Random Americana

Ten things you love about/from the US – list ’em:

Bontrager frames – wishbones of steel!
Anything by David Lynch (especially Twin Peaks)
Once Upon A Time… (Charles Bronson’s inscrutable face + epic score)
Bicycle Moto Cross
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Anything by Cormac McCarthy (especially The Crossing)
Bike magazine – now and always, but definitely mid-late 90s
Anything by Gillian Welch
Vastness (of landscape, not bodies)
Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest

The delightful Chan Marshall of Cat Power (this is of international importance, and thus transcends the confines of a list, because I love her).

is this university challenge ?

burger king 😆

is this university challenge ?

I’m pretty drunk, so it’s more like Universally Challenged.

The Allman Brothers Band

*High Fives Noteeth*

Yeah, brother, yeah. But hands of Chan, she’s mine.

I love America, spent almost 6 weeks there in the last 2 years

in no particular order:

NYC – Really is the greatest city on earth
Music, their indie scene is way better than ours
Breakfast: Dottie’s True Blue Cafe in San Francisco MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm
The views – dead horse point, arches, bryce, grand canyon, capitol reef, Zion etc etc.
Skiing great powder at Easter.
Moab, obviously
The Engineering, bridges, roads, buildings, huge.
I love that even in the middle of the desert you can get at least 20 radio stations.
Comedy clubs, some of them make ours look like kindergartens, hillarious and very close to the bone.
Hate their cars. and their idea that Nylon sheets in a hotel is still OK!
Also hate vegas

But hands of Chan

I go weak at the thought of Chan’s hands.

Brooklyn Lager.
The Wire.
Grand Central Station.
The Velvet Undergorund.
Preston Sturges films.

That’ll do, don’t want to spoil you.

I go weak at the thought of Chan’s hands.

Not a good time to go weak, old boy. Pull yourself together!

And my contribution:

Southern cooking
Dirty juke joints in the Deep South
Convertible red Mustangs on Highway 1
Bullet holes through roadsigns
Yosemite

Not a good time to go weak, old boy. Pull…!

If only.

Some more:

Santa Fe in “The Fall”, the land thereabouts & the riding to be had
Catfish burgers
Mark Twain
Many, many microbreweries
Elizabeth Bishop’s At the Fishhouses

They Sell brooklyn lager at my local offy

I live in Brooklyn – good for beer, not so good for mtb…

NYC is great place, but couldn’t stay here for too long without losing it

Spent loads of time in the USA over the last few years,

Chicago = Portillo’s Hotdogs 😯
Texas = Fudruckers Burger Joint
Florida = Mr M.Mouse + friends

Levis Jeans/Nike trainers/Old Navy clothing co. all at decent prices

But over all these – the best thing from the USofA has to be Mountain Dew !!! 😀

Ooh – and the Foo Fighters !

oh definitely second Gillian, Chan/Cat (obviously), The Velvets and The Wire. And a laugh a t Mountain Dew, yup I miss that.

Add:

Colorado (coz Boulder, Crested Butte, Leadville & Fruita would notch up four alone).
High mountain girls (I love you all…)
Merle Haggard
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
Burritos
Quality micro brewery ‘wit’ beer (i.e. New Belgium Brewery, etc)

As an aside has anybody watched the CP Cross Bones Style on youtube?

As an aside has anybody watched the CP Cross Bones Style on youtube?

Many times – she is a dancing goddess.

(linked in first post, btw)

Colorado (coz Boulder, Crested Butte, Leadville & Fruita would notch up four alone).

I need a holiday.

San Fransisco pretty cool city
Biking Marin County still gr8
Wilco gr8 band

Some more eating:

The Mexican restaurant I went into in Cambridge, MA with the saltiest Margaritas I’ve ever tasted (not there any more)
Rendezvous and Hueys, Memphis
Las Brisas, Laguna Beach
Waffles for breakfast on Main Street, Santa Barbara
The Capitol Grill, Hermitage Hotel, Nashville

Some sleeping:

Peabody Hotel, Memphis (especially the cocktails in the lounge and the famous Peabody Ducks)
Hermitage Hotal, Nashville

NYC – Really is the greatest city on earth

Utter bollocks. It’s got a few tall buildings, a couple of art galleries, and a bit of character. No real history, and it’s shyte if you’re poor. Stinks to high heaven, and many people are really, really pretentious and false. Everyone’s after what they can get out of you.

