Well it seems I am not the only one who has noticed a pattern in what I had called "indie movie girls."
For anyone not wanting to click on the second link, I will rehash what I said more or less.
Indie Movie Girls are the fun loving girls who seem cute and eccentric but have some fundamental personality flaw. This flaw is often hidden by the antics but is seen when the antics stop working on the plucky boys they fall in love with. They are never able to ever fully get over their problems, but always are able to face them with more confidence or something... They are named as such because they seem to appear mostly in (if not originating in) what are usually seen as indie films and movies hipsters cry during. They do not exist in real life because they would be too annoying to have around, no matter how attractive they might seem.
Tonight I watched the movie Charlie Bartlett whose boy lead made me see that there is a male equivalent.
I would like to call him the Unlikely School Hero Boy. The moniker comes from where most of these personalities show up. This does not mean that they all have to be in a school setting, but they usually require a large set of peers who love them and see them as a source of guidance for some reason. Farris Bueller is a great example because we never see him actually interact with anyone past two Freshmen yet somehow his popularity is seen as almost a revolutionary social movement.
It is easy to believe this too because these USHBs are all very friendly and somehow are able to say just the right things to everyone. They never fit into any one click, but are certainly the products of white semi-affluent suburbanites. This means they always have wardrobes that make them look like political science kids and access to most anything they want.
Unlike the boys of IMGs, USHBs might go to shrinks, but don't ever need them. They are usually just sent there by their parents who are often overprotective and underinvolved. While there might be some central issue that has caused this distance to become cold, it is also the detachment they need to become the charming people they are. If this conflict between USHB and parent becomes important to the story some how the relationship will rarely change, but the USHB will feel he has grown somehow as a person.
The USHB almost always gets some kind of girlfriend. These girls are usually pretty, smart, likable, and only really seem to have the one purpose in life to be the USHB's arm candy. Even when they do stupid public stunts that would normally embarrass normal girls these girls only giggle at him for being so lovable.
Beyond the two I mention the other place to look for examples of these characters are in Wes Anderson films, any of them. He alone has made them his bread and butter. Even Bill Murry in Life Aquatic is one of these, just a bit later in life.
The thing that made me unable to really see USHBs for so long was my desire to be one. While superheros will always be seen as the adolescent male fantasy classic, I think the USHBs are actually what most adolescent males fantasize about being. Power fantasies are important, but most guys would probably much rather just be able to be seen as super cool by his peers for doing something out of the ordinary. This is a bit more subtle, but the USHB really has everything a high school boy wants to be.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Killing Yourself to Live 85% of a True Story
I read Chuck Klosterman's books for two reasons. The first is that I feel like I end up writing wonderfully self-indulgent books, but knowing Klosterman exists I can feel like I might be able to be successful at it someday. Hopefully this will not show up too much in my Honors Thesis I am currently working on.
The second reason is my voyeuristic need to feel connected to someone. I think that this is the way most people feel about Britney Spears or Brad Pitt. It is a desire to reach out to someone who seems like you (or like you want to be) but successful. It would be safe to say that I don't want to be like Klosterman, but I relate to some of the confusing thoughts he is somehow willing to share with the world.
As a book about how death affects rock stars this book fails. But if you consider that as just the setting for one guy trying to understand why he does anything in life then it becomes about everyone.
Yes, this book once again proves that Klosterman is an asshole. He makes that clear just by writing the book. Also, yes, this book is a bit self indulgent at times. Not everyone will find Klosterman's ramblings about why he reads or loves KISS to be important. Oh, and yes, the way he talks about Elvis should insult you.
I relate to Klosterman. My thoughts are often just as rambling, confusing, depressing, and fun. I would like to think everyone's thoughts are, and that's why I enjoy him.
The second reason is my voyeuristic need to feel connected to someone. I think that this is the way most people feel about Britney Spears or Brad Pitt. It is a desire to reach out to someone who seems like you (or like you want to be) but successful. It would be safe to say that I don't want to be like Klosterman, but I relate to some of the confusing thoughts he is somehow willing to share with the world.
As a book about how death affects rock stars this book fails. But if you consider that as just the setting for one guy trying to understand why he does anything in life then it becomes about everyone.
Yes, this book once again proves that Klosterman is an asshole. He makes that clear just by writing the book. Also, yes, this book is a bit self indulgent at times. Not everyone will find Klosterman's ramblings about why he reads or loves KISS to be important. Oh, and yes, the way he talks about Elvis should insult you.
