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New York, New York
Let's be honest: New York often irritates people in the rest of America, and a good many people in the rest of the world as well.
New Yorkers take for granted that their city is the financial, business, as well as news and communications center of the world.
New York, however, is also "the art capital of the world" and the "foremost modern dance and ballet metropolis." It is the
"leading book and publishing center," "the earth's entertainer," and a place "where actors outnumber muggers." It is also, as one
foreign guidebook excitedly points out, "the home of the world's most famous opera," the Met - the Metropolitan Opera.
A visitor from the city that likes to think of itself as "the nation's capital,"
Washington, D.C., might point out that the Library of Congress is the largest
library in the world. Or, someone from Harvard might explain that theirs is
the world's largest university library. But a New Yorker would simply say that
the New York Public Library is, "I believe," the largest library in the world that
is not a national collection. What irritates so many people about New
Yorkers is that they know where they live and who they are. Often they don't
seem too concerned about what the rest of us anywhere else think.
New York City's art offerings are so many and varied that authors of
guidebooks often give up and list numbers. In New York alone, for example,
there are some 12,000 artists and sculptors who are supporting themselves
from their work. It doesn't make much sense to list only a few of them.
Likewise, with some 400 art galleries and hundreds of exhibitions and shows
each season, it would give the wrong impression to name only two dozen or
so of the best known. Then there are the great museums. Among them is
the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) which houses the most complete
collection of modern art in the world. There is the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, in its range comparable only with the British Museum and the Louvre.
There is the Guggenheim, The Cloisters with its fine medieval collection, the
Brooklyn Museum, the Frick Collection, the National Museum of Design, the
Pierpont Morgan Library, the Museum of the American Indian, the American
Craft Museum, and the Whitney Museum of Modern Art. With so many other museums in addition to those concerned with art
(e.g., the American Museum of Natural History), a visitor would need a book to find them all. In 1993, for example, New York
City was investing $300
million to help renovate
some "of its 150
museums."
New York's status as
the leading art center is
not only based on the
number of artists working
there, its many galleries
and exhibitions, or the
museums. Several
important movements in
modern art have their
roots there. Among the
better known which
largely spread from New
York into international
art, are Abstract
Expressionism and
Action Painting, the related "happenings" that came out of the city in 1959-60, Pop-art, Minimal art, and Photorealism. Some of
the artists associated with such movements are, for example, Close, Davis, de Kooning, Demuth, Dine, Estes, Hanson, Johns,
Kline, Lichtenstein, Motherwell, Oldenburg, Pollock, Rauschenberg, Rosenquist, Rothko, Segal, Stella, and Warhol. Many wellknown American artists such as Andrew Wyeth and Georgia O'Keeffe are not associated with New York. Still, they have had
some of their most important exhibitions in that city.
Similarly, Chicago is often associated with modern architecture as the home of Louis Sullivan, sometimes called "the father of
the skyscraper,"' and Frank Lloyd Wright. Yet, it is the Manhattan skyline that is for many people the symbol of the modern big
city. And the Guggenheim Museum is one of Wright's best-known designs. Chicago is also where several important Bauhaus
artists fled. Some of them, like Mies van der Rohe who formed a partnership with American architect Philip Johnson, did much
to influence modern design. But it is New York again that has some of their best-known works. Internationally famous American
architects like Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Eli Attia, Helmut Jahn, Richard Meier and Frank D. Gehry, although not all represented
in New York, have shaped modern architecture. In photography, two New Yorkers, Stieglitz and Steichen, and their gallery
"291" on Fifth Avenue had great international influence. Because so many of the major news and media companies as well as
publishing giants like Time-Warner and Turner have their headquarters in New York City, it has also been an important center
for photo-journalists. Finally, so-called "street art," whether the by now high-priced subway graffiti
and paintings or the wall-and-buildings paintings with their strong ties to Hispanic-American and southern California art, still are
most often associated with New York.
