I'm NOT a Hipster!?

Yes, I am. And you might be too if you value independent thinking, appreciate art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter. 

I was recently called a hipster after playing the song,"Country Lane" by Telekinesis, which I've conveniently placed below for you to listen to as you continue reading. This particular blog entry was inspired by the cruelty of name calling :)

I enjoy  music that features folk roots, melodic string accompaniment, acoustic sonority, electric guitar riffs, and an emotional male lead vocal performance. Admiring the chemistry of sound is probably another characteristic of a hipster, but I'm no longer in denial. 

I shun mainstream societal conventions and rules that apply to relationships, dating, and love. I try my best to ignore the media, advertising, especially movie reviews. Everyone has their own framework of understanding, but I prefer not to be influenced before going through the process myself. People are becoming brainwashed zombies entranced by the power of the media. The media promotes ethnocentric ideas that poison self-expression and originality. Unfortunately, independent thinkers are an endangered species in modern times.

You don't have to look like you just came from a rave to be a hipster.

I don't wear thrift store clothing, old-school sneakers, or thick rimmed glasses. I don't dress like the stereotypical hipster, and I'm definitely not attracted to men dressed in colorful, bright, and often animal print, skinny clothing. I don't frequent coffee shops. My hair style isn't edgy, and I possess more than 2% body fat. 

But I do have a degree from a liberal arts college. I'd like to think I have creative analytical thinking abilities and good taste in music. I'm not a wasteful person, or a collector of material things. I contribute to independent culture. I have an appreciation for indie music and independent film. I do like ironically themed parties and weird food. I love philosophy and brain teasers. As the hipster definition suggests, I have been called bi-polar, but definitely not boring. 

Those who reject the hipster way often also reject social change in general, but won't admit to admiring those who are more sensitive, intelligent, and culturally aware.

Hipsters are also associated with beatniks or the Beat Generation of the 1950's and 60's, who rejected materialism, consumerism, and censorship. The Beat Generation was made up of anti-conformists, and others who liberated themselves from mainstream ideals.

Beatnik, Hipster, call me what you want you bore me!

What’s the point?

When thinking about the big picture and the limited time we have to live, it’s often difficult for us to see the point of things. We spend so much time talking about doing things and all these things just seem rather pointless after wasting so much time discussing them.

The word “things” seems rather meaningless and pointless as well, so allow me to specify. 

Pointless:

Consuming/collecting

Excessive documentation/paperwork

Being stubborn/Unwilling

Arguing/Blaming

Stressing

Waiting/Wasting

Forgetting/Lying

Negativity/Dwelling

Indecisiveness

Debating

Hate

Important:

Finding inspiration and capturing/preserving it’s magical touch

Creating/Leaving a permanent, ageless existence of yourself.

Making a difference and improving self/environment/others

Learning and acquiring knowledge/Reading

Listening and understanding

Live music/Good Food

Family/Friends/Meeting new people/Love

Being active and eating healthy

Breathing Fresh air/absorbing sunlight

Learning to let go

Making lists

Thinking/Questioning/Discussing

Remembering

Honesty/Faith/Change

Efficiency/Competence

Dreaming/Focusing/Planning

Exploring the depths of your abilities

Exploring your desires and acting on temptation

Setting and completing challenges/goals

Traveling/new experiences/Taking Risks

Escaping

Critiquing the Critic

     In 1984, Peter Travers started writing film reviews for People Magazine. He moved to Rolling Stone in ‘88 and continues writing film reviews for them today. Through this critique, I will explore Travers’ perspective, style, method, and technique. I would describe Travers’ style of writing in the same way he describes Batman Forever; “It’s a thrill-packed joy ride that knocks itself out to please – so much so that it often threatens to collapse from plot overload.”

     Travers writes feature film reviews ranging from 500 to 1000+ words. His reviews are sometimes short and direct like his 1987 Spaceballs review, while others such as The Dark Knight are intensely descriptive and full of critical analysis. He chooses to review a variety of genres including comedy, horror, drama, action, sci-fi, and thriller.

     Travers leads his reviews with a very short paragraph, normally 3-4 sentences tops. The lead usually opens with a short, catchy line, which is either a fact or a snappy judgment about the film. Examples of this are “Mel Brooks is a gutbuster.” (Spaceballs) and “Sometimes a shamelessly stoopid, proudly profane R-rated comedy is all you want out of life.” (Role Models) It’s structured simplistically to grab the audience’s attention, get to the point of the article, and encourage the reader to continue reading. His methods effectively entertain and amuse the reader.

     The basic information of the film is hidden throughout the review in summary content and other judgments he makes about the movie.  In Travers’ earlier reviews like Thelma & Louise, he focuses on plot summary and talks about the actors in the order they appear in the narrative. But lately, he’s been leaving summary at the theaters and only telling the basic set-up like in his Eastern Promises and Apocalypto review. In the ’80s, he focused on plot summary and it could usually be found in the second, third, and fourth paragraph of his review.  Now, he gives the reader a short set-up in the second paragraph, and goes on to discuss the actors, director, writers (and if deserved) the cinematographer.

     Travers’ simple style makes his work easy to follow and fun to read. He chooses to heavily describe actor’s performances and only focuses lightly on cinematic elements, which expands his audience rather than closing it down to technical terms that only professionals would comprehend. His specific descriptions of characters and selected quotations help the reader re-experience the films.  He isn’t likely to incorporate quotes into every review, but when he does he pulls only the best lines from the film’s most memorable moments. 

