Henri

[Львица] just discovered these videos and, as we were just discussing existentialism in one of my classes today, I felt the need to share them. Brilliant... they are brilliant.

Hipster Shenanigans

This is [Львица] and I at Homecoming our senior year. I came across the photo on my computer the other day and I felt like randomly sharing it.

Yeah, we're destined to be hipsters, aren't we?

Look at this f@*#ing hipster

I may call myself a hipster (somewhat ironically). I may think I know hipsters. Oh no...no... I know nothing. THIS is a hipster.

*this is a terrified, high pitch scream that only dogs and gummy bears can hear*

Apparently this individual is also dying his hair blue. Usually I'm cool with hipsters. But this... this is too much. You hear me, [hahahaha SHUT UP]? Too much.

Not that you care. Not that anyone cares. Not that I even care. I just like to hear myself talk. And say hipster. It's a fun word, isn't it?

Hipster Time Traveler?

 So while trying to plan a Halloween costume and doing research for a writing project (*cough,* not school writing, fictional writing) I stumbled across this article: Time Traveler Caught in Museum Photo?

Here's the gist: apparently, a photo in a museum in British Columbia shows a guy at a bridge reopening in the 1940s who just... doesn't quite fit in.

Mr. Sunglasses there just kind of stands out once you see him.

However, the article does explain how his clothes aren't as anachronistic as we'd like to think. And that this could be a hoax. So all it really proves is that there were hipsters in the 1940s.

How about that.

However, there are apparently people out there who claim to be time travelers. Like this guy named Andrew Carlssin, who claimed to be from 2256. And a John Titor, who's name actually came up online amongst my searching (and whom I must find more about...) who's part of online forums discussing time travel. Which he claims he does.

Which leaves me two ideas:

1) Write about time traveling for my senior paper. Interview John Titor. Write a ground-breaking book about our fascination with the past and the future.

or...

2) Start blogging as a time traveler. Become famous. Write a ground-breaking book about our fascination with the past and the future.

Clearly I'm not going to do #2, as I just gave it away. And it would be dishonest. But regardless, this is something I'm going to have to look into more. I don't care if it's fake; it's a cultural phenomenon, and I'm intrigued. Besides, deep deep down we all know I just want to work for X Files or Doctor Who/ Torchwood or something. And this is as close as I'm going to get.

So, onwards! Time for me to dive into some interweb forums and start perusing the unexplainable. And finding weird shit. Lots and lots of weird shit.

Kickin' Back With the K

To further my weird artistic tendencies, I've volunteered to work at Radio K, the campus radio station. Not sure what to expect, I rode the freight elevator up to the 6th floor of the theater building where station is located. The moment I walked in, I was surrounded by kind, smiling hipsters. Okay, I can't guarantee they were hipsters, but the seemed to be from that strain of college student. I got a tour from  the guy who I'd emailed about volunteering, talked to the music director, and found myself recording short ads to be aired on the radio. Apparently, I read like a natural. And my Hoosier accent is detectable when I say "darling."

Volunteering was the BEST IDEA EVER. Less than an hour there, and I'm already loving it. It's like being in the movie Pirate Radio (and if you haven't seen this movie, WATCH IT). They have a great program called Culture Queue that I'd love to write for or report on. I can see myself now, becoming just like Studs Terkel... SWEET :D

Really, I joined because I NEED to find something on campus to get involved in. The CSCL association doesn't meet that often and there's just too many psych majors to feel like I belong over there. This is the perfect place to mix my three passions: music, culture, and under-appreciated art forms (in this case, college radio). Of course, it's a resume booster, which is always a plus. Especially due to another hair-brained idea that's returned to me. But more about that later.

