How do you envision America’s future?

hat young urban planners want right now is for everyone to realize that they like and want walkable communities. Because if everyone wants it then it will be easier to get it. We think that these changes we want to make will make humanity happier in general.

Daniel Burnham, the first great American urban planner of the Columbian Expedition and of many cityscapes including Chicago’s lakefront and Magnificent Mile, thought this, too. Of the implementation of cars, he said “When this change comes, a real step in civilization will have been taken. With no smoke, no gases, no litter of horses, your air and streets will be clean and pure. This means, does it not, that the health and spirits of men will be better?” (From Devil in the White City, p. 378)

He wasn’t only wrong that cleaner air (our air is much cleaner than any air Burnham breathed back in the 1890s) would come with the automobile, he was wrong that cleaner air and streets would make humans’ health and spirits better. Our health suffers from laziness and exhaust. Our happiness is hard to find when all this technology helps us forget to be grateful and mindful.

I think it was good for the planners of the World’s Fair in Chicago to dream so big. I disagree with Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City’s author, in saying that he steered America toward its own greatness of architecture and landscape. Modernism took a huge toll on the undeveloped land of our country throughout the 20th century. Why should we be building greek-looking buildings, people like Frank Lloyd Wright asked. That’s not our heritage. You can now see the  our heritage’s design, the prairie house, in any city. It is beige/brown brick, one story, with horizontal lines and large windows.

People at WorldChanging and other “Think bright green future” blogs stress the importance of thinking of new solutions instead of going back to old ways of thinking, such as the small town model accented in New Urbanism. But all those images of futuristic buildings and green landscapes with the sun shining impossibly bright are just as frightening as a post-apocalyptic dirty industrial landscape with muddy skies and polluted ground. At least, they are to me. I am afraid to assume that’s a better world for the generations to come, for our children. We are in an age where we don’t like to assume, claim, or presume anything about anyone else. Parents are letting their kids make their own choices more and more.

I’m not saying this is all bad, but it raises the question of what we are to do with what we have on this earth today. When we artistic types write poems, paint pictures, make films or sculptures, we realize how fully what we have read, seen, experienced impacts what we will create. We spend a lot of our work paying homage to those who have gone before, who have made us see ourselves in a new way. Taking what we have learned, we create new art that is relevant and fresh to our present circumstance, and sometimes, if we’re lucky, it will have delved into the unspoken currents of our collective emotions and will stay relevant for ages to come.

So as you create new dreams for yourself and the ones around you, don’t worry about trends. Just make sure you are being genuinely you. Most large dreams have several thousand flaws and bad outcomes, but no one blames the genuine motives of the creator.

This is from the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. Americans put this vision far into the future and continued building prairie house suburbs. Maybe we like the idea of places like these, but not for ourselves.

The plans and dreams of our future continue in the same fashion. This image is a plan for South Korea. Phallic?

The Green Projects???

WebUrbanist Post called Retrofuture Urbanism

I finally used my Schuler’s gift card and bought One-Yard Wonders: 101 Sewing Fabric Projects.  Love it! Now I need fabric. Apparently not much fabric though!

I read Occult America hoping for juicy stories about weird occultist meetings and happenings behind the scenes of the American Government in the past 100 years. But it was an American history of ouija boards, ghosts, new age, mysticism, eastern thought, Christian science, and self-acceptance. Not a bad disappointment at all! So interesting. Now when I see the dollar bill, or The Secret, or even those vampire movies, I realize this fascination of ours will never die. Perhaps it is an unconscious search for life after death, or truth, or God.

I’ve been working on my novel, re-writing it in the present tense. When I hear authors talk about their first, second, and third drafts I get so overwhelmed, but it’s actually nice to rewrite. It beats brainstorming new scenes. I don’t know what I’m doooinnnnggg!  But it’s fuuuun!

I have begun a regimen of centering prayer. 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes before dinner. It is not a speaking prayer–it is a meditation in which you let your thoughts float by you without paying attention to them. The book that is guiding me, Open Mind, Open Heart, calls it “consenting to God’s presence and action within.”

