Tag Archives: David Byrne

Everything that happens will happen today

Emma Lee has been cheating on Elvis. The last few weeks she’s been dreaming about another, a man in a white linen suit. He’s lanky and wrinkled, casual and always happy to see her. Each night, she tries to quell her nervous, assuage the butterflies with a chant of “down, buddy, down.” He’s always coming towards her with a smile and a calloused hand stuck out, treading  across  wide, old hardwood floors in nice shoes. She sense they are in a downtown loft, but the walls are different each time, as are the chairs–wicker one day, Knoll the next. He’s not with his guitar and she not with her resume; theirs is an exchange of mutual interest and quiet excitement.

Today, she got a postcard from Elvis in Hawaii and the news that the man in the white linen suit would not be hers. The flip, the flop, she is back to the familiar territory of square one.

Elvis welcomes her back with open arms, and puts her to bed. Falling asleep, she wonders what will happen tomorrow.

48. The adulation of South Street.

Elvis and Emma Lee have been hard at work having goodtime on South Street, in Manhattan’s FiDi.

Friday was devoted to David Byrne, and his efforts to jerry-rig the old Maritime Building into a gigantic organ, as part of Creative Time’s summer installation, Playing the Building. There are three sounds—a percussive tone, made by magnets on columns, a deep rumbling (motors on the skylight’s beams), and pvc flutes. Elvis spent three hours making sure no one went out the emergency exit. By the end he and Emma Lee were harmonizing from the back of the room.

The next day, Elvis was on South Street again, this time taking a ferry to Governor’s Island. They had a stupendous picnic—wine and cheese and pimento bread—and Emma Lee made strawberry shortcake. Emma Lee and Sammy G played catch, and  Elvis got a sunburn, but only a little on his shoulder.