Theater in America is especially healthy in the hundreds of regional and university groups around the country. But it is
Broadway with its some 40 major professional stages and the over 350 off-Broadway experimental theaters that bring to mind
American playwrights such as O'Neill, Miller, Saroyan, Williams, lnge, Albee, Jones, Simon, Shephard or Wilson. There are over
15,000 professional actors in New York alone, and another 20,000 or so in the state of California. Over 16,000 professional
musicians and composers live in New York, and almost 23,000 more in California. The competition is intense.
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Coast to Coast
While New York is almost overpowering in its cultural offerings, it is just the major, not the only, cultural center in the United
States. The fact that three times as many Americans attend symphony concerts as go to baseball games can be explained by
the fact that there are some 1,500 orchestras throughout the country. Some three dozen orchestras in the United States can be
termed '"major," or world-class. Few of us, certainly, would be willing to judge how good these orchestras are. Yet when Sir
Georg Solti was pressured by a German newspaper in 1993 to give his "top ten" in the world, he named the Vienna, Berlin,
Amsterdam, and London symphony orchestras along with those of Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York
("that's already nine") and quickly added four "superb" others - San Francisco, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Washington.
Interestingly, only one of these nine U.S. orchestras in Solti's list is in New York.
School and university
ensembles and
orchestras also play a
very important role
throughout the country.
They act as training
academies for
musicians and dancers.
There are hundreds of
city, state, and
nationwide music
competitions. University
schools of music,
theater, and dance
provide scholarships
and professional
training, and the best of
their orchestras, groups,
and performers are very good indeed. Here a pyramid system can also be seen, with an increasing quality and level of
competition evident as one progresses from school to university, to city or regional orchestras or stages, to professional
careers. One problem today in fact is that there are many better-trained and talented musicians than ever before, with the result
that some are unemployed and search for jobs overseas. In addition, the universities provide cultural offerings in many areas of
the nation, especially in smaller cities, which would otherwise find it difficult to support a major symphony, theater, or concert
season on their own. The University of Wisconsin at Madison, for example, offers around 300 musical recitals each year in the
community. Most of the university-sponsored concerts and recitals are free.
Indiana's Musical Mecca
As a regional - and, increasingly, national - musical resource, no college or university can equal the outreach of the 1,680
students and 146 faculty members, most of whom are nationally recognized master musicians, of Indiana University's School of
Music.
The backbone of Indiana's music program has long been its Opera Theater, which has staged more than 1.000 performances,
including 20 world or American premieres, since its founding in 1948. Since 1972 IU students and opera buffs from surrounding
states have been able to enjoy splendid productions in the $11 million Musical Arts Center (known as "Big Mac") - an
auditorium, rehearsal and classroom complex that rivals the finest music houses in the world. Operas, with modest ticket prices
- from $3 to $12 - are performed every Saturday during the school year. On other nights one of the two jazz ensembles or the
six orchestras might be scheduled, or possibly a concert by a celebrated faculty member- all free. In a given year, the music
school puts on about 950 programs.
The community open-air concert which is free for all also has a long tradition in America. The Central Park concerts in New York
City, for example, are famous for their variety, with everyone from the Philharmonic to individual singers and popular groups
willing and wanting to appear. Similar open-air concerts in other cities attract tens of thousands throughout the nation. There are
two reasons for this tradition. First they are good public relations, a way of thanking the community for its support and making
new friends. Secondly and simply, it's fun, with or without classical music.
So-called serious music is therefore very healthy in the U.S. On the one hand, it has the tradition of quality associated with
Menuhin, Stern, Horowitz, and Rubinstein, or Tucker, Merrill, Price, Sills, and Home. On the other hand, it has the promise of
future quality with the large number of musicians, singers, and dancers being trained. The American tradition from Aaron
Copland to John Cage and Philip Glass is thus being strengthened. Of course, most groups and orchestras always feel that
they need more money. More than one symphony in fact has gone on strike
to dramatize demands for better pay. But at a time when several other
nations are forced to cut back on government spending for the arts, the
Americans, with their tradition of private and voluntary funding, have often
had less difficulties. Directors and conductors who have worked in both
systems also point out that the voluntary and private support does not
interfere with their artistic freedom.
