Comments on: Deconstructing the Hipster http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/ culture blogging for the good of the planet Sun, 27 Jul 2008 01:06:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: max http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/#comment-105998 max Mon, 05 May 2008 21:47:02 +0000 http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/#comment-105998 I live in Buffalo and have to completely disagree with your comment there is a real scene here. There is not a scene here. The hipsters here are so disillusioned there is one they cannot be saved. Here's what I have to say about these apathetic individuals known as the hipsters of Buffalo... This is an open letter to all the hipsters and quasi-musicians (and other misc. "artists") of Buffalo who are reluctant to grow up and realize it is just not going to happen and those dirty, patchouli smelling hippies are more enjoyable to be around. I planned to make it a little longer, but as of late I have become a fan brevity. Enjoy... The most ignorable characteristic of a hipster, they are in denial. Their general idea is to have an unkempt appearance and throw in god awful haircuts, american apparel hoodies, err, I mean sexist-sweatshop hoodies, girl jeans, and then the wannabe just not right 80s hip-hop style sneakers. How about their overall music and art taste…let's pick the safe classics and what are those primarily composed of? Absolute and complete crap! I know, after selecting such masterful pieces of dog crap let's post these classics (of course they have to be ranked) on our myriad of blogs and myspace (which leads me to say that most of the hipsters are a bit too old nowadays to be doing such things). Not to mention how everyone just loves you for having such great taste, hell it can even give you some of that hard earned cred you so valiantly achieved. Why is it that no matter what a hipster has listened to band "x" before anyone? It's like they came out of the wound with this pseudo-superior musical taste that just crushes the tastes of anyone within 30 miles of them. I also adore how they will manipulate others into feeling guilty that thinking they're listening to doesn't reach elitist levels. Then we have all the hipsters with a band(knife to wrists), besides the undeniable force your band sounds like shit you somehow are able to carefully combine profound artistic inadequacy and whiney teenage angst. What's sad and ironic is that a hipster really doesn't believe they are one. They are so entrapped in their pathetic existence their vision is terribly narrow and dim. A hipster also tends to firmly believe their superior taste goes beyond music into film and art. In fact, so much so they are greater than the artists themselves. Ultimately, what they like parallels their empty insipid existence. Lastly, one of the worst traits these parasites seem to share is an inappropriate intensity for any given situation. They seamlessly and effortlessly reject the idea of enjoying themselves and if they unfortunately succeed at it they will make sure everyone around them knows they are having fun in their very own sordid world (remember knife to wrists). Speaking of parasites and traits, I almost forgot to mention just how insanely cool it is to starve yourself via veganism/vegetarianism. Yeah, let's blindly follow a trendy form of self-sustenance. I know you cannot help it because it is idiosyncratic with your self-righteousness and complete lack of intellectual rigor. So, I'll end here as in hopes the hipsters are reading this and they come to terms with their vast inhuman existence. By the way, any hipster who reads this please pass it along to your hipsters friends so the rest of humanity can stop living in quarantine and breathe a little. So I'll end there as in hopes you've had enough and can admit your pretentious, pathetic existence. By the way, I think you should pass this on to your hipsters friends so the rest of humanity can stop living in quarantine. I live in Buffalo and have to completely disagree with your comment there is a real scene here. There is not a scene here. The hipsters here are so disillusioned there is one they cannot be saved.

Here’s what I have to say about these apathetic individuals known as the hipsters of Buffalo…

This is an open letter to all the hipsters and quasi-musicians (and other misc. “artists”) of Buffalo who are reluctant to grow up and realize it is just not going to happen and those dirty, patchouli smelling hippies are more enjoyable to be around. I planned to make it a little longer, but as of late I have become a fan brevity. Enjoy…

The most ignorable characteristic of a hipster, they are in denial. Their general idea is to have an unkempt appearance and throw in god awful haircuts, american apparel hoodies, err, I mean sexist-sweatshop hoodies, girl jeans, and then the wannabe just not right 80s hip-hop style sneakers.

