that thing white ppl do when they disparage 'white ppl'

as carles said, these affectations are not any more or less real than the crap on the walls at tgi fridays

fwiw, I'd place carles much closer to zappa on the spectrum of sharp social critique than to dostoevsky

i love and admire affluent white ppl

― no (Lamp), Thursday, April 23, 2015 4:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is the most contconf thing anyone could possibly say

assuming that Lamp is actually a broke to middle class young person who has artistic affectations that didn't pan out into his career

http://i.bookfi.org/covers/444000/fab5c30bfdd3f96264700011b61e0f78-d.jpg

The places opening near me that are the exact beating heart of CC are the ones that flourish and are loved by everyone, Black long-term owners and non-Black gentrifiers. The stores & restaurants that slightly miss the aesthetic or seem cheap or tacky around the edges in any way end up out of business in under 18 mos.

In practice this means white-owned businesses that can afford to hire marketing consultants and designers succeed but the Black-owned or locally owned ones don't, and probably take someone's savings with them when they fold.

It's awful. But I'm not going to lie, the aesthetic is visually verrrrry pretty, and if I could eat flour I would be all the fuck over those French pastries.

bend over backwards for these guys, Carlos and carles, but none of this is interesting

― neetsooh ebebay (wins), Friday, April 24, 2015 1:32 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Carlos : carles :: miley : hannah montana

sorry wins but I kind of find it interesting :/

i'd rather read carles than most of you jokers

surprise cameo appearance by patron sailor punctuates the point

Yeah I win

jk idk who patron sailor is

ilx royalty imo

seems like ppl are interested in talking about this super uninteresting subject that everyone already knew all about

hey man, riding for carles is our thing. aren't you supposed to be defending gawker headline writers somewhere? ;)

fwiw here's why i found it interesting: i don't think I'm a "CC person" although obv that's an authentic identity that no one really has, it's all a matter of degrees ... but i'm prob less CC than most...

nonetheless, day to day I don't really think about why i choose the rustic looking bar / grill over the one that looks a little more historically 'commercial' across the street, it just feels like a more 'valuable experience,' and i'm sure if i stopped & thought "wait...is it actually?" i might think hey that's silly! but i don't, bc i'm a busy guy with shit to do

and i think he did kinda hit on a ~thing~ here, a feeling that a lot of consumer culture is v 'disposable' in the sense that it's made cheaply and doesn't last, and i hadn't given it much thought before but he ID'd it simply & articulated it in a way that now seems super obvious but when I was first reading hadn't occurred to me to connect w/ the overall impulse w/in myself...like of course i'd complained about fancy cocktail spots with exposed brick before, but i was just bitching about a fad, whereas he's looking at what the reasons are for the fad taking the shape it takes

it's not so much that it's brilliant, but i appreciate the way i do, idk, a movie review or something, oh that made me think a bit w/out having to do too much heavy lifting, a mildly positive internet experience, filter out the misogynist bullshit of his Persona, whatever, I give it a solid B

I wonder if there's going to be a lot of nice gear in closets for eternity after the "man, I want some tailor-made rustic pants that last ~forever~" sensibility is replaced by a new aesthetic identity

i forgot to finish this thought:

a feeling that a lot of consumer culture is v 'disposable' in the sense that it's made cheaply and doesn't last, and that a lot of this stuff is marketed as the 'solution' to it,

again obv this is not a new mechanism at all, capitalism can do anything, wow undergrad mind blown, but observing it as it happens is a valuable service

I wonder if there's going to be a lot of nice gear in closets for eternity after the "man, I want some tailor-made rustic pants that last ~forever~" sensibility is replaced by a new aesthetic identity

― ultimate american sock (mh), Friday, April 24, 2015 3:34 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol. it is funny that rustic pants becomes a look though that is then made w/ shoddier material

if you have a closet you can put stuff in there for about 20 years and then drag it out and sell it to kids who are really into that time period

Line-ups at brunch joints is a sign that the service is slow, not that the food is good. Nevertheless many restaurants these days do their best to manufacture this line-up thing as part of their "experience". It's stupid but people like it for some reason. Slow service and long waiting times are a way of filtering out people with kids I guess.

I like things that actually last what is wrong with me

I think it was meant line-ups as in a wait to get a table, not a buffet line

a way of filtering out people with kids I guess

haha this is *exactly* what it is imo, have often thought this

is this the part of the thread where I recount the shitty service my child received at one of these coffee shops (they refused to give her a cup with a lid, instead insisting on serving her her hot chocolate in a giant soup bowl that was bigger than her face)

I think you are confident enough in your personal aesthetics *cough old* that you aren't really into replacing things, Οὖτις! Which is a good thing, really.

the coffee mug soup bowl thing is real

I will say I didn't expect Dosteovsky popping up in this thread

I am totally a coughing old guy, it's true

we didn't go back to that coffee shop. funnily enough, the building it is currently in used to be inhabited by actual artist friends of mine over a decade ago, whose entire rustic/industrial aesthetic (they had high ceilings and a swing on a giant chain, exposed brick, a wooden loft/bed etc.) has now been passed down to the next generation of obnoxious nouveau riche techie jerkoffs.

the coffee mug soup bowl thing is real

― ultimate american sock (mh), Friday, April 24, 2015 4:41 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what about u can't get a cup at all it is a mason jar hah!

