Brewed Musings

Brewed Beverage of Choice: Anything but PBR!!!

At an early age I knew I was a different individual. As I said to a friend of mine at Thanksgiving, ‘I knew at an early age I was different. From second grade on I knew I had to either conform to the rest of my class and be popular, or take comfort in my different-ness and be ridiculed by everyone in my class and those who knew me.’ For those of you who have the benefit of knowing me, the second road was my choice regardless of how much I was ridiculed. And be sure, I took a lot. But tonight I hit a rut in the road I have constantly hit since moving to Portland. Some of my friends admitted they see me as a ‘hipster.’

As my family and close friends know, I do not do things to be ‘hip’ or ‘cool’, nor have I ever done such things. So when I heard this tonight I was hurt on a different level because I thought my friends knew me a bit better than that. Of course it is all classifaction and why would I care. On most levels I don’t because it is merely a classification. But on a different level, it goes beyond just a classification. It is the product of a surface generalization.

For those of you who do not know what may define a hipster I give you the following definitions which can be found on the internet:

Hipster - One who possesses tastes, social attitudes, and opinions deemed cool by the cool. (Note: it is no longer recommended that one use the term “cool”; a Hipster would instead say “deck.”) The Hipster walks among the masses in daily life but is not a part of them and shuns or reduces to kitsch anything held dear by the mainstream. A Hipster ideally possesses no more than 2% body fat.

or

Since the 2000’s, the word hipster has been redefined to refer to members of a different subculture. Modern hipsters are those devoted to ironic retro fashions, independent music and film, alternative comics, and other forms of expression outside the mainstream. They are often associated with indie culture.

More generally, trendsetters in fashion are sometimes called hipsters, though this use is distinct from the hipster subculture, whose fashion sensibilities are specific and not usually destined for the mainstream.

Granted I do wear clothes from second hand stores, and my glasses are ones made famous by Elvis Costello, and I am proud to be part of the counter-culture. BUT, I DO NOT DO THESE THINGS OR WEAR THESE CLOTHES OR BELIEVE WHAT I BELIEVE BECAUSE OF SOME FAD! I cannot remember the last time I did something to be popular or to look cool or to fit in. I wear second hand clothes because I cannot afford most of the clothes on the market today. I bought these glasses because they were the cheapest pair of frames that did not make me look like some moron from the middle ages. Most of the music I enjoy or have enjoyed since I was younger has spoken to me not because it was popular or hip, but because it literally ’spoke’ to me.

Hipsters will abandon their way of thought if another one comes along that will benefit them more. I on the other hand will never turn my back on my history. Hipsters think they are better than the rest of society because they are outside the norm. I am outside the norm because that is where I feel most comfortable. That is where I grew up. Plus I do not think I am better than the rest of society. I am just different. All this has made me who I am today…a Non Hipster-Hipster. If you ask my close friends if I am a hipster, the most common response is, ‘No way! You have too much class and intelligence to be a hipster.’ My friend from Milwaukee who now lives in the Rose City believes it is completely different here because being hipster in Portland is much different than being hipster in Milwaukee. In Milwaukee, we would be seen as just everday folk. In Portland, Milwaukee’s everyday folk would be considered hipsters.

I have been called a hippie by someone I know and it hurt because as a ‘beat’ I see hippie-ism as the counter culture that took a good idea and ruined it. Now being called a hipster, I question whether or not my friends really know me or why I do things. And it is not their fault. And it is not my fault. I am not yelling loud enough for them to hear. And they are not using their headphones to pick up on my subtle sounds. I guess I am wondering…does it take a hipster to know a hipster? Or will I ever embrace ‘hipster’ like I embrace ‘geek?’ Or even better, would ‘hipsters’ want to be ‘hipsters’ if they had to walk a mile in my shoes to be ‘hip?’ Probably not.

prost!

the confucian hipster

Clarification:  Apparently the joke is on me because my friends have cleared things up.  From now on I will remember that most of my friends keep the staightest faces when joking so you can never tell if they are serious or not.  So now the whole ‘hipster’ instance seems a lot funnier because they got me good.  Damn it!