By coincidence, I began composing this blog in late 2016—just as the poor ol’ USA was descending into a deep abyss, “waters deep, fires raging”. So it’s a great relief to be able to write free of that dark shadow, as sanity makes a welcome come-back gig after a four-year vacation, and grown-up-sounding comments re-emerge from the White House. Anyway, here I break the champagne over the bows of a new USA tag in the sidebar (these tags are useful, BTW, however rough and ready! Do consult them!).

It seems suitable to start with the series that I wrote on

• Native American cultures,

Among numerous posts under the jazz tag (to which I’ve only awarded the USA tag sparingly), which I’ve rounded up here, see e.g.

• Lives in jazz
• Billie Holiday
• Miles meets Bird
• Coltrane.

Bearing in mind the scars of genocide and slavery, conflict has never been absent; but many such posts pay homage to boundless creativity and energy. Some more examples:

Navajo

On film,

• Marx brothers (tag)
• Five easy pieces
• David Lynch (Wild at heart, Twin Peaks)
• Moon river
• What’s up Doc?

Country https://stephenjones.blog/2019/12/26/more-country/

On music, musicology, and fieldwork:

• Bruno Nettl
• Bruce Jackson
• Madonna and McClary
• Accordion crimes
• Country
• Detroit 67, and
• Amazing Grace
• You don’t own me
• Smile (Charlie Chaplin, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland)
• The iconic Pearl and Dean tune
• Family guy
• Soap
• Parks and recreation
• Mozart in the jungle
• Imagining the New World
• Charles Ives
• John Cage
• Meredith Monk

Note also

• Some early American humorists
• On Steinbeck and Salinger
• Gary Snyder
• Lenny Bruce
• Daoist non-action (Han Feizi, Liezi, Martin Gabel, Walt Disney—but not quite Miles Davis).

Patricia Lockwood https://stephenjones.blog/2021/02/13/lockwood/

Other posts take the story on, such as

• Coco and Naomi
• Katelyn Ohashi
• AOC
• David Sedaris (tag)
• Steven Wright (here and here)
• Patricia Lockwood
• The handmaid’s tale.

Considering daily language, some usages are charming:

• Signoffs and other cross-pond drôlerie
• To go: a parallel text
• You say potato
• Enough already
• Momentarily

So while one always wants to rejoice in all this, somehow such posts were always blemished by the Putrid Tang emanating from the White House; but now, with the renaissance following these traumatic four years, it finally seems suitable to celebrate again—even if the battle for social justice continues.