ROLLING HIPSTER STUDIES 09

Bad, yes. Ass, yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU3mc0yvRNk

feel like this was an important formative moment in the creation of the millennial hipster

There was a point when the term hipster was non-pejorative wasn't there? 1940s or '50s? Something that people like Norman Mailer was trying to connect with as the 'white negro' or similar. Somebody that could always ride the cusp of what was happening musically/culturally/philosophically.
Or was it pretty pseudo and wanky even then?
Just wondering when hipster became pejorative. I'm seeing people around Galway dressed in the style people were being derided for as hipster around 10 years ago or have elements of that skinny jean very short beard thing become universal and non ironic?

fwiw i remember all my friends singing along to that dandy warhols song in a van on the way to see them at a festival in 2003

https://www.vice.com/read/hw-the-definitive-guide-to-hipster-music-genres-hipster-week

Serialism
Years Active: 1920s-1980s
Defining Artist: Arnold Schoenberg
In true hipster fashion, we don't understand exactly what this is, like, at all. Like, we get it kind of enough to make John Cage "notes between the notes" jokes at the bar, but, if pressed, we'll hide behind the first smart looking motherfucker we can find, push them at our assailant, and say, "12-tone techneez nutz!" Or something to that effect.

that list of things is a list of things

yeah, idk how "hipster" it is to make lists of things ... but I think reading them haphazardly is cool

If this is a troll and not sincere, then it's really the best imitation of a Wave 1 hipster I've ever seen. It's eerie. https://t.co/gdnObn1kr0

— T. (@RickyRawls) May 3, 2017

i'm sorry this is hilarious lol

One interesting thing about the idea of the Nazi and fascist right having a more vibrant youth scene than the liberals...the NY Mag articles

— T. (@RickyRawls) May 3, 2017

yeah idk I think the problem with gavin mcinnes is not that he sincerely believes all these things

also the vines lol

sorry everybody you should click on that tweet and read the thread

it is a bad thread with the exception of some good replies this ricky person does not get

if it was a hipster imitation it by definition couldn't be sincere. this is entry level stuff @rickyrawls, cmon

anyway, hope joe is still alive after all of the brutal owns

rip

lol good thread

tony is not chill, glad he's admitted he is a hipster tho

lol, I mean ricky, whatever

French dictionaries just added some new words: ubérisation, hipster (pron. 'eepstair') and of course, post-vérité https://t.co/qV9TznnhDh

— Katy Lee (@kjalee) May 30, 2017

'eepstairs downstairs

I'm just an eepstair for your love

Life in the capital may be good for the govster, but is it good for the country?

omg what a fucking dork

aaahahaha omg that was so cringey and long winded, I only read about half and skimmed the rest but I still don’t get what the takeaway is supposed to be, also gentrification and superficial trendiness don’t make a city “cool”???

omg it never ends

this david fontana guy is cool

literally burst out laughing when I got to the reveal line explaining what a govster is

FWIW, the phenomenon he is describing is called extreme wealth inequality and that's why the same thing is happening in every city

apparently what distinguishes d.c. govsters is their knack for columbusing gentrification, not identified as such of course because they're so "cool"

Yet the culture of urban hipsters — people who wore trucker hats but had never been in a truck

A dynamic country may need a little cool in its capital; but have things in Washington gone too far? The question is as old as the republic, and arguably more important than ever.

how is this not the onion

Sparky’s Espresso Cafe was a few blocks from my apartment off 14th Street NW, but in the years after I moved to Washington in 2006, it felt to me like home. To get there from my apartment, I needed to walk by a decaying dry cleaner and a homeless shelter.

“needed” is doing some interesting work there

Today, Sparky’s has been gone for 11 years — replaced first by the more stylish Cork Wine Bar and eventually by a make-your-own meatball chain opening its first location outside of New York.

i'm sorry a what now

i assume you use a piece of spaghetti to string them on

I disagree with Fontana's "govster" diagnosis but I completely sympathize with the idea that if DC actually becomes a "cool" place to live then an important quality of American life - that our national capital and most powerful city is a place for dorks, really only worth visiting for the museums - will be lost. But the silver lining of having cool kids move here could be that we finally make some lasting headway on the homeless problem and run Dan Snyder out of town and change the fucking team name.