I relate to Klosterman. My thoughts are often just as rambling, confusing, depressing, and fun. I would like to think everyone's thoughts are, and that's why I enjoy him.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Rilo Kiley Concert @ the Greek Theater in LA
The Greek Theater is an awesome little outdoor stage. I am just baffled as to how it got clearence to be built right next to the nice little residential area it is next to. I recomend that you get there early for parking that doesn't leave you trapped in the stacks of cars they create. To bad very few people seem to have taken this advice for this concert.
The opening acts were awesome and confusing at the same time. First up was a guy named Benji Hughes. If The Dude from The Big Labowski was an awesome lounge singer who could make any girl fall in love with him then he would be Benji. Benji's songs and banter on stage proved to me that in life one might realy be able to be a functioning hippie-ster.
Benji's follow-up, Lavender Diamond, then proved to me that John Hughes-esque characters do exist and are charming in real life. The lead singer was so cute and awkward that even with she hit that awesome high pitched singing that reminded one guy behind me of the Fifth Element, she still rocked.
About this time people seem to start falling in. Now I had already felt like I was out of my element with the number of hipsters surounding me, but by the time LD was done I felt like I was at the small liberal college that all my pretentious friends went to. Every girl there, I know I could have fallen in love with. None of them were particularly attractive, it is just that they all seemed to fit with the sort of "indie-girl" look that makes me think they are in the know in some way. The idea of Rilo Kiley attracting this type of crowd is obvious now but never occured to me before.
Just as I finally got my first wiff of pot smoke RK came on stage. The boys looked sharp and Jenny Lewis looked like the girl every girl in the audience wanted to be. They played a good mix of there newest stuff with plenty of their fan favorates, saving Potions for Foxes for last. Too bad they played it too soon.
If you get a chance to go to any of these people's concerts you totally should. They are very enjoyable.
P.S. I was kind of sad to see that Hannah and I didn't make the cut for the YouTellConcerts.com video review of the show.
The opening acts were awesome and confusing at the same time. First up was a guy named Benji Hughes. If The Dude from The Big Labowski was an awesome lounge singer who could make any girl fall in love with him then he would be Benji. Benji's songs and banter on stage proved to me that in life one might realy be able to be a functioning hippie-ster.
Benji's follow-up, Lavender Diamond, then proved to me that John Hughes-esque characters do exist and are charming in real life. The lead singer was so cute and awkward that even with she hit that awesome high pitched singing that reminded one guy behind me of the Fifth Element, she still rocked.
About this time people seem to start falling in. Now I had already felt like I was out of my element with the number of hipsters surounding me, but by the time LD was done I felt like I was at the small liberal college that all my pretentious friends went to. Every girl there, I know I could have fallen in love with. None of them were particularly attractive, it is just that they all seemed to fit with the sort of "indie-girl" look that makes me think they are in the know in some way. The idea of Rilo Kiley attracting this type of crowd is obvious now but never occured to me before.
Just as I finally got my first wiff of pot smoke RK came on stage. The boys looked sharp and Jenny Lewis looked like the girl every girl in the audience wanted to be. They played a good mix of there newest stuff with plenty of their fan favorates, saving Potions for Foxes for last. Too bad they played it too soon.
If you get a chance to go to any of these people's concerts you totally should. They are very enjoyable.
P.S. I was kind of sad to see that Hannah and I didn't make the cut for the YouTellConcerts.com video review of the show.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Head Rush
Hopefully now I can get rid of my other blogs so that this one can stand up as mine!
Anyway, I have decided that LA is a nice city. I am sure that if I really got down to it Axl Rose might be right in that it is a jungle, but so far it seems less than sinister.
Anyway, I have decided that LA is a nice city. I am sure that if I really got down to it Axl Rose might be right in that it is a jungle, but so far it seems less than sinister.
Fargo Rock City
I read Sex, Drugs, and Coco Puffs about three months ago and found that it is more than just the bit of cultural commentary that I expected. It is a book full of witty, almost ramblings that really do work best when being read after midnight. To me though, the best part of the book was the way in which Chuck Klosterman provided bits of his experience, not as factual experiences, but more like feelings of the past. I honestly wish I could have been his friend getting drunk watching The Real World with him back in the day.
In the hope of finding more of this companionship I went to his previous work Fargo Rock City. Here he seems to be out to prove something that I had no idea was a real problem. People think heavy metal from the pre-grunge era is stupid. He then unfolds an argument that seems to be saying, "Yeah, so what?" In this he is successful. His point is not to prove that the music he grew up with is stupid so much as it is to say that music doesn't have to mean anything as long as it is meaningful to someone who hears it. This was glam metal.
