Eames House

Santa Monica, CA

Ray & Charles Eames. enuff said :)

Kent

Blood Meridian

Nacogdoches, TX

The novel Blood Meridian paints a brutal, unsentimental portrait of America's dark past--a past including the wholesale massacre of American's indigenous inhabitants and scores of other violent calamities along the Texas-Mexico border. This dark section of America's history is poetically rendered in the style of the titans of our literature--Faulkner and Melville. Few American novels are so harrowing yet still display such authentic and audacious American verve.

Brandon

Linus and Lucy

Everywhere

Vince guaraldi's song"Linus and Lucy" is one of maybe a couple of songs in the history of American music that immediately makes everyone smile.

Bob

Schoolhouse Rock

On decades-old VHS tapes!

Ask any 40 year old who grew up in America what the preamble of The Constitution is and she will not recite it for you, she will SING it. That's thanks to the Saturday morning cartoon series Schoolhouse Rock.

These shorts were how many of us learned how a bill becomes a law, the definitions of parts of speech, and how America became a free nation. Not to mention, the preamble.

By turning major American historical events, and simple mathematical and grammatical lessons into catchy sing-a-longs, they sneakily taught us cartoon-obsessed kids a thing or 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0

Barb

@tastewhatumiss

At Folsom Prison (Johnny Cash, 1968)

Folsom, CA

Johnny Cash’s live album “At Folsom Prison” documents two concerts Cash performed—with the backup of June Carter, Carl Perkins, and the Tennessee Three—in January 1968 for men incarcerated at California’s Folsom State Prison. The album not only helped revive Cash’s career and solidify his outlaw image, it gave Americans a rare opportunity to commune with incarcerated people around the simple pleasure of live music at a time when the civil rights movement began to put the U.S.’s large prison population on the agenda. Today, as the world’s undisputed number one incarcerated nation, this recording is as relevant and vibrant as it was in 1968.

Liam

@liamdnoit

RENT

New York, New York

Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning rock opera RENT brought the MTV generation to the theatre, and, in my opinion, helped Broadway thrive into the 21st Century. The hit musical gave a voice to the gritty Bohemian lifestyle in the modern world, rampant with poor artists, disease, and the need for love. Jonathan Larson never got to see his dream come true, dying suddenly on the eve of the show's Opening night. His greatest achievement went on to Broadway, film, and inspired millions of fans to measure their lives in love. "No Day But Today".

James

JaFoSmOfficial

The Wizard of Oz

Kansas

Everyone knows the movie of THE WIZARD OF OZ, and the songs are standards that we've heard countless times by many artists. But I think the universal elements of the story get lost. We all must turn to self reflection to find those qualities that will make us complete, and this story finds a unique way to build that message in an entertaining package.

Bill

All The Kings Men

New Orleans

Set in one of the most iconic cities in America. Based on the life of as iconic an American as there is. An iconic movie is based on the book. Written by an American icon. Seems sufficient.

curtis

Roy Lichtenstein

New York City, NY

But Lichtenstein makes us notice the cues that generations have been conditioned to look for in advertising, newspaper and comic books. A few simple swivels could signal a smoking gun, a femme fatale’s tears, or an explosion in the sky. His paintings promises that the stage is set for something else to happen when the page is turned. And his adaptations of Picasso, Matisse and Van Gogh using the same candy-colored, irreverent approach, reminding us what quirky details make a famous European classic suddenly “American.” Imagine what he could have done with hashtags, iPods, and banner ads.

Wendy

wendyellenweis

Back to the Future/Southlake Town Square

Southlake, TX

I listened to your story on One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest piece, and was struck by how the movie differed from the original book, and it reminded me of a similar artistic influence between American Icons, this time between a movie and newly created downtown.

The town leaders of Southlake saw their town expanding exponentially. Many large multi-national developers came promising a commercial center at the core land, which was just a horse farm, and were dismissed by the town’s leaders, who did not want the same cookie-cutter shopping mall.
A young ambitious developer followed with an alternate vision to that presented by the big-time developers. An old time Texas town square, just like that from the old-timey scenes from Back To the Future. That town square from the 50’s in the Spielberg movie became the shared vision, that developed the buy-in, even from hard-nosed transportation engineers and fire chiefs.

Delivering the town square, which is now beloved and has won numerous awards, etc., was a huge challenge. Suburban zoning and development rules are really terrible, and work against the creation of walkable destinations, with their focus on vehicular criterion. At great development risk, we created an authentic downtown without any public transportation, and accommodating suburban parking requirements, allowing residents to “park-once” and enjoy the amenities of their downtown.

Back to the Future is cultural criticism wrapped up in a wrapper of family entertainment. From the destruction of the “Twin Pines” for the future “Twin Pines Mall” to the isolation of American subdivisions, its influences are broad. The citizen leaders of Southlake took its lessons to heart, and have a real downtown to show for it.

One of many videos attached.

Brian

Back to the Future/Southlake Town Square

Southlake, TX

I listened to your story on One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest piece, and was struck by how the movie differed from the original book, and it reminded me of a similar artistic influence between American Icons, this time between a movie and newly created downtown.

