Slog Comments
There Is No Such Thing as Hipsturbia
3
softy city is when you take your vst's and soft synths and shit like that and run them through analog filters for color. i use moogerfoogers and some electro harmonix stuff, but there is a bunch of weird shit out there that can be used. if you get ubuntu studio linux you can use stringed instruments as a midi trigger without needing any special pickups too and its free. i was using that for a while.
5
No one will buy a (smaller, cheaper, more efficent better quality more reliable) car from Japan.
Scene at auto lot, circa 1973.
Scene at auto lot, circa 1973.
6
the article is bullshit. It's just about white 30- to 40-year-olds with kids moving to the suburbs. But oh no! they have tattoos and like yoga so it's some sort of cultural trend. Fuck that. It's the same shit that's been happening since 1946. But instead of a 'kiss the cook' apron and a bowling league it's a band t-shirt and Bikram yoga. yawn.
7
The idea that you can't be a hipster in the suburb strikes me as complete nonsense. Just because there aren't that many people to strut your hipster shit in front of doesn't mean you can't do it anyway. I've seen hipsters in goddamn Leavenworth. They're lonely, but they're still hipsters. I think they learn it from watching TV now or something.
8
I don't know, Charles...I think I'd rather live a 45-minute train ride away from Manhattan than right in the middle of downtown Detroit.
45 minutes away from something amazing is much better than 0 minutes from something awful, even it if is more "urban." Call me a bridge-and-tunnel a-hole, but I bet more people agree with me than not.
45 minutes away from something amazing is much better than 0 minutes from something awful, even it if is more "urban." Call me a bridge-and-tunnel a-hole, but I bet more people agree with me than not.
9
"It's like imagining dandies living on a farm. You can't be a dandy for chickens and pigs. The whole idea of the dandy is social and urban."
Charles, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you've never read Garden and Gun.
Charles, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you've never read Garden and Gun.
11
Charles is right. You might arrive in the suburbs hip, but you won't stay in style. You'll be wearing what you see on web sites and TV, not what's on the street in New York. Or you'll keep wearing the same thing for a decade then slide into generic Gap and Eddie Bauer comfort clothes, and nobody you know will notice either way.
12
the only relevant hipsters are artists; and at least half of the artists over 30 [around here] have something going on in the sticks or suburbs. I think your talking about posers.
14
I think in a sense they are moving to soft cities: "culturally attuned, sprawl-free New York river towns like Hastings, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington and Tarrytown." On the East Coast, "suburbs" are often small, self-contained towns that are walkable and connected to the urban areas with public transportation ("it is no longer unusual to (...) hear 30-somethings in statement sneakers discuss their latest film project as they wait for the 9:06 to Grand Central."). East Coast suburbs aren't necessarily the sprawling, car-demanding suburbs those in the West are familiar with. I think, given those conditions, it isn't such a betrayal to move out of the city and try to form a community not unlike the one you're leaving. You might just open some bumpkin minds in the process.
15
"the only relevant hipsters are artists"
Thanks for the laugh. Self-referential, pompous and full of shit: Hipster 101.
Thanks for the laugh. Self-referential, pompous and full of shit: Hipster 101.
17
Charles, you obviously haven't been to Evanston or Oak Park, two Chicago suburbs favored by hippies, liberals, hipsters, and others.
More importantly, where does someone on the left coast get off on making any pronouncement about what is and isn't sufficiently "urban."
More importantly, where does someone on the left coast get off on making any pronouncement about what is and isn't sufficiently "urban."
18
I lived in Williamsburg/Greenpoint and I found the scene fascinating and ripe for parody.
http://www.fuse-works.com/Nelson%20Bradl…
http://www.fuse-works.com/Nelson%20Bradl…
20
I was reading the NYT article but didn't really feel like finishing it. I'm pretty tired of people equating veganism, environmentalism, burning man culture and basically anything counter-cultural with hipsterdom. Hipster culture doesn't give a shit about any of these things and is not a counter-culture. Instead, well I've thought of it as (ok the definition is foggy, but here's mine) a pointless shallow dead end aimless narcissistic popularity-contest of a subculture that's appropriated little pieces of every rebellious culture I can think of in order to seem rebellious, mixed with the ironic nonsense and some stupid, newer trends. There's a difference between trying to be hip and making an effort to, say, shrink your ecological footprint.