I am not really a metalhead, but I surprisingly recognized most of the bands and songs he talks about within this book. While at first it might seem like he didn't do that much research into the metal scene for the book, really he only wanted to talk about the music that touched him. This is why you cannot read this as a history of the genre so much as one guy's look back on his life and how music affected it.
In the hope of finding more of this companionship I went to his previous work Fargo Rock City. Here he seems to be out to prove something that I had no idea was a real problem. People think heavy metal from the pre-grunge era is stupid. He then unfolds an argument that seems to be saying, "Yeah, so what?" In this he is successful. His point is not to prove that the music he grew up with is stupid so much as it is to say that music doesn't have to mean anything as long as it is meaningful to someone who hears it. This was glam metal.
I am not really a metalhead, but I surprisingly recognized most of the bands and songs he talks about within this book. While at first it might seem like he didn't do that much research into the metal scene for the book, really he only wanted to talk about the music that touched him. This is why you cannot read this as a history of the genre so much as one guy's look back on his life and how music affected it.
Speed Racer
The only time I was ever unsure about this movie was when I first heard about it. At that time all I could think was "who the hell wants to see a movie based on that old cartoon?" It turns out that most everyone should.
I can't say that I have ever really watched the old cartoon, but I have seen enough to know why some people really love it. It is full of fun characters, wacky hi jinx, and enough feel-good moments that the show has soul. And from what I remember the attempts to remake it were pretty much lame. Why should a live action remake be any different?
Well from the first moment I started seeing stills though, I knew it was going to be awesome. The way the everything looked so shinny. And then there were a few promos that showed the high speeds. This was going to prove to be eye candy.
It was more like cocaine for your eyes! Everything was so bright and colorful that by the time you leave the theater you expect the rest of the world should look just like that. While I could do nothing
While I never had the child's desire to jump up and fight with the people on TV, I know why many of my friends did. This movie is pretty much what every kid wants to grow up to be. We all want to be successful, famous, and sticking it to the man. Of course having a loving family and a cute, but confident, girlfriend helps too.
All together you are only going to enjoy this movie if you like anime, video games, and that old feeling of being a kid.
I can't say that I have ever really watched the old cartoon, but I have seen enough to know why some people really love it. It is full of fun characters, wacky hi jinx, and enough feel-good moments that the show has soul. And from what I remember the attempts to remake it were pretty much lame. Why should a live action remake be any different?
Well from the first moment I started seeing stills though, I knew it was going to be awesome. The way the everything looked so shinny. And then there were a few promos that showed the high speeds. This was going to prove to be eye candy.
It was more like cocaine for your eyes! Everything was so bright and colorful that by the time you leave the theater you expect the rest of the world should look just like that. While I could do nothing
While I never had the child's desire to jump up and fight with the people on TV, I know why many of my friends did. This movie is pretty much what every kid wants to grow up to be. We all want to be successful, famous, and sticking it to the man. Of course having a loving family and a cute, but confident, girlfriend helps too.
All together you are only going to enjoy this movie if you like anime, video games, and that old feeling of being a kid.
In Bruges
I had only see the trailers for this movie, but I took a chance with it this weekend. All to often this method of movie going leads to anguish, but not this time thankfully.
In Bruges is about two hitmen who are laying low in the small Belgian town of, you guessed it, Bruges. From here we find that the younger more wound up one, played by Colin Farrell, who is amazingly the least clichéd Irish actor, has mistakenly killed a kid. Soon his partner is told to kill him, but can't bring himself to even let Colin off himself. And the conflict between them and their boss drives the rest of the movie.
This plot is pretty simple, but what makes the movie so great are all the supporting characters. You have Chloe, the local dealer and hottie; Eric, the local punk; and Jimmy, the American midget actor. Most movies would only be able to make you see each of this characters in detail by destroying the plot's flow, here the plot is almost about the characters.
Along with great characters, the writing is amazing as well. It feels like In Bruges was written by Quentin Tarantino and Samuel Beckett over a few pints of bitters. As Colin, his partner, and Jimmy (along with a bunch of whores) are sitting in a nice hotel doing lines of coke (stolen from the local hottie), a discussion begins on the inevitable war between the whites and blacks. This comes after a number of scenes in which Colin muses over the idea of the Afterlife. Alone each scene seems pretty bland, but as this odd unapologetic debauchery is mixed with the need for peace and forgiveness you begin to wonder if Bruges is heaven, limbo, or worse.
In Bruges is about two hitmen who are laying low in the small Belgian town of, you guessed it, Bruges. From here we find that the younger more wound up one, played by Colin Farrell, who is amazingly the least clichéd Irish actor, has mistakenly killed a kid. Soon his partner is told to kill him, but can't bring himself to even let Colin off himself. And the conflict between them and their boss drives the rest of the movie.