How about their overall music and art taste…let’s pick the safe classics and what are those primarily composed of? Absolute and complete crap! I know, after selecting such masterful pieces of dog crap let’s post these classics (of course they have to be ranked) on our myriad of blogs and myspace (which leads me to say that most of the hipsters are a bit too old nowadays to be doing such things). Not to mention how everyone just loves you for having such great taste, hell it can even give you some of that hard earned cred you so valiantly achieved. Why is it that no matter what a hipster has listened to band “x” before anyone? It’s like they came out of the wound with this pseudo-superior musical taste that just crushes the tastes of anyone within 30 miles of them. I also adore how they will manipulate others into feeling guilty that thinking they’re listening to doesn’t reach elitist levels. Then we have all the hipsters with a band(knife to wrists), besides the undeniable force your band sounds like shit you somehow are able to carefully combine profound artistic inadequacy and whiney teenage angst.

What’s sad and ironic is that a hipster really doesn’t believe they are one. They are so entrapped in their pathetic existence their vision is terribly narrow and dim. A hipster also tends to firmly believe their superior taste goes beyond music into film and art. In fact, so much so they are greater than the artists themselves. Ultimately, what they like parallels their empty insipid existence.

Lastly, one of the worst traits these parasites seem to share is an inappropriate intensity for any given situation. They seamlessly and effortlessly reject the idea of enjoying themselves and if they unfortunately succeed at it they will make sure everyone around them knows they are having fun in their very own sordid world (remember knife to wrists).

Speaking of parasites and traits, I almost forgot to mention just how insanely cool it is to starve yourself via veganism/vegetarianism. Yeah, let’s blindly follow a trendy form of self-sustenance. I know you cannot help it because it is idiosyncratic with your self-righteousness and complete lack of intellectual rigor.

So, I’ll end here as in hopes the hipsters are reading this and they come to terms with their vast inhuman existence. By the way, any hipster who reads this please pass it along to your hipsters friends so the rest of humanity can stop living in quarantine and breathe a little.

So I’ll end there as in hopes you’ve had enough and can admit your pretentious, pathetic existence. By the way, I think you should pass this on to your hipsters friends so the rest of humanity can stop living in quarantine.

]]> By: xtc http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/#comment-96259 xtc Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:58:41 +0000 http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/#comment-96259 i live in buffalo and i can tell you one thing the hipsters are essentail. how else can i find rich kids that think im hot shit and make um give me cigs an bud etc. haha. they are the financers the consumers of art and fashion let the rich pay the poor for the art we produce. thats why the buffalo thing is so small , cuz we broke as a joke, the whole buffalo 66 image. its what feeds us an makes us different i live in buffalo and i can tell you one thing the hipsters are essentail. how else can i find rich kids that think im hot shit and make um give me cigs an bud etc. haha. they are the financers the consumers of art and fashion let the rich pay the poor for the art we produce. thats why the buffalo thing is so small , cuz we broke as a joke, the whole buffalo 66 image. its what feeds us an makes us different

]]> By: Hedwig http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/#comment-5763 Hedwig Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:03:05 +0000 http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/#comment-5763 In the interview with Danny Simmons w/in the same issue of Time Out, he is asked if he is a hipster. Danny is the brother of Russell and he's a working artist. His answer: "I don't see artists as hipsters. Hipsters are the patrons." In Buffalo, I haven't meet many people out in "the scene" who also do not contribute in a creative way. The rare hipster, out just to be seen and way too cool to dance, gets called by a different name: "fanboy." In the interview with Danny Simmons w/in the same issue of Time Out, he is asked if he is a hipster. Danny is the brother of Russell and he’s a working artist. His answer: “I don’t see artists as hipsters. Hipsters are the patrons.”

In Buffalo, I haven’t meet many people out in “the scene” who also do not contribute in a creative way. The rare hipster, out just to be seen and way too cool to dance, gets called by a different name: “fanboy.”

