhere but where they do now. I’ve lived in both so here is my take.
Dallas is hotter in the Summer but with slightly lower humidity than Houston. I say slightly because I have lived West of the Rockies where there is excellent Summer weather.
Houston weather is much better in the Winter.
Other than that, they are both just large Texas cities.
Ha! I came here to post that exact paragraph, BIK.
Here, let me fix that for you:
“Saying something disparaging about Houston is merely a sign that one doesn’t know it well. Saying something disparaging about Dallas is a sign of a discriminating intelligence.”
I lived my first 18 years in Houston and my last 8 in DFW (4 in FW, then 4 in D). Dallas wins huge points from me on ease of mobility. I’m not sure I would be able to re-adjust to Houston’s minimum 45 minute commutes.
Conversely, while H-Town has Cowboy envy, Dallas has a serious inferiority complex (as Wick so snarkily demonstrates). I think it’s the population deficiency (or maybe Fortune 500 deficiency). Dallas always has to use “North Texas” to find a tangential connection to current events, whereas Houston is…Houston.
Byrne lived in Lakewood whilst filming his movie back in the 1980’s. Half of my high school gathered around his microbus to watch him get high, listen to music, and then bang his head on the steering wheel like a maniac until he passed out.
Good times. And, that makes him an expert on Texas.
Actually, Amanda, Byrne is in DFW at least a couple times a year for business, so he does know a fair amount about our region. Most recently, he was here about 2-3 month ago.
I like David Byrne, even though my brief snippet from “Wild Wild Life” ended up on the cutting room floor. More upsetting was that my then-date’s footage made it into the final product for all time. I STILL have to turn that video off whenever it makes an appearance on MTV. (It was shot, of course, at the Spark Plug, er, Starck Club).
He also digs the High Five.
One city believes in zoning…..the other can’t spell it.
I saw him at Aw Shucks.
Amanda, I can’t decide whether you get bonus points or a demerit for breaking out the “whilst.” (Thinking …)
Okay, bonus points.
He probably hasn’t ridden the new Green Line yet. Maybe he’ll change his tune when he finds out he can get to the State Fair without the parking issues. I mean really, with all the transit improvements, anybody who complains about Dallas traffic is probably still cracking jokes about Central Expressway being in construction forever.