2. Why "Jamming on Culture"? What is Jamming?

JAM a lot of fruit into a jar, add something sweet, and it comes out delicious.
JAM makes toast taste better. It can be sweet or spicy (maybe you have heard of jalapeño jam?). JAM lets you taste the bounty of summer in the cold of winter.
Musicians and dance improvisers talk about JAMMING. It's riffing, co-creating, following this present instant into the next unknown moment.
"JAMMING something into a tight spot," "jam the radiowaves:" ways of finding or making room in unexpected places, of interfering.

I looked up "JAMBOREE" on the internet. Wow! Word-ologists say its origins may be from Hindi, Swahili, Native American, or Australian Aborigine (AA). It may be related to "corroboree," an AA term for any noisy, late-night gathering or disturbance. The AA Pitjanjarra tribe uses jamboree to mean a "feast of tree grubs." Lord Baden-Powell made the word famous at the "first world jamboree" in 1920. He was the dude who started the Boy Scouts. He spent a lot of time in Africa, where he learned that "jambo" is "hello" in a Swahili dialect. At the 1920 jamboree, he said "People give different meanings for this word, but from this year on… it will be associated to the largest gathering of youth that ever took place."

I want to feast and party on the grubs of culture, I want to spread sweet and spicy jam on the toast that is culture, I want to riff on culture, perhaps interfere with it or mash unexpected flavours together. (I was born in Canada, so I usually spell flavour with a "u." You say flavor, I say flavour, Public Enemy says "Flava." Remember the rap group Public Enemy? They rocked. Anyway--) Let's jam on.

Leave me a comment about ways you've "jammed" culture or memorable "jam" experiences.
copyright Sara Zolbrod 2008