The scope of this project has definitely narrowed because of not having the time during school to complete how broad of a project that we were originally thinking. However, Adam and I got much out of the interviews we have conducted, and the b-roll footage looks good. Of course going forward, our main focus will be the economic turndown and how it has effected asheville ( with still touching on other topics raised ).

Going into Post-Production, Im making a list of what I still need to make this project successful.

• Interviews with people from the streets of asheville – i want to have short answer questions that I ask random people from asheville to get view/thoughts from the normal people living in asheville
• Reflections and Conclustions – through this blog we will compose written material which I will use to narrate the video.  Adam, Ill need ur writing skills for this
• More images and visual data – just something to roll by so its not an interview the whole time

Im excited to continue to work on this and present for the symposium.  I have much to say about this experience that wont be in the video.

Here is some raw b-roll I got of the Great Architects when they played in Asheville to much on as well.

Riding around straped on the back of Adams truck was quite an experience.  Filming the oldest mountains in the world at the most beautiful time of the year.

Here is some of the raw footage from that day:

I took some time today to watch Obama’s speech on Sept 9th that was primary about health-care. Overall I was intrigued by the plan – and I had my doubts ( like every american, everywhere ). Anyways, Id thought I would outline it quickly and give a broad synopsis of what the plan has to offer:

Goals

1. provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance
2. provide insurance to those who don’t have it
3. slow the growth of health care costs for families, businesses, and government

If you have Health Insurance… (from the Obama man)

First, if you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, Medicare, Medicaid, or the VA, nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have.

Under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition.

We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick.

Insurance companies will be required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care (mammograms and colonoscopies etc)

If you dont have Health Insurance… (from the drew man)

• You will be requried to get Health Insurance much like you are required to get auto-insurance.
• Tax credits (based on your need) will be provided to individuals who can not afford healthcare. Also a “hardship waiver” will exempt those who still can’t afford it.

If youre a business…

• Either must offer your workers healthcare or “chip in” and help with healthcare costs.
• Businesses are also eligible for tax breaks and hardship waiver if they can’t afford it.

This healthcare refrom relys particularly on reforming the health insurance free market in which insurance companies would compete for the millions of new customers by offering more competitive prices and choices. Also, a non-profit public insurance option would be provided by the government to help increase competition.

Many concerns of this heathcare reform come from this govt operated public insurance option. Some people see this as a government takeover of healthcare and the insurance companies fear that they will not be able to compete with the government.

Paying for this plan was my first concern upon hearing about this reform, considering our current economy and deficit. Obama states he wont sign a plan that adds to our deficit which has been a principal stance of his campaign and administration. Furthermore, he plans to use money being “wasted” by the current healthcare system and have provisions that protect against spending if this money does not materialize.

Is this the right time? Last year at this time America was in emergency mode due to the recession. Today things are looking better, but can we really instate a new reform during a time of recovery? One can protect against foreseen consequences but a major reform also comes with many unforeseen consequences that may have a negative effect on our economy (healthcare being 1/6 of our economy). Obama seems to believe that this reform won’t worsen – but improve our economy. I don’t know, but most Americans are happy with the health coverage they recieve – will they be happy knowing that their taxpayer dollars are going towards improving a system that they are already content with?

Is this due time? Theodore Roosevelt called for healthcare reform a century ago and a bill has been introduced since 1943 at each session at congress. America spends 1.5 more on healthcare than any other country, but still have many that go uninsured or go broke from their medical bills. According to Obama, one in every 3 Americans go without healthcare at some point and 14,000 people lose their coverage daily. With a left-majority congress, it’s possible to pass a major reform which would hold insurance companies accountable for their actions and encourage competition which might reduce premiums. Also, this plan really seems to make all of America just well… healthier.

How will this new plan affect the people of Asheville? One would think that the core of the people in Asheville to be left leaning and Obama supporting.  However, I also feel like there may be many people in Asheville who are not insured and with this new health reform be forced to purchase health insurance.  Also, according to city-data.com statistics for Asheville, healthcare is the 1st leading industry for females and 3rd for males (about 4% more than NC’s avg for both).  So undoubtedly healthcare reform would have an effect on the city – but the question is how?

what do you think?

“Over 60% of  people felt disconnected from their community when they lost their job.”

or

“The number 1 reason people reported feeling connected to Asheville was through live music.”

