Nice. I score 6 squares just looking in the mirror. I'm hipper than I thought. Too bad I'd never be caught dead in a vest. Winter vests are without a doubt the stupidest clothing item ever invented. Yes, they even beat merkins.

so, so f-ing funny. i am spamming everyone i know with that link and can't wait to test it out tonight in chicago at 2 rock shows...

"Are we in Williamsburg yet?" /m1. Can someone educate the un-hip?

Edited by author 07-17-2003 05:02 PM
/m4, extra88 -- Williamsburg is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY where a disproportionately high number of young, sloppily-dressed, miller-swilling, parliament-smoking, strokes-listening, ski-vest and trucker hat wearing, ironically mustachioed twentysomethings live. Here, they create ironic art, ironic music, ironic poetry, and slouch apathetically in bar seats, not caring about much of anything. They have important haircuts, and they are way cooler than you could ever be. Pathetically, you think you're rad because you know what electroclash means in 2003, but they are so cool that they never stopped listening to Can in the first place. Once upon a time, lofts here were affordable.

Edited by author 07-17-2003 05:00 PM
Man, looking at this I realize I'm just about the most unhip thing ever to wade out of the primordial muck. And if these goofballs (except for the uber-hot asian hottie, of course, yum yum yum) are the definition of hip, I'm quite happy to stay that way.

To quote Bart Simpson (though he was referring to my gang, Generation X), "we need another Vietnam. That'll thin their ranks!"

Though on second thought, I think we already have one. Better ship some of these Williamsburgers to Iraq, where all their poseur nonsense counts for diddly-squat. :)

Thanks xeni. That was my guess but I doubted myself since I only ever heard of Williamsburg a month ago. My darling is going to be a grad student at NYU next year. I am the Sugar Daddy which includes looking into places to live (as well as a job). I'm the Sugar Daddy but I assume I'm not sweet enough to be able to afford Manhattan so looking at a map of Brooklyn, I saw a subway line which looks like an easy commute to NYU and it goes through Williamsburg. These hipsters sound tolerable, as long as they don't pee off the fire escapes. Although I'll make an effort to make the Right Choice of apartments, I will undoubtedly make the Wrong Choice so this will be a starter apartment no matter what.

I don't know xeni, one could argue that with the mesh caps, bad haircuts, moustaches, miller and (ugh.. shiver..) vests, interpreting the joke as referring to Williamsburg, West Virginia is even funnier. More accurate, too.

Edited by author 07-17-2003 06:40 PM
Extra88, you'll save a lot of money if you look on the upper east side (80's or so), plenty of nice little 1brs there, libraries, museums, and all-in-all a shorter commute. One of the things not mentioned in any b'burg article that I have seen is that, other than the slimy water on one side, it is surrounded by scary housing projects, warehouses and industrial neighborhoods on every other side. I myself was shot (yes, as in, hit by a bullet) a few weeks after I moved in, while I was naive enough to think that it was safe to explore the surrounding area at night.

And BTW, Warren, it just seem like I should point out that the neighborhood is also filled with some sweet young families, wise and clever old folks, interesting immigrants, etc. I get a little weirded out when people start wishing death on others because of their clothing, or how they wear their hair. Some of these hipsters may try too hard, and end up looking silly, but they're decent people.

-milo

Edited by author 07-17-2003 06:36 PM
I have a friend who calls it "Williamsburg University." And it does feel like a campus. If I get off the subway at Lorimer Street, I seem to be the oldest person on the platform (29 yrs).

But of course Queens is the borough of choice... :)

Re: Williamsburg, it sounds from what Xeni posted that Shoreditch in East London is the Brit equivalent (It used to be Hoxton but that's so '98).

hipsters are like locusts. they swarm into a neighborhood and suck it dry then they move onto another place.

in los angeles, echo park/silverlake is the west coast equivalent of williamsburg. now they're moving into chinatown.

As someone from Wyoming I find no end to the hilarity of 'hipster' loosers wearing trucker hats and drinking swill beer and thinking it 'ironic'. Yeah, whatever, college-boy. Let's see you eat a Chicken Fried Steak the size of one of your indie-rock 12" Vinyl records first, and then I might think you worthy of that hat.

Edited by author 07-17-2003 07:54 PM
This may be politically incorrect but...

Funny how the hipsters are blowing their cash on the carefully created thrift store look at Urban Outfitters et.al. so they can look suitably White Trash (read "Hip")

Meanwhile the great unwashed are spending their cash on Gucci, Tommy et.al. to look wealthy.

WTF?

Young artist types can't afford much so they shop at thrift stores. Next thing you know, what was done out of necessity becomes stylish for those needing to adopt the "next big thing". (It works the same way with neighborhoods- cheap rents mean artists move in- means galleries move in- means yuppies move in- means rent goes up- means artists move out)

Look at 70s punk. The early brit punks were doing the safety pin thing to their clothes because the their clothes were actually falling apart. Within a year of the punk explosion it became part of the punk 'uniform' and remains so to this day.

Likewise grunge. Seattle kids wore flanel because its shitty and rainy all the time. You get hot at a show, you tie the shirt around your waist. 6 months after Nirvana, every Jabroni and his brother are wearing flanels becuase it is part of the uniform.

"Hip" is a sorry excuse for lack of creativity and imagination coupled with an inability to see functionality as a real value. Follow the flock, sheep...

hmm, fug,

(And also, Corey)

That is an interesting lens to look at the Magic Kingdom residents in "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" thru: that they are hipsters in their own right, ultimately parasitical, using a "neighborhood" to their selfish advantage and then moving on....

Tune in tomorrow for another episode of...

"When Memes Collide!"

The only thing 'ironic' about hipsters is the fact that they don't think they are either consumers or conformers. :)

I think Futtbuck has a very good point, and it might be worth pointing out that there's nothing on the bingo chart that costs more than $10. Most of these kids are artists of some flavor, and that's not exactly a high paying gig, at least at this level. The look that someone like Ashton Kucher is trying to imitate is that of sleeping on a friend's couch, showering once a week and having someone's junkie girlfriend cut your hair. When that's your life, something like a trucker hat is funny, I don't claim to understand why, it just is.

I think we might have been using the word "hipster" in a differant sense though, I think just about everyone here has a finely tuned bullshit detector, and would never pay the big bucks to buy this stuff at a designer boutique. My next door neighbor is a fashion designer, so, I wear "designer" clothes, but only because I fix her computer. That expensive stuff is reserved for the tourists.

-milo