American Pie

I love Don McLean's "American Pie". I think it is a masterpiece.

I'm interested in honing the article to interpret the song consistent with McLean's intention. You will find in McLean's "American Pie" website the major clues for interpretation: (1) the song is autobiographical; and (2) the song is about the "evolution" of American music in the 1960s. Given these clues, I believe autobiographical and evolutionary themes mean that verse by verse, "American Pie" progresses generally forward in time (starting in about 1955 and ending in 1970), giving us additional clues as to the direct meaning of the lyric.

I think it is the mark of McLean's genius is his use of imagery in his autobiographic music history to recall separate images of the events, places, and people of the 1960's. However wonderful these derivative images are, they don't seem to fit together logically (but maybe I'm wrong) -- they are more like the images on the individual pieces of a collage, though meaningful as they are individually. I'm more interested in the larger collage itself. So I hope to evolve the structure of the article to address the collage as a whole -- McLean's central themes, and then look more microscopically at the individual pieces. I'm concerned that these microscopic pieces have blurred, rather than sharpened, understanding of this masterwork.

Feel free to tell me what you think. Communicate here or via my email.

dkwong323@msn.com --Dkwong323 02:40, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

American Gothic

And onto another American cultural icon. I'd like to contribute to the article on Grant Wood's masterpiece and iconic painting, "American Gothic". The popular public perception of this painting seems to be at great odds with the painter's original intent. Many call this a painting of a house with a carpenter gothic window and gothic people. What did Grant Wood have in mind when he painted the man glaring at us with a pitchfork in his hand, and pitchforks on his overalls, shirt, and face; the woman with the loosened strand of hair and the sun symbols all over her apron; and the distant church steeple peaking over a thick forest at the house and people?

An outline of an expanded article is proposed. I'd like to populate a reference section first, and from them, draft the article.

--Dkwong323 04:39, 28 March 2006 (UTC)