"Hipster" as pejorative.

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MUMMY: I wish there was somebody somewhere who wasn't afraid of me. Oh,
well. Watch what happens when I walk up to somebody.
<dit-dit-dit-dit-dit> I'm a mummy.
BEATNIK: That's cool.
MUMMY: I'm a mummy.
BEATNIK: You mean you're a mother.
MUMMY: No, I'm a mummy.
BEATNIK: I'm a beatnik.
MUMMY: People are afraid of me.
BEATNIK: Yeah, I'll bet.
MUMMY: I was born one thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine years ago.
BEATNIK: Oh, yeah, like, that's a long gig.
MUMMY: Where can I buy a copy of "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb"?
BEATNIK: Oooh, man, I don't dig that trash. You know like Brubeck,
Sherwin, Modern Jazz Quartet?
MUMMY: I'm a mummy.
BEATNIK: Man, you got a warped groove.
MUMMY: Aren't you afraid of me? Aren't you gonna scream?
BEATNIK: Oh, yeah, like, "help."

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:17 (nineteen years ago)

I judge people more harshly if they use "hipster" derogatorily. They obviously have some inadequacy issues I don't want to deal with.

― Yerac, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:19 (nineteen years ago)

otm.

― lauren, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:26 (nineteen years ago)

otm otm.

― s1ocki, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:31 (nineteen years ago)

also lauren's "moving in on their territory" comment is very very true.

― s1ocki, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:32 (nineteen years ago)

I say this all while sitting in Williamsburg not working, eating my trader joe's beef jerky and having a drink before going to my guitar lesson.

― Yerac, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:34 (nineteen years ago)

Del Close to thread!

― kenan, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:35 (nineteen years ago)

How to Speak Hip

endless fun

― kenan, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:35 (nineteen years ago)

love that old nichols & may routine where they parody hepcat poetry. "Kools! Kools! Smoke Kools!" riffing on advertising and hipsterism in 1959! if i hadn't been such a fan of The Mechanical Bride (which came out in 1951) before i came upon the Baffler i probably would have been more impressed by thomas frank. he can be good in a you have been lied to preaching to the converted kinda way.

― scott seward, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:44 (nineteen years ago)

i'm just glad that the pressure to find at least one black guy willing to join yer ska revival band is off

hahahahahahahahahahahaha

hahahahhaha

Did I mention hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

</former ska revival band member>

― nickalicious, Friday, 16 March 2007 17:57 (nineteen years ago)

'hepcat' was really good at finding those guys. uncanny.

― tremendoid, Friday, 16 March 2007 18:21 (nineteen years ago)

We should draw a distinction between 50s beat/Mailerian hipsterism and the postmodern Letterman-esque version, which is a kind of channel-flipping detachment from all surrounding events and people. I'm not sure that the two share a direct line of evolution.

― fife, Friday, 16 March 2007 18:43 (nineteen years ago)

Somebody said that Mailer's hipster is more a figment of his imagination, or something he tried to will into being: a kind of violent but sly crook lurking in urban environments which he contrasted with beatniks, who are fairly mild middle-class dropouts. If Freud had replaced Marx in the 50s intelligentsia, hipsters were his bolsheviks, the murderous revolutionaries of the psyche as opposed to the menshevik bohemian-liberals.

― fife, Friday, 16 March 2007 18:53 (nineteen years ago)

i haven't read this thread but "hipsters", to me, are kids who are trying too hard. there's a difference between being hip and being a hipster.

― chicago kevin, Friday, 16 March 2007 18:54 (nineteen years ago)

They try 'too hard' because they care what they look like

ie:::Fashion

― maricopa john, Friday, 16 March 2007 19:38 (nineteen years ago)

Nah. You can care what you look like without caring how young/trendy it is. You can wear nice, pressed shirts and keep your shoes shined. That's not a hipster.

― kenan, Friday, 16 March 2007 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

My friend was born with a white eyebrow...everyone accuses her of trying too hard. With a genetic eyebrow deal.

― Abbott, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:18 (nineteen years ago)

i know someone who has eyebrows that curl up at the ends giving him a look similar to a demon or pixie or sprite or something with pointy curly eyebrows.

― chicago kevin, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:20 (nineteen years ago)

I guess there's a subtle line between dressing young and trendy and feeling the need to put on a costume before you leave the house. And you can sense the latter. Maybe it's a personality issue more than a fashion issue? You can look cool as hell and still look unpretentious.

― kenan, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

can people just not use the phrase "trying too hard" anymore

― s1ocki, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:41 (nineteen years ago)

You're pushin' too hard, uh-pushin' on me
You're pushin' too hard, uh-what you want me to be
You're pushin' too hard about the things you say
You're pushin' too hard every night and day

― kenan, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

ya! people should just sing that instead.

― s1ocki, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

― chaki, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

I hate that phrase too, slocki.