This plot is pretty simple, but what makes the movie so great are all the supporting characters. You have Chloe, the local dealer and hottie; Eric, the local punk; and Jimmy, the American midget actor. Most movies would only be able to make you see each of this characters in detail by destroying the plot's flow, here the plot is almost about the characters.
Along with great characters, the writing is amazing as well. It feels like In Bruges was written by Quentin Tarantino and Samuel Beckett over a few pints of bitters. As Colin, his partner, and Jimmy (along with a bunch of whores) are sitting in a nice hotel doing lines of coke (stolen from the local hottie), a discussion begins on the inevitable war between the whites and blacks. This comes after a number of scenes in which Colin muses over the idea of the Afterlife. Alone each scene seems pretty bland, but as this odd unapologetic debauchery is mixed with the need for peace and forgiveness you begin to wonder if Bruges is heaven, limbo, or worse.
NIN's Ghosts I-IV
There is a reason why Nine Inch Nails has put up the first nine songs of this box set(?) on The Pirate Bay for free. Of course, if you want it all you should go to Amazon to get it for 5 clams.
I was excited about this new album. NIN licensed it under the Creative Commons and it is a quarter free. Not being anything of a NIN fan I still wanted to see what it was all about so I took it for a spin. Why not? I have enjoyed their past successful hits, I was sure this was more of the same.
I have downloaded more listenable things from angelfire sites.
While I can't say the music is really bad, it just isn't all that good either. It picks up about half of the way through but dies down again. At its best it is an ambient noise that makes you feel like you should be walking through an urban industrial area wearing chic clothing while downloading kung fu to your brain. At worst it makes you mind numbingly board.
Maybe I am too "casual" a listener to really "get it" but it seems like this is nothing more than a masturbatory work made by some guys who want to prove they are "real" musicians. The reason they didn't sell it was because they knew no one would buy it. So in order to pump their egos about this music they gave it away for free so that would be why people were interested in it. For them the music is second on this album because the album itself is now beyond any "art" within it.
Of course, these guys are also out for a profit. If they knew that no one would buy it just to buy it they must have also known that there would be some people who would buy it no matter what, its NIN or this ambient stuff rox. These people will also pay a premium to be able to own some cheap swag as well. Maybe I am just cynical though...
I did not enjoy this no do I think most "mainstream" will either.
I was excited about this new album. NIN licensed it under the Creative Commons and it is a quarter free. Not being anything of a NIN fan I still wanted to see what it was all about so I took it for a spin. Why not? I have enjoyed their past successful hits, I was sure this was more of the same.
I have downloaded more listenable things from angelfire sites.
While I can't say the music is really bad, it just isn't all that good either. It picks up about half of the way through but dies down again. At its best it is an ambient noise that makes you feel like you should be walking through an urban industrial area wearing chic clothing while downloading kung fu to your brain. At worst it makes you mind numbingly board.
Maybe I am too "casual" a listener to really "get it" but it seems like this is nothing more than a masturbatory work made by some guys who want to prove they are "real" musicians. The reason they didn't sell it was because they knew no one would buy it. So in order to pump their egos about this music they gave it away for free so that would be why people were interested in it. For them the music is second on this album because the album itself is now beyond any "art" within it.
Of course, these guys are also out for a profit. If they knew that no one would buy it just to buy it they must have also known that there would be some people who would buy it no matter what, its NIN or this ambient stuff rox. These people will also pay a premium to be able to own some cheap swag as well. Maybe I am just cynical though...
I did not enjoy this no do I think most "mainstream" will either.
Halo 3
Why bother posting a review right? We all are going to get it and make sure to destroy each other over a LAN or XBL for the next year. Well, I am here to tell you that is not a bad thing.
This game plays like every other Halo. We do have new grenades and a few new toys, but overall it is the same. There is nothing wrong with this.
The real beauty of this game comes from the way you can create the ultimate multiplayer games. You want to make everyone really fast and only able to use grenades, you can. You want to make everyone slow and only have shotguns, you can. You want to to make everyone only use a pistol in low gravity, non regenerating shields, active camo, and no grenades with only three lives? Well my friend, you can. As much fun as you can have playing Halo you can have fun making Halo.
You may have heard of the Forge. It is fun in the same way. There is nothing funnier than setting up a teleporter exit next to a bluff and then placing the entrance right in front of someone just running along. This is just the beginning of what you can do.
