Reflection on a weird band
Lucy, I am in eternal gratitude to you for letting me put Talking Heads on my iPod. I am now carrying Little Creatures wherever I go. That record has moved off the turntable to be replaced with More songs about buildings and food. Hmm. I knew Talking Heads were weird, but this one is crazier.
Front cover is a life-size photomosaic of Talking Heads. Concept by David Byrne. It is made of 529 close up polaroids.
Sort of random, until I read the the record slip bit inside:
The back cover is a reproduction of Portrait, U.S.A., the first colour photomosaic of the United States. It is made up of 569 photos taken from space by the LANDSAT satellite. Each photo in the mosiac is made up of four separate photos of different parts of the light spectrum: green, red and two different infra-red regions. These light regions were chosen because they help to bring out the differences in geographical forms and types of vegetation. Each image is made up of many scan lines, much like a tv picture...analog information is converted in digital information and then transmitted to various ground receiving stations. This information is then converted into a black-and-white picture corresponding to each spectral region. These can then be combined to make the color pictures that are used in this mosiac in the version reproduced on the cover. The information from the green spectral region is printed as yellow, the red region is printed as magenta and the infra-red region is printed as cyan. This is called a false color image. In this version, vegetation appears as turquoise, rocks and soil appear as red, yellow and brown, and towns, roads and water appear as black. Objects as small as 33 feet are visible on the LANDSAT photos if the object is in contrast to its environment. The pratical applications of LANDSAT images are many, some of which are: determination of the healthiness of vegetation, assessment of grass and forest fire damage, regional planning, assessment of land use, which crops are being grown where, mapping of ice for shipping, mapping and detection of air and water pollution and monitoring of surface mining.
So pretty much Talking Heads have summarised half of last semester's environmental geography course on the back of a record. Why did I even bother going to class? Ah ha! I didn't go to class! I win.
Anyway. They have a funny song that doesn't want to move to be a farmer.
I see the shapes,
I remember from maps.
I see the shoreline.
I see the whitecaps.
A baseball diamond, nice weather down there.
I see the school and the houses where the kids are.
Places to park by the fac'tries and buildings.
Restaunts and bar for later in the evening.
Then we come to the farmlands, and the undeveloped areas.
And I have learned how these things work together.
I see the parkway that passes through them all.
And I have learned how to look at these things and I say,
I wouldn't live there if you paid me.
I couldn't live like that, no siree!
I couldn't do the things the way those people do.
I couldn't live there if you paid me to.
Front cover is a life-size photomosaic of Talking Heads. Concept by David Byrne. It is made of 529 close up polaroids.
Sort of random, until I read the the record slip bit inside:
The back cover is a reproduction of Portrait, U.S.A., the first colour photomosaic of the United States. It is made up of 569 photos taken from space by the LANDSAT satellite. Each photo in the mosiac is made up of four separate photos of different parts of the light spectrum: green, red and two different infra-red regions. These light regions were chosen because they help to bring out the differences in geographical forms and types of vegetation. Each image is made up of many scan lines, much like a tv picture...analog information is converted in digital information and then transmitted to various ground receiving stations. This information is then converted into a black-and-white picture corresponding to each spectral region. These can then be combined to make the color pictures that are used in this mosiac in the version reproduced on the cover. The information from the green spectral region is printed as yellow, the red region is printed as magenta and the infra-red region is printed as cyan. This is called a false color image. In this version, vegetation appears as turquoise, rocks and soil appear as red, yellow and brown, and towns, roads and water appear as black. Objects as small as 33 feet are visible on the LANDSAT photos if the object is in contrast to its environment. The pratical applications of LANDSAT images are many, some of which are: determination of the healthiness of vegetation, assessment of grass and forest fire damage, regional planning, assessment of land use, which crops are being grown where, mapping of ice for shipping, mapping and detection of air and water pollution and monitoring of surface mining.
So pretty much Talking Heads have summarised half of last semester's environmental geography course on the back of a record. Why did I even bother going to class? Ah ha! I didn't go to class! I win.
Anyway. They have a funny song that doesn't want to move to be a farmer.
I see the shapes,
I remember from maps.
I see the shoreline.
I see the whitecaps.
A baseball diamond, nice weather down there.
I see the school and the houses where the kids are.
Places to park by the fac'tries and buildings.
Restaunts and bar for later in the evening.
Then we come to the farmlands, and the undeveloped areas.
And I have learned how these things work together.
I see the parkway that passes through them all.
And I have learned how to look at these things and I say,
I wouldn't live there if you paid me.
I couldn't live like that, no siree!
I couldn't do the things the way those people do.
I couldn't live there if you paid me to.