For every American who has actually sat through a program of John Cage's
experimental music, there are probably hundreds who prefer the music and
lyrics of American musicals. The contribution of America to this "semiclassical;' or "classical popular" musical form has been enormous, from
Oklahoma and West Side Story to Hair and A Chorus Line. Film versions,
stage revivals, and sound tracks continue to have great popularity. The
music of Gershwin and Bernstein has become a standard part of most
orchestras' repertoires, and the composer Stephen Sondheim was recently
chosen to be Oxford University's first visiting professor of drama and musical
theater.
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American Food: From Asparagus to Zucchini
The popular view outside the U.S. that Americans survive on cheeseburgers. Cokes, and French fries is as accurate as the
American popular view that the British live on tea and fish 'n' chips, the French on red wine and garlic, and the Japanese on
seaweed and saki.
Besides being a cliche, this view also comes from the fact that much of what is advertised abroad as 'American food" is a
pretty flat, tasteless imitation. American beef, for example, comes from specially grain-fed cattle, not from cows that are raised
mainly for milk production. As a result, American beef is more tender and tastes better than what is usually offered as an
'American steak"' in Europe. When sold abroad, the simple baked potato that comes hot and whole in foil often lacks the most
important element, the famous Idaho potato. This has a different texture and skin that comes from the climate and soil in Idaho.
Or, there's even that old picnic standby, corn-on-the-cob. There's absolutely no comparison with corn that has been canned,
kept in water, or frozen stiff and shipped for weeks over thousands of miles.
Even something as basic as barbecue sauces show differences from many of the types found on supermarket shelves
overseas. A fine barbecue sauce from the Southside of Chicago has its own fire and soul. The Texans have a competition each
year for the hottest barbecue sauce (the recipes are kept secret). And the Hispanic communities in the Southwest know that
theirs are the best. Then there are those California wines which are doing so well in international tasting competitions. Like fine
wines everywhere, the best ones never leave home. The oldest bourbons and smoothest "sippin' whiskeys" are also not things
you would offer to just anyone. Or, as a British cooking expert humorously explained, you can't expect to find real Cajun chicken
"in that well-known Louisiana bayou, Glasgow."
America has two strong advantages when it comes to food. The first is
that, as the leading agricultural nation, she has always been well supplied
with fresh meats, fruits, and vegetables in great variety at relatively low
prices. This is one reason why steak or beef roast is probably the most
"typical” American food; it has always been more available. But good
Southern-fried chicken also has its champions, as do hickory-smoked or
sugar-cured hams, turkey (which some people wanted to make the national
bird), fresh lobster, and other seafoods such as crabs or clams.
In a country with widely different climates and many fruit and vegetable
growing regions, such items as fresh grapefruit, oranges, lemons, melons,
cherries, peaches, or broccoli, iceberg lettuce, avocados, and cranberries
do not have to be imported. This is one reason why fruit dishes and salads
are so common. Family vegetable gardens have been very popular, both as
a hobby and as a way to save money, from the days when most Americans
were farmers. They also help to keep fresh food on the table. Vegetable
gardens are so popular that even The New Yorker always prints a few
zucchini cartoons each autumn. One thing that always grows is zucchini,
and trying to get the family to eat more of it with everything, or the neighbors
to accept just a few more, has become a kind of national joke. In some
areas where just about everyone goes fishing now and then, fish replace
zucchini ("you caught them, you eat them!").
The second advantage America has enjoyed is that immigrants have
brought with them, and continue to bring, the traditional foods of their
countries and cultures. The variety of foods and styles is simply amazing. Whether Armenian, Basque, Catalonian, Creole,
Danish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, traditional Jewish, Latvian, Mexican, Vietnamese or what have you, these
traditions are now also at home in the United States. A toasted bagel for breakfast (with Philadelphia cream cheese), a crisp
taco with fresh lettuce (and a sharp cheese) for lunch, or a serious dinner starting with sweet-and-sour in a Chinatown
restaurant have also become "typically" American.
