New Fascination List, 3/1

Updates from the last one are in boldface. When I get around to brainstorming the next edition, I might separate into categories.

What interests me?

The concept of gentrification and my suspicion that it is a term for the gradual creation of a high-margin consumer class, living in small, nonconformity-free clusters.

Transportation systems/industrial infrastructure and how they allow us to live the lives the way we do.

Disappearance of knowledge of infrastructure from the public consciousness, parallel to local and global suburbanization

Role of transport infrastructure in historical development of civilizations and cities.

The remarkable ability television and the internet have to classify viewers into target audiences for advertisers.

Urban planning, the partial obsolescence of the automobile, and convincing people to live more efficiently.

Cities and their representation in all forms of art.

American vernacular music (blues, jazz, swing, country, gospel, r&b, rock, soul, funk, rap) in all combinations and forms. Studying, listening, playing, writing. Preserving venues for original music.

Writing and playing music with brother. Finding a drummer.

Learning drums and eventually steel guitar in addition to improving at guitar and bass.

Class immobility in the U.S. Exploring the reason why since high school I can count on one hand (give or take a few fingers) the number of people I've met who have similar backgrounds to me and live the lifestyle I do.

Understanding why the people I meet with different backgrounds often seek to negate mine, or make me more like them.

Racism. Since I was trained by my childhood surroundings to be a severe racist and spent much of my life unlearning how to be racist, I am curious to explore how others can be taught to do the same.

Debt on micro and macro levels, the acceptance of debt, and the role debt will play in the gradual unraveling of U.S. supremacy.

The American Fear of Sex; anti-sexual attitudes.

Photographic studies of reality, particularly the alleged realties described in this list. Creation of photographs.

Keeping myself alive long enough to explore and write about all of this.

Horror (art forms) as allegory.

Rabid and strangely rewarding obsession for calling out hypocrisy and profiteering.

Cycles of abuse (especially verbal), psychological effect on victims, inescapability of abuse.

Corporatization/privatization of public space, e.g. malls, coffeeshops.

Photographer's rights; artists' rights challenged by fanatical citizens and law enforcement employees (see photopermit.org).

Corporate photo/video surveillance of customers at most retail locations, how it's used, and why they ban photography on their premises but don't inform us we're being constantly watched.

Fierce regionalism in American cuisine: e.g., the Carolina pork barbecue war.

Regionalism in general, with respect to geography, employment, linguistics, etc. Representations in literature, photography, etc.

Widespread American NIMBYism, fanatacism, racism, ignorance, and how to fix them.

American in the age of resignation. Stagnant growth, net job loss, trade deficits. Effect on individuals at all levels of the economy.

Public-private partnerships working on urban (re)development; keeping development smart and focused.

Apparent migration of great fictive writing (whether "literary" or "entertaining") to cable television series as opposed to novels or even films.

The cost of assimilating. Disappearance of family lines and cultures in America. Imported, non-American nationalism in America.

Doing everything. Balance and urgency.