Just one more... this is important!!! (still not about Spain, sorry)

Okay, I just had a moment. While writing about Spain I have my ipod on all songs shuffle. The Maple Leaf Rag came on (when did that get on there? oh well). I haven't even been away from America that long, but this song is VERY American, and it made me miss America a little bit. This is huge, because up to this point in Spain I'd spent all my time choking back vomit that would suddenly collect in the back of my throat whenever I saw the official Hannah Montana store of Cadiz.

A city with history that goes back so long there were cave paintings of Phonecian galleys found under a new hotel they started building last year has to import Hannah Montana to keep itself culturally aware? America SUCKS! I was embarassed, really. That, and listening to the typical group of former SAS'ers on their way to the club shouting full volume at each other as they sat at the same table at an outdoor cafe, as older Cadiz residents turned away in disgust to find another restaurant.

But Joplin, you have saved me from this tiresome guilt/shame. America HAS contributed some genuinely original things to the world, and not just in the name of consumerist conquests. Maybe in 3,000 years they'll dig up some art from 1901 under the foundations for the space elevator in New York City.