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(via paperbackgirl)

(via paperbackgirl)

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(via paperbackgirl)

(via paperbackgirl)

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“He wants everything he writes to contain the full complexity of human thought.“
— a friend, talking about her dad. 
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“Mr. Zhang faked not only the song; organizers also have admitted that one early sequence of the stunning fireworks shown to television viewers was actually created using digitally enhanced computer graphics for “theatrical effect.“
— Olympic Balladeer’s Voice Was Dubbed - NYTimes.com
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“Miaoke, a third grader, was judged cute and appealing but “not suitable” as a singer. Another girl, Yang Peiyi, 7, was judged the best singer but not as cute. So when Miaoke opened her mouth to sing, the voice that was actually heard was a recording of Peiyi. And it is unclear if Miaoke even knew. “The reason was for the national interest,” explained Chen Qigang, general music designer of the opening ceremonies“
— Olympic Balladeer’s Voice Was Dubbed - NYTimes.com
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having just watched part of the olympic opening ceremonies, let me be one of the first to say definitively: america is entering a new period of anxiety, and has just hit the steep part of its descent from the world’s singly dominant country to, perhaps as kagan calls it, a “normal” position in the world. not a new observation, but china’s attitude and approach to these entire games make it abundantly clear that over the next generation the world is increasingly going to be determined by its whims, and on its terms.  the geopolitical implications of this fact are important, but clear and well-known.  i’m more interested in the effect on the american conscious. i don’t think any of us can really understand, have yet tried to understand, that mild tingle of inferiority and resent that circles the outer edges of the brain, and that i think might be familiar to non-americans over the past 40 years - particularly before shit went to hell with bush.  china is certainly familiar with this feeling, and the chip it has on its shoulder makes it all the more dangerous to american interests, and the american self-conscious. I am more nervous about what will happen as we all realize, once it’s already too late, that we have been overtaken, than I am about any specific international threat.  the way we react to diminishment, to defeat in a way, will determine both the cultural and political direction that our country takes in our lifetimes.

having just watched part of the olympic opening ceremonies, let me be one of the first to say definitively: america is entering a new period of anxiety, and has just hit the steep part of its descent from the world’s singly dominant country to, perhaps as kagan calls it, a “normal” position in the world.

not a new observation, but china’s attitude and approach to these entire games make it abundantly clear that over the next generation the world is increasingly going to be determined by its whims, and on its terms.  the geopolitical implications of this fact are important, but clear and well-known.  i’m more interested in the effect on the american conscious.

i don’t think any of us can really understand, have yet tried to understand, that mild tingle of inferiority and resent that circles the outer edges of the brain, and that i think might be familiar to non-americans over the past 40 years - particularly before shit went to hell with bush.  china is certainly familiar with this feeling, and the chip it has on its shoulder makes it all the more dangerous to american interests, and the american self-conscious.

I am more nervous about what will happen as we all realize, once it’s already too late, that we have been overtaken, than I am about any specific international threat.  the way we react to diminishment, to defeat in a way, will determine both the cultural and political direction that our country takes in our lifetimes.

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juliaallison: They need to write a new children’s book (distributed on the kindle) called “Goodnight, laptop.” (Tonight I’m trying to be all reasonable and get to bed before 3 am. Eyes are already blurry at the relatively early hour of 1:53 am, so it’s looking good … if a book doesn’t distract me.) one of my favorite books - although i remember (and i can’t believe i remember this - you think you don’t remember being little and then stuff like this, and this (!), bring it back) being unsettled as a 3 year old by the emptiness in the rooms, and the pervasive silence of the book.  it was eery, like something bad was about to happen.  but maybe i was just a neurotic 3 year old.

juliaallison:

They need to write a new children’s book (distributed on the kindle) called “Goodnight, laptop.”

(Tonight I’m trying to be all reasonable and get to bed before 3 am. Eyes are already blurry at the relatively early hour of 1:53 am, so it’s looking good … if a book doesn’t distract me.)

one of my favorite books - although i remember (and i can’t believe i remember this - you think you don’t remember being little and then stuff like this, and this (!), bring it back) being unsettled as a 3 year old by the emptiness in the rooms, and the pervasive silence of the book.  it was eery, like something bad was about to happen.  but maybe i was just a neurotic 3 year old.

