Hipsters gone wild.

June 22, 2006 12:52 AM

"hot foreplay and steamy sex" [nsfw]
_{Compelling photos of various hot chicks from various NYC parties, and so on. Some how this guy can make just getting ready to go out seem somehow seedy. Again, not safe for work, although there's not really that much nudity.}
posted by delmoi (178 comments total)

Shirley, this is photoshopped.
posted by wsg at 1:08 AM on June 22, 2006

Shirley, this is photoshopped.

Heh, there are a few people like that in the world :P
posted by delmoi at 1:23 AM on June 22, 2006

Not enough!
posted by wsg at 1:39 AM on June 22, 2006

This is exactly what I want to see at 9.30 every morning. How do I get on it?
posted by catchmurray at 1:55 AM on June 22, 2006

Blow sold seperately.
posted by Mr. Six at 2:01 AM on June 22, 2006

Huh. Looked like the blow was included. Maybe I'm perusing the Platinum Package brochure.
posted by id at 2:05 AM on June 22, 2006

Little known factual fact: All of those pictures were taken in my expansive and rather well appointed dressing room.

Yeah, I really do need to pick up a little and take out the trash, but the maid quit last week. Good help is just impossible to find in this town.

However, you should be well calmed in knowing that casual photography in the den is verboten.

Flashing strobes upset the giant cokesquid and lead to bloodshed, however well dressed and gorgeous said bloodshed may be.
posted by loquacious at 2:13 AM on June 22, 2006

Oh dear christ the humanity..
I can only hope photoshop has been applied both poorly and with abandon in that image.
posted by econous at 2:20 AM on June 22, 2006

It is so uniformly decadent it looks like decadence is the topic of the photographer rather the party. The more I look at the faces the more it's like "what ? I wonder if it shows I am trying to have fun" ...depressing like a teenager party in which nobody knows how to start a contact.
posted by elpapacito at 2:41 AM on June 22, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Oh, yeah, that... if you haven't run across Gawker's "Blue States Lose" feature, lastnightsparty.com features pretty prominently there.
posted by furiousthought at 2:52 AM on June 22, 2006

elpapacito: i agree, much like those movies or Sade-ian literature that exposed the decadence at the heart of Victorian society.
posted by nihraguk at 3:10 AM on June 22, 2006

i hate that guy at a party who insists on taking pictures. now it seems like that guy might be up to some high minded art shenanigans? well, i still hate that guy, even if some of the pictures come out good.

also, with any luck, this was also photoshopped
posted by cubby at 3:26 AM on June 22, 2006

whoops, econous beat me to it.
posted by cubby at 3:29 AM on June 22, 2006

these people are so plastic you would expect them all to melt in that heat. I've never felt so proud of my crooked, decaying, yellow teeth.
posted by twistedonion at 3:45 AM on June 22, 2006

I'm Carol!
posted by emelenjr at 4:06 AM on June 22, 2006

(I'm Farrell.)
posted by emelenjr at 4:07 AM on June 22, 2006

Oh dear christ the humanity..
I can only hope photoshop has been applied both poorly and with abandon in that image.

That's my mom, you fucker!

also, with any luck, this was also photoshopped

Oh yeah? Check this out.
posted by loquacious at 4:25 AM on June 22, 2006

cubby, econous, no. That's not photoshop. That's the horrifying Amanda Lepore.
posted by TonyRobots at 4:28 AM on June 22, 2006

not photoshop.

wierd drag queens/trannys.
posted by jaded at 4:28 AM on June 22, 2006

nice context
posted by caddis at 4:31 AM on June 22, 2006

fuck, that reminds me how much I detest that kind of party
posted by unSane at 4:36 AM on June 22, 2006

Ahhh...

"Youth is wasted on the young...."
posted by jpburns at 4:42 AM on June 22, 2006

This is why NYC is in a different timezone than the rest of the east coast. When you go there for the weekend, it's like living on L.A. time. Stay up 'til 4, get up at 12:30. That's only 9:30 on the west coast!
posted by zpousman at 4:55 AM on June 22, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

His Urban Pinup site is excellent and was going to be my next FPP. Wonderful stuff. (nsfw)
posted by dobbs at 4:57 AM on June 22, 2006

When I become Stalin, these people will have their parties on their Collective in eastern Alaska and they will die because I will deny them access to the antibiotics that they obviously need.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:02 AM on June 22, 2006

This is so not making me any more interested in visiting NYC. heh
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 5:05 AM on June 22, 2006

The thing about hot tub parties is...by a certain point in the night, you have to know an uncomfortably high percentage of the "water" you're marinating in is piss.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:11 AM on June 22, 2006

The late, great, Harry Caray, reincarnated as a woman (I think).
posted by SteveInMaine at 5:22 AM on June 22, 2006

I was at this party.

70,000 people at a massive coke and ecstasy-fueled dance music festival in Miami Beach, all the best DJs in the world, plus the Killers, etc..

Awesome day.
posted by empath at 5:28 AM on June 22, 2006

Do white people always look so bored?
posted by sohcahtoa at 5:28 AM on June 22, 2006

confessions on a dancefloor?

(naaah)
posted by funambulist at 5:35 AM on June 22, 2006

I was doing some videotaping for a band at an event which this dude staked out. While I was running around at the front of the stage trying to get the best angles this guy would keep walking up right near me with a big ol' camera, lookin' at me like "You'reStandIngInMySpotThatIsMySpotIAmAPhotograherAndIMustHaveTheBestSpot."

It was a little creepy, like telepathic glaring. Only later did somebody point out that he was the last-night's-party guy... and then it made sense. Funny thing is, it wasn't really that c-r-a-z-y of a party - just a promotional event in williamsburg for a product I can't even recall with a fairly hip band... on a tuesday. The dude's certainly able to find/instigate the pictures that make the parties seem exceptionally exciting.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 5:41 AM on June 22, 2006

Looks kinda fun to me. You guys suck.
posted by fungible at 5:41 AM on June 22, 2006

Do white people always look so bored?

Only when the coke and smack runs out. Until then it's a blast.
posted by Mr. Six at 5:41 AM on June 22, 2006

This is one of those blogs where they use the word "urban".
posted by 517 at 5:48 AM on June 22, 2006

Damn you twistedonion, you're just reinforcing stereotypes about Brits! or even, Irish...

I always wondered what exactly did 'hipsters' mean in American usage, or even just Metafilter usage. So, basically, it's just upper scale chavs and slappers?

Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just, 'hipster' sounds a little too vague to me now.
posted by funambulist at 5:50 AM on June 22, 2006

How embarrassing for all of us.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:51 AM on June 22, 2006

If we can't have fifteen minutes, we'll take 15 seconds. Or less.
posted by wallstreet1929 at 5:53 AM on June 22, 2006

Do white people always look so bored?

