hum-erica

today was the first seminar for my 19th century american literature class. in the midst of an exercise, i overheard a student confess: 'everything i know about america i learned from...' (and here the student named a very influential film)

[i'm not being cagey - i just don't want to get dooced]

which led me to steer the discussion into a very interesting direction, based on completing the sentence:

'everything i know about america i learned from...'

my answer was the album Tricks of the Shade by the little known hip-hop band, The Goats.

NOTE: the lyrics for this album are posted on this website, and there are some definitely Not-Safe-For-Work words published here, so proceed with caution. (having just visited their site, i discovered that they are selling an mp3 version of their album to download for a pretty reasonable rate - i'm not necessarily plugging the band, but if you've taken the time to read the lyrics and are impressed, why not shell out a bit and download it? it's one of the few albums i know of that repays repeated listenings...or perhaps i'm thick and just needed to listen to it a hundred times to figure it out. either way...i like it, and if you are not of the faint-hearted, you might, too.)

I would love to hear from you all about your american awakening...it's a topic of almost endless fascination for me.