Saturday, Loved One and I had our annual Halloween Party with the grand-kids. Duckie had the idea 10 years ago, and it evolved to a tradition.
This year, 13-year-old Elaine came in a black shirt and pants, a pink cape and a black hat. The kind Justin Timberlake wears in his “Suit and Tie” video
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsUsVbTj2AY
That song makes me think he’s ready to have children. Plus, I like the line that goes something like, “so thick, now I know why they call it a fattie.” — I could love a man like that, and he can dance, too.
Ahhh… I digress.
Back to my original train of thought.
“What are you?” I said to Elaine.
“A hipster.”
“What’s a hipster?”
“I dunno,” she said, flipping her long blond hair back and rolling her eyes back to search her brain for some way to explain the obvious to someone who doesn’t have a clue.
The very next day, I saw a billboard advertising a radio station advertising hip, hippie and hipster music. Three pairs of eyeglasses, with a sketched artist. I recognized the one in the middle as John Lennon. I think the first one was Maynard G. Krebs.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byg9gMQhqC8
Hmmm… The sign gave me some clues. Maybe I should do some research, i.e. search the urban dictionary, or Wikipedia or something.
From dictionary.com:
a person, especially during the 1950s, characterized by a particularly strong sense of alienation from most established social activities and relationships.
That’d be Maynard.
Wait. There’s more. From Urban dictionary:
An unwashed and ungroomed person who hates corporations and everything mainstream, yet still buys Apple products.
From Wikipedia:
In a Huffington Post article entitled “Who’s a Hipster?”, Julia Plevin argues that the “definition of ‘hipster’ remains opaque to anyone outside this self-proclaiming, highly-selective circle.” In Rob Horning’s April 2009 article “The Death of the Hipster” in PopMatters, he states that the hipster might be the “embodiment of postmodernism as a spent force, revealing what happens when pastiche and irony exhaust themselves as aesthetics.” In a New York Times editorial, Mark Greif states that the much-cited difficulty in analyzing the term stems from the fact that any attempt to do so provokes universal anxiety, since it “calls everyone’s bluff”.
Hipsters have a certain way of dressing: skinny jeans, canvas shoes, label clothes bought in non-label stores, ironic t-shirts and ironic mustaches.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzYHHl24iDo
Okay then. I understand why Elaine searched her brain and ended with “dunno.”
It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
And who would’ve thought… it figures —Alanis Morissette
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