How does that sounds as a guideline for a mission statement? I really want to get down to brass tacks and getting a more narrowly defined scope is essential. I think this sort of direction could help keep our options open and not necessarily exclude anything but still give us a structure we can work with.

Here is an outline where I drew these ideas from.

Key ideas:

1. Definition of what Asheville is
   1. How can we create our own limit of what we consider Asheville
   2. Is it the culture or physical boundaries?
   3. The economy
      1. What do people think about our current recession?
      2. Maybe perspectives on how Asheville fits into the larger global economy
      3. How do people see the future? Where do we go from here?
      4. The economy is how we all live our lives in the aggregate.  I think we like to believe we are individually separate from it but when the world economy collapses and as a direct result it becomes difficult to find a job in your home city, we need to think about how our day to day life fits into the larger picture. We are in a more and more tightly knit global community. What can we learn from Asheville about this?
   1. Community
      1. Do people feel they are a part of the city?
         1. i.      We could ask some very interesting questions about perspectives. How does the small business owner understand its place in the community compared with how guy on the street perceives small businesses?
      2. Bring together information about city functions
         1. i.      Research number of applications for events such as greek festival, etc
      3. How has music and art scene influenced perceptions of community?
         1. i.      I feel these are traditionally under documented fields because they don’t always yield quantifiable statistics.
         2. ii.      We should consider putting together a questionnaire. We could canvass a broad range of perspectives in a simple survey. I think this would work as a great way to support any conclusions we may be drawing from our interviews. Numbers are our friend.
         3. iii.      Music and art bring people together in a very non-materialistic way. We often want what the people around us can produce, not what can be centralized and distributed or out-sourced to China.  I think there may be a strong inclination toward this type of entertainment as a response to our global economic situation. I wonder if people have begun to think differently about how they live their lives and about the way they spend their money. Maybe Asheville was already moving in this direction before the bubble popped.
      • Community is a difficult topic to nail down but we should keep it in our heads. It’s important and may be a recurring theme.
   1. Healthcare
      1. This is such a hot topic right now that we need to be careful how we approach it. Its scale threatens to swallow everything we do. I want to include it somehow but in a way which is selective. I think we need a clear scope for the project before we try to incorporate this in.

As far as this project, I have gotten in touch with some connections in the History Department at UNCA. Dr. Pearson has offered her support and guidance, as well as pointing me to a few new contacts. I feel good about getting strong support from the history department for this project. Now we need the groundwork laid out.

Drew, have you had any thoughts about a specific direction or focus for this film? I am very interested in keeping things in the modern day. I want to get a sense of what people are thinking about a time sensitive topic. The current pulse of the economy is a big attraction. I am also interested in this healthcare debate. I think we may be able to combine these ideas. But I am not clear how.

I guess another way to go about defining our focus is to look at who we want to talk to and brainstorm what things they may have in common. I have envisioned a few key figures at UNCA, small business owners in Asheville, perhaps city council members, and some funky people on the street who have that “Asheville” feel.

From that group we could look at:

1. How the feel of Asheville has changed in recent years. Perhaps due to city and population growth.

2. Jobs and money. How has the recent global economic downturned affected business? How are people’s finances, jobs, and lives been effected?

3. Money and lifestyle. Similar to above but more focused on how people have changed their approach to life. Their mindset. Are we becoming more or less materialistic? How have personal interactions and lifestyle choices been effected? What do people expect from the future and is that any differerent from 2 years ago? Why?

4. Healthcare. What do people in Asheville think about this hot topic? UNCA has recently changed its insurance requirements. We could follow up with that. Lots to work with in this direction.

5. Going green. Asheville is a very progessive city and we could follow some leads. How have green initiatives and community projects been affected by the economy? Are people more or less helpful during this difficult period? Do people feel optimistic about Asheville’s ability to create a better future for ourselves and the environment?

I know thats a long post but I think we need to get a central focus soon. Let me know what runs through your mind reading this and get back to me. I could probably work with any of these ideas but I like some more than others. I want your input before I put much weight behind any one idea.

As I watched, I found it hard to keep the camera steady as my knees kept telling me to dance.  But this didnt stop me from pausing the camera and getting down a bit.  Some people connected to the band let me get behind the “do not pass” lines and get some nice footage there as well.