All of this said, don't expect much from the single player game. It is longer than I thought it would be, but it is still not rewarding. I say this as someone who has actually read the Halo books.
When it comes down to it, you should enjoy this game.
This game plays like every other Halo. We do have new grenades and a few new toys, but overall it is the same. There is nothing wrong with this.
The real beauty of this game comes from the way you can create the ultimate multiplayer games. You want to make everyone really fast and only able to use grenades, you can. You want to make everyone slow and only have shotguns, you can. You want to to make everyone only use a pistol in low gravity, non regenerating shields, active camo, and no grenades with only three lives? Well my friend, you can. As much fun as you can have playing Halo you can have fun making Halo.
You may have heard of the Forge. It is fun in the same way. There is nothing funnier than setting up a teleporter exit next to a bluff and then placing the entrance right in front of someone just running along. This is just the beginning of what you can do.
All of this said, don't expect much from the single player game. It is longer than I thought it would be, but it is still not rewarding. I say this as someone who has actually read the Halo books.
When it comes down to it, you should enjoy this game.
Heroes
I have now watched the first season, excuse me, volume of Heroes. This X-Men ripoff that has been the "new LOST" did not catch me at first and with good reason, unlike LOST. Let me start off with what I don't like about it. For some reason I can't help but to think of these things first.
Heroes does not treat me as if I am smart. There is no real mystery, though it acts like there is. That is to say that each episode, excuse me, chapter only makes me ask questions about the next episode. The only reason I was ever encouraged to think ahead to the end of the season was by the future seers' drawings. Even then, I only had to wait until the characters ended up there for them to make any sense.
I am also constantly mad at it for being an X-Men ripoff. While it is self aware of this, the show does not seem to want to be more than its source material. We all enjoy a dystopian future, but don't do it if you will have fans around the world going, "This is just like Days of Future Past!"
Maybe I am too hard on the show. I do compare it to LOST, but only because so many claimed that it had the same scope. This is just not true. Avoid comparing these two shows.
There is a reason why I watched all of the first season and am catching up on the 2nd. It is just interesting enough. I enjoy the characters, particularly Hiro and Parkman. They keep the show unique. There is a soft spot in my heart for character driven shows, and this is such a show.
Heroes wants to be a comic. This is why there is "bad" acting. They are just talking the way comic book characters do. The over-emphasis on seemingly unimportant words, the odd pauses, and the awkward movements are all just what happens when you force a comic into live action. This would fail if not for the camera shots that make me feel like it is a comic too. So often it seems like there is an over-the-shoulder shot that had the person the camera is behind blurred in a very 'drawn' way. There are some awkward camera angles, but once again it is just because that is how a comic would have shown it.
I enjoy this show very much. I may complain about it being too X-Menish, but I can't help but to see where Hiro is going to travel next week.
Heroes does not treat me as if I am smart. There is no real mystery, though it acts like there is. That is to say that each episode, excuse me, chapter only makes me ask questions about the next episode. The only reason I was ever encouraged to think ahead to the end of the season was by the future seers' drawings. Even then, I only had to wait until the characters ended up there for them to make any sense.
I am also constantly mad at it for being an X-Men ripoff. While it is self aware of this, the show does not seem to want to be more than its source material. We all enjoy a dystopian future, but don't do it if you will have fans around the world going, "This is just like Days of Future Past!"
Maybe I am too hard on the show. I do compare it to LOST, but only because so many claimed that it had the same scope. This is just not true. Avoid comparing these two shows.
There is a reason why I watched all of the first season and am catching up on the 2nd. It is just interesting enough. I enjoy the characters, particularly Hiro and Parkman. They keep the show unique. There is a soft spot in my heart for character driven shows, and this is such a show.
Heroes wants to be a comic. This is why there is "bad" acting. They are just talking the way comic book characters do. The over-emphasis on seemingly unimportant words, the odd pauses, and the awkward movements are all just what happens when you force a comic into live action. This would fail if not for the camera shots that make me feel like it is a comic too. So often it seems like there is an over-the-shoulder shot that had the person the camera is behind blurred in a very 'drawn' way. There are some awkward camera angles, but once again it is just because that is how a comic would have shown it.
I enjoy this show very much. I may complain about it being too X-Menish, but I can't help but to see where Hiro is going to travel next week.
XKCD
XKCD is a not just a web comic.
It is an almost vaguely autobiographic work by a guy who feels very much like he should be my best friend. He has a crude art style, but the fact that he is one of the few other people who were scared for the rest of the lives because of Jurassic Park means something to me. It also can tug at the heart sometimes. Math jokes are always funny.