This is incredibly difficult. Eastern meditation often tells you not to think. That is impossible. Centering prayer tells you not to think about your thoughts. That is almost impossible.

But I’m going to keep doing it. It puts me in my place. It reminds me that I am a vessel for love. I am not here for my own advancement, wealth, or happiness. By surrendering my thoughts and worries and agenda, I find true happiness.

We have nothing to lose but 40 minutes that would otherwise be spent watching TV or on the internet.

Also, a livelittle thing you can do to aid our Health Care crisis: Eat five fruits and vegetables a day and walk for at least 30 minutes every single day. You will prevent countless health problems.

With the Internet being the primary way I communicate with people, and having grown up this way, I have to wonder why I care about the physical community around me so much. I can find people who have the same tastes, beliefs, ideals as I do on-line.

That’s the same argument that Randall O’Toole (he sure is) in his awful book called the Best Laid Plans or something like that. He was all, “why are planners all concerned with communities? We don’t need that anymore because we have the internet.”

Oh, okay.

The creation and extensive use of craigslist.com shows the marriage of physical community and internetworking. (Did I just make up a word?) Here, people can anonymously sell things, hire people, lease apartments, and post missed connections. People like it because it’s safe. You don’t have to have any contact information on any of your posts. They even finally have gotten better spam protection.

I think craigslist is a good start, but the same idea is going to have a different looking and working website in the future. It is great that it categorizes by location, but what if each neighborhood had its own forum? On Facebook, my neighborhood has its own page–but it only has 80 fans. You know more than 80 people in my neighborhood have Facebook.

Neighborhood pride went out when platte developments came in. Of course, I have met people who actually do know all of their neighbors. But in my neighborhood, one that had an annual block party only 15 years ago, this aspect is gone. Maybe an internet forum for neighborhoods defeats the purpose–we could simply knock on peoples’ doors and say hi, couldn’t we? In a span of ten years, it has become more easy and safe for people to post on a website than to initiate in person.

This confused post shows how big we’re going to have to dream as internet integrates more and more deeply into our lives.

Bear with me. I am trying out a blog marketing site. It’s in beta.

Using it, I found this blog post that brings up really good questions about the future of information rights. I don’t think it’s something most people think about, but with Wikipedia and Wikileaks.org and future internet data sources, it’s going to be a huge issue. TV, magazines, libraries have controlled information outlets. Should they? Shouldn’t we know everything our government is doing? If we could, would we care?

I feel so surprisingly relieved after leaving a LinkedIn group called “Recent Grads-09.” Every discussion was about how to interview well, top ten ways to get a job fast, top ten things you’re doing wrong, how to write a fabulous resume, blah blah blah. It was stressin’ me out to read that stuff.

I’m going to be real with you. Even if you perfect every single detail they tell you about being hired, you still may not get a good job. You’ll probably get a sales job where they want you to be that way. Whatever job you land by doing all that stuff will be the job you jumped through hoops for. Congrats. We love guys in business suits and short hair who are so charming. Those make great employees.

I’m just glad I’m going into a field where it is experience and personality that matters most. A field where if you did do everything those websites tell you to, it would look like you were overcompensating for whatever you actually do lack.

I’m just feeling really cynical about that job stuff because it makes people feel like crap. This is not how it’s supposed to be. You’re supposed to just do what you’re good at and make a living off of it. We’re not meant to sit in cubicles doing BS work for BS companies that are, in the end, useless.

How many times did I pretend to these kinds of companies that yes, in five years I want to be working at their firm? I was finally honest with NHA last week, telling them I want to be an urban planner. Sorry. Not going to lie to you just to get a job. If it’s not a good match, it’s not a good match. Someone else can have it. I’d rather be cleaning offices where they know I don’t want a career in it and they’re okay with that.

Another thing I hate about this career training stuff is that at the end of all of it, they say “but it’s really networking that gets you the job.” And it’s true. You gotta know people. That’s how I got my internship and my job. And guess how little my interview skills mattered with both of those?