Overall, I just had a blast.  I think its really nice that one of the staples of asheville is to celebrate culture.  I checked out some African basket weaves and pounded on some djembes while I was there.  As my knees started bending I couldnt help that I felt I was getting in touch with my African side ( this being completely white ).  Its nice to be surrounded by people and music from a different culture than one I’m normally in.  People that think a little differently than me and get down and dance a little more.  Its kind of funny that by celebrating differences among cultures, you seem to feel closer to one another.  You realize that these people are actually just like yourself in ways you might of not realized before.  Because I might not be black but I do (i do i do i do) love to get down and dance.  The YMI Cultural Center does a great job with this festival and I hope they continue it for years to come.

DREW OUT

I took events from my real live. Experiences from the places I had traveled to and lived in. I saw a conflict, an event in the social landscape which effects the lives of people I knew. I did light reading and research into the current events to find the core of the unrest. A came across an author who seemed to be succinctly in touch with the issue I was envisioning and understood.
I imagined her  articles and writing as a column of thought. A winding spiral of reason , logic and argument spiriling around a pole of thought.  Series of unbroken chains of logic solidifying and coalescing into a complete and solid column of reason.
I saw sections of arguments which formed the parts of the column. I looked at each of these blocks closely saw what the author emphasized in her arguments. What her focus was. The point was to understand what the author felt was credible and reliable information. What was worth citing.
I then looked at how those individual emphases connected to the past. To the event which I suspected was the creation event of the current turmoil. More and more of her focal points connected to a specific timeframe around the creation of the cape hatteras national seashore. This gave my project focus.
As a followed more deeply into those connections the present, I was introduced to new information about the past. What events and issues were connected to the touchstone of Irene Nolans research?  My focus shifted from perusing modern articles and documents, to looking atwhat picture was being created by my own new research.
I began to see small piles of information coming together. I began experimenting with connecting those piles as they grew from continued research in the archives and libraries and coffee shops. I began to build larger and larger chains of ideas together. Sometimes in connecting those chains I had to drop some very promising links because they did no contribute to the whole I was creating. Eventurally I plugged many of the gaps between my ideas with more and better research. The sheer quality of primary sources became clear to me. There is no stronger link in your chain then a direct, well documented, account from the time in question. Your personally constructed block of intricate conjectures don’t stand up to comparison with an undeniable(?) source. Thank god for primary sources.
And so built a sufficiently long chain of loosely connected ideas and arguments and jammed a ramrod through the middle. That ramrod was my thesis. I aligned all of my arugments into a cohesive unit. I worthwhile contribution to the greater historical community. A part, no matter how small, which aligned with the larger symmetry of the academic world. The straighter and more pure the lines of my column then the more worthy and valued in became.
With so little time left before it was time to offer up my attempts. Like an artist put before judges, the work of my time would be put to consideration. So I trusted in the worthiness of my core arguments. The sturcture would support itself, even if the was still room for considerable approvement.
And so from the small touchstones I created in the past, through an author speaking in the modern context, I was able to create a frame work for research. I was able to create a lens through which to filter which is the ineffable PAST. The relevance to specific issues in the present game focus and scope to my research. As I did my research, endlessly reading articles and microform which seems to have no relevance I began to see the telltale signs of connections. Of a larger chain of events influencing each other. And pulled into the story of the past. It was not until I understood the a bigger picture with coherence was I able to draw worthwhile conclusions. I had to understand the situation, compare it to my own experiences and perceptions of the world, and draw conclusions about what motivated the people involved or what lessons should be drawn. Just as we try and learn lessons from our daily lives in order to grow, I sought those lessons in a web of the past. The difference being that I was allowed the pleasure of seeing the conclusion and effects of the those lessons down the time line. Our day to day lives are too cutting edge to afford us this. Instead we must wait till it is perhaps past useful to see the wisdom and truth in our beliefs. This may be my best understanding of wisdom. Of the knowledge that comes with age.
It was because of my anchors to the modern context that my paper remained relevant. My thesis made arguments at the root of the modern dilemma. It was made more interesting by having practical relevance. The worthwhile nature of my column grew.
And so I came to understand the nature of Irene Nolans column of thought, which I imagined portrayed vertically, standing at the beach watching hurricane surf in the darkness. Intensely charged with positive ions from the immense wave action. My body practically tingled. I had seen her own research reflected in the context of my research. I saw how her simple article was an extension of the techniques I had just used. I understood how the most basic useful building block of the academic world was built. The details no longer mattered as much as seeing the coalescence of information into a unified structure. The process could be repeated and with better results. I felt empowered to contribute true research to the greater story being told in the field of history.

Once I portrayed the thoughts vertically I could conceive of the full nature of a thesis.