Also, I don't think there's anything new about an up-and-coming generation embracing new values and moving into family homes, etc. Oh hell, I can only say so much because I can't say I'm so familiar with NY. Mainly Seattle, Portland, Olympia and the countercultures/subcultures that've been evolving and devolving for the last couple decades
Also, I don't think there's anything new about an up-and-coming generation embracing new values and moving into family homes, etc. Oh hell, I can only say so much because I can't say I'm so familiar with NY. Mainly Seattle, Portland, Olympia and the countercultures/subcultures that've been evolving and devolving for the last couple decades
21
"It's like imagining dandies living on a farm."
That's a gem, Charles - not only apt, but the mental image it evokes is hilarious. Best laugh I had all day.
That's a gem, Charles - not only apt, but the mental image it evokes is hilarious. Best laugh I had all day.
22
Pure, utter, complete nonsense. The NYC suburbs are full of TGI Fridays, Red Lobsters, Olive Gardens, Outbacks, Applebees, and IHoPs. In other words, not a panini, pad Thai or pierogi anywhere in sight. And, while one or another of those chain horror-stories might be amusing if one were sufficiently zonked, you can't stay that way all the time, and the local carabinieri are particularly unforgiving of alt.intoxication.
I grew up in New York's suburbia, in the vacant cultural and aesthetic wastelands of central Long Island, with exorbitant property taxes, idiotic land use, horrible City-hating suburban redneck-equivalents and no mass transit worth speaking of. I'm no hipster, but I can't imagine ever going back there.
I grew up in New York's suburbia, in the vacant cultural and aesthetic wastelands of central Long Island, with exorbitant property taxes, idiotic land use, horrible City-hating suburban redneck-equivalents and no mass transit worth speaking of. I'm no hipster, but I can't imagine ever going back there.
23
@22: Long Island is a shithole and is not the northern towns referred to in the story. You know nothing of what you speak.
24
You've assumed there's something more substantive about most hipsters than a six gun tattoo on the forearm and ironic glasses. Aren't they the majority now in some urban demographics? No surprise then that they'll do what most ordinary city people do, turn forty and put a KEXP sticker on a Prius in Shoreline.
25
All those DayGlo Freaks who used to paint their face,
They've joined the Human Race.
Some things never change.
that song was a big hit in 1976, but the idea was very old even then.
They've joined the Human Race.
Some things never change.
that song was a big hit in 1976, but the idea was very old even then.
26
Yeah, what a shock. The people called "hipsters" are just a privileged class, the aughts' yuppies. It's funny that you actually think these "hipsters" constituted a counterculture simple because they're into live shows and have tats/fixies. Ninety percent of them were always up-and-coming professionals. And now they're doing what professionals always do: abandoning their urbane pretensions and insulating themselves in relative safety and comfort. I honestly don't get what you think "hipsters" are. Just because the fashions are different doesn't mean they're a counterculture resisting middle America.
27
These people aren't moving to fucking Detroit because they can't find fucking jobs there.
The ones that do generally don't end up staying. Man, Charles, you need to do a stint in the rust belt.
The ones that do generally don't end up staying. Man, Charles, you need to do a stint in the rust belt.
28
I second #14. The flaw in this article is that it refers to these places as "suburbs" when they're actually self-contained cities on train lines that connect to NYC. And yes, some people do commute grok there. But what's been happening for the last few years is you're seeing young people who 20 years ago might have moved to Manhattan or to Brooklyn 10 years ago skipping the city in favor of these smaller cheaper and more supportive towns that now have thriving art and music scenes. I suppose you could call them soft if you want to. It's quite a real thing and I'm actually surprised its taken people so long to notice.
Charles - you of anybody must be familiar with the donut effect of city development. Outside the city is the next logical place to go.
Charles - you of anybody must be familiar with the donut effect of city development. Outside the city is the next logical place to go.
29
What @6 said. There's nothing new about this. Jesus, even Seinfeld said recently, "how can they be hipsters if there's so many of them?"
Also, Simpsons did it.
Also, Simpsons did it.
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