Everyone should be able to find simple enjoyment in this comic three mornings a week.
It is an almost vaguely autobiographic work by a guy who feels very much like he should be my best friend. He has a crude art style, but the fact that he is one of the few other people who were scared for the rest of the lives because of Jurassic Park means something to me. It also can tug at the heart sometimes. Math jokes are always funny.
Everyone should be able to find simple enjoyment in this comic three mornings a week.
The New Sincerity
Jesse Thorn the host of The Sound of Young America has proposed something called the "New Sincerity." This is the best description of where we are post-irony.
What a blatant acknowledgement of the nature of what coolness was. Hedonism at its finest, but can our love of the "awesome" really save us?
He mentions Evel Knievel, but I can't help but to think of every love interest in every shitty indie movie.* These girls are always quirky with an acidic tongues, ever-changing hair color, anxiety disorders, and families who just don't get them. They listen to music that "will change your life" and get you to run around nude at the abandoned amusement park in their home town. In short, she will make you live la vida loca, only with moody guitar music replacing the Latin beats.
Needless to say, I love them all.
How could I not? In every movie that these girls are in they take a square loser, who lives a fairly bland life popping Xanax and staring blankly into the future, and turn his life into a happy-go-lucky time in which he probably still has his old job (or one just as bland), but now he gets to go home and unapologetically enjoyed Mac&Cheese with weenies cut up into it while watching a DVD of his favorite bad movie from his childhood (Top Gun) before he has what must be mind-blowing sex.
The only person who can't enjoy this girl is Rob of High Fidelity, who sees cool as fatalism. But he has a point. You may be able to have simultaneous orgasms with someone, but you will always describe her as a "pain-in-the-arse." Four "bonks" are really more than enough with this type of girl. This is not hidden from any of the boys who fall for them. There are always lies, too much drinking, the realities of mental illness, and the practicalities of living. So why is it that they always go back to them?
The New Sincerity is why. We used to do things (like them or not) because we had to, but that is the root of irony. Irony is a reaction to the necessary. NS is an action of excess and love. Irony saw a 2-d world and caused us to become even flatter. Now, thanks to that irony we now live in a rich world filled options to go beyond the 2-d world of yesteryear. NS rejects this for the iconic though. NS sees an icon and takes it as fun at face-value. NS wants to praise the icon and make it real.
This totally defeats everything that irony was made for. NS causes us to celebrate only a piece of our life. A piece that is pretty fun, but ignores anything else. Rob has a point again. You can't ignore everything else, at least not all the time. You can make your top 5 songs about fruit with your friends to kill time, but that doesn't give you a fulfilling life.
At least the sex is good though...
*I thank HannahMo for pointing this pattern out to me. It has caused me much enlightenment.
What a blatant acknowledgement of the nature of what coolness was. Hedonism at its finest, but can our love of the "awesome" really save us?
He mentions Evel Knievel, but I can't help but to think of every love interest in every shitty indie movie.* These girls are always quirky with an acidic tongues, ever-changing hair color, anxiety disorders, and families who just don't get them. They listen to music that "will change your life" and get you to run around nude at the abandoned amusement park in their home town. In short, she will make you live la vida loca, only with moody guitar music replacing the Latin beats.
Needless to say, I love them all.
How could I not? In every movie that these girls are in they take a square loser, who lives a fairly bland life popping Xanax and staring blankly into the future, and turn his life into a happy-go-lucky time in which he probably still has his old job (or one just as bland), but now he gets to go home and unapologetically enjoyed Mac&Cheese with weenies cut up into it while watching a DVD of his favorite bad movie from his childhood (Top Gun) before he has what must be mind-blowing sex.
The only person who can't enjoy this girl is Rob of High Fidelity, who sees cool as fatalism. But he has a point. You may be able to have simultaneous orgasms with someone, but you will always describe her as a "pain-in-the-arse." Four "bonks" are really more than enough with this type of girl. This is not hidden from any of the boys who fall for them. There are always lies, too much drinking, the realities of mental illness, and the practicalities of living. So why is it that they always go back to them?
The New Sincerity is why. We used to do things (like them or not) because we had to, but that is the root of irony. Irony is a reaction to the necessary. NS is an action of excess and love. Irony saw a 2-d world and caused us to become even flatter. Now, thanks to that irony we now live in a rich world filled options to go beyond the 2-d world of yesteryear. NS rejects this for the iconic though. NS sees an icon and takes it as fun at face-value. NS wants to praise the icon and make it real.