It’s like a sugar-coated turd.

Fred – that’s wonderful. Ta.

But I like some Americana music, & crabcakes.

Daisy Duke

It’s got a few tall buildings, a couple of art galleries, and a bit of character. No real history, and it’s shyte if you’re poor. Stinks to high heaven, and many people are really, really pretentious and false. Everyone’s after what they can get out of you.

It’s like a sugar-coated turd.

this is my impression of London

Delta Blues
The noise that Harley Davidsons make, even though the bikes are rubbish
Humphrey Bogart movies (because Bogey stuff is movies)
Marx Brothers films
PCs because I’d never have a got a proper job wthout them and Unix because I know just enough to b/s my way out of difficult situations
Jelly Bellys
George Bush – I haven’t laughed so much for ages, whatever you think now, in a couple of years you’ll be looking forward to the Christmas Specials and he’ll be appreciated as much as Morecambe and Wise or Tommy Cooper
Ice Road Truckers – is that Canada, does that count?
My Name Is Earl – specificaly any scenes that involve Catalina doing the near-naked jumping thing she does.
Spaghetti Westerns

The noise that Harley Davidsons make, even though the bikes are rubbish

True. I’ve just got sky, and so have been catching up on endless epsiodes of American Chopper.

I soooo want a bike now.

finally some positive comments about the States.

what I miss most:
Food: real Mexican, North Carolina BBQ, Ranch Dressing, KrispyKreme, Juniors Cheesecake, ICED TEA
Music: MMW, Charlie Hunter, bluegrass, Bonnaroo

Punk Rock (yes it’s American, where do you think the term comes from?)

As an aside has anybody watched the CP Cross Bones Style on youtube?

Many times – she is a dancing goddess.

(linked in first post, btw)

ah, so it is. never noticed/clicked. duh…

this is my impression of London

Then you, Sir, are naught but a Philistine and a bounder.

America’s got some good stuff, don’t get me wrong, and NYC’s ok, but Greatest City on Earth? Not even top ten.

1. Peanut butter twix
2. Gas pumps you can keep on without having to squeeze the lever
3. Ritz bitz
4. Drive in Movies
5. Free refills
6. National Parks
7. Hot springs (in various locations)
8. Proper weather
9. Peanut butter twix
10. The phrase "Y’all"

Then you, Sir, are naught but a Philistine and a bounder.

he he 😉

Absolutly nothing. ( bar perhaps some scenery)

things to hate – plenty.

Guantanamo
5% of the worlds population, 25% of the worlds pollution.
Warmongering
Cultural imperialism / disneyfication
Deposing of democratic governments and imposing puppet dictators. – (chile venezuala for example)
Arming rebel groups ( Nicaragua)
Arming both sides in wars for profit ( Iran Iraq)

IMO the USA is the biggest force for evil in the wold. Responsible for far more deaths than any other country since WW2

And breathe

Love:
1. The scenery. There are some beautiful places
2. The space. I’d love to own several hundred acres of Motana or Vermont
3. Cheap petrol
4. errrrrr
5. Hmmmmmm
6. Ability to own handguns
7. Decent steaks
8. You can turn right on a stop signal
9. Thier roads seem to have fewer potholes than ours
10. Some of them can be really nice people

Hate:
1. The cities
2. The time it takes to get anywhere
3. hugely inefficient cars. I mean, a 5.7 l V8 for going to the shops? for ****’s sake.
4. People that drive _verywhere_. Even between office blocks that are next to each other.
5. The huge number of really fat people
6. The fact that most peope own handguns because they feel too scared to live without one
7. No concept of healthy eating
8. monumentally shit cars that don’t steer, stop or accelerate. I’ve driven more responsive ox carts
9. roads have no bends in them
10. Most of them are ****

Cultural imperialism / disneyfication

Sorry to say this, but with one or two exceptions, American culture isn’t ubiquitous because it’s foisted on the rest of the world. It’s popular because it has appeal for a lot of people.

