Blog 1 - Raman Allawirdi

Questions are what help us learn. Author Amanda Petrusich asks a variety of questions throughout It Still Moves : Lost Songs, Lost Highways, And The Search For The Next American Music. In her book, she states " My mission is relatively simple: How are our collective ideas about Americana changing? Where did they start? How are those notions preserved, celebrated, milked for profit? How do the places we come from- our hometowns, our regions, our city blocks-influence the sounds we make? And, most important, how is Americana music transforming to accommodate the massive cultural and geographical shifts in the American landscape?" (16-17). As you can see from this quote, Amanda wants to deeply explore the origin of Americana music and find out how it is changing and being used in modern day. While on the highway traveling to the different states she is visiting, Amanda comes up with questions about the actions of other drivers. "Who are they yelling at on their cell phones? What brand of cigarette did she inch out of the pack with her lips?" (18-19). Amanda Petrusich is like an investigative detective. She wants to know everything.

In It Still Moves : Lost Songs, Lost Highways, And The Search For The Next American Music, author Amanda Petrusich goes into great detail on the area in which she lives in. "I still feel unprepared for New York City every time I trip out of my front door, scrunching my nose to the smell of street-boiled, urine-soaked trash, corking my ears with headphones, curling myself away from sirens, body taut and defensively posed" (12). This quote represents Amanda's portrayal of what New York City is to her. She goes into even more detail and describing how New York City, to her, is dirty and disgusting. Amanda states that Brooklyn is more normal for her. This might bring up dispute with people that live in New York City. They would argue that what Amanda Petrusich stated is false and New York is one of the best places to live in.

Amanda Petrusich is an author who does not want to be biased in any way, shape, or form. She wants to point of the facts so that everyone can understand the situation at hand. The more an author is biased the less readers he or she will receive. Amanda points out a situation dealing with the creation of the highways that was initiated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. "The project's official name was the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, and it was intended, at least in part, to facilitate the movement of troops and supplies during wartime"(19). She goes on to talk about the consequences that occurred by the increase in suburbs and vehicles driven. " In their defense, the system's designers had no way of anticipating the rise of suburbia, and were thus unable to predict the glut of cars now clogging their precious arteries."(19-20). This shows that Petrusich wanted to show two sides to one story instead of preferring one rather than the other.

RA