This totally defeats everything that irony was made for. NS causes us to celebrate only a piece of our life. A piece that is pretty fun, but ignores anything else. Rob has a point again. You can't ignore everything else, at least not all the time. You can make your top 5 songs about fruit with your friends to kill time, but that doesn't give you a fulfilling life.
At least the sex is good though...
*I thank HannahMo for pointing this pattern out to me. It has caused me much enlightenment.
Self-consciousness
As I was making up some notes for the book Teenage by Jon Savage I came across this idea: “The Bright Young People's style was a fusion of modernity and Oedipal obnoxiousness organized around what looked like meaningless pleasure” (246). “The problem with outrage, however, is that it always needs to be trumped. The Bright Young People began to hit the law of diminishing returns. What had begun spontaneously became self-conscious rather than joyous.”
Now the Bright Young People were a group of partiers primarily in the 1920s it, but they made a lasting impact. There were hedons with a purpose. They saw enjoying life and all it had as a way of not only bucking authority, but also as a way of expressing their own youth. One of their best creations in this area was the themed party. From Russian parties to murder parties they came up with wild ideas to give each night's merriment a certain twist.
The above quote describes what happen as the BYP began to have too many parties with too many in attendance. Fun was once the only goal of a party, but when trying to top the last party is the goal it stops being fun. There is actually a point at which massive drunken orgies are just not fun. I know! Shocking!
Does this over saturation happen to all social movements though? Indie-Rock Pete would probably say that it does before you have even heard about the movement, but we all know that we can't find the lower limit of quality because it doesn't exist according to the Theory of Hipster Relativity. This means that there should be a range of popularity at which something is cool. My first reaction is to see cool as looking something like this (sorry for the poor quality chart, also note that a high quality graph would not have the movement at 0 on the x-axis):
This is clearly what happen to the BYP. They were a small group of cool seekers who found something that was not only rebellious it was also something that was fun (a necessary combination for something cool as I will explain in another post).
I wonder though a few things. What are the parts of popularity that make something cease being cool? The number of people willing to participate seems important. Whether or not something is still rebellious or not does not seem to matter. What matters is that there is a mass of people that want to be part of something. The kind of people matter too. Here I mean the specific clique of people and if more other cliques connect to cool movement. The graphical representation of this would be something like a single circle being the clique that contained the cool movement to begin with, but as time goes on the image begins to look more and more like an impossibly complex vin diagram. As this happens the movement is less cool.
However, the movement can become cool again I think. The first is not a true cool. It is around the point at which the movement becomes as uncool as possible. When this happens the cool kids can now enjoy the thing with the irony that makes modern popular cool run.
There is a genuine cool out there. This cool is something appreciated by many but the movement is now not appreciated for its novelty so much as its technique. Here it is no longer good to simply do something, one must do it with a flare that makes the moment seem almost artful.
For an example of this cool cycle let's assume that picnicing is a cool activity. People will go picnicing and with each visit to the park they will begin to gain attention. At the same time the things they did at the last picnic will seem less exciting because they will have done them already. This will force more extreme picnicing (maybe people will start cooking and eating turkey instead of enjoying a cold chicken leg from the night before). As this happens the people within the movement will become tired from the need to constantly improve because of the expectations of others. Soon there will be so many in the park picnicing that people will begin deciding that the activity is square. Before long the only people really picnicing are those who do it because no one does it. The might even use sporks and eat KFC, but only because irony dictates that it is cool to mock-picnic. Eventually, the idea of picnicing will become cool again but will be practiced by a smaller set of people who will set out to elevate it to an art. Sporks might be kept, but now metal sporks are seen and the food is prepared beforehand specially for the picnic. So we get a chart that looks like this when it comes to the actual practice of cool movements:
This is the cool cycle as I see it right now. I am sure that last graph needs a bit of work, but it is close for the time being. The biggest question is not about the theory then but about operationalizing these variables. Any suggestions?
Now the Bright Young People were a group of partiers primarily in the 1920s it, but they made a lasting impact. There were hedons with a purpose. They saw enjoying life and all it had as a way of not only bucking authority, but also as a way of expressing their own youth. One of their best creations in this area was the themed party. From Russian parties to murder parties they came up with wild ideas to give each night's merriment a certain twist.
The above quote describes what happen as the BYP began to have too many parties with too many in attendance. Fun was once the only goal of a party, but when trying to top the last party is the goal it stops being fun. There is actually a point at which massive drunken orgies are just not fun. I know! Shocking!