It's totally uncool to show that you're having fun. You didn't know that?
posted by DieHipsterDie at 5:54 AM on June 22, 2006

And what the hey is a 'chav?'
posted by DieHipsterDie at 5:55 AM on June 22, 2006

Would anyone care for some sour grapes?
posted by Human Flesh at 6:05 AM on June 22, 2006

Hipster.
posted by 517 at 6:06 AM on June 22, 2006

On the internet everyone has more fun than you.
posted by clevershark at 6:14 AM on June 22, 2006

The thing about hot tub parties is...by a certain point in the night, you have to know an uncomfortably high percentage of the "water" you're marinating in is piss.

Sure, piss... if you're lucky.
posted by clevershark at 6:15 AM on June 22, 2006

Also, LA Version: The Cobrasnake. Many of the photos from LNP are taken from MisShapes, who also have their own photos.
posted by fet at 6:16 AM on June 22, 2006

Hipster.

You know, tonight, that makes me want to go on a gut-biting, intestine-strewn killing spree. Guts for garlands, brother. Not because there's yet another semi-identifiable fashion cohort that media can pointlessly pontificate about and tribal-identifying idiots can revile because they need something other to focus their anger and impotent resentment upon (hippies, yuppies, pick a decade, pick a collar style) - duh -- but because some fucking hack can make money writing a worthless tree-killing groupwank of a book about it, and


Ah, fuck it. I ran out of steam. But fuck you Random House, you cocksuckers. Give me a book contract, or. Or.

Well, nothing, basically. Still. Grrrrr.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:16 AM on June 22, 2006

I swear there's another, funnier, one out there but I can't find it. Perhaps your moment isn't lost stavros.
posted by 517 at 6:20 AM on June 22, 2006

and they will die because I will deny them access to the antibiotics that they obviously need.

Thank you, Mayor Curley. My morning coffee is now seeping into my keyboard, having been snorted out of my nose.
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 6:22 AM on June 22, 2006

"you shoulda hung out man"
posted by any major dude at 6:31 AM on June 22, 2006

Can we add these arseholes to the list of people who don't matter?
posted by bouncebounce at 6:32 AM on June 22, 2006

Hipster is a word used by people to dismiss various other semi-groups of people whose interest in music, fashion, drugs, or whatever is different than theirs and who they perceive as "too cool."
posted by beerbajay at 6:35 AM on June 22, 2006

Golly! Ya reckon, chief?!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:43 AM on June 22, 2006

Bingo!
posted by loquacious at 6:43 AM on June 22, 2006

comedy gold, beerbajay, comedy gold.
posted by jonmc at 6:59 AM on June 22, 2006

Last night's party... I'd actually be more interested in seeing, Next-morning's-regret. Seriously.

There where a lot of deer-in-a-headlight shots there. After about 10-20 I thought these where rather boring pictures. The photography is not great, so it's all down to subject matter, and the subject doesn't really matter (to me), so a big meh here.
posted by edgeways at 7:00 AM on June 22, 2006

People still give a shit about Last Night's Party?
posted by ChasFile at 7:05 AM on June 22, 2006

With such high standards, how could you miss?
posted by 517 at 7:16 AM on June 22, 2006

I don't really get these parties. People just stand around and drink and chat. Nobody dances except for a few of your standard Drunk White Girls (Buy 2 get 1 free). Makes me think my original idea to offer a college course on how to party really wasn't a bad idea.

And yeah, I hate the guy that takes pictures. Though I hate the people who mug for the camera even more.
posted by nixerman at 7:17 AM on June 22, 2006

where's the rural hipster site?
posted by unSane at 7:18 AM on June 22, 2006

DieHipsterDie -- Google is your friend.
posted by catchmurray at 7:26 AM on June 22, 2006

Oh Yay!!! Vapid narcissist sheep who're fucking up my neighborhood with their trust funds and ridiculious rents!!

Woohoo!!

Now where did I leave that damn hand lotion.
posted by Skygazer at 7:29 AM on June 22, 2006

So Nixerman, what are people supposed to do at a party?
posted by Human Flesh at 7:30 AM on June 22, 2006

I don't understand. WHO are these people? i.e. I know what hipsters are, I hate them just as much as everyone else, but...like what circle of people is this who party in this fashion? I see bored assholes, and I know I'm capable of being one of those in a pinch, if on a different scale, but how exactly does one get invited to parties this size and style? What circles do you have to run in?

I'm going to eat some ramen. I want some answers by the time it's done!
posted by waxbanks at 7:34 AM on June 22, 2006

These sites have basically become self-perpetuating. If you follow the gawker bluestateslose thread, you see the same people every week doing the same poses. Some people go to church for the same sense of community, others do drugs, the internet...
posted by dobie at 7:38 AM on June 22, 2006

So Nixerman, what are people supposed to do at a party?

Snark on mefi.
posted by jonmc at 7:40 AM on June 22, 2006

Why are all those chicks pulling out their titties at the parties? What are they -- bikers?
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:46 AM on June 22, 2006

I don't understand. WHO are these people? i.e. I know what hipsters are, I hate them just as much as everyone else, but...like what circle of people is this who party in this fashion? I see bored assholes, and I know I'm capable of being one of those in a pinch, if on a different scale, but how exactly does one get invited to parties this size and style? What circles do you have to run in?

There's no secret handshake. If you live in a big city, you can find flyers for these kind of events at independent record stores.
posted by Human Flesh at 8:00 AM on June 22, 2006

real hipsters (like me) like straight ahead jazz and baseball (in a literary sort of way) and wear hats. we read newspapers and are also mildly socialist...

now go to a jazz club and have a gin and tonic, you squares!
posted by aiq at 8:05 AM on June 22, 2006

The fact that you can find those flyers does not neccessarily mean you are welcome there. That's the big secret. For all the rhetoric about being free and different and all that bullshit, these people are basically the popular clique in your high school only with drugs and artistic pretensions.
posted by jonmc at 8:05 AM on June 22, 2006 [2 favorites has favorites]

blue states lose is a crappy knock off of the wonderful vice dos and don'ts
posted by splatta at 8:08 AM on June 22, 2006

The fact that you can find those flyers does not neccessarily mean you are welcome there. That's the big secret. For all the rhetoric about being free and different and all that bullshit, these people are basically the popular clique in your high school only with drugs and artistic pretensions.

Is that why so many people on MetaFilter seem to be seething with resentment?

You can find drugs and popular cliques at nearly any high school. There are some people, though, that have to move to a big city before they can find a sizable crowd that shares their interest in various media that lack mass appeal.
posted by Human Flesh at 8:21 AM on June 22, 2006

There are some people, though, that have to move to a big city before they can find a sizable crowd that shares their interest in various media that lack mass appeal.

But sadly, they often become as tiresome, conformist and exclusionary as the people who once excluded them. I don't resent them, I could be them in many ways if I wanted to, but I don't. Not my cup of tea.
posted by jonmc at 8:26 AM on June 22, 2006

Do white people always look so bored?