There are four trends in America which have continued over a decade, and seem to be continuing. First, there has been a
notable increase in the number of reasonably priced restaurants which offer specialty foods. These include those that specialize
in many varieties and types of pancakes, those that offer only fresh, baked breakfast foods, and the many that are buffets or
salad bars. Secondly, growing numbers of Americans are more regularly going out to eat in restaurants. One reason is that they
are not too 5 expensive. Another reason, probably more important, is that many American women today do not feel that their
lives are best spent in the kitchen. They would rather pay a professional chef and also enjoy a good meal. At the same time,
there is an increase in fine cooking as a hobby for both men and women. For some three decades now, there have been
popular television series on all types and styles of cooking, and the increasing popularity can easily be seen in the number of
best-selling specialty cookbooks and the numbers of stores that specialize in often exotic cooking devices and spices.
A third long-term trend is that as a result of nationwide health campaigns, Americans in general are eating a much lighter diet.
Cereals and grain foods, fruits and vegetables, fish and salads are emphasized instead of heavy and sweet foods. More than
one American, of course, will refuse to give up that "solid" meal of meat, potatoes, and gravy. Yet the strong health and fitness
movement in the U.S. shows no signs of being a temporary trend.
Finally, there is that ongoing international trend to "fast food" chains which sell pizza, hamburgers, Mexican foods, chicken,
salads and sandwiches, seafoods, and various ice creams. While many Americans and many other people resent this trend and
while, as may be expected, restaurants also dislike it, many young, middle-aged, and old people, both rich and poor, continue to
buy and eat fast foods. Perhaps it's all taken a bit too seriously? After all, while most Americans would still judge France to be
the home of fine cuisine, Paris is also the home of the world's busiest Burger Chef restaurant.
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Then, too, so-called American fast food has been around long enough around the world that it has become, like so many
other aspects of American culture, just another part of the normal landscape. To note, for example, that Hong Kong has Pizza
Hut's largest outlet and McDonald's busiest, or that Kentucky Fried Chicken found a home in Japan over two decades ago and
now has some 900 outlets is, at least for younger generations, not remarkable. What is new is that foreign visitors to the United
States are sometimes surprised to see the familiar things they have at home: "Oh, the Americans have KFC, too!"
An Older New World
Between the "high culture" of the Metropolitan Opera and the humble but tasty enchilada, there's a broad stretch of traditional
American arts and crafts which are no longer being taken for granted. Beginning in the 1960s with the back-to-the-land and the
away-from-plastics movements, many of these traditional arts and crafts have enjoyed a widespread revival. Among those
today which attract great interest are pottery and ceramics, glass art of all kinds, weaving and textile crafts, jewelry making and
woodworking. Today there are substantial professional pottery and weaving colonies throughout the Southwest and Far West:
they have been strongly influenced by both the Amerindian and Oriental traditions. America's long love affair with natural woods
- going back to colonial times - is especially strong once again, with everything from the handmade traditional musical
instruments to furniture such as the slender American rocking chair enjoying a renewed life. The distinctive American quilt, a
product of traditional folk art, has also come alive once more. The enormous growth in quilting as an art and a craft in the past
two or three decades in America has been matched by a rather astounding spread of quilting and quilters from Japan to
Germany. Classes teaching such skills and crafts are extremely popular throughout the land.
The traditional building materials are also seen in the architecture commonly associated with the "great" informal lifestyles of the
Pacific Northwest, northern California, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountain region. Its common markers are natural wood,
unfinished natural stone and rock, glass, and its openness to the outdoors. Many Americans were long tired, or plain bored with
the "international style" of architecture, and along with a variety of modern experimentation have returned to the old. The more
traditional regional architectures, the simple but elegant colonial styles of the Northeast, or the soft-shaped, adobe styles of the
Southwest which meld with the tones of the land, are regaining ground. The restoration of Victorian homes and buildings in the
Midwest has also become more important. The complete renovation of the old center of Boston did not and does not contradict
that city's reputation as a technological, future-oriented center. In a way it is typical of America, living between the old and the
new.