even more quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a new rolling new york times thread

quiddities and backpacks of the ruling class

no way, that thing is the nissan cube of backpacks

laptop sleeves are for your dad come on now man alive

― marcos, Friday, September 11, 2015 4:14 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah next you'll tell us your phone has a case on it

My bag, like most 21st century bags, has a laptop sleeve built in, thx.

i don't even have a bag, bro

carrying a laptop around is so 2008

Are we sure Victorian thing is not an elaborate joke?

Laptop bag thing is weird. My laptop is a work laptop and I abuse the fuck out of it basically or at least behave totally carelessly about it. Who cares?

to be fair, "the tablet is my primary work device" is so 2012

many time travelers from 2008 in the coffee shops of NYC

to be fair, "the tablet is my primary work device" is so 2012

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, September 11, 2015 7:17 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

having a job is so 1999

I guess maybe today's macbook casings are pretty strong? Several years ago I cracked a laptop screen by putting the (non-padded) bag it was in down a little too hard on a security conveyor belt and since then I've been paranoid about them.

idk I'm just fucking around, am I supposed to say when I'm doing that I really don't want to hurt anybody's feelings

I keep seeing ads for this in facebook and wondering wtf it is. Article itself is from last year but seems appropriate for this thread:
http://nypost.com/2014/07/05/the-22-year-old-dropout-who-created-nycs-most-exclusive-credit-card/

nah that's just run-of-the-mill hucksterism

I mentioned it in the "not the onion" thread where I first saw the Victorians but I live in WA and my colleague who is a victorian lit prof (and lol steampunk fan) set up an in-person interview with this couple. I think he's sort of disgusted but secretly jealous of them.

Also nit-picking flaws in their system - like using the Internet, how their material goods were produced, etc - feels weird to me because it sort of implies that if these few details were ironed out then their ideology would make perfect sense. I can point out religious homophobes mixing fibers or ask libertarians who would wire their rural house for electricity but nothing is really ever going to get me to believe in a supernatural power or that businesses would act responsibly without any regulations.

i want to hate the victorians in a pomplamoose kinda way, but they don't bug me that much. can probably get a proper cup of tea at their house at least. pomplamoose would be all celestial seasonings hippie shite.

Faux-Victorians seem way worse than Poopmoose. Poopmoose are just a shitty band who exploit their fans but that's on those dopes. Attitudes behind FVs books/essays is worst retrograde bullshit. If it was just a fashion thing then I'd probably agree though, but they've gone out of their way to establish a pretty gross philosophy behind their stupid bike choices.

Also nit-picking flaws in their system - like using the Internet, how their material goods were produced, etc - feels weird to me because it sort of implies that if these few details were ironed out then their ideology would make perfect sense.

Oh, see, no, to me those things are emphatically not details! Like, the fact that they have to suspend those key points is what makes this so problematic and fucked up... the things they're suppressing constitute precisely the sites where the rubber of little lifestyle accoutrements meets the road of a whole world of labor and class and power. Infrastructures are like that - semi-visible technological systems that literally and figuratively wire up individual objects and things to big, big political and material systems. So yeah, my concern is that people who don't think very much about things read these essays and come away less thoughtful about all of the above, because "it was simpler and better back then!" is so digestible and ready-to-be-believed.

this is basically everything awful about paula deen antebellum larping and hipster the spirit of the 1890s is alive in portland at once right?

nothing more 20-teens than justifying yr personal brand of disgusting savagery as "more mindful". not v victorian imo.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/movies/film-snob-is-that-so-wrong.html

. I like my pleasures slow and difficult. I would rather watch a mediocre film from South America or Eastern Europe about the sufferings of poor people than a mediocre Hollywood comedy about the inconveniences of the affluent. I look up in admiration at models of artistic perfection, sound judgment and noble achievement, and I look down on what I take to be the stupid, cheap and cynical aspects of public discourse. I sit at my cobbler’s bench and hammer away. If the words nerd and geek can be rehabilitated — if legions of misunderstood enthusiasts can march from the margins of respectability to the heart of the mainstream — then why not snob as well?