It's totally uncool to show that you're having fun. You didn't know that?

Er... I thought I saw a lot of people having fun in those pictures....
posted by Stauf at 8:37 AM on June 22, 2006

Nixerman is right, those kinda parties where you dress up a little, and just chill with drinks & friends sure do suck. Especially when some guy in the corner is playing music you enjoy and you get chatting to some really cool people or maybe find yourself getting a little high - man I fucking hate that shit.
posted by econous at 8:45 AM on June 22, 2006

Some of these shindigs are (were?) promoted at myopenbar.com .. Here's their listing for an event tonight:

Stache
Don Hill's
511 Greenwich Street,
at Spring Street.
TriBeCa
The Deal: 10pm
free SoCo (until it's dry)

Amanda Lepore + brand-name liquor + a cult queercore band xLimpwristx (whose best-known song is “I Love Hardcore Boys, I Love Boys Hardcore”)= blog-worthy scene in the making. Perhaps you'll witness a famous tranny wigless as a result of some hair-pulling with one of the MisShapes, or maybe you'll see ScarJo making out with a woman -- either way, you can still send Gawker your story Friday morning (and don't forget to attach your fuzzy camera-phone pics -- even I look like ScarJo on your Nokia).

They've got their finger on the pulse of this crowd...
posted by borborygmi at 8:57 AM on June 22, 2006

How could you say no?
posted by 517 at 9:02 AM on June 22, 2006

Chav
posted by Fuka at 9:17 AM on June 22, 2006

Once in a while I have occasion to drive through Williamsburg, in Brooklyn. The north side is a (perhaps shark jumping) epicenter of these pretty vacant things. If you keep the windows up and throw on a little Zepplin you can construct a pretty funny movie for yourself. People kinda pooch on down the street with their expensive eighties clothes and $200 jeans that come pre-filthy and pointy shoes and bedhead hair. I mean, it's just an upper-middle class subculture, fashion, misunderstood irony and chic politics (or chic a-politics and fashionable nihilism, actually those types are a bit more fun, although even more in a rut).

However, it's such an end of history uber-subculture that really has no other hook or philosophy than its own self-obsession that it becomes a super-parody. Everyone tries so hard to be an individual that they lose all individuality. No one can like any art that is not part of the accepted consenus without being ironic, so a bunch of people listen to, say... Iron Maiden, but not because they rock but because it's funny to listen to Iron Maiden. They are truely useless people.

There is an older crowd in Williamsburg (or there was) that pioneered there, they do some ok stuff, they work in cabinet shops or fund their interests with bartending and the like, they seem like pretty decent bohemian types, I wonder where they will go when they are finally totally priced out by the rich kids?

The best part is you can drive from North Williamsburg to the southside and it's (again rapidly gentrifying) a Hasidic neighborhood. Everyone dresses in funny clothes, britches, giant fur hats, little black pumps. They have crazy beards and wild hair. The women rock a modest kind of intentionally ugly style of dress. They are very insular and focused on themselves.

I keep expecting the hipsters to sort of become Hasids by osmosis. Matisyahu is probably the vanguard of that transformation.

I've been to some of these parties, they are seriously boring. Sometimes my musical tastes co-incide with "hipster" music though, you can just bring your fun friends and have a good time and sort of bug out on them. Same as it ever was I guess, except Andy Warhol is dead.
posted by Divine_Wino at 9:24 AM on June 22, 2006 [3 favorites has favorites]

What social milieu do you think is superior to hipsterdom, Divine_Wino?

Ironic appreciation of music is not new. Read Notes On "Camp" written by Susan Sontag in 1964.
posted by Human Flesh at 9:45 AM on June 22, 2006

What social milieu do you think is superior to hipsterdom, Divine_Wino?

I won't speak for the Wino, but I kind of prefer just the general urban mix that occurs naturally. Because, for all their striving for individuality, the hipsters are still far less interesting than most 'ordinary,' people you meet. They're herd animals who want to create little youth fashion reservations, which wouldn't be so bad if it didn't result in gentrification and all it's attendant woes.


Ironic appreciation of music is not new. Read Notes On "Camp" written by Susan Sontag in 1964.

No, it's not. But it's still much like smelling your own farts. Fun at first, but after awhile, you're merely stinking up the room for no good reason.
posted by jonmc at 9:53 AM on June 22, 2006

No one can like any art that is not part of the accepted consenus without being ironic, so a bunch of people listen to, say... Iron Maiden, but not because they rock but because it's funny to listen to Iron Maiden.

Bingo. That kind of conformity is the exact opposite of cool, as far as I'm concerned. And Iron Maiden doth rock, and there's nothing funny about them.
posted by jonmc at 9:57 AM on June 22, 2006

There are some people, though, that have to move to a big city before they can find a sizable crowd that shares their interest in various media that lack mass appeal.

But sadly, they often become as tiresome, conformist and exclusionary as the people who once excluded them. I don't resent them, I could be them in many ways if I wanted to, but I don't. Not my cup of tea.

I know I say this almost every single time this comes up, but they really aren't exclusionary. That is your self-imposed projection because you don't want to join them, certainly some are boring vapid kids, but don't make it sounds like they're closing off the velvet rope just when you get to the door or snubbing you and giggling behind your back.

If you went, there would probably be some impressionable youngsters who would be impressed with your bitter curmudgeon persona and gather around just to hear you expound on urban life, or perhaps there would be some friendly MeFolks there that you might already know (then wouldn't you seem like the clique). Or you could just dance and dig the music by yourself, which is a big part of the purpose anyway, right?

I've been to this kind of thing and I'm far geekier and more introverted than you (and about half the time it's quite fun). You don't have to go, no one expects you to go, but it's absolutely not their fault that you don't.

And the whole conformity argument is also ridiculous, but you must realize that by now. It's healthy for the crazy creative kids to try new stuff and then the less brave kids to wear pale knock-off versions of the stuff that the creative kids have made up. That's how fashions work and since you have benefited from earlier generations imposing their jeans and t-shirt "conformity" on the button up folks, you have very little to complain about.

Personally, I don't like most jazz clubs, never have, but I don't go around saying that jazz fans are tiresome, conformist and exclusionary. I just don't go, no further rational needed.
posted by milovoo at 9:59 AM on June 22, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Same as it ever was I guess, except Andy Warhol is dead.

Brilliant comment. Cheers.
posted by Mr. Six at 10:02 AM on June 22, 2006

I have read notes on camp, thanks. I never claimed hipsters invented ironic anything or newness of any kind. For instance, Dear Susan Sontag says right away:

1. To start very generally: Camp is a certain mode of aestheticism. It is one way of seeing the world as an aesthetic phenomenon. That way, the way of Camp, is not in terms of beauty, but in terms of the degree of artifice, of stylization.