Does this over saturation happen to all social movements though? Indie-Rock Pete would probably say that it does before you have even heard about the movement, but we all know that we can't find the lower limit of quality because it doesn't exist according to the Theory of Hipster Relativity. This means that there should be a range of popularity at which something is cool. My first reaction is to see cool as looking something like this (sorry for the poor quality chart, also note that a high quality graph would not have the movement at 0 on the x-axis):
This is clearly what happen to the BYP. They were a small group of cool seekers who found something that was not only rebellious it was also something that was fun (a necessary combination for something cool as I will explain in another post).
I wonder though a few things. What are the parts of popularity that make something cease being cool? The number of people willing to participate seems important. Whether or not something is still rebellious or not does not seem to matter. What matters is that there is a mass of people that want to be part of something. The kind of people matter too. Here I mean the specific clique of people and if more other cliques connect to cool movement. The graphical representation of this would be something like a single circle being the clique that contained the cool movement to begin with, but as time goes on the image begins to look more and more like an impossibly complex vin diagram. As this happens the movement is less cool.
However, the movement can become cool again I think. The first is not a true cool. It is around the point at which the movement becomes as uncool as possible. When this happens the cool kids can now enjoy the thing with the irony that makes modern popular cool run.
There is a genuine cool out there. This cool is something appreciated by many but the movement is now not appreciated for its novelty so much as its technique. Here it is no longer good to simply do something, one must do it with a flare that makes the moment seem almost artful.
For an example of this cool cycle let's assume that picnicing is a cool activity. People will go picnicing and with each visit to the park they will begin to gain attention. At the same time the things they did at the last picnic will seem less exciting because they will have done them already. This will force more extreme picnicing (maybe people will start cooking and eating turkey instead of enjoying a cold chicken leg from the night before). As this happens the people within the movement will become tired from the need to constantly improve because of the expectations of others. Soon there will be so many in the park picnicing that people will begin deciding that the activity is square. Before long the only people really picnicing are those who do it because no one does it. The might even use sporks and eat KFC, but only because irony dictates that it is cool to mock-picnic. Eventually, the idea of picnicing will become cool again but will be practiced by a smaller set of people who will set out to elevate it to an art. Sporks might be kept, but now metal sporks are seen and the food is prepared beforehand specially for the picnic. So we get a chart that looks like this when it comes to the actual practice of cool movements:
This is the cool cycle as I see it right now. I am sure that last graph needs a bit of work, but it is close for the time being. The biggest question is not about the theory then but about operationalizing these variables. Any suggestions?
Warning
I am trying to merge some of my blogs together. After thinking about it I decided that it is just silly for me to have three different sites at which I post anything.
This means I will be putting some older posts here over the course of the next hours.
I will try to update with a good fresh post here as soon as I can though.
-One Love
This means I will be putting some older posts here over the course of the next hours.
I will try to update with a good fresh post here as soon as I can though.
-One Love
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Obama's formula
It would seem that Obama has won the primary. I have long been a Hillary supporter if only for what I saw as more long term hopes and goals for the left, but in doing so I clearly neglected the one thing that I have been very concerned about for the past year, what it takes to be cool.
No one will doubt that Obama is way cooler than Hillary. From his smoking to being young and black Obama has always had that advantage. But he takes it a step further by being a person of the people. Back in 1992 he held a voter registration drive in Chicago in which he registered more than 150000 people! While in a city of millions this might not be too big of a deal, yet here reflects what I see as Obama's way of winning this election. He understands how to flatten a campaign.
The only efficient way to achieve such success with something like that campaign drive is to get everyone involved continually. It is sort of like a pyramid scheme. The only difference is that each person only needs to get two people and they are done in that sort of scam. In this flat campaigning each person works for as long as they can. This way new members to the campaign are accepted as new, but not as lower on the pyramid.
This does something Hillary never could do. It makes everyone gathered together to support Obama feel like they are all part of something equally. This is what my generation wants. We all want to change the world. Obama told us that we can.
No one will doubt that Obama is way cooler than Hillary. From his smoking to being young and black Obama has always had that advantage. But he takes it a step further by being a person of the people. Back in 1992 he held a voter registration drive in Chicago in which he registered more than 150000 people! While in a city of millions this might not be too big of a deal, yet here reflects what I see as Obama's way of winning this election. He understands how to flatten a campaign.
The only efficient way to achieve such success with something like that campaign drive is to get everyone involved continually. It is sort of like a pyramid scheme. The only difference is that each person only needs to get two people and they are done in that sort of scam. In this flat campaigning each person works for as long as they can. This way new members to the campaign are accepted as new, but not as lower on the pyramid.
This does something Hillary never could do. It makes everyone gathered together to support Obama feel like they are all part of something equally. This is what my generation wants. We all want to change the world. Obama told us that we can.
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