Seems at least one talking head finally gets Iowa

By Iowa City Press-Citizen

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Last week, the Facebook and Twitter accounts of many Iowans were filled with updates and tweets about how the musician David Byrne - the former frontman for The Talking Heads - had placed three interesting posts about Iowa on his blog, http://journal.davidbyrne.com.

Iowans are used to having their state dismissed as “fly-over country” by visiting celebrities. The politicians usually wait until after the caucuses before piling on their hayseed stereotypes, but other media personalities - when they bother to talk about the state at all - either dismiss it condescendingly or damn it with faint (or nostalgia-tinged) praise.

That's why Byrne's commentary attracted such attention throughout the state. The musician was in Des Moines earlier this month to play at the 80/35 Music Festival. And his posts - especially the third one - showcase an accomplished wordsmith/cultural observer trying to make sense of how the place he actually visited didn't match his preconceptions.

“I saw people out and about, and I thought to myself - this is America as it's supposed to be, or close to it,” Bryne writes after describing Latin and Asian families having picnics and family cookouts in one of Des Moines's riverside parks during the Fourth of July weekend. “It's imperfect, but people here seem to have found a way of living that is not based around either extremes of manic striving or desperation. It may not be cool, but it might be beyond cool. Here among the winding creeks and fields of corn they may have arrived at some kind of secret satisfaction.”

Byrne also praised Iowa's lengthy progressive history of being a leader in civil rights - culminating in the 2009 marriage equality decision - and began to wonder whether Des Moines wasn't, in fact, an ideal place to raise kids.

“I got very mixed reactions (from the other musicians) when I advocated this idea,” Bryne wrote. “The town isn't particularly hip, but I sort of counted that as a factor in its favor - kids would have to discover what they thought was cool for themselves. Or make it up. Or come to the conclusion that trends does not a life make. I did stop at a cool coffee shop (Smokey Row), and two cool restaurants (Proof and HOQ), and there's the custom bike shop (Ichi Bike) I visited and such, but overall it doesn't seem a place in thrall to trends.”

Byrne admits that his vision of Des Moines and Iowa might be a little overly optimistic. After all, there are many towns and cities throughout the state that have not managed to recover from economic downtowns and depressions as well as the state's capital city has.

But after hearing so many accounts of Iowa from national commentators who just don't seem to understand the state at all, it was heart-warming to know that at least one Talking Head gets us.