I don't find that love of artifice with hipster types, in fact I feel like few of them are doing more than dressing and acting like their peers. Being a fake metal dude with a sidekick and an ipod and some shitty coke is not the same thing as a whole subculture built around things like:

Zuleika Dobson
Tiffany lamps
Scopitone films
The Brown Derby restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in LA
The Enquirer, headlines and stories
Aubrey Beardsley drawings
Swan Lake
Bellini's operas
Visconti's direction of Salome and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
certain turn-of-the-century picture postcards
Schoedsack's King Kong
the Cuban pop singer La Lupe
Lynn Ward's novel in woodcuts, God's Man
the old Flash Gordon comics
women's clothes of the twenties (feather boas, fringed and beaded dresses, etc.)
the novels of Ronald Firbank and Ivy Compton-Burnett
stag movies seen without lust

Rather a diluted imitation without the scholarly appreciation of a rap producer sampling obscure funk and soul and black disco or the goofy, intelligent lampooning of the fifties that John Waters did.

I find more interest in almost every other youth culture, human flesh. Possible exceptions being frat types and suburban hiphop mall thugs. However it's not a race and inasmuch as hipsters can lay claim to a band like TV on the Radio (I think they are brilliant) I thank them.

One thing some/many metafilter users fail at is recognizing that it is not necessary to have a polarized either or feeling about everything. I don't hate hipsters, I don't find them that great either. When I say I find them useless it's because they DON'T DO ANYTHING. There are exceptions to that like there are to anything else.

Some more from Sontag that marks the difference:


18. One must distinguish between naïve and deliberate Camp. Pure Camp is always naive. Camp which knows itself to be Camp ("camping") is usually less satisfying.


and

19. The pure examples of Camp are unintentional; they are dead serious. The Art Nouveau craftsman who makes a lamp with a snake coiled around it is not kidding, nor is he trying to be charming. He is saying, in all earnestness: Voilà! the Orient! Genuine Camp -- for instance, the numbers devised for the Warner Brothers musicals of the early thirties (42nd Street; The Golddiggers of 1933; ... of 1935; ... of 1937; etc.) by Busby Berkeley -- does not mean to be funny. Camping -- say, the plays of Noel Coward -- does. It seems unlikely that much of the traditional opera repertoire could be such satisfying Camp if the melodramatic absurdities of most opera plots had not been taken seriously by their composers. One doesn't need to know the artist's private intentions. The work tells all. (Compare a typical 19th century opera with Samuel Barber's Vanessa, a piece of manufactured, calculated Camp, and the difference is clear.)

20. Probably, intending to be campy is always harmful. The perfection of Trouble in Paradise and The Maltese Falcon, among the greatest Camp movies ever made, comes from the effortless smooth way in which tone is maintained. This is not so with such famous would-be Camp films of the fifties as All About Eve and Beat the Devil. These more recent movies have their fine moments, but the first is so slick and the second so hysterical; they want so badly to be campy that they're continually losing the beat. . . . Perhaps, though, it is not so much a question of the unintended effect versus the conscious intention, as of the delicate relation between parody and self-parody in Camp. The films of Hitchcock are a showcase for this problem. When self-parody lacks ebullience but instead reveals (even sporadically) a contempt for one's themes and one's materials - as in To Catch a Thief, Rear Window, North by Northwest -- the results are forced and heavy-handed, rarely Camp. Successful Camp -- a movie like Carné's Drôle de Drame; the film performances of Mae West and Edward Everett Horton; portions of the Goon Show -- even when it reveals self-parody, reeks of self-love.
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:07 AM on June 22, 2006

milovoo: I've met you. Even though you live in Brooklyn you're not the kind of person we're talking about.

That is your self-imposed projection because you don't want to join them, certainly some are boring vapid kids, but don't make it sounds like they're closing off the velvet rope just when you get to the door or snubbing you and giggling behind your back.

Dude, in any cultural scene (including one's I've participated in) the majority of participants are boring and vapid. That's just a fact of life. But online and off, I've seen the conformity at work. Slag the latest It Band, or cool movie and you're a pariah.

You don't have to go, no one expects you to go, but it's absolutely not their fault that you don't.

That's fine with me. I'm just saying that it all seems a little..contrived and silly to me. Some Ivy League kids going wild for a few years, that's all. I've had conversations with these kids, usually it's a kid from a wealthy midwestern suburb with a liberal arts degree, no day job, who felt misunderstood at home and came to NYC to interact with other people like himself. Which is fine, except it turns areas of the city into summer camps with overpriced vintage t-shirts and cheap coke.

Plus, much of stuff they enjoy ironically is stuff I enjoy sincerely, which rankles after a while.
posted by jonmc at 10:07 AM on June 22, 2006

You could be their king Jon, you just wouldn't want to be.
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:14 AM on June 22, 2006

Well, yeah, except I don't have the financial resources to sit around all the time doing nothing.
posted by jonmc at 10:19 AM on June 22, 2006

(and hell, even suburban hip-hop mall thugs are more interesting than the Pitchfork/American Apparell/YeahYeahYeah's crowd, since they do seem to connect to the whole thug thing, even though it's in a ridiculous way)
posted by jonmc at 10:20 AM on June 22, 2006

On a summer day
In the month of May
A burly bum came hiking
Down a shady lane
Through the sugar cane
He was looking for his liking
As he roamed along
He sang a song
Of the land of milk and honey
Where a bum can stay
For many a day
And he won't need any money

Chorus:
Oh the buzzin' of the bees
In the cigarette trees
Near the soda water fountain
At the lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
On the big rock candy mountain
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:21 AM on June 22, 2006

I find it's actually not the music* that is so bad. The YYY's have some joints. Really. It's the thing as a "thing" that itches you. Which is probably right, we all just have different things that itch us.


*or at least some small percentage.

Actually the suburban mall thugs with their deadly earnest have a much greater claim to being Camp objects, under Sontag's rules. Ha ha.
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:25 AM on June 22, 2006

Everybody at your party
They don't look depressed
Everybody dressin' funny
Color me impressed

Stayin' out late tonight
Won't be gettin' any sleep
Givin' out their word
Cuz that's all that they won't keep

Put the party on the mirror
Oh shit, pass the bill to Chris
Intoxicated lover ending our french kiss

Can you stand me on my feet?
Can you stand me on my feet?

(Everybody)

Everybody at your party
They don't look depressed
And everybody's dressin' funny
Color me impressed

Color me impressed
Color me impressed
Color me impressed
Color me impressed
I call it out
posted by jonmc at 10:26 AM on June 22, 2006

Even though you live in Brooklyn you're not the kind of person we're talking about.

Oh, I know that, it's just that I have a lot of exposure to b'burg hipsters and have found that in general they're mostly normal New Yorkers, they just have a few really annoying members that make everyone look like idiots.

usually it's a kid from a wealthy midwestern suburb with a liberal arts degree, no day job, who felt misunderstood at home and came to NYC to interact with other people like himself.

These folks are a certain percentage, but I think it's an overused stereotype. There are just as many other kinds of folks, it's just that when you are annoyed and notice someone - it's usually these folks.