I feel like there's a stretch of time where people /have/ to buy different clothes post-childhood because they're changing life roles (college, job interviews, career building) or in a state of flux (lose baby fat, gain weight when they go off to college or when they get their first desk job, get all fit from joining a fitness cult) that tapers off once you hit a certain age. Then you actually wear out clothes, or wonder why your shirt has a hole in it when you just got it, and then realize you bought it seven years ago.

I think there is an underlying theme of 'trading up' whenever consuming in the USA and it is not strictly limited to any class. This phenomenon most blatantly displayed in unwavering working class support for tax cuts for the rich.

I am trying to block out the fact I had a cocktail the other night that may have been served in a tiny canning jar

it also had a beet peppercorn shrub instead of sweet vermouth but I'll overlook that for now

a way of filtering out people with kids I guess

and they also have ways of getting rid of tv hosts:

http://www.wkamaubell.com/2015/01/happy-birthday-have-some-racism-from-elmwood-cafe/

shakey mo what are things that you think are important/interesting to talk about?

feel like 'how ppl present themselves' and 'consumer aesthetics' are genuinely vital things to think about that limning these can reveal important ideas about how ppl see themselves/the world about the ways in which value is assigned/carried &c

not sure if carles is that good at this and i imagine treeship has already eloquently defended him on this point but it feels worth reiterating

'contempo conformo' is both a real aesthetic and a 'fake' one. its old in its form but new(ish) in its particulars. i managed to skim carles piece and i thought some things about it. i like how imitable his style is though and how particularly suited it is to this dialogue

Line-ups at brunch joints is a sign that the service is slow, not that the food is good

lol @ this - post effortlessly summarizing why yuppie trash should all be euthanized

Then you actually wear out clothes, or wonder why your shirt has a hole in it when you just got it, and then realize you bought it seven years ago.

― ultimate american sock (mh), Friday, April 24, 2015 4:47 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is true and deeply depressing. i am struggling with this right now. i never had clothes actually fall apart on me before. literally disintegrate. i don't think contemp-conformo fashion can help me tho.

I really struggled with buying new pants thinking I was getting fat, but really they're like one inch larger than the ones I've worn for a decade. lol.

a way of filtering out people with kids I guess

haha this is *exactly* what it is imo, have often thought this

― Οὖτις, Friday, April 24, 2015 8:40 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, yes there is a craft beer bar w/ simple dishes prepared with fresh ingredients or whatever the thing is now that "welcomes children" (because it's in a heavily breederful neighborhood) but does not have high chairs.

I think I'm too tacky/gross to really be representative of the CC aesthetic on a personal level but I'm definitely a sucker for a cocktail in a mason jar and like, house-made pickles so I'm definitely part of the problem.

Edison light bulbs make me IA, though.

yah they are bad

Jars are cool, glass is good, we know how plastic containers leak cancer, so that's just good sense.

shakey mo what are things that you think are important/interesting to talk about?

based on recent posting habits: national energy policy, obscure Bee Gees solo albums, racist policing practices, the amusing idiocy of David Brooks

but seriously yeah I am just not engaged by lifestyle porn critiques/analysis, it's all just window-dressing for our deeply fucked capitalist consumer culture. And when it comes to capitalist consumer culture I'm more interested in hoos-style "how do we get out of this mess" sorta approaches than the "lookit these assholes" approach.

xp

Being poor is actually kinda good in a lot of ways, in light of this sort of thing

My hot take is, being poor is actually bad

Overall, yeah. But it frees you from this kinda useless wasted thinking

when i was in college i drank out of jars all the time (it was just what we used) but now i am older and i guess my mouth doesn't work as good? i try to drink from a jar and the brim is too wide and stuff just sort of sloshes out around the edges onto my face like a toddler.

a way of filtering out people with kids I guess

― Is It Any Wonder I'm Not the (President Keyes), Friday, 24 April 2015 20:49 (Yesterday) Permalink

legitimately curious what made you post this link. not that you shouldn't have & I thank you for it, hadn't seen before
(btw I was a fool to read the comments)

Just thank god they got rid of coffee shops that served hot coffee in pint glasses. So you had to, like, hold it with a napkin if you didn't want to burn your hand. WHITE PEOPLE AMIRITE?