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itunes on shuffle, this just came on, haven’t heard in forever.  top 5 cover all time.  gillian welch & david rawlings doing radiohead’s “black star”

haven’t slept much this week, this soothes.

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oh, the irony

oh, the irony

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“

…The futility of artistic technique in the face of world conditions may constitute a subject for art as substantial as any other, and rather more compelling than today’s stacked-deck models of success.

You suspect that a big change is coming when sensitive young people project (and, because they’re young, enjoy) feelings of being old…The syndrome announces the exhaustion of a received cultural situation, whose traditions are slack and whose future is opaque.


What we want now is a major artist…who will manifest durable truths at the core of inevitable hypes and hyperboles. If none such appears, that will be a valuable datum. It will help us to adjust to the happenstance that, once and finally, our particular civilization is spent.

“
— Your regular dose of Schjeldahl.
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IRB Hipster Article Roundup

buyhercandy:

indierockbakery:

The short version: Hipsters are shallow and fake.

i am pretty tired of this discussion.  these articles strike me as incredibly naive in their nostalgia - as though all the members of past countercultures were “authentic.”  give. me. a. break.  individuals need identities, and usually define their identities largely through groups.  some are “authentic” in their adherence to a group’s philosophy, some are “genuine” in their moral positions, but, really, most people just want to feel like their a part of something.  do I wish better for humanity?  yes.  is that a futile wish?  yes.  so maybe there is a higher proportion of poseurs in today’s “counterculture,” but don’t pretend like poseurdom is a new phenomenon, and don’t willfully ignore the great music and art that is being produced today because you’re tired of the people w/ fake glasses and bad tattoos living in williamsburg.  i’m tired of them too.  but some of them wear real glasses, and have good tattoos, and are living authentically, and are producing things of interest.  so call the bullshit bullshit, but don’t reject the real out of hand.

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“The Hudson’s been both a pastoral landscape and an industrialized one,” Mr. Coolidge said. “It’s that interaction that makes it such a rich, chaotic and interesting place. It’s a microcosm of the entire history of American environmentalism, landscape romanticism and industrialization, played out more intensely here than anywhere I can think of.“
— Article about the Hudson and the Center for Land Use Interpretation, which is  great organization
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“An artificial appropriation of different styles from different eras, the hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” – a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society.“
—

Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters (via buyhercandy)

This thinking is flawed. The appropriation and re-contextualisation of the products and movement of past generations is one of the few options the conscious youth has. With the worlds’ resources having fallen victim to previous generations’ blatant consumerism and throwaway culture, the reuse  and adaptation of consumer products and fashion is not only commentary on this; with the re-emergence of thrift culture, but necessary. The movement is suicidal because the world is suicidal.

The movement has been hijacked by those for the “image”, but so were most subcultures, particularly mod; a subculture originally dominiated by working-class, Jewish teenagers in London.

(via semisetadrift)

I haven’t given much thought to the political or cultural significance of hipster fashion, although my gut reaction is to agree with semisetadrift that recontextualization and appropriation are 1. common themes throughout cultural history and 2. a crucial ingredient in the creation of the “new.”  This happens in art all the time and we are very comfortable with artists and works that do so, as long as they are adding value rather than being merely derivative.  And some elements of hipster fashion do this, and some don’t.  And I think most people would agree that those who are overly ironic about the whole thing are lame, and not particularly bright.

The thing I appreciate most by far about today’s “counterculture” is the music.  We’re living in a totally awesome time for indepenedent music; from “freak folk” (i hate that term) like Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom and Jolie Holland, to the dreamy 60s nosalgia of Air France and Beach House, to all the creative stuff going on with Hip Hop (which in and of itself seems to be dying but has generated a ton of interesting stuff from mash-ups to laserbass), to the powerful and classically “indie” rock and roll of Animal Collective and Grizzley Bear.  Whenever I step back and think about it I feel very lucky - and it’s exactly the “appropriation of different styles” lamented above that has created this moment.

Maybe you don’t like the fashion; tolerate it for the sake of the music.

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tracks:

When We Were Kids

Rappers Deight Club (local talent)

really fun mashup that’s jens lekman + rappers delight tribute + overtone of m.i.a. mango pickle down river

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Amy Winehouse Ska EP

bet you also didn’t know that amy winehouse released a 4 song EP 2 weeks ago that totally rocks.  The best: her cover of Same Cooke(!)’s “Cupid”

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