It's another one of those confirmation biases that are all the rage these days. If it's an annoying pretentious dude from the UES, he's just another annoying pretentious dude, but if he's from Williamsburg, suddenly it's "ALL HIPSTERS MUST DIE!!".
posted by milovoo at 10:29 AM on June 22, 2006

Milo: when we use the term 'hipster,' it's the dorks you describe we're referring to, not any artistically inclined person who lives in Brooklyn. And thses people tend to be rather vocal (see Pitchfork).

My neighborhood is home to lots of artists and recent grads, but they seem to content to simply become part of the neighborhood rather than refashion it in their own image, which is what happened in Billyburg.
posted by jonmc at 10:33 AM on June 22, 2006

Oh, and there's a whole layer of ugly added because some folks see dollar signs hanging over the whole neighborhood and culture. They might have almost missed grunge in the 80's but they're taking no chances this time. Buy it and package while it's still hot for the biggest return. That's a big part of the gross summer camp veneer of which you speak. Honest starving artists tend be be much more tolerable.
posted by milovoo at 10:33 AM on June 22, 2006

(I also have a special grudge about Williamsburg, since two of my uncles grew up there pre-gentrification (I lived there briefly myself back around '91) when it was a completely different and arguably better place)
posted by jonmc at 10:35 AM on June 22, 2006

You know that one weird dude in your class who always bitched about your town and talked about how he was going to move to New York one day? He did. They all did. In fact, that’s what New York is.
posted by xod at 10:37 AM on June 22, 2006

Well, xod, that's what Manhattan and a lot of Brooklyn is. The rest of the city is where the people who fix their cars and do their taxes live.
posted by jonmc at 10:39 AM on June 22, 2006

It's NYC, everyone kicked out someone,
unless you're dutch .. or indian, maybe.
posted by milovoo at 10:39 AM on June 22, 2006

Kids these days.
posted by xod at 10:40 AM on June 22, 2006

yup.
posted by milovoo at 10:41 AM on June 22, 2006

That's a fine snapshot of the cultural vertigo to be found here Divine-Wino. As for where will the original Boho's end up, there's no way in hell I would say. I don't want to be a part of the ongoing media circle jerk inspired via the finance Co's and the R.E. powers that be . It's like who needs highways built by Robert Moses to destroy neighborhoods when you've got Time Out NY and The NY Times giving throat jobs to Corcoran, Bloomberg and Rattner and dying to name the next "hot neighborhood". See after 911 Bloomberg needed to get the city economy jumping again etc. so he opened the flood gates to the developers. A bunch of construction jobs were created and a bunch of people sold buildings and made a mint on the speculation. Problem is, they were and are temporary jobs, those construction gigs, going predominantly to guys living in the burbs who don't care about the city. Even more fucked than that is that once the developer genie is out of the bottle it's a bitch contolling it. And that genie has run roughshod over everything in it's path. With the result being a load of big ugly non-contextual towers springing up like weeds of avariciousness full of faux-luxury condo's artificially priced at an average of 750K to One MILLION. Even more grotesque is that NYC taxpayers have subsudized the demise of their own neighborhoods by giving Billions in Developer-welfare to an industry determined to fuck them over as hard as possible.

Through 421a (a special program started in the early 70's when NYC was desperate to get developers to build luxury housing in NYC). For which the obscenely wealthy developers get a 20 year break on property taxes..

So to get back to the original question: A lot of the original Boho's have had to leave this neighborhood if not for the rent's than because it's been sickening to see what's happening. But I think we might have the last laugh. Because judging by the increasingly strident advertising for these million dollar condo's, I don't think they're selling that well and the developers are getting more and more desperate to unload them. Hopefully it leads to there being an increase in the vacancy rate for affordable apts. As for the baby-hipsters, I guess they're not so bad (for ex-jocks and frat boys) but christ, I've never seen a sub-genre (uber or otherwise) be so entirely devoid of Cajones. They need to stand up and risk a little confrontation because they're fucking it up for people (the working class folks and the original boho's) who've given a lot to establish these neighborhoods I wish they would say fuck you to landlords and developers who are raping them as well as all the phony "whole Foods" like groceries who mark everything up by a third.


People kinda pooch on down the street with their expensive eighties clothes and $200 jeans that come pre-filthy and pointy shoes and bedhead hair. I mean, it's just an upper-middle class subculture, fashion, misunderstood irony and chic politics (or chic a-politics and fashionable nihilism, actually those types are a bit more fun, although even more in a rut).

That reminds me. The morning of 911, I was walking more or less numbly to the east river through North Williamsburg, to see if there was anything left of the towers, when this rail thin bedheaded cool t-shirt hipster fuckhead passed by me on Bedford Street singing "It's the End of the World As We Know It" by REM and I knew than and there the neighborhood had changed forever. No one knew at that point how many people had died (some estimates were as high as 40,000 and this sociopathic little bitch uses it as an opportunity to be oh-so-cool and above it all. If I'd had my wits about me I would've slapped that kid.
posted by Skygazer at 10:43 AM on June 22, 2006

I need to get way more into local tenants rights and fair housing stuff, it's driving me crazy.
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:49 AM on June 22, 2006

I won't speak for the Wino, but I kind of prefer just the general urban mix that occurs naturally.

I don't see how the thrift store styles that hipsters are known to sport are anymore unnatural than metalhead or stockbroker garb.
posted by Human Flesh at 11:07 AM on June 22, 2006

Human Flesh, paying $75 for a Twisted Sister t-shirt that I paid $15 in 1985 and wearing it as a 'camp,' object is pretty fucking unnatural, and maybe a little insulting.
posted by jonmc at 11:13 AM on June 22, 2006

(and hell, even suburban hip-hop mall thugs are more interesting than the Pitchfork/American Apparell/YeahYeahYeah's crowd, since they do seem to connect to the whole thug thing, even though it's in a ridiculous way)

Is there really some huge American Apparel to hipster crossover? Because I thought you shop at American Apparel 'cos you needed some t-shirts or wow, it just turned into summer out there and I need some tanktops before the sun and its heat kill me.

Whenever I go into American Apparel it's just me, some moms, and a guy looking to replace a grey hoodie.
posted by birdie birdington at 11:17 AM on June 22, 2006

The hipsters are who goes there. Everybody else just goes to the discount store.
posted by jonmc at 11:21 AM on June 22, 2006

These kinds of things always reminded me of that KITH intro where all those wild cool people are makin' the scene.
I always just wanted to sit on the couch with Kevin and have a beer.


where's the rural hipster site?

Drive out past Junior's dad's farm, out to the Old Barn, with your windows rolled down. Go over the Texas gate - be careful, the road's muddy as hell, and just drive until you smell burning tires. Follow your nose, you'll see the bonfire eventually.

And don't bring that fucken Dale, or I'll kick your ass after I'm done with his.