Hipster Attack

So within the span of five minutes this morning, I saw two stories related to hipsters. One from my father: Hipsters are Abandoning Obama. Interesting. Am I right in seeing that this article seems to be saying that hipsters are abandoning Obama because he's "too mainstream?" Or is that my personal judgment of hipsters coming in? (even though I sort of claim to be one... ah, the paradox that is my life)

The other story I saw prior to this article on, where else, Facebook, from [manly-metro]: Minnesota named 'Most Hipster State in the US', to which [manly-metro] commented on his link:
"FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The vibe I was getting was that he really doesn't like hipsters. Especially when one girl commented "*proud* :p" and he called her "bad" for saying that. Right... Okay, [manly-metro], here's one for you: would you rather be known as the most hipsters state in the US or the state that elected A PRO WRESTLER as governor? Oh, you think that's manly? How about the state that gave us MICHELE BACHMAN? I'm guessing you don't like her much. Many college students don't. But may I show you what some people think of hipsters and other college students? This is a comment from the article about hipsters abandoning Obama:


They are what Glenn [Glenn Beck I would assume... ah, the things I could blog about him...] called “Useful Idiots” that were misled by their college professors into thinking that progressive-humanism is glamorous and will do good for all with communist/marxist skewed delusional end result thats not reality!!! Americans in their 40′s and older have seen the evil and impoverishing effects in their reality that has been hidden from these sheltered punks!!! The look on their face when they find out they‘ve been deceived would be quite satisfying if we weren’t all in misery with them! Sometimes I believe that God is going to give us a good as* kicking so that us free Americans can see how blessed we have been and to teach us a lesson we won’t forget for generations!!!

Things I'm still right about, Part 2

1) One should not presume that, when I met [no-Mr-Darcy] on a trip with a different college, that leaving my campus was the key to meeting a guy. Saying something along the lines of, "See, all you had to do was get away from school" (not the exact words; I don't recall exactly what she said) when the person in question goes to a school of less than 2,000 and I attend a school of over 60,000 seems a bit odd. Perhaps said individual (okay, okay, so it's X) simply meant that it's easier to meet people in a smaller group. I doubt that's what she meant - she always complained how all the guys at her school were the same. Considering I had just been talking about an embarrassing crush I had at school on someone several years older than me a few days prior to this conversation and X seems to think I have an authority figure complex, it seems the implication fell more around the lines of "When you're at school, you fall for the same type of guy. You did it in high school, you did it this year. You're not going to find a guy when you're in school, because you have an authority complex. But this is an abroad trip - you're not in school mode. However, I did awkwardly warn you that the male professor on this trip is a slut and will continue to mention it at random opportune times, just in case you got any ideas. So go for someone your own age for once, even though I'm totally not going to be supportive later."

Okay, okay, so I'm being stupid and bitter about this and reading WAY too much into one little thing she said. But the way she said this was... not exactly blase. No idea why this conversation popped into my head today. It just did and I suddenly remembered how offended I was by it. Maybe this is something I am not right about, but whatever. I am right in thinking that I feel much better after venting this :P

2) I'm not convinced that J. J. Rousseau is a hipster. Have you ever met a hipster who just dumped his kids off in an orphanage and never looked back? And who is sexist? I thought hipsters were quite a bit more socially liberal than that. I also cannot see Rousseau on a bike. End of story.

3) While Rousseau is not a hipster, I'm pretty sure this guy is:

Hipster rules to live by

This is great - finally, 10 commandments for a hipster lifestyle. But where is the line between hipsters and people like me (am I a faux hipster? A hipster wanna-be? Just a college student? Probably: maybe, no, yes) Is it sort of like the "all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares" thing? But does that make hipsters squares or rectangles? And what sort of repercussions am I going to get for calling hipsters "square?" Goddammit!

http://www.hipsteric.com/read/10hipsterlaws/

Hipsters

Considering I only learned about the phenomenon of hipsters last semester (how exactly I never noticed them before is a mystery to me) I've developed a quite an interest in their lifestyle.
Partly because of Hipster Hitler, which I found out about in one of my classes, and was simultaneously offended and humored. Then my roommates called one of our acquaintances from high school a hipster and he went on Urban Dictionary.com to find out the definition. He has now embraced full hipster-ism and is going out of his way to prove he is one, by constantly talking about music and romance and shit.