― Abbott, Friday, 16 March 2007 20:45 (nineteen years ago)

No i think theres a sense here that people are looking down on people who care about fashion, rather than wearing some good clothes. In a way that others care about music, rather than just having some good cds

― maricopa john, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:12 (nineteen years ago)

ie: subtext:people shouldn't spend too much time thinking about their outfits

― maricopa john, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:13 (nineteen years ago)

What hipster didn't start out overdoing it and then mellowing out? You should see pics of me in HS. Like sitting in giant piles of peers in a puppy pal evolved into sitting alone on a barstool w/a gimlet.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/igotabeefpastry/papes.jpg

Actually this is the closest I ever got to 'trying too hard' (and it should actually go on the secret goth shame thredd):

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/igotabeefpastry/BIGHEAD.jpg

Vainglorious me.

― Abbott, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

subtext: people should stop dressing funny

― milo z, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:17 (nineteen years ago)

"You can care what you look like without caring how young/trendy it is. You can wear nice, pressed shirts and keep your shoes shined. That's not a hipster."

it's not really fashion either, is it? i mean i'm sure you look good but you're missing the point.

― jed_, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:20 (nineteen years ago)

"can people just not use the phrase "trying too hard" anymore"

http://www.ilxor.com:8080/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=40&threadid=30843

― scott seward, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:22 (nineteen years ago)

I like when people dress funny, like the old woman I saw dressed like an anthropology prof. w/the flowy dress & billion turquoise necklaces...paired w/neon orange chuck taylors. i like the kids who dress too much, they add some levity to my world.

― Abbott, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:23 (nineteen years ago)

I like the sartorialist a ton but it everyone dressed like that what a dry world it would be. I'd rather eat ice than look at Vice, tho.

― Abbott, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:24 (nineteen years ago)

can people just not use the phrase "trying too hard" anymore

i'll stop saying it when i stop seeing it. restraint is key, rarely is anything any good when it's over the top.

― chicago kevin, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:26 (nineteen years ago)

But what attitude does it imply beyond dress sense and musical taste?

― fife, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:36 (nineteen years ago)

Slocky OTM. In my experience, the phrase "trying too hard" is generally employed by self-conscious killjoys.

― Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:38 (nineteen years ago)

to me it screams "i want to belong accept me accept accept me" and i don't dig that.

― chicago kevin, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:39 (nineteen years ago)

"I'm cooler than you"

not saying that's the INTENDED projection of attitude - sometimes yes sometimes no

― dmr, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

xpost to fife

― dmr, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:41 (nineteen years ago)

kevin mostly OTM

― milo z, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:46 (nineteen years ago)

oh man high school... that's where it's ok to try too hard, i guess, but man. I was like the girl in... what's that movie?... who keeps coming in wearing totally different "looks" (i.e. beehive)? Anyway, I was like that. I went from band geek in polo shirt to wannabe surfer to metal guy with boots.

Today I am dressed not unlike Kumar.

― kenan, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:46 (nineteen years ago)

I do look down on people who care about fashion. As a midwesterner, it's my birthright to do so.

― Granny Dainger, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:50 (nineteen years ago)

well, there's no shame in being a provincial boob, I don't guess, but there's no pride in it either.

― kenan, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:56 (nineteen years ago)

I like hipsters. hooray people who make an effort - however misguided, self-conscious, or obnoxious it may be - to make their lives strange or unusual or interesting.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 16 March 2007 22:03 (nineteen years ago)

*flees from shower of stones, rotten garbage*

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 16 March 2007 22:04 (nineteen years ago)

I do look down on people who care about fashion. As a midwesterner, it's my birthright to do so.

This might explain why midwestern thrift stores beat the shit out of anything on the coasts-- y'all throw away all of your cool articles of clothing! I mean, clothing designers from Japan fly into Cleveland all the time just to buy tons of shit at the thrift stores and then re-sell them to young hip types in Tokyo.

― the table is the table, Friday, 16 March 2007 22:11 (nineteen years ago)

That's where definitions begin to differ, I guess. 'Hipster' as I hear it used (and the people I see) really doesn't refer to someone who is making their life strange, unusual or interesting.

Hipster means they're taking their cues (fashion, music, etc.) from a certain pool of resources that just happens to be a different pool than Stripey-Shirt Frat Bro or Redneck Woman use.

― milo z, Friday, 16 March 2007 22:12 (nineteen years ago)

key word is "different", methinks

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 16 March 2007 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

if caring about fashion is wrong, i don't wanna be right.

― lauren, Friday, 16 March 2007 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

Redneck Women can also be quite entertaining/idiosyncratic in their own ways.

Fratboys I have an inherent aversion too, however.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 16 March 2007 22:18 (nineteen years ago)

chicago kevin otm upthread.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 16 March 2007 22:22 (nineteen years ago)

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