Oh. You meant a URL.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:34 AM on June 22, 2006

Wino, hipsters themselves aren't typically camp, they just appreciate camp.
posted by Human Flesh at 11:48 AM on June 22, 2006

Only ugly poor people go to discount stores in the United Kingdom. You can tell by driving past and glancing through the sticker laden windows. American Apparel is merely the Dan Brown of cheap apparel.
posted by econous at 11:52 AM on June 22, 2006

human:
I don't think they do. Alas, oh well.
posted by Divine_Wino at 12:00 PM on June 22, 2006

annoying pretentious dude from the UES

Please don't rag on pretentious dudes from the UES. They are better than you and have more money.
posted by nixerman at 12:20 PM on June 22, 2006

Someone said:

Ironic appreciation of music is not new. Read Notes On "Camp" written by Susan Sontag in 1964.

No, don't bother.
posted by waxbanks at 12:44 PM on June 22, 2006

I'm a hipster (yes, I know, it's terribly unhip to self-identify as being part of any youth subculture) and I like camp art. Were it not for hipster video stores, I might not have been exposed to genres that ooze camp such as Mexican wrestling films and juvenile delinquent movies.
posted by Human Flesh at 12:45 PM on June 22, 2006

Were it not for hipster video stores, I might not have been exposed to genres that ooze camp such as Mexican wrestling films and juvenile delinquent movies.

I watch movies like that too, but probably through something of a different eye. Too much of the 'camp,' sensibility is predicated on feeling superior to what you're viewing, whether through contempt or condescension, and that seems to a lousy way to veiw the world.
posted by jonmc at 12:47 PM on June 22, 2006

Sontag would beg to differ.
posted by xod at 12:52 PM on June 22, 2006

Vive la differance.
posted by jonmc at 12:55 PM on June 22, 2006

Too much of the 'camp,' sensibility is predicated on feeling superior to what you're viewing, whether through contempt or condescension, and that seems to a lousy way to veiw the world.

I grew up in a Midwestern American suburb, and I've contributed to the gentrification of more than one neighborhood. But (unlike some people in this thread) I'm not filling Metafilter with vitriolic comments.
posted by Human Flesh at 1:01 PM on June 22, 2006

I grew up in a Midwestern American suburb, and I've contributed to the gentrification of more than one neighborhood. But (unlike some people in this thread) I'm not filling Metafilter with vitriolic comments.

What do you want, a medal? This is the main thing that annoys people about hipsters, the fact that they're cluelass as to why people might have legitamite reasons to resent them.
posted by jonmc at 1:03 PM on June 22, 2006

Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem
posted by sonofsamiam at 1:05 PM on June 22, 2006

Well, maybe for him who understandth it.
posted by xod at 1:09 PM on June 22, 2006

I disagree. Hating hipsters is a hipster pastime. It's a perfect way to be hipper than thou. No self-respecting hipster would admit to being a hipster.
posted by Human Flesh at 1:12 PM on June 22, 2006

Actually, I was annoyed by these people even before I knew they were called 'hipsters.' I just called them art-farts or foo-foos or club trash instead. But of course you're argument is self-sealing: anyone who finds hipsters annoying is a hipster. My guess is that you're too young to get what me, the wino, and others are getting at.
posted by jonmc at 1:17 PM on June 22, 2006

But of course you're argument is self-sealing: anyone who finds hipsters annoying is a hipster.

That's not my argument. I just wanted to point out how bitter some of you player haters sound.
posted by Human Flesh at 1:27 PM on June 22, 2006

player haters? I don't hate you, I just see right through you. After reviewing some of those pix..well, if that's how hipsters spend their time, well I'm happy to not be among them, and I can guarantee that the feeling is probably mutual.
posted by jonmc at 1:30 PM on June 22, 2006

Nobody but a player hater would ever call anyone else a player hater.
posted by Divine_Wino at 1:30 PM on June 22, 2006

Hipsters are just a subset of hipster haters.
posted by Human Flesh at 1:32 PM on June 22, 2006

You still haven't gotten over not getting picked for kickball back in school, have you?
posted by jonmc at 1:33 PM on June 22, 2006

Hup hup, now take off that plastic jacket before I have you arrested for attempted leather.
posted by Divine_Wino at 1:34 PM on June 22, 2006

and put down that PBR before you hurt yourself.
posted by jonmc at 1:35 PM on June 22, 2006

Now Jon, the PBR fetishising has had unexpected benefits for those of us on a budget. Also it allows me to scare the dog with my farts.
posted by Divine_Wino at 1:39 PM on June 22, 2006

Natty Light > PBR

PBR is too sweet.
posted by sonofsamiam at 1:40 PM on June 22, 2006

True enough, Wino, but these schnooks don't realize that Schlitz is just as cheap and better beer. Or maybe they don't actually like beer, except ironically.

Mmm, beer. (you were missed last night at the bar, dude).
posted by jonmc at 1:41 PM on June 22, 2006

Schlitz is popular among Chicago hipsters.
posted by Human Flesh at 1:48 PM on June 22, 2006

Did someone say beer?
posted by sciurus at 1:48 PM on June 22, 2006

Schlitz is popular among Chicago hipsters.

and cheap drunks.
posted by jonmc at 1:49 PM on June 22, 2006

Walt Whitman was a hipster - if you know what I mean.
posted by xod at 2:09 PM on June 22, 2006

Natty Light > PBR

PBR is too sweet.

Yes. Natty Boh is hard to get though, round here.
posted by Divine_Wino at 2:10 PM on June 22, 2006

I have a large collection of animated gif images, it seems unfair to both mother and I, that I am not a hip-tard. I say 'not yet mother, but think of the property values'. Old people are really with it.
posted by econous at 2:19 PM on June 22, 2006

And I sometimes worry that I might be inscrutable.
posted by xod at 2:55 PM on June 22, 2006

Human Flesh said:

I'm a hipster...

...No self-respecting hipster would admit to being a hipster

This must be some of that fabled hipster irony I hear so much about.

jonmc said:

Too much of the 'camp,' sensibility is predicated on feeling superior to what you're viewing, whether through contempt or condescension, and that seems to a lousy way to veiw the world...

...people might have legitamite reasons to resent them

This must be some of that fabled blue collar irony I hear so much about.
posted by Sparx at 3:10 PM on June 22, 2006

Human Flesh: That's not my argument. I just wanted to point out how bitter some of you player haters sound.

I can explain hipsterism and the attendant gentrification in one word: Pussy.

