How odd. Americans really seem to have no food culture...
It could be argued that Americans have no culture what so ever. America has only existed in a global age. There was no time for its culture to evolve in isolation (despite the desire of many conservatives). From the beginning American culture has been affected by other cultures in the world, both indirectly and directly (immigrants). It's not fair to compare American culture (300/400 years old or so) to other cultures that have been 1000s of years in the making. I do think that there are some uniquely American culture inventions (not all of them good and in no particular order) such as television, fast food, jazz, film (I will concede non-Americans have done and do film just as well if not better than Americans), telephone, computers, various other technical innovations that I can't seem to remember at the moment. Many of these have found their way into other cultures and have changed the way the those people lead their lives as in the example of the telephone or television.
repeated listens to me reveal a pastiche of styles that don't quite transcend the genres he blends (actually, he doesn't so much blend as ram genres together).
In the above comment about Naked City, substitute cultures for styles and you have a pretty accurate description of American culture. So, I guess Zorn is a truly an American artist, not simply by nationality or geography, but by aesthetics, method, and theme. He is one of the few American artists that don't ape European artists (there are others don't get me wrong). It comes back to Zorn. Zach