Who’s with me? Anyone? I’m really not that picky.

I want to check his reviews of Whit Stillman and Noah Baumbach movies against that "comedy about the inconveniences of the affluent" line.

a good ilx thread collectively outthinks and outwrites a piece like that by miles imo

Yeah, in general I think Scott is a pretty knowledgeable and thoughtful film writer. I was a little surprised to see him publish a piece like that.

I would rather watch a mediocre film from South America or Eastern Europe about the sufferings of poor people than a mediocre Hollywood comedy about the inconveniences of the affluent.

Like, his editor should have stopped this line from getting into the piece. I actually think there's a good point to be made about the sheer number of American films (Hollywood and "independent") that are centered around the affluent...but I cringe reading Scott brag about how he gets his authentic enlightenment from watching the suffering of generic impoverished foreigners (from South America…or maybe Eastern Europe, yeah, one of those beautifully bleak places)

- If I'm perfectly honest, this isn't even an American film.
- It's not?
- No. There are no stars. No pat happy endings. No Schwarzenegger, no stickups, no terrorists. This is a tough story, a tragedy in which an innocent woman dies. Why? Because that happens!

everyone otm :(

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CQ5tZigWEAAaFpk.png

oh what a fascinating angle. please do go on.

is that a snowflake I see?

don't like it there? move to texas. Everyone is judgmental if u DON'T have Jesus (or jewish analog; no third option) here

More evidence of the need for Christians to feel persecuted and socially outcast, even if there is no evidence that they are persecuted or socially outcast.

I had a Catholic friend of mine express that opinion recently (we are both NYers). It was hard to know where to start to argue with that, it seems so crazy

about 70% percent of amerikkkans call themselves christians. which ain't what it used to be, but still...

In the expensively educated, ambitiously employed, urban circles of the country the % is much lower. And that's hard. For a Christian.

the right answer to all these people is 'oh, i'm sorry, i couldn't tell you were a christian from the way you're living your life—you just look like everyone else'

To be fair, it was sad how when the Pope just visited the city closeted Christians ignored him in droves and he ended up drinking alone in an Irish bar on 2nd Avenue.

(But I guess the people who did come out were less expensively educated, less ambitiously employed?)

going to church is totally gonna be the next hip fad. mark my words. hipsters invading baptist churches. getting baptized in a scenic river. making ham salad for the church picnic. it will be a competition to see who goes to the more authentic olde-tyme church. the russian orthodox people won't know what hit them.

dude is clearly not running in the "urban circles" of DC in which a significant proportion of actual urban, actual DC residents actually occupy (see: everywhere outside of upper NW).

It's a not dude and she's actually in NYC/LA.

http://www.salon.com/2015/10/03/dont_you_be_my_neighbor_i_despised_the_man_next_door_and_hated_myself_for_hating_him/

It's a not dude

username gold

http://www.salon.com/2015/10/03/dont_you_be_my_neighbor_i_despised_the_man_next_door_and_hated_myself_for_hating_him🔗/

"Maybe my inability to befriend a neighbor I don’t like represents a personal failing, a narcissism that demands everyone I spend time with share my little corner of the world."

MAYBE

Unlike many pop-ups, which can involve taking over an established restaurant for a night or two, the Bride of the Fox will play out like a kind of gastronomic parlor game. Each event will involve a single table, and the meal may be served to as many as 20 people — or as few as two. Prices will fluctuate, depending on the circumstances.

He will choose the diners at random, through requests that come through his website, and he will not reveal the ever-shifting site of the dinner until the customers find out they have been picked. Guests will get the menu upon arrival.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CzOsF8KdL._SL500_SY300_.jpg

And then there is the damage the injury has done to Connell’s social life.

“I was at a party recently, and it was difficult to hold my hors d’oeuvre plate,” she said.

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/8-year-old-boy-on-trial-for-exuberance-6566757.php

Amazing.

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Jury-Aunt-who-sued-8-year-old-gets-zero-6568677.php