New bohemianism: beards, pickling beets, Fleet Foxes, rye...

"got a beard"

I don't disagree that those concepts exist, I just think that far too often they are formed with little to no precision, scientific rigor, or real understanding of more than the critic's own experiences.

That is probably true, and I wouldn't argue with you on that. I think maybe where we differ is that despite all of that, trends are awfully fun for me to think and talk about.

I'd say that if someone was wearing that hat/scarf number this week in LA, they'd be warm, regardless of bohemian or otherwise.

x-post.

Cultural trends of the lifestyle sort suggested here (in a throwaway fashion, just cos I was interested if anyone would take it up, or it'd be dismissed as bullshit, which is fine) never have precision, scientific rigor etc. They are often about the critic's incestuous little circle (whether describing yuppies in 86, or electroclashers in the 02), and pointedly ignore 99.4% of the population. Doesn't mean that they shouldn't be found interesting, or that there's no such thing as a zeitgeist. I was most interested in whether there was any cross-pollination between newspaper polls that talk about gas prices / unemployment / greenhouse gases, and style / lifestyle choices amongst 20/30 something urban dwellers. If not, fine.

EVAAAAAAAA

I dunno, I feel like a lot of the time people talking about trends are magnifying some relatively not-that-big thing in their own circles, whereas most of the buzz I keep seeing about the back-to-the-land types of today seems to be coming from people who don't qualify for the "trend" in any way and might not even KNOW anyone who does.

Besides, it's already over: the Times reported on it.

The only kind of farming that's bohemian is failed farming.

i don't know, i think going "back to the land" is something urban dwellers fantasize about? i sure do.

i've never seen anyone pickling beets. i've known people with beards all my life. my dad drank rye. so calling this a "trend" is kind of absurd to me. it's like asking about this "trend" where people get progressively older until they die.

words i hate: zeitgeist

that's only one word

it's one of them german two-wordy words though

several of my friends/acquaintances seem to be on the road to being business-minded, non-industrial farmers for realz and they are not annoying bohemian losers obsessed with a trend

tho i have been known to ask them to please stfu abt farming etc, if only b/c i don't really want them to move away from town

i am way too city to go this route full-time

i sure do.

I think that really just means you need to get out of the city. :)

xp with rrrrrobyn!

http://www.hi-arts.co.uk/default.aspx.locid-hianewnwi.Lang-EN.htm

The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams
Back
08 July 2008

A while ago, on an impulse, a quixotic seizure, Tilda Swinton rented a ballroom in an old Victorian stone building in Nairn in the North East of Scotland, a seaside town where Chaplin used to holiday and which has a balmy microclimate and vistas across the Moray Firth to the Black Isle, Cromarty and Sutherland.

The ballroom is called Ballerina. In the 60s and 70s Pink Floyd, The Who and Cream played there. The ballroom in nearby Elgin was called The Red Shoes.

After renting the Ballerina, Tilda emailed Mark Cousins to ask if he’d help her put on a film festival in it. And she asked her architect friend Colin Cawdor if he’d oversee the refit. As quixotic as she, they both said yes. Tilda took Mark to see the place – they were making a wee film about being 8 1/2 and falling in love with cinema – and he loved it and so, together, they dreamt up a festival of beanbags on the floor, that would run 8 1/2 days, that would be a 6 out of ten on the grunge scale, that would serve home-made cakes and fish finger sandwiches, whose tickets would be £3/£2, and that would transform the Ballerina into something like a ghost train.

I'm almost amazed enough by that article to start a thread.

whereas most of the buzz I keep seeing about the back-to-the-land types of today seems to be coming from people who don't qualify for the "trend" in any way and might not even KNOW anyone who does.

I guess the thing I find most interesting about Paul's thread idea, though, is the notion that an actual "back-to-the-land" trend can also be manifested in superficial ways, like listening to Fleet Foxes or ordering rye at a trendy cocktail bar. (Although rye seems to be more like a standard hipster fetishization of old-timey things.)

the quixotic seizure jumped over the lazy dog

Although rye seems to be more like a standard hipster fetishization of old-timey things.

i think people just like the way it tastes.

I think that there is a significant divide among people I know, between those who are REALLY focused on profit-driven jobs (sales, mostly) and those who are focused on other things, including non profit driven jobs, family, liesure activities, etc.

Those in the former tend to have flashier cars and wardrobes, and tend to engage in more expensive and "going out" centric activities. Those in the latter tend to cook at home more frequently, dress more for comfort than latest style, be a little less spendthrifty...

I don't know. I'm currently out of work studying to take my bar exam. So, I'm forced to be spend thrifty, I dress for comfort because the rest of my life is a ball of stress, and I cook at home because I'm always here. This all could change once I am licensed and arguing for other people for profit.