I could die happy after writing a song like “I Dream a Highway” by Gillian Welch. It’s personal, cultural, spiritual, and historical. The lyrics are at the end of this post.

One of my poems has a line that goes “you, that fourteen minute song in my head…” That’s this song.

This song is also discussed at Tiny Cat Pants, where they come to some of the same conclusions as I do.

I want to start with all the references to country music, folklore, and spiritual things. The first verse has three. John, I believe, is Johnny Cash, who broke stage lights at the Grand Ole Opry in a drug-infused rage. Then she mentions the Opry’s “brand new band,” which I take to mean as the new life of the Opry and the new sound of country music. The Opry used to embody country music, with old-time sounding bluegrass and country and western, along with skits and banter. Well, we all know what country music is considered to be now. People either love country and are referring to the stuff on the radio, or people love country but not the stuff on the radio, or people just plain hate all country. Folk is a name now given to acoustic pop and Country is a name given to sentimental, twangy pop. Taylor Swift is not a country singer.

(But I just found Steve Martin playing the banjo on the Grand Ole Opry! Sweeeeeeet!)

Wow, got on a tangent there. The third line: “Lord let me die with a hammer in my hand,” refers to John Henry, the folktale hero who beats a steamdrill on a railroad track, and then dies. The line is a prayer to always be working to beat the machine who takes away from our real work. This line coming after the discussion of the downfall of Cash and the Opry gives it a whole different meaning, though. What sort of machine is taking over our music? (Hmmm could it be commercialism?) AND, this line alludes to Gillian’s other song, “Elvis Presley Blues,” which compares Elvis to John Henry.

The next line about Memphis, too, alludes to the contemporary country culture. By mentioning Memphis, the other major city of Tennessee than Nashville, she is alluding a move from the spirit of Nashville to Memphis, which is another nod to Elvis as this is where Graceland is. So maybe Elvis is the hatchet man who taught her to speak.

As for the wagon/truck and the bones, it makes me think of a scene in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, a play by August Wilson, where one of the characters has a spiritual vision. He sees thousands of skeletons rattling and then they rise up and grow flesh. I think the image of rattling bones comes from a very old idea of spiritual resurrection.

The Jack of Diamonds verse refers to Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons, quite obviously. Which lover is Jack? Emmylou is still living, still making music (and collaborating like there’s no tomorrow with everyone under the sun!), and Gram died at 26, leaving the world as quite a legend. They were musical soul-mates, much like Gillian and Dave Rawlings, might I add.

The next verse is about a television. The most beautiful verse written about a TV I have ever read. I have stolen many poem images from this verse. But what does it mean in the context of the song?  The TV can be a symbol of postmodern perceptions of ourselves–that things don’t seem real or relevant unless they’re on the small screen. The previous verse asked the question “who am I?” This one gives no answer, leaving the speaker vague and anonymous, with the only resolution being to “dream a highway back to you.”

So now would be a good time to write about this all-important line. A highway is a very American thing. It connects us to each other. Yet we are all very isolated from many things. Family members, true friends, our own identities, heritages. The problems of our world here maybe are more mental/spiritual than physical. Or maybe there’s just a lot more going on in the radio waves and the world that we cannot see than we realize. The repeated line is a constant effort to return to that one thing that made us tick in the first place. Back to something genuine.

In the next verse, she mentions Jack of Diamonds again. There is an old folk song about the Jack of Diamonds symbolizing wealth and prosperity. The next lines allude to crazy/bad behavior. The next verse alludes to even deeper danger. Viper, knife, arsenic: all deadly.   Then the next verse feels like a hangover, as Tiny Cat Pants says. It is a painfully bright realization of consequences of actions, of life going on.

The “Sunday morning at the diner” verse has one of the best lines: “Hollywood trembles on the verge of tears.” This moment for the speaker lasts a long time. Watching the waitress, she sees a microcosm of humanity. It is a revelatory moment (“heard a call within a call”), and that’s why it lasts a thousand years. (Time is the revelator.)

