http://americaadrift.com transatlantic perspectives on america Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:23:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm unplugging from the Matrix for week starting from now. Everyone else here at aa is presumably still around, although it is Autumn Break. As for me, I need to burn one down. Ben Harper performing at Boonaroo about 4 years ago. Or was it five? http://americaadrift.com/burn-one-down/ Lately, I have been preoccupied with a new research project that I am trying to work up into a paper for the next Nordic Association of American Studies conference in May 2009. These days I spend about 10 hours a week commuting, which means that I get to listen to a ... http://americaadrift.com/cosmopolitan-folk/ During this latest "financial crisis" there have been some fascinating images which communicate possible alternative narratives to the daily press stories. The image above from this NYT article particularly caught my attention. Here, despite whatever giveaway, formerly known as the bail-out, "rescue" the Senate may approve on Wednesday, the ... http://americaadrift.com/looking-into-the-financial-abyss/ As you all must be aware, the great Paul Newman recently passed on. Katie McFarlane, a graduate student? at UEA has just joined the CM blog as their first contributer with a tribute to Mr. Newman, News: Remembering Paul Newman. Drop by and visit our friends across the North Sea ... http://americaadrift.com/containing-more-multitudes/ Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982. The ... http://americaadrift.com/banned-books-week-september-27-october-4-2008/ Be careful what you wish for. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when I was an earnest neophyte feminist at Vassar, earnestly debating the meanings of feminism, sexism, and choice, I used to wish, earnestly, that we would have a political campaign that actually discussed these issues. And ... http://americaadrift.com/just-because-she-sings-and-dances-in-her-underwear/   "CARPE DIEM IN BLACK AND WHITE: Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers" (by Camelia Elias) One of the perennial discussions of the concept of the fragment and fragmentary forms revolves around the status of the fragment and the fragmentary in relation to a presupposed whole. Is the fragment a remnant of something broken? ... http://americaadrift.com/carpe-diem-in-black-and-white/ LATINO/A USA: TRANSNATIONAL IDENTITIES / IDENTIDADES TRANSNACIONALES Seminar at University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark Friday-Saturday, November 14-15, 2008 We are inviting 30-minute presentations addressing any aspect of the interdisciplinary field of Latino/a studies. We welcome traditional research papers as well as methodological considerations from multiple disciplinary, theoretical, historical, and geographic perspectives. All proposals ... http://americaadrift.com/latino-usa-transnational-identities-2008/ (Newsweek, November 20, 2000) I wrote this a few days ago but was unable to post it until now. Benita sent me an email link the other day to the Obama campaign's latest online fund raising video. In the video, Obama is wearing a strong red tie and Biden a baby ... http://americaadrift.com/a-few-thoughts-on-the-politics-of-neckwear/ Photograph by Matt Stoller http://americaadrift.com/dvd-retail-politics/