Quite honestly, I still don't know what a hipster is, exactly. It's a bit hard to define (a circulating reference, as we called it in the same class where I learned about Hipster Hitler). However, whenever I see someone in thick glasses and a woolly sweater in a cafe, I am suddenly cheered up. I think there's a lot of hipsters in Cultural Studies, so maybe that's why. Also, they just look retro and like they don't give a crap, which is oddly refreshing. Of course, I've never gotten into an argument with someone who considers themselves a hipster, so take that with a grain of salt. But I feel like I could so easily become a hipster - wear the tight pants, get some retro sneakers. I already hang out in cafes all the time, and I listen to random-ass music (some that apparently is actually popular with hipsters). On the down side, "Look at that f@cking hipster" is pretty funny to me, and I can't lie that I have no understanding of what sort of philosophy or whatever a hipster has. Truly, I'm not hipster material. They'd think me to mainstream and totally shun me.

But they are everywhere. On campus, on TV, on YouTube (check out Arcade Fire Hipster Attack - it's awesome). And I don't know when this happened. Maybe hipster just wasn't a platform of expression in high school (or at least my high school - we had emo instead). But I kind of like this whole vibe. A snarky attitude towards the 50s (and everything in general) plus some cool music and interesting fashion choices - yeah, I can deal with this. Unless they all become like my acquaintance who became a hipster because of Urban Dictionary. Then I will truly have to withdrawal my support of hipster-ism. Because then hipsters would just be lame. But I have hope - maybe they'll be like the beatniks of the 1950s. And if they aren't... well, I'll save my judgment for something else I actually dislike. Like Jersey Shore.

Earl Grey Tea

Okay, so this isn't actually about my love for Earl Grey Tea, but it could be as I have a deep, deep love of this English-y beverage. However, while sitting in a cafe today, enjoying said tea, it hit me how much I fricken love cafes.

Really, I do. My knowledge of their history is rather scarce - something to do with France, no doubt, as my high school French class taught me. But whoever decided that a chic little place with cool music and tasty pastries should be created so that overstressed peoples (such as college students and business employees) could stop in to have a tasty beverage and perhaps discuss the meaning of life, is truly my hero. Seriously. I have had two of the busiest weeks yet this year; last week being a mad race looking at possible apartments only to have our dreams shattered, glued back together, shattered again, then oddly resurrected. I was also preparing for a debate in a science and humanities class, stop trying to diagnose myself with every psychological disorder I read about in Abnormal Psych, and trying to keep from freaking out about the fact that I speak Italian just about as well as Brad Pitt in Inglorious Basterds (though without the fun Tennessee accent). Then this week, it hit me that Valentine's Day is coming up and I was thrown into a deep melancholy (for reasons which I will discuss elsewhere) from which I only emerged through joy of realizing that next year I will actually be living in a sweet 1940s hotel renovated into apartments (the outcome of all this very complicated and totally irrelevant at the moment) and through the delight of discussing exorcisms with one of my professors. Yes, exorcisms made me happy - deeply twisted, I know. But it's been one of those weeks. So a reprieve in a Dinkytown cafe while discussing why Bernard Marx from Brave New World is pretty whiney was sorely needed.

Perhaps it's the sort of people who are drawn to cafes that I like too. Hipsters may be a mystery to me, but there's something about those large-rimmed glasses and "that's so mainstream" cynicism that makes me feel oddly warm and fuzzy. I really need to spend more time away from caffeine, but honestly - where else can scribble away and stare off into space without being stared at as a total freak? There's a reason why writers hang out in these environments (the stimulants of coffee and sugar being, of course, an obvious great addition). I feel at comfortable there, like it's some sort of strange extension of the living space I've always wanted to have (with rough brick walls and fun lighting techniques). Of course, then there's the statistic I was given as to how the number one job for Cultural Studies majors involves being employed at a cafe. I wonder why... :)