Eleanor Widmer and the Reader
Willie Shoemaker, Carl Rogers, John Vietor, Michael Copley, Tropic of Cancer
Eleanor Widmer 8:30 a.m., March 23
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Which came first in the MIT Technology Review?
Do nonconformists look the same?
Dear Hipster: I’m sure you’ve heard of the old mimesis v. anti-mimesis imponderable, i.e. does life imitate art, or does art imitate life? It’s the kind of thing one could go back and forth on ...
Curling sport fandom: Ironic or genuine appreciation?
The rules for when people just throw the term out arbitrarily
Hipster: My daughter laughed at me when I said I didn’t like to watch curling because everyone else seemed to be into it. Whenever it’s on TV, the announcers always have to explain the rules ...
Did Fox News call Kamala Harris a poser?
Her viability as a presidential candidate may well hinge on her credibility as a connoisseur of both primo ganja and vintage hip hop
Dear Hipster: Do we put 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful and current California Senator Kamala Harris in the hipster hall of fame for apparently having been into both Snoop Dogg and Tupac before either rapper had ...
Wasting my life away reading McSweeney’s and the San Diego Reader
Will anyone remember me ten years after I’m gone? Twenty? One hundred?
Dear Hipster: For about a two weeks now, I have found myself lying asleep at night, staring up at the ceiling, watching the fan twirl around, listening to the night noises, and pondering the universe. ...
Original innovation or moustache imitation?
Interesting contradictions, and not just for hipsters
Dear Hipster: Sometimes I get confused about whether it’s more hipster to be an innovator or a clever imitator. On the one hand, it seems to me as if the most hipster thing you can ...
Target and Urban Outfitters: out on the bleeding edge of culture
What corporate America calls ironic t-shirts
Hipster: Are places like Target and Urban Outfitters bona fide hipster destinations or a mass marketed version thereof? — David Much of the outcome here depends on your personal definition of hipster. If you think ...
Hep to the jive
How “hep” and “hepster” worked their way into the American lexicon courtesy of jazz and swing culture
Dear Hipster: Growing up we used the term hep instead of hip, as in I’m hep, a real hep cat, or hep to the jive. So, shouldn’t it be Hepster? Asking for a very hep ...
The cachet of clever
It seems unfair to scorn a hipster for merely wanting to be loved
Hipster: Usually, I feel like YouTube gets me pretty well, recommends the right videos and whatnot, but every now and again I see some unsolicited, random video about things I don’t care about. The other ...
The overpowering nature of ketchup
A food calculated to titillate every taste bud
Dear Hipster: I was visiting people in Chicago over the holiday season. As you may well know, Chicago has a rich tradition of eating hot dogs, and I saw “no ketchup” signs at each and ...
Cheeky imponderables
Should I stay or should I go?
Let’s get the New Year rolling with some cheeky imponderables, shall we? Dear Hipster: What is the difference between cashing in and selling out? — Dan It’s like the difference between making your dreams a ...
What our dear friends in Corporate America know
I’m risking the Jon Snow treatment from my fellow hipsters.
Dear Hipster, Going into 2019, I’m contemplating a change of perspective. Throughout my life, I have tended to take a “close enough for rock and roll” attitude towards a lot of stuff because life is ...
Crossing an invisible line
These days, it’s Forged in Fire marathons and conspriacy theories
Dear Hipster: Although you’ve always made it abundantly clear there is no one-size-fits-all definition of hipster, we can all agree that hipsters are largely identified by what they do, whatever that may be. Some magic ...
Meta-catster!
He only chases free-range, grass-fed mice
Hey D.J. Check out this picture I found of “Catster.” I guess that’s like a “Hip-Cat!” So, if this were in the Reader, I guess it would be like asking the question, “If there are ...
It’s a trap
Like reading one of those timeshare advertisements that promise free island getaways
Dear Hipster: What would you say if you were walking downtown and you saw a pink poster in the window of an apartment complex advertising “Hip Apartments for Lease” alongside another pink poster of a ...
The perfect catch-all holiday
Maybe you should give Festivus a shot
Dear Hipster: With the so-called Holiday Season fully upon us, one cannot engage in the world without fielding a barrage of “Happy Holidays!” and other such seasonal well-wishes. As if it weren’t enough to be ...
