Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Jingle Cats is terrifying

Unpopular opinions without adequate provocation

Cat piano: whimsical or monstrous?
Cat piano: whimsical or monstrous?

Happy New Year, all you hipsters! I hate to break with the typical Q-preceding-A format, but I must begin this year with a shout-out to the observant hipster who pointed out how my idea for cat-themed Christmas music is really nothing more than a poor man’s Jingle Cats. For those of you who don’t know, Jingle Cats is an awe-inspiring, cringeworthy piece of musical nonsense from the early Nineties. Basically, this one hipster dude recorded his cats making every manner of cat noise, and remixed it into Christmas songs.

I know you’re all sick of holiday tunes now that it’s 2020, but, trust me, Jingle Cats is damn terrifying, and you owe it to yourself to freak out over the pitch-shifted cat sounds and vintage green screen effects of the “meowychristmas” YouTube channel. It’s marvelously bad, and it must have been a heroic effort on 1993 audio tech. (Today, there are at least half a dozen cat piano apps available in the app store.)

While we’re talking weird stuff and cat pianos, Wikipedia defines a “cat piano” as a “hypothetical musical instrument which consists of a line of cats fixed in place with their tails stretched out underneath a keyboard so that they cry out when a key is pressed. The cats would be arranged according to the natural tone of their voices.” The odd practicality of the last sentence makes this monstrous idea seem somehow whimsical. A cat piano is also the eponymous subject of a 2009 short film narrated by Nick Cave.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Ok, having weirded up your New Year, I suppose I should field a query.

Dear Hipster:

I was waiting in line outside a restaurant last week, and I overheard some dude say something along the lines of, “I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but” something about Breaking Bad that I couldn’t make out, and then something about margaritas. I don’t know if the two things are related or not. It got me thinking, why do people feel the need to voice unpopular opinions, sometimes without adequate provocation?

— Kelly

There are two kinds of “unpopular opinions” in this world: (1) thinly veiled excuses for someone’s intolerance; and (2) hipster virtue signalling.

The first category usually sounds something like, “I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but they really ruined Star Wars by making that character black/female/gay, or really anything that doesn’t look or act like me.” Dolling up quiet bigotry as unpopular opinion is a bit like calling torture an enhanced interrogation technique, or calling the Chernobyl meltdown a case of technical diffulties run amok.

Unlike the first category of unpopular opinions, which earn their well deserved unpopularity on the merits, the second category of unpopular opinion is an opinion only because it is unpopular in the first place.

The second category usually sounds something like, “I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but In N Out Burger is really overrated.” Imagine the courage to come out mildly not in favor of something trivial! The brave souls holding such opinions consider themselves intellectual pioneers, the Copernicuses and Harriet Beecher Stowes of our age, whom history will someday elevate for their unpopular opinions. In reality, it’s more likely an attempt to seem mysterious, and among the lowest forms of hipster posturing.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Extended family dynamics

Many of our neighbors live in the house they grew up in
Cat piano: whimsical or monstrous?
Cat piano: whimsical or monstrous?

Happy New Year, all you hipsters! I hate to break with the typical Q-preceding-A format, but I must begin this year with a shout-out to the observant hipster who pointed out how my idea for cat-themed Christmas music is really nothing more than a poor man’s Jingle Cats. For those of you who don’t know, Jingle Cats is an awe-inspiring, cringeworthy piece of musical nonsense from the early Nineties. Basically, this one hipster dude recorded his cats making every manner of cat noise, and remixed it into Christmas songs.

I know you’re all sick of holiday tunes now that it’s 2020, but, trust me, Jingle Cats is damn terrifying, and you owe it to yourself to freak out over the pitch-shifted cat sounds and vintage green screen effects of the “meowychristmas” YouTube channel. It’s marvelously bad, and it must have been a heroic effort on 1993 audio tech. (Today, there are at least half a dozen cat piano apps available in the app store.)

While we’re talking weird stuff and cat pianos, Wikipedia defines a “cat piano” as a “hypothetical musical instrument which consists of a line of cats fixed in place with their tails stretched out underneath a keyboard so that they cry out when a key is pressed. The cats would be arranged according to the natural tone of their voices.” The odd practicality of the last sentence makes this monstrous idea seem somehow whimsical. A cat piano is also the eponymous subject of a 2009 short film narrated by Nick Cave.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Ok, having weirded up your New Year, I suppose I should field a query.

Dear Hipster:

I was waiting in line outside a restaurant last week, and I overheard some dude say something along the lines of, “I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but” something about Breaking Bad that I couldn’t make out, and then something about margaritas. I don’t know if the two things are related or not. It got me thinking, why do people feel the need to voice unpopular opinions, sometimes without adequate provocation?

— Kelly

There are two kinds of “unpopular opinions” in this world: (1) thinly veiled excuses for someone’s intolerance; and (2) hipster virtue signalling.

The first category usually sounds something like, “I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but they really ruined Star Wars by making that character black/female/gay, or really anything that doesn’t look or act like me.” Dolling up quiet bigotry as unpopular opinion is a bit like calling torture an enhanced interrogation technique, or calling the Chernobyl meltdown a case of technical diffulties run amok.

Unlike the first category of unpopular opinions, which earn their well deserved unpopularity on the merits, the second category of unpopular opinion is an opinion only because it is unpopular in the first place.

The second category usually sounds something like, “I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but In N Out Burger is really overrated.” Imagine the courage to come out mildly not in favor of something trivial! The brave souls holding such opinions consider themselves intellectual pioneers, the Copernicuses and Harriet Beecher Stowes of our age, whom history will someday elevate for their unpopular opinions. In reality, it’s more likely an attempt to seem mysterious, and among the lowest forms of hipster posturing.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Jayson Napolitano’s Scarlet Moon releases third Halloween album

Latest effort has the most local vibe
Next Article

The danger of San Diego's hoarders

The $1 million Flash Comics #1
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader