Your Action World: Winners Are Losers with a New Attitude [Vinyl Bound]

David Byrne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1999

In his latest book, writer, photographer, musician, and former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne has created an extraordinary document and critique of the times we live in. Your Action World parodies the "inspirational" promotional materialsincluding books, tapes, and corporate advertising - with which we are inundated daily. Byrne's impulse is to fight back, "to stem the tide of images and bullying texts that assault all of us, by building dikes and dams of my own images and texts. To understand the enemy I must become one with the enemy, I must be of one mind with the enemy. I must infect myself in order to be immunized." An intelligent, quirky document from one of our most innovative artistswith a cool debossed PVC cover and 4-color stickerYour Action World will be the cult hit of the season.

Editorial Reviews

Review

< What is the doll smiling about anyway? Cool, suggestive, strange, Your Action World: Winners are Losers with a New Attitude satirizes those odious "personal power" manuals and every other variety of get-ahead, improve-yourself tract with deadpan accuracy. As was often the case with his lyrics for the Talking Heads, David Byrne's images are ironic on the surface, disconcerting in their lurking emotional undertones.

About the Author

David Byrne began his artistic life as a photographer, experimenting in this field while scoring major successes in music and cinema. He was the leader of the Talking Heads from 1976 until 1988 and continues to create compelling popular music as a solo artist, among other artistic ventures.

Product Details

• Vinyl Bound: 128 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; 1st edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811826236
• ISBN-13: 978-0811826235
• Product Dimensions: 14 x 11.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #379,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational, April 22, 2000

By 

MRG (Long Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Action World: Winners Are Losers with a New Attitude (Vinyl Bound)

Brilliant...like a month's worth of dreams captured in color. It must've been very expensive to print, and it shows. Usually after buying books of this nature, I read through them once and put them down for...well, years, sometimes. But this one has kept my attention for the month since it arrived; I find myself looking to it at least once a day for inspiration.

David Byrne's mind is fascinating. Hopefully, it will be preserved in a space-jar or something for future generations.

40 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Inherent Hypocrisy of Commercial Art, November 28, 1999

By 

Kimberly Wingard - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your Action World: Winners Are Losers with a New Attitude (Vinyl Bound)

"Your Action World" by David Byrne is the latest in contempory art's attack on Corporate America. It is biting, bold, original, and everything that art should be. . .on the surface. But then I ask myself, Would I buy this book if it wasn't by David Byrne? Would I have even found this book if not for the fact that I know and recognize David Byrne as an artist that I respect and admire? No. Which leads me to make the connection between David Byrne and the corporation. Through successful marketing I have been sold on David Byrne and will now fork over my hard-earned cash for his product. This book attacks the very system that has made it possible for Byrne to publish this book. And it's clear that I'm not buying this book for it's content, but rather, for a bit of Byrne. The cover, at first glance, is virtually indecipherable save the picture of doll David Byrne that we have come to know and love so well over the past couple of years and the big name DAVID BYRNE. But it's not his fault. It's the downfall of all commercially produced and sold art that wants to attack Corporate America. Sure, we all hate capitalism, but how do we attack it without giving into it? We can stand on the street corner and pass out our art, but soon we will be dying in the gutter without so much as a dime to buy one of those lame plastic paintbrushes. But enough ranting. It's a great book. I just tell myself that it's not hypocrisy; it's irony. If that's the case, then I'm quite the fool and I would give it five stars. And I'd rather David Byrne had my money than some other "corporations."

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Man becomes manifesto, January 25, 2000

By 

Vaughn Davis (Auckland New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Your Action World: Winners Are Losers with a New Attitude (Vinyl Bound)

Books used to have beginnings, middles and ends. They don't anymore, only most people who make them do not realise this. David Byrne does. Your Action World is the hinted genius of the album liner grown to the point where the album itself is redundant - a natural progression that the death of vinyl and its generously proportioned sleeve only hastened. If you enjoy reading the care labels on children's stuffed toys and understand that yellow and orange make not orange, but McDonalds, obtain this book.