The Lazarus verse alludes again to spiritual and biblical themes, but it also alludes to the folk song “Po’ Lazarus,” which is sung by the chain gang in the first scene of O Brother, Where Art Thou, on which Gillian makes an appearance and sings for the soundtrack.  “Let me see the mark death made” brings up the motif of death once again, and also resurrection.

The last verse of this marathon song brings us back to the moment, to simplicity. What will sustain us through the winter? Do we ever learn anything? The speaker chooses hardship, “rain and snow,” with the quiet knowledge that this is what life is.

Also notice that with each chorus, the silver vision has a different action. Rest, arrest, molest, and bless.

Well, that’s my explication of my favorite song. I hope you enjoyed it and are able to listen to this song. I suggest searching for it on Lala.com.

Oh I dream a highway back to you love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come and rest my soul
I dream a highway back to you

John he’s kicking out the footlights
The Grand Ole Opry’s got a brand new band
Lord, let me die with a hammer in my hand
I dream a highway back to you.

I think I’ll move down into Memphis
And thank the hatchet man who forked my tongue
I lie and wait until the wagons come
And dream a highway back to you.

The getaway kicking up cinders
An empty wagon full of rattling bones
Moon in the mirror on a three-hour jones,
I dream a highway back to you.

Oh I dream a highway back to you love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come arrest my soul
I dream a highway back to you.

Which lover are you, Jack of Diamonds?
Now you be Emmylou and I’ll be Gram
I send a letter, don’t know who I am
I dream a highway back to you.

I’m an indisguisable shade of twilight
Any second now I’m gonna turn myself on
In the blue display of the cool cathode ray
I dream a highway back to you.

I wish you knew me, Jack of Diamonds
Fire-riding, wheeling when I lead em up
Drank whiskey with my water, sugar in my tea
My sails in rags with the staggers and the jags
I dream a highway back to you.

Oh I dream a highway back to you love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come molest my soul
I dream a highway back to you.

Now give me some of what you’re having
I’ll take you as a viper into my head
A knife into my bed, arsenic when I’m fed
I dream a highway back to you.

Hang overhead from all directions
Radiation from the porcelain light
Blind and blistered by the morning white
I dream a highway back to you.

Sunday morning at the diner
Hollywood trembles on the verge of tears
I watched the waitress for a thousand years
Saw a wheel within a wheel, heard a call within a call
I dreamed a highway back to you.

Oh I dream a highway back to you love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come molest my soul
I dream a highway back to you.

Step into the light, poor Lazarus
Don’t lie alone behind the window shade
Let me see the mark death made
I dream a highway back to you.
I dream a highway back to you.

What will sustain us through the winter?
Where did last year’s lessons go?
Walk me out into the rain and snow
I dream a highway back to you.

Oh I dream a highway back to you love
A winding ribbon with a band of gold
A silver vision come and bless my soul
I dream a highway back to you.

When driving through a city, people will say an area is blighted when they see houses that aren’t spiffy and a lot of black people walking around.

Taking my own advice from my “Reclaim your surroundings” post, I looked at my city in a new way and realized that this isn’t the case. These neighborhoods don’t need to be New Urbanised or even revitalized. At least not in the way we’d want to do it as planners or architects. When I drive up Eastern to Franklin, Hall, and Wealthy, I see people honking at each other out of greeting, people walking, people talking on street corners, people saying hi to each other. It’s a habit to look at this and say “oh they’re walking because they can’t afford a car.” But in reality, they are living a life I keep dreaming and writing about on this blog. Taking the bus. Walking places. These aren’t negative things.

Grand Rapids is still pretty segregated. I think there is racism on both sides. There are two different cultures going on. The white culture looks at old houses and wants to repaint them and make the neighborhood artsy and gentrified. Is it really necessary?  I’m not saying stay in your suburbs. Oh gosh, no. I got lost in a suburb section last night while driving home from work. Horrifying.

Are suburbs the new projects?

I really like starting a question on google search and seeing what common searches pop up. SO revealing. Look at the second to last one:

Well, are cars alive???