There is a lot of weird reverse NIMBYism from longtime Washingtonians, regardless of race or class categories, about neighborhoods that used to be run-down (i.e. that had homeless shelters, dry cleaners, bodegas) now being full of posh businesses. I'm a little guilty of that myself, when Dupont Circle stopped being gay it got incredibly fucking boring practically overnight.

it's hard to believe a gayborhood had anywhere to go but up!

I had to look up the address. It's a branch of a chain called Meatball Shop. That's a restaurant that serves meatball sandwiches and pastas. You don't make your own meatballs there.

here's courtland milloy's old take on the 14th street turnaround, which he makes explicitly about race and income inequality: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/yes-14th-street-may-be-better-these-days-but-something-vital-is-missing/2015/07/21/f144a65c-2fce-11e5-8f36-18d1d501920d_story.html

brb gonna open a chain of make-your-own-meatball restaurants

That's a baller idea

does "cool kids" moving someplace really have much to do with Zagat stars as mentioned in the article? or with addressing homelessness?

nobody cares about zagat ratings and michelin stars but they are a lagging indicator of the DC food scene's development over the last 15 years or so.

gentrifiers, by providing lots of new property tax revenue among other things, could enable DC to do a lot of good things for our poorest people. Unfortunately our big plan right now seems to be paying suburban hotels $80,000 a night to house homeless families. Wishful thinking on my part.

if it’s like every other city, the property tax revenue is blasted in the short term by abatements and “affordable housing” that flips into condos at the first opportunity

so maybe in a number of years there is more tax revenue, but just as likely you end up with high-priced single rental units, secondary properties, etc

The people he's describing just aren't that cool. To a certain extent it's probably the same phenomenon that happens with every cultural movement, where eventually a little bit of it rubs off on people in all walks of life, even government. In the 70s capitol hill aides had long hair and huge sideburns. Today they partake in locally sourced foodie culture or w/e.

now you just end up with chain department stores selling decent shirts that are inspired by trends of a few years back, as always

the devil wears prada movie had a dorky fashion dialogue scene about this, that color you’re wearing hit the shelves because a bunch of people fought it out and it won and it was couteur and then copied and then downmarket

and then eventually applebees made it a menu item and they installed brick pavers on the street in front, and then you have culture

yeah I feel like this guy is just a one-percenter but in that wing of the one-percent where it's really important to believe that spending your money at "foodie" places = "cool," that all the cool hip people want to live in your city and eat at those places or whatever. in fact cool people everywhere look down on these people, while washing dishes in the back.

oh he is so far from one percent. not sure how divided it is in DC but he codes as upper middle class or maybe upper class in-city but single home guy. maybe could afford a lake house shack

the thing is that all of these things code as people with just enough money who think they are talking about social striving but are really just throwing half-assed signifiers out everywhere. people with less money look to those recommendations. there is always an up-and-coming part of any metro area where people visit and say “oh yeah I went to blah restaurant and it was nice and we got drinks at other place” but it’s generally middlebrow and enjoyable but nothing out of the ordinary. and it’s always the constantly rebranding or closing businesses because novelty is the main factor

I think we’re drifting out of it but the tapas/small plate places were the vanguard for years. Still remember a douchebag older restauranteur greeting me at his small plates establishment and talking about which waitresses were attractive. It’s the same thing that draws people to talk about cool clubs, where cool means busy and the “right” people milling around

sorry, i’ve feelings

I grew up in DC and it seemed a lot cooler to me when I was in high school than it does when I go back. Dischord bands at Ft Reno and Go-Go music and freestyle cyphers on U Street was what seemed cool about it to me. There's nothing cool about getting a fucking charcuterie board.