TJ – while I do enjoy your apprently irony-less posts, most of what you say could also be attributed to Britain. Some examples:

Concentration camps and scorched earth warfare – Britain (Boer War)
Ethnic cleansing in Malaya in the 1800s – Britain, in relaiton to the ethnic Chinese
Imperialism – many examples – how about the invasion of Afghanistan as part of the Great Game?
Cultutal imperialsim – look at te hordes going to Spain on holiday and shouting in English to be understood
Falklands – the sinking of the Belgrano; Pinochet’s relationship with Thatcher and the refuelling of British planes in Chile
The JJB/HMV/Waterstones/WH Smith-ification of the high street and the loss of independent businesses
BAE selling military vehicles to the regime in Sudan – you know, helping with the genocide in Darfur
Matrix Churchill selling arms to iraq

The list could go on, but the point is this: for all the things you may loathe about a country, there are also many wonderful things hidden under the surface.

I thank the US for inventing (or hugley influential in)

1. the television we watch
2. the telephone we use
3. the ipod
4. the music we listen to
5. cinema/movies
6 the internet
7. extreme sports
8. computing technology
9. denim
10. beef jerky

Also the friendliness of ‘normal’ american people and any country that has 4 -way stops.

I thank the US for inventing (or hugley influential in)

1. the television we watch: Good Lord, seriously?
2. the telephone we use: Think that was a transatlantic development, but granted, they spent loads of money on it.
3. the ipod: MP3 more a collaboration between scientists globally; iPod designed by Jonathan Ive; British bloke.
4. the music we listen to: A fair amount, of ‘Pop’ music, certainly. Also, Jazz and stuff. but I listen to all sorts, including Classical, Reggae, techno etc, which are mainly not from the US.
5. cinema/movies: Bollywood is actually more prolific, and the films are seen by audinences as large as, if not bigger. And Hollywood may churn out quantity, but not necessarily quality. But I’ll give you, the US has probably done more to advance the medium.
6 the internet: Fair enough! Although again, a collaboration of scientists/engineers worldwide.
7. extreme sports: most of the winter ones were developed in Europe, XC MTB is a development of Cyclo-Cross, Parascending, Base-Jumping, Bunjee jumping etc are all European too. The US, through TV, has popularised many of these sports, however.
8. computing technology: early developments were made in Britain and Europe (see Charles Babbage, and I think the Japanese might have someting to say about the development of technology. US has been successful in marketing OS’s, though.
9. denim: Fair enough.
10. beef jerky: Preserving beef/meat in this manner has existed for thousands of years, all over the World.

So. Not wishing to discount the enormous impact the US has undoubtedly made on global culture, society, industry and technology, a lot of claims of ‘Americans invented all stuff’ is simply not true. I’ve heard Americans claim that their country invented the TV, the Bicycle, the Car, the Camera and numerous other things. Myths perpetuated by their enormous media systems, and basic ignorance of actual facts.

They are good at taking others ideas, developing them, then passing them off as their own. I’ll give them that.

FFS, Fred, have you and TJ got the "decorators" in or something this week?

yep rude boy – i said invented or hugely influential

1. the television we watch: Good Lord, seriously? yep. Not necessarily speaking about the content more the technology. (although there have been classic US programs, films, cartoons that have graced our TVs over the years) US were hugely influential in development of television technology and without their investment the adoption of television would have been years later. satellite? Cable? Again without US influence…..
2. the telephone we use: Think that was a transatlantic development, but granted, they spent loads of money on it. Without the investment of US firms, again would it’s adoption been much later?
3. the ipod: MP3 more a collaboration between scientists globally; iPod designed by Jonathan Ive; British bloke.- a british bloke who couldn’t raise £60k to finance it? Again US company, US investment.
4. the music we listen to: A fair amount, of ‘Pop’ music, certainly. Again the history and origins of rock/pop music could be debated- did it all not originate from Celtic folk music? But general consensus is black slaves started playing Celtic Folk music in different key and slower beat adding their own lryics which became known as R&B. This was then stole back by whites such as Elvis and became Rock & Roll, then brit rock then pop. The rest is history. Also, Jazz and stuff. but I listen to all sorts, including Classical, Reggae (is that not based on Ska that is based on R&B & Jazz?) techno (admittedly Kraftwerk and New Order can be seen as the early innovators however without the influence of disco, funk, gay, chicago house movement that evolved into acid house who knows would we have techno music?), which are mainly not from the US.
5. cinema/movies: Bollywood is actually more prolific, and the films are seen by audinences as large as, if not bigger. And Hollywood may churn out quantity, but not necessarily quality. But I’ll give you, the US has probably done more to advance the medium.
6 the internet: Fair enough! Although again, a collaboration of scientists/engineers worldwide.
7. extreme sports: most of the winter ones were developed in Europe, XC MTB is a development of Cyclo-Cross, Parascending, Base-Jumping, Bunjee jumping etc are all European too. The US, through TV, has popularised many of these sports, however.My point
8. computing technology: early developments were made in Britain and Europe (see Charles Babbage, and I think the Japanese might have someting to say about the development of technology. US has been successful in marketing OS’s, though. again without US companies such as Cisco, IBM, Dell, Compaq, HP, Lucent, Microsoft, Apple and the supporting EMS industry where would computing be?
9. denim: Fair enough.
10. beef jerky: Preserving beef/meat in this manner has existed for thousands of years, all over the World. I only put this one in cause i couldn’t think of a tenth 😳

