Litquake: Thomas Dolby: The Speed of Sound

Welcome to Litquake, San Francisco’s literary festival, now in our 17th year. Festival dates are October 7-15, 2016. Events are all-ages unless noted otherwise. Book sales are offered when and where appropriate. Events without ticket reservations are first-come first served. Click the phone icon to the right below, to download our new mobile app version!

View analytic

Thomas Dolby: The Speed of Sound

Ticket Link

Celebrating the launch of his new memoir, Thomas Dolby ("She Blinded Me with Science") presents an evening of stories and music, recounting his remarkable career of ups and downs, glamour and corruption, music and tech, and the eventual melding of them all into perfect harmony. In conversation with Kari Byron from "Mythbusters." $15 includes $5 towards book purchase

Walking home after being fired from his job at a grocery store, 17-year-old Thomas Dolby stumbled upon the circuit board from an abandoned musical synthesizer, a Transcendent 2000, lying in a dumpster. Few would have realized that this small discovery would lead to a career performing alongside David Bowie, pitching song lyrics to Michael Jackson, or helping create the iconic Nokia cellphone ringtone. Dolby lived amongst legends and eventually became one himself, breaking down walls in the music world with hits like “She Blinded Me with Science,” and then doing the same during the technology revolution in Silicon Valley, as his Beatnik company's technology was eventually licensed and embedded into over two billion wireless devices.

Moderators/Hosts

Kari Byron

Kari Byron is best known as a host on Discovery Channel's flagship show, "Mythbusters" and the host of Science Channel's "Head Rush." For almost a decade she has been a strong presence in the world of reality-based science television. | | Fostering her curious nature, she spent a... Read More →

Participants

Thomas Dolby

Perhaps best known for blinding us with science, Thomas Dolby has always blurred the lines between composition and invention. As a London teenager, Tom Robertson was fascinated with the convergence of music and technology. His experiments with an assortment of keyboards, synthesizers... Read More →