I was in St Louis over the weekend, at the Popular Culture/American Culture Association conference accepting the Carl Bode award for my article on Mexican musicians in the contemporary Southeast. I was definitely pretty happy about winning that award, it's obviously nice to be recognized -- and especially so for something as interesting as research on Mexican music. here I am collecting the prize:


Being in St Louis gave me a chance to go to Cahokia for the first time. I used to travel to St Louis once a year but spent most of my time at the annual polka festival. Somehow never made it to Cahokia.

here is the large monk mound, it is actually much higher than it looks in this photo:


here is the view from the top, that is St. Louis in the background.



Cahokia is east of St Louis in a part of Illinois not known for this its prosperity nowadays (to say the least). At the historic site, just beyond a gargantuan tree, stands a trailer park that is current Mississippian Culture.


I was interested to see that we passed a number of taquerias on the way to the mounds but I never got a picture of one.

I went with a friend who is also a musician and we played tunes sitting out in the picnic area near the mounds, next to a large field where some horses were being ridden, all in all a perfect place to play some tunes.

Comments

Anthony Gaughan said…
Congratulations, Dan, on winning the Bode award! I look forwrd to the day when you win the Bancroft Prize too.
Tony

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