Towit: The smart hot creative girls (SHC's) moved to Williamsburg back in like 1994 to be with the smart cute creative (SCC's) guys. As a glut of SHC'S began to form around 1999 or so the Fratboy dumb creative-wannabes (FDCW's) who used to kick the shit out of the SCC guys in HS and College came out en mass w/trucker hats to be around the SHC girls, but got mixed up and instead met up the Sorority-Sex-and-the-City-type-who-like-abuse (SSATCTWLA) women who love them. Therefore if the SHC'S women in Williamsburg were able to identify the DCW's quicker and and stay with the SCC's, and the SSATCTWLA's got their talons into the FDCW's quicker and made them marry and impregnate them and move back to Ohio, then maybe the goddamn rents would go back down a bit and we could stop this heart attack inducing fucked up gentrification.
posted by Skygazer at 3:32 PM on June 22, 2006

Do you really think that the process of gentrification can be stopped?
posted by Human Flesh at 3:44 PM on June 22, 2006

Dude, what is it exactly that you are defending?
posted by Divine_Wino at 3:50 PM on June 22, 2006

The second law of thermodynamics says yes.
posted by xod at 3:50 PM on June 22, 2006

Did you really just say "player hater"? You did, didn't you?


posted by loquacious at 4:06 PM on June 22, 2006

Clever Xod. I meant stopped in our lifetime.

Divine_Wino, I'm not defending anyone in particular. I just wanted to serve as a voice that countervails some of the bellyaching that pollutes this message board?
posted by Human Flesh at 4:11 PM on June 22, 2006

I defy you to point out where I was bellyaching, (good word, btw).

I think there are some taxonomy problems here.
posted by Divine_Wino at 4:21 PM on June 22, 2006

I cant stand that website, Ive seen it before. Full of desperate shitheads on coke.
posted by Liquidwolf at 4:27 PM on June 22, 2006

Divine_Wino:
The north side is a (perhaps shark jumping) epicenter of these pretty vacant things.

They are truely useless people.

When I say I find them useless it's because they DON'T DO ANYTHING.
posted by Human Flesh at 4:33 PM on June 22, 2006

Not bellyaching, bellyaching is complaining about one's unavoidable lot, a bunch of twee dopers wasting daddy's money and diluting the once charming qualities of this multifaceted city are not my unavoidable lot. Sorry friend. There are things in this world that are genuinely worthy of contempt, just because that includes almost everything in the world on metafilter doesn't mean hipsters (especially the PRETTY VACANT THINGS on lastnightsparty) aren't deserving of a little shade in the grander scale of things.
posted by Divine_Wino at 4:41 PM on June 22, 2006

Iron Maiden doth rock, and there's nothing funny about them.

Really? Nothing? ;)

Natty Light > PBR

Old Milwaukee > Natural Light Ice > Natural Light > PBR > American > Falls City > Sterling > Weidemann > Burgie's.
posted by mrgrimm at 5:30 PM on June 22, 2006

Old Milwaukee > Natural Light Ice > Natural Light > PBR > American > Falls City > Sterling > Weidemann > Burgie's >Hamm's.
posted by Divine_Wino at 5:32 PM on June 22, 2006

I'm with Human Flesh, btw, although I would hate going to any of those parties.

*Most* people don't *do* anything. Let them have their fun. I'll reserve my bitter hatred for those profiting from death and misery (not that all of us don't to some degree). It's like anything else.
posted by mrgrimm at 5:33 PM on June 22, 2006

omg hamm's. ick.
posted by mrgrimm at 5:34 PM on June 22, 2006

Look, I'm gonna side with D_W and j-to-the-m-to-the-c here (no surprise, really). I don't HATE anything - I've just seen it all before, and I'm probably not that much older than you. It's hard to look at anything like "Hipsterism" and say it's not just a commercial phenomenon, especially when a lot of the kids involved spend more money on clothes and hair and makeup than I do on my rent payment each month! Look, that shit is important to them, fine, but something that pisses a bunch of us off is that they pretend it's NOT important, that they're NOT just a bunch of chavs (or jocks or chess geeks) running around with their blatantly obvious sexual/social signals of status.

Also, they have more money and more exposure than the rest of us.
posted by muddgirl at 5:34 PM on June 22, 2006

Press close, bare-bosomed Night!
Press close, magnetic, nourishing Night!
Night of south winds!
Night of the large, few stars!
Still, nodding Night!
Mad, naked, Summer Night!
posted by xod at 6:13 PM on June 22, 2006

Iron Maiden doth rock, and there's nothing funny about them.

Really? Nothing? ;)

Well, Eddie the mascot and Nicko McBrain's facial features are good for a chuckle, but I think you know where I'm going.
posted by jonmc at 6:54 PM on June 22, 2006

Having spent time as both a faux-hipster and a faux-nerd, I will say that being a faux-nerd is much more fun. Fun for me anyways. Why?

Because I found that being a hipster, even a faux one, is so fucking *meta*. Everything has to function and be considered on multiple levels, the ten-thousand layers of circle-jerk coolness.

Being a nerd on the other hand, even a faux one, I find to be so fucking *fun* because it actually allows for sincere appreciation of things, even if the things being appreciated arent really to my taste (no I dont really want to join your game of Call of Cthulu, but thanks for asking!), and allows me to be unabashadly appreciative of the things I like that arent to other people's taste (you dont want to watch this marathon of Nightmare on Elmstreet with me? But it's so cool!), and there's no thinking about it really, just a bunch of people with questionable social skills enjoying things and mouth breathing and having a good time.

In summation, paraguay is a land of contrast, thank you.
posted by supercrayon at 7:17 PM on June 22, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Having spent time as both a faux-hipster and a faux-nerd, I will say that being a faux-nerd is much more fun.

I prefer just being a slob. Takes less effort. Well, when you're as handsome as me, it takes some effort, but don't tell anyone.
posted by jonmc at 7:29 PM on June 22, 2006

I admire your dedication, you adonis among slobs you. All those times there was someone waiting outside your door for you with a sign that said "#1 FanSlobbinTastic!!!!", oh that wasnt just some random masked weirdo. That was all me.
posted by supercrayon at 7:38 PM on June 22, 2006

Well, I wasn't startled or anything. This is new york city, I see masked weirdos all the time.
posted by jonmc at 7:41 PM on June 22, 2006

True, plus there's always this friggin crowd outside your door, what's up with that? I know we never agreed to be exclusive or anything, but when I first started wearing this mask and holding this sign I didnt suspect you were, like, a collecter.
posted by supercrayon at 7:45 PM on June 22, 2006

I, for one, have always enjoyed partying with attractive, naked girls.
posted by ghastlyfop at 8:03 PM on June 22, 2006

(Yawn)

These parties are sooooo lame.

Here at Casa Jason, we like to celebrate in style!

I tell you, nothing, but nothing, says "par-tay" like a case of Old Milwaukee and a session with www.NaughtyMidgetMILFs.com

Good times!
posted by jason's_planet at 10:53 PM on June 22, 2006

It always cracks me up that PBR and Schlitz are faux-chic these days. I grew up in Milwaukee, where every other bar has a PBR/Schlitz/Blatz (yes, Blatz) sign up and there's no irony whatsoever.
posted by anjamu at 11:06 PM on June 22, 2006

It's hard to look at anything like "Hipsterism" and say it's not just a commercial phenomenon, especially when a lot of the kids involved spend more money on clothes and hair and makeup than I do on my rent payment each month!

