This is not really a typical American gathering, but it is something that many Americans would enjoy doing on a sunny day out in the middle (hopefully) of nowhere. There is a very real gun culture in the United States.

This documentary talks about suburban America and its impact on the world’s resources, in particular oil and the automobile. It is long, but very informative and understanding American suburban life is essential to understanding life in America.

This one simple daily American act of commuting to work as a “collective” has such an enormous impact upon the world. We are not the only country whose economy is dependent upon oil to produce. If we really are engaged in a war for oil, as even President Bush has stated, then this need for American businesses to have access to human capital has cost many lives.

Now as I leave for work, I will not only be sad that I am stuck in traffic, but that my actions have helped to drive a political philosophy with which I disagree.

Prozac, please?

You will note that with each post, I have made a determination whether or not the videos are typical of American life or atypical. With this post, it was a tough decision as there are many in America that can easily identify with the theme park and the film school, but for the most part, those who are religious in America, whatever their faith have a very admirable compassion for humanity. In my view, this is regardless of their personal faith, although in America, religious freedom certainly allows for the corruption of faith.

I chose atypical for this video because I believe that even those involved in this film would view themselves that way and in fact they probably perceive that they are in the vast minority fighting a battle against sin and the corruption of personal morals.

At some point, I hope to post video that would better describe mainstream religion in this country. The American Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of religion among other things. With this guarantee comes the bad, and hopefully in many ways a greater degree of good. American’s of faith have the freedom to practice their religion here without repercussions, even though there are some in this country that occassionally practice a particular brand of hate aimed at other religions. We will show this as well.

America is a capitalistic society, driven by the need to produce.  This drive has always overwhelmingly manifested itself in the form of advertising messages designed to drive business and profits.  In America, not a single citizen can escape, as we are all doomed to view.  In America’s large cities, this phenomena has overtaken the architecture and character of urban living. 

Chet makes his living carving bears out of logs with a chainsaw.  Chet also is pretty good at promoting his craft.  Not typical for an American worker in terms of a job, but fairly typical in terms of having a unique and somewhat creative approach to making a living as an entrepreneur in America. 

I suppose the answer to the ending of the video might be found at the MarquisdeJolie website, or maybe not. Here in America, not everything is wonderful. Take the homeless. In Los Angeles, CA the majority of homeless are war veterans. There is a cost to war, even for those who survive it. That cost is paid by everyone.

This video is a short clip showing a rather nice homeless shelter, food line, and one other option for living and dwelling in Los Angeles. The individual who filmed this took it upon himself to somehow change his life. You never know why, but perhaps it was just time, or maybe he was simply tired of paying for the cost of war, maybe he still is…

This is a somewhat typical experience grocery shopping in America. This grocery store is what is referred to as a “club” type store. It is also referred to sometimes as a “Big Box”. There are much smaller stores in America, but this type of store typically allows a consumer to purchase larger quantities at somewhat lower prices.

Just for reference sake, I happen to live in a larger city. I don’t have any idea where this particular store is located, but I have at least 3 of these types of stores within 5 miles of my home. I was once a member of this type of a store, but you do have to pay an annual fee and generally it is difficult to buy in smaller quantities where some food would not go to waste, or even find everything that one really needs here. I discontinued buying at the Big Box grocery store near me, as I would often have to then make a second trip to the smaller grocery store, where I could only buy what I needed. I would also like to buy my food at a nearby farmer’s market, but we do not have many near me.

We often take for granted here, what seems like the mundane things in our daily lives. To many others living in countries torn apart by war, famine, over-population and poverty I can only imagine how we as Americans would be percieved. We have this enormous bounty that we often do take for granted, and yet all of us here would wish that everyone had these types of options available to them.

This video is a bit weird, but having no budget , I have to rely on another popular website here called YouTube. Notice some of the looks other shoppers give this lady as she films herself shopping.

Google.  Chances are if you found this website, you did so through a Google search, but what is it like to work at Google and why is it rated one of the top places to work in America?  This report by CNN provides the kind of snapshot into American life that we are looking for here at Alive in America.  Understand that this is not typical of an American workplace.  Indeed, most places are so far removed from this type of daily routine, that we will simply have to report on the opposite extreme, and hopefully at some point we will find something truly typical in American working life: the cubicle.

Announcing my new blog and soon to come, video project: Alive in America.

Previously, I announced a hiatus from my old blog and potentially a new project.  Well, this is the beginning of this project.

AliveinAmerica is now a registered domain, and soon it will become a place for member video describing just what it is like to be alive in America.  This site was inspired by the incredible video footage and reporting via Alive in Baghdad, where people around the world can get a non-filtered idea of just what life is like in a country torn apart by war.

My hope is that this site will become an unfiltered look at life in the United States of America.  Look for more announcements about how we get there soon.