So. Not wishing to discount the enormous impact the US has undoubtedly made on global culture, society, industry and technology, a lot of claims of ‘Americans invented all stuff’ is simply not true. I’ve heard Americans claim that their country invented the TV, the Bicycle, the Car, the Camera and numerous other things. Myths perpetuated by their enormous media systems, and basic ignorance of actual facts.

They are good at taking others ideas, developing them, then passing them off as their own. I’ll give them that. as the japanese. Maybe the Euro’s are good at inventing stuff & there’s a lot I dislike about US politics, economics, world police, arrogance etc but i think sometimes we find it difficult to give the US credit where credit is due.

I’m not discounting the enormous influence the US has had, as I pointed out!

They’re masters at marketing things, and have certainly invested more heavily than most other countries.

But you could make the argument that many other nations have also been just as influential; without Japan, hwere would modern computer technology be?

My ‘issue’ with the US, is that they often seem to ignore where all the good ideas have come from, and market them as their own. Indeed, most of their stuff is made abroad. World’s biggest consumers.

So, your statement abut the US ‘inventing’ stuff relates to two things; The internet (and even that one’s debatable, as many other countries were researching similar things, but the US did give us the internet in the form we know it today); and Denim. Which is merely a process of adding indigo dye to heavy cotton.

It’s just a shame, that to drive all this industry and development, they see fit to have to attack so many other nations, to gain power and control over resources.

For balance, I use Apple Macs, Windoze, Kodak film, ride a Cannondale, and listen to Jimi Hendrix, Samuel Barber, Blondie and the Doors. Can’t stand Spam, though.

Rudeboy, xenophobia aside, you’ve missed the point of this thread completely.

Culture-wise in particular you are well off the mark – you’ve got the usual crap Hollywood films but you’ve also got Martin Scorcese, Ang Lee, Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, John Waters, the Coen Brothers, Jim Jarmusch, and hosts of other people all swimming in a different direction to the mainstream. There is way more diversity in the US film industry than the UK film industry, which seems to turn out a Jane Austen adaptation and a retread of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" every couple of years, or Bollywood films with their obligatory formulaic storylines and cheesy mimed song-and-dance numbers. TV-wise America has been churning out top entertainment for years, from Star Trek to The Simpsons.

You reckon America is responsible for "pop" music (and I’d agree with that – the technology to record music was invented by an American, and the Beatles and the Stones both started out directly copying US r’n’b), but also jazz, soul, rock ‘n’roll, punk, disco, rap, you name it, pretty much every modern genre of music was fomented in America, or inspired by American music. Reggae came about from Jamaican sound systems playing the American rhythm & blues hits of the day, and techno and house music both originated in America (incidentally both started out a lot more cerebral and sophisticated than the glow-stick-waving toss which they’re synonymous with today). America has made massive contributions to "classical" music too, name me any British composers of the past 50 years who have created such a distinctive and original body of work as Steve Reich or John Cage.

As for mountain biking, while people have been riding bikes off road for years, the mountain bike as we know it is definitely an American invention – it didn’t start when someone wedged fat tyres into their cyclocross frame.

The USA is a massive place and no matter what you think of their government’s policies or the elements of their popular culture you’ll find something rewarding if you look below the surface. That is all.