I would like to go back to The Land
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2323/2273787242_ea09b5338c.jpg?v=0

Its a shame that a venerable and respected beverage like rye whiskey is pigeon-holed because its percieved as trendy.

Can't we save that lable for shit that involves fruit juices or sugar-rimmed glasses?

haha yeah it's funny b/c i've been out to 'the country' a few times in the past couple months and tho i loved it, each time i felt an increased sense of alienation - because 'the country' just like the city is in fact full of annoying people despite its pastoral image. the city, or this city, seems to mitigate the annoyances, for me.

i think i am just going to leave the pickling of things up to other people btw

xpostsxposts

Can't we save that lable for shit that involves fruit juices

me and my greyhound say fuck you!

standard hipster fetishization of old-timey things.

Old-timey things like chamber music?

like chamber pots?

xp My pomegranate-tini says, well excuuuuuse me.

That's it, no more flush toilets for me, it's all about the fashion chamber pots from now on.

i don't want to meet the hipster with a chamber pot fetish. christ, if you thought the Rainbo smelled bad BEFORE...

Just kidding, I don't drink pomegranate-tinis. Unless they're half-price.

"Pffft, yours is tin? I've got the original porcelain."

i pee into a buffalo skin sac which i proceed to pour on the mint in m backyard. NITRATES

laurel drank a pomegranate martini last week! i saw it!

Dan, you just don't get it: the tin sounds WARMER, more REAL.

xp: yes, and it was half-price!!

Oh, alright. Greyhounds, margaritas, screwdrivers and gin&juice don't implicate the trendy frufru drink label.

Neither should rye.

thank you barkeep!

Gin and juice, you say? Like, say, LIMEADE?

bearded hipsters running vodka lemonade stands while playing acoustic guitars

sounds like a bad sitcom on the cw.

I have a beard, I pickle beets (they're delicioso!), have never heard Fleet Foxes (sound like something I would hate, from what I've read), and I prefer wild turkey to rye (cue ZZ Top's Driving While Blind). I also drive a prius.

I do all of these things because they are new and hip and trendy and not because they're like fun or anything duh

Bearded hipsters drinking gin and limeade while singing Pavement songs on a Brooklyn rooftop.

beard also recent edition because before now I couldn't really grow one and I was home with my baby daughter for 7 weeks and thought "hey you know what fuck shaving". now I look like Captain Nemo.

Bearded hipsters drinking gin and limeade while singing Pavement songs on a Brooklyn rooftop.

that sounds pathetically similar to my early 20s.

That sounds pathetically similar to my er........July 6th.

i think people just like the way it tastes.

Undoubtedly, but how do you explain its recent resurgence among the young urban demographic? A lot of people suddenly decided they liked the way it tastes?

Old-timey things like chamber music?

No, more like whatever Grandpa was into: thrift-store pants from Sears and Roebuck, smoking out of pipes, Tony Bennett LPs, etc. Unless you know hipsters that are into Hadyn and Mozart.

Undoubtedly, but how do you explain its recent resurgence among the young urban demographic?

it's recent? like i said, i've always known rye drinkers.

I went on a date once with a young Brooklyn type who dressed like an Amish man and was an up-and-coming shaped-note composer. That guy is seriously so far ahead of the curve he might be a genius.

Oh, you just mentioned your dad. I don't go to places like the Violet Hour or anything, but I've gotten the sense that rye is becoming trendy, and I'm assuming that's why Paul mentioned it. For instance.

oui, mais moi...

why would anyone ever say 'wear a beard'??
unless this is a british thing to say, in which case, carry on being british or whatever

He wears his whiskers long
She wears her hair in a bun
etc.

wears GROWS
wears PUTS

Yes, just like that classic song, "if you're going to San Francisco / be sure to PUT some flowers in your hair"

Um that's not the same thing at all!

Am I seriously going to have to get out a dictionary and/or copies of 19th-century literature to convince you guys this usage exists?

No, I'm just being a dick

Haha so am I, kinda. (Jay-Z says "wears her hair in a twist!") It's totally archaic, but I really do like the use of "wear" for styling decisions, including hair growths -- wear your jeans tight, wear your hair long, wear side-whiskers, wear a beard

wear your heart on your sleeve, wear your fingers to the bone, wear a point into the ground, wear out a welcome

i have just been french-english exchanging and in this talk often turns to discussions of the idiomatic and grammatically weird or archaic when trying to find correct translations - it is funny but also confusing because yeah maybe the wear a beard thing etc is right even if only nabisco and people in the 19thC use it

language so crazy

ok but if she has already put her hair in a bun she is wearing her hair in a bun.