The town leaders of Southlake saw their town expanding exponentially. Many large multi-national developers came promising a commercial center at the core land, which was just a horse farm, and were dismissed by the town’s leaders, who did not want the same cookie-cutter shopping mall.
A young ambitious developer followed with an alternate vision to that presented by the big-time developers. An old time Texas town square, just like that from the old-timey scenes from Back To the Future. That town square from the 50’s in the Spielberg movie became the shared vision, that developed the buy-in, even from hard-nosed transportation engineers and fire chiefs.

Delivering the town square, which is now beloved and has won numerous awards, etc., was a huge challenge. Suburban zoning and development rules are really terrible, and work against the creation of walkable destinations, with their focus on vehicular criterion. At great development risk, we created an authentic downtown without any public transportation, and accommodating suburban parking requirements, allowing residents to “park-once” and enjoy the amenities of their downtown.

Back to the Future is cultural criticism wrapped up in a wrapper of family entertainment. From the destruction of the “Twin Pines” for the future “Twin Pines Mall” to the isolation of American subdivisions, its influences are broad. The citizen leaders of Southlake took its lessons to heart, and have a real downtown to show for it.

One of many videos attached.

Brian

Back to the Future/Southlake Town Square

Southlake, TX

I listened to your story on One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest piece, and was struck by how the movie differed from the original book, and it reminded me of a similar artistic influence between American Icons, this time between a movie and newly created downtown.

The town leaders of Southlake saw their town expanding exponentially. Many large multi-national developers came promising a commercial center at the core land, which was just a horse farm, and were dismissed by the town’s leaders, who did not want the same cookie-cutter shopping mall.
A young ambitious developer followed with an alternate vision to that presented by the big-time developers. An old time Texas town square, just like that from the old-timey scenes from Back To the Future. That town square from the 50’s in the Spielberg movie became the shared vision, that developed the buy-in, even from hard-nosed transportation engineers and fire chiefs.

Delivering the town square, which is now beloved and has won numerous awards, etc., was a huge challenge. Suburban zoning and development rules are really terrible, and work against the creation of walkable destinations, with their focus on vehicular criterion. At great development risk, we created an authentic downtown without any public transportation, and accommodating suburban parking requirements, allowing residents to “park-once” and enjoy the amenities of their downtown.

Back to the Future is cultural criticism wrapped up in a wrapper of family entertainment. From the destruction of the “Twin Pines” for the future “Twin Pines Mall” to the isolation of American subdivisions, its influences are broad. The citizen leaders of Southlake took its lessons to heart, and have a real downtown to show for it.

One of many videos attached.

Brian

thornton wilder's OUR TOWN

new snapshots of a q

Quintessentially American, plus the bittersweet pain of memory

ed

Catch-22

New York, NY

Perhaps the funniest book for the first 175 pages, it shows the good-natured if imperfect strength and then the complex darkness of the American experience.

Ed

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Chicago, IL

Nothing portrays the aspirations of fin-de-ciecle American teenagers better. How ISN'T this an American Icon already?

Jeff

Champslikeus

An American Tragedy

Cape Cod, MA

Dreiser identifies the dark side of the quintessential American quest for success, identity, and riches. Even the somewhat lengthy description of the trial at the conclusion of the story in which the protagonist uses his skills of reason to argue his case is symptomatic of the American litigation genius and genius for self exoneration.

Kathleen

fame studios

muscle shoals, alabama

Muscle Shoals is a tiny spot on a map located in the northwest corner of Alabama. But starting in the 1960,s this small place became a giant in the production of R and B music which finally through bands like the Allman Brothers Band created the singular Muscle Shoals sound or the. Birthplace of southern rock. Another function of the studio that happened with putting white and black musicians together was the intergretion of the races often for the first time in the then segergated south. The songs recorded there reflected a musical America...mustang sally...I never loved a man...If its not an american icon there isn't one!

charles

To Kill a Mockingbird

Alabama

This book and film depict race relations of the 1930's, a single dad trying to raise two young children and talking to them about what is happening around them, mental illness and how we perceive it in the Boo Radley character, mental illness of the character who wrongly accuses the African-American man of rape, rape issues.....I'm probably leaving out other themes. A perfect storm of issues sensitively & perceptively dealt with.

Alyson

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

Brooklyn, NY

Both the book by Betty Smith and the movie by Elia Kazan are wonderful. As a poor girl growing up in Brooklyn, I thought that the story of America was about great men: founding fathers and robber barons and famous writers. This was the first book I read about being a girl, about being poor, about living your life through library books, and so much more. It’s about how alcoholism affects a family, how a parent can love one child more than the other, how sexual desire shapes the decisions you make in life. The portrayal of poverty is very detailed and realistic but never sentimental. You’ll never hear the song “Molly Malone” again without crying.

Deborah

Sassy Magazine

New York, NY

For a generation of girls, Sassy showed us how to be creative, smart, tough, and poweful women. It was also super cool and funny. I've never heard of another magazine or book that did what it did. Whenever i meet another woman who grew up with Sassy, it's an instant bond.

Amelia