We haven't recommended a website for a while now, so the musically interested among you may be intrigued by a new series that's just started at the A.V. Club. In
Nashville or Bust, hip-hop writer Nathan Rabin is taking time out to explore the wide world of country music. In his own words:
Throughout the years, I’ve fantasized about correcting my wildly unbalanced musical education by spending a year immersing myself in a foreign genre. (Yes, that is what critics fantasize about. That and elaborate new ways to file their CD and DVD collections.) I daydreamed about correcting the lopsided nature of my musical education by pulling a massive 180 in my listening habits. Instead of listening overwhelmingly to only one genre of music, I’d do something completely different and listen overwhelmingly to a different genre.
While listening to Billy Joe Shaver’s “Been To Georgia On A Fast Train” earlier this year, I had an epiphany. I decided that now was as good a time as any to put my plan into action [...] This year, I decided to stop dreaming about pursuing a super-intense yearlong crash course in country, and start doing it.
Since hip-hop and country are two of America's most distinctive - and misunderstood - musical creations, it'll be interesting to see how this develops. In the first week, Rabin is taking things easy and starting with
Johnny Cash's American Recordings.
As a change from our regular programming, we're highlighting a research seminar being held by PSI this Friday. Robert Singh (Birkbeck, University of London), most recently co-author of After Bush: The Case for Continuity in American Foreign Policy, will be talking about "President Obama: The First Hundred Days".
At this week's research seminar - the last of the semester, rescheduled from January - David Herd from the University of Kent (author, most recently, of Enthusiast!: Essays on Modern American Literature (2007)) will be talking about: "Stepping Out with Frank O'Hara."
We haven't recommended a website for a while now, so the musically interested among you may be intrigued by a new series that's just started at the A.V. Club. In Nashville or Bust, hip-hop writer Nathan Rabin is taking time out to explore the wide world of country music. In his own words:
At tonight's (Wednesday 11 March) research seminar, Bryant Simon (Temple University), author of Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America (OUP, 2004), will be talking about "Consuming Third Place: Starbucks and the Illusion of Public Space."
At tonight's research seminar (Monday 2nd March), James T. Kloppenberg will be talking about Barack Obama and the Traditions of American Democaracy. James Kloppenberg is the Charles Warren Professor of American History at Harvard University and in 2008-9 is the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at the University of Cambridge. He is the author, amongst other works, of The Virtues of Liberalism (OUP, 1998).