]]> By: estiv http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/#comment-5703 estiv Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:05:39 +0000 http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/#comment-5703 For "disciplined" in my previous comment, substitute "boring." Nothing like blunting your point... For “disciplined” in my previous comment, substitute “boring.” Nothing like blunting your point…

]]> By: estiv http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/#comment-5702 estiv Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:03:29 +0000 http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/#comment-5702 I live in Austin. I would be happy to shuffle many of the recent arrivals here off to Buffalo, even though I know that Buffalo does not deserve such treatment. I think what you're describing is really the same phenomenon as people moving to LA or DC--they see what they think is an exciting lifestyle and are attracted to that for its own sake. The dedication to the actual work itself that characterizes, to take just some examples, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Harry Reid, and Lou Reed, is alien to scenesters. But every scene attracts them. It's sort of an inversion of Flaubert's famous statement about being disciplined in your life so that you can be outrageous in your art. They just flip that idea on its head. I live in Austin. I would be happy to shuffle many of the recent arrivals here off to Buffalo, even though I know that Buffalo does not deserve such treatment.
I think what you’re describing is really the same phenomenon as people moving to LA or DC–they see what they think is an exciting lifestyle and are attracted to that for its own sake. The dedication to the actual work itself that characterizes, to take just some examples, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Harry Reid, and Lou Reed, is alien to scenesters. But every scene attracts them.
It’s sort of an inversion of Flaubert’s famous statement about being disciplined in your life so that you can be outrageous in your art. They just flip that idea on its head.

]]> By: Frank Weaver http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/#comment-5647 Frank Weaver Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:50:22 +0000 http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/06/14/deconstructing-the-hipster/#comment-5647 Well, as one who was living in the East Village at the time of its 80s incarnation, I recall very well the articles about the galleries being part of the gentrification process starting up, and the overall loss of innocence, like a paradise lost scenario occured at the same moment constructing paradise did. But it has always been a very fleeting instance that the cultural movements and scenes are an actual scene, and not transitioning from something to something else. Your Beat analogy for example, the issue wasn't Burroughs money, his cool factor came by a kind of analogy to his own class refusal, as a kind of self-search in the form of Junky and so on. But not to get writing here on all that. Kerouac was doing Steve Allen shows as well, and trying his best to explain this new American voice... I always think there is a moment you are part of something and a moment you aren't. It's like looking at photos documenting super cool vintage punk bands, only from a few months earlier than their classic shots, and there, the same very cool punk bands had metal shags, and certainly other values than that "punk". And so on. I think what you refer to is the artworld, and then all other scenes. And NYC. What would be of value, if one does need to ask why social relations and the arts gets so packaged and tagged, is a more precise syntax. A "hipster" vs a "scenester", and so on. Warhol knew what to do with the differences, as few did since, except maybe in the music world. Well, as one who was living in the East Village at the time of its 80s incarnation, I recall very well the articles about the galleries being part of the gentrification process starting up, and the overall loss of innocence, like a paradise lost scenario occured at the same moment constructing paradise did. But it has always been a very fleeting instance that the cultural movements and scenes are an actual scene, and not transitioning from something to something else. Your Beat analogy for example, the issue wasn’t Burroughs money, his cool factor came by a kind of analogy to his own class refusal, as a kind of self-search in the form of Junky and so on. But not to get writing here on all that. Kerouac was doing Steve Allen shows as well, and trying his best to explain this new American voice…
I always think there is a moment you are part of something and a moment you aren’t. It’s like looking at photos documenting super cool vintage punk bands, only from a few months earlier than their classic shots, and there, the same very cool punk bands had metal shags, and certainly other values than that “punk”. And so on. I think what you refer to is the artworld, and then all other scenes. And NYC.
What would be of value, if one does need to ask why social relations and the arts gets so packaged and tagged, is a more precise syntax. A “hipster” vs a “scenester”, and so on. Warhol knew what to do with the differences, as few did since, except maybe in the music world.

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