Who said hipster culture is not a commercial phenomenon? Hipsters, like many subcultures, are identified by their habits of consumption. However, it doesn't take a six-figure salary to shop at The Salvation Army and follow the local music scene. Hipsters are known to colonize rough or neglected areas. The ensuing gentrification seems to have something to do with the hard-on that urban developers have for artsy white kids.

Look, that shit is important to them, fine, but something that pisses a bunch of us off is that they pretend it's NOT important, that they're NOT just a bunch of chavs (or jocks or chess geeks) running around with their blatantly obvious sexual/social signals of status.

I guess the idea of being fashionably unfashionable strikes you as hypocritical. It could be that the signals that the indie kids are sending are meant for someone other than you.

Also, they have more money and more exposure than the rest of us.

Ah, this is what I was digging for: a validation of my suspicion that some of the scorn was at least partially rooted in envy.
posted by Human Flesh at 12:24 AM on June 23, 2006

Hipster envy is so September Tenth.
posted by horsewithnoname at 6:00 AM on June 23, 2006

Ah, this is what I was digging for: a validation of my suspicion that some of the scorn was at least partially rooted in envy.

But it isn't so much envy as righteous resentment of a bunch of priviliged idlers usurping them from their neighborhoods, so if you take comfort from that, well, good luck with that.
posted by jonmc at 6:19 AM on June 23, 2006

Old Milwaukee > Natural Light Ice > Natural Light > PBR > American > Falls City > Sterling > Weidemann > Burgie's >Hamm's > Bear Whiz
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 6:29 AM on June 23, 2006

Old Milwaukee > Natural Light Ice > Natural Light > PBR > American > Falls City > Sterling > Weidemann > Burgie's >Hamm's > Bear Whiz>Crazy Horse
posted by jonmc at 6:30 AM on June 23, 2006

Old Milwaukee > Natural Light Ice > Natural Light > PBR > American > Falls City > Sterling > Weidemann > Burgie's >Hamm's > Bear Whiz>Crazy Horse>Urine
posted by Skygazer at 7:16 AM on June 23, 2006

> Red, White, and Blue > Peils > Cook's, which is to this day the only non-fruity-flavored beer I've ever poured out.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:33 AM on June 23, 2006

> "My suffering is authentic enough but it has a kind of low-grade concrete-block quality."
posted by xod at 11:26 AM on June 23, 2006

Old Milwaukee > Natural Light Ice > Natural Light > PBR > American > Falls City > Sterling > Weidemann > Burgie's >Hamm's > Bear Whiz>Crazy Horse> Falstaff > Old Milwaukee
posted by Fezboy! at 11:36 AM on June 23, 2006

Augh! Beer intransitivity!
posted by sonofsamiam at 11:36 AM on June 23, 2006

Mmm. Crazy Horse. Chief of the "enriched" beers. Now that was a too-sweet beverage. Its cousin, James Bowie, though, was a fine brew. As good a brew as will typically come in a 40oz. bottle. Good for walking down the sidewalk on Madison Avenue with, in a brown paper bag, at 8:30 am on a Wednesday, after working the graveyard shift. Back when you could reliably count on getting away with that.

Wait, does that make me a hipster? Or an aging hipster? Hold on... I think I don't care.
posted by dammitjim at 11:57 AM on June 23, 2006

This whole thread makes me cringe.

NYC party photographer here, and I take many pics at parties myself. My style does indeed ape the stuff on lastnightsparty.com, except I attend events that have substantially less cocaine, substantially smarter people, and substantially less ridiculous attire. I don't hold this against Merlin at all, I think his work rocks. I think he gets shots that are amazing, and that he finds himself in situations (ex: as a stranger, in people's apartments, 5am on a Saturday) that are incredible. I can attest to how difficult it is to get pictures like this. He's pretty dedicated. I also don't envy his attendance to all these parties, because I've been to a bunch of them and they suck hard. I can't enjoy myself without quaffing 5 free-liquor vodka tonics, and that's not really fun now, is it? There's no moral high ground here, he's just another photographer with a different social circle.

Hipsters though, in general, are a clear sign of the rot of our society. They're hardly defendable. They're a caricature. Always have been. People who follow "cool" for a living have never been admired for bringing cool to the masses - they've been reviled for being vapid, nasty, and ultimately useless. They bathe in their own celebrity and attention (if they bathe at all). Andy Warhol was right about the 15 minutes thing: The Internet, and especially blogs and MySpace, have made the churn cycle even more nauseating and dizzying, as now someone's popular for an hour each afternoon before the whole hipster-sphere moves onto the next shiny new irony-of-the-day. It's unnerving: If I try to talk about something a week old, I'll get called on it.

I would personally be sick of having to change my fundamental self - nevermind my wardrobe - every couple of weeks. But it's not that it's just not for me. I think these people are miserable, they're irresponsible, and they're bad for all of us. My friends and I are hipsters ourselves in a loose sense - coolhunters by night, but we dress normal and have jobs by day - but we're more like yuppies who are aware of fresh culture (not flattering, but I'll take it). But the real hipsters are ill-tempered, immature people who are a bad influence. Drugs are not cool. Admiring overpriced (and ostentatious) art is not cool. Shitty music is not cool. Pissing on other people's interests (and front stoops) is not cool. Being 19, drinking in a club, and vomiting on yourself is not cool. But because they have money, and because they've been spending it in increasingly absurd ways, the consumer markets and the media are handing everything to them. There are a lot of fat merchandising managers and middle-aged network execs who are more than glad to slap the hipster flag on the wall and try to sell it (to hipsters or advertisers) for 10x its actual value. And, you know, if all these immature little snots decided to sober up for a day and apply themselves to something that was real and meaningful, all their awful, meaningless stuff would disintegrate instantaneously. If that happened, the world just might be a better place. Or, at the very least, we wouldn't have a bunch of sullen brain-rotted tards sullying up every attempt for the rest of us to try to connect with something that was truly, really "cool".

The irony about hipsters is that they're not hip at all. You can't bear any meaningful fruit to the world if you do nothing but party, sneer, and puke. No amount of spandex will change that. The real "hipsters" are mostly terribly ugly people sitting at home, hammering away at their personal creative projects with love and determination, keeping the momentum going, going to bed by 11, staying pretty far away from anyone under the age of 25. The people who REALLY have any capacity for developing ideas and introducing lasting trends are mostly over the age of 35, and are widely known for their ruthless work ethic (if not for their ruthless demeanors). These are people who are anti-cool for the hipsters, but are admired by just about every true (sober) enthusiast in their respective professions. And that's something that's right about the world. I'd like to see more of it...
posted by brianvan at 12:46 AM on June 24, 2006 [26 favorites has favorites]

Very well said.

Bravo, brianvan. Bravo.
posted by id at 2:32 PM on June 28, 2006