American Dreamz.

Oh America, you do fascinate me.

You're culture is so like our own, yet so starkly different that you make a fascinating study of contrasts. Each dissonance in the most unlikely places, from the mundane to the marvellous.

Suddenly, America is cool again. Some credit Obama, others credit the revival of the USA music scene, led by Vampire Weekend, Spank Rock, TV on the Radio, Fleet Foxes and the Black Kids to name a few.

There are certainly parts of American culture that I'd rather point and laugh at than participate in, such as the Hollywood obsession with buffing and smoothing character out of faces and features, rendering such bland shockers such as Heidi Montag and aptly named, Spencer Pratt. (Irony, you're a gem.)

It's easy to take American culture at face value ( almost literally) and judge only their plastic nation. Dig a little deeper, and it may still retain the lingering superficiality that is quickly seeping into the pores of all Western culture, but there's substance to their culture that... is interesting to say the least....

A little concerned it feels like you're being swept up into a world that has been sucking a little too hard on the helium? You're spot on. Get high on the insanity, it never hurts to lose yourself once in a while.

If you come back down looking like Joscelyn Wildenstein though, there will be trouble.

Pictures via Oyster, Vogue, Fashionising.com and my beautiful friend Ashleigh, who went to New York recently. If I've credited the pics incorrectly or you want 'em down, you know the drill. ( ...ask me nicely and I'll fix it)

Admittedly this is more of a New York post, but I still heart you, San Francisco. One day, one day.