On Being a Hipster Is an Excellent and Wonderful Thing!
I guess where I disagree is that I've known people who were truly hip who were not having any fun with it. Their preference for minimal music and Japanese design, for example, went along with a complete shut down of the affections. Their taste was impeccable, in the sense of the roots of the word: without sin, and therefore not particularly human. They were the real deal, aesthetically, but it all seemed fairly joyless. So I think you can be a true hipster and also a known sourpuss. It's not only the poseurs.
I have this one friend who only likes music that is hip, and he likes it the most when it is hippest. And if the hip band in question goes on to do their greatest work later when they are less hip, he won't like it. And beyond that, everything he likes is kitsch. I've come to the conclusion that he is completely without taste, unless (as I hope) he's secretly listening to old Janis Ian records and weeping over them.
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On In Praise of High-Speed Overload
Thank you for adding some relish to my " panic-ridden informational hot-dog-eating contest" of a day!
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On Being a Hipster Is an Excellent and Wonderful Thing!
We're in complete and absolute agreement that joy and play are the way to go. I partially just wanted to use the phrase "known sourpuss" because it makes me happy. Stuart Murdoch's liner notes to the new Belle & Sebastian record, are a good example of the positive version of hipsterism you present. He's just being himself in the rarefied atmosphere that is his. Makes one feel good.