In his 2008 review of The Dark Knight, Travers quotes the Joker just as he’s holding a razor blade to a victim’s face telling the man how his father carved his smile permanently into his face. Travers quotes the Joker at this plot changing moment saying, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stranger.” This significant quote not only reveals character, but also comes from an extremely memorable scene that highlights the theme of the human condition. The relative ratio of factual information to critical commentary and interpretation was 50/50 earlier in his career. But now that he has gained much experience and seniority at Rolling Stone, his reviews are dominated with critical judgments and pleasurable commentary at 75/25, which is much better than his earlier safe reviews.

      The scope of Travers reviews deal mostly with the actors and genre. But sometimes he centers his review on the most popular person involved in the film. Sometimes the focus of his review is the director such as Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. All of his judgments about Apocalypto revolve around Mel Gibson and his style of filmmaking. The same is seen in his Freddy Got Fingered review where he concentrates on the wacky Tom Green who stars in the film.

    Travers’ knowledge of film seems to extend as far as that he has seen many pictures, but not necessarily taken any critical analysis film classes. He does however, appear very knowledgeable about actors, directors, and their past performances. He doesn’t speak of any one person or genre without including a comparison or their most recent appearance. He includes these references in very interesting ways.  In his review of Batman Forever, when he’s referencing Jim Carrey’s past performances compared to The Riddler, the character he plays in this film, Travers sites, “Hammered for the crudities of “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “Dumb and Dumber,” Carrey continues to play by his own rules.” He sneaks in references to past performances with similar critiques of the actor’s role.  

   I have yet to read a review where Travers presents himself by using “I.” He does, however, speak directly to the audience in numerous occasions saying how you should feel or what you should do. “Don’t ask whether or not you should take The Day After Tomorrow seriously. Don’t take it at all,” Travers declares in his 2004 review of The Day After Tomorrow.

     Travers expresses his attitude of films through his short and to the point phrases that precede many of his in-depth character and plot analysis paragraphs. These simple judgments prepare the reader for the complex sentences that follow and allow for easier interpretation.  All of his reviews include vigorous comparisons to similar genres and artists. His writing flows smoothly with transitions leading into each and every paragraph. If he knows he wants to talk about a specific character in the next paragraph he includes them in a scene or quote in the end of the previous paragraph. His transitions stream by seemingly unnoticed and holds the piece together like invisible glue. His recent reviews are always focused and sustain a single line of interpretation that is reiterated at the end. Travers’ writing style is very basic, but nonetheless informative, persuasive and of course entertaining.

please take a Risk...

This is just a compilation of phrases I read on the Internet today that may assist in your daily escape.

everybody could potentially have their brain chemistry tweaked so that their baseline emotional state would be that of greater happiness.
but I had to go well out of my way to find the motivation.

keep looking.

It depends on what you can be content with.
so many options open to you.

a process of elimination

others don’t want to help themselves

Continued existence.

explore all those possibilities

Mentally becoming what you want to be.

please take a risk

The dangers arising from environmental abuses.

100 hours on the couch exploring, for example, the meaning of dreams.

turn your attention to other things, and it comes and sits softly on your shoulder

you actually ENJOY your position of victimhood.

it’s called self-pity

but mostly the things making people happy are the ones they've always been - friends and family, achievement, religion.

afraid I won’t find it because I can’t give enough of myself to one thing to be able to tell if that’s what I want.

transhumanist.

Elimination of old age.

It is only human to grow much too attached to the ills of the world

Physically becoming what you want to be

the problems caused when true mindcrafting becomes possible will be worth it?

to lack intelligence

to discriminate against others

the possibilities opened by mapping the human genome.

Something to transcend.

Incredibly Useful Information

MUSIC

I think music makes most things more enjoyable so check out this new song while you read my blog! Just press play, it won't open up a new window. "Devils" is a new song by the band Say Hi.

ESCAPE

If you're headed to the theaters this week I suggest checking out Cedar Rapids. Comedies are said to attract the most consumers to the theaters these days, and I usually won't pay to see a flick that's going to make me scared, sad, or hopeless, so I would agree with this statement. If there was a comedy as good as Cedar Rapids out every weekend, I would definitely frequent the theaters more. John C. Reilly makes the film worth watching. Check out the trailer here.

TV

Party Down was a half hour comedy that premiered on Starz March 20th 2009. The show was canceled after two seasons, but the best shows always are so don't let that stop you from watching. Produced by my favorite, Paul Rudd, and many others, Party Down is about a Los Angeles Catering company full of misfit workers, actors, and writers who didn't make it in Hollywood. The show documents the crew as they provide less than average service at a new event every episode. The show stars Martin Starr (who I very much adore), Lizzy Caplan, Jane Lynch, and Adam Scott. Watch the Party Down trailer here.

WATCH ONLINE

If lately the sites you used to go to -catch up on a TV show you normally follow or a movie you missed in theaters- aren't working or now want you to pay to watch, you should check out theiwatchnetwork.com. I've used this site after coming to find surf the channel and Hulu have started charging their viewers and want you to download a bunch of plug-ins to watch anything. This site offers links to each show after you've selected the episode using Loombo, which is a safe and free uploading file service. It's pretty self explanatory once you're on the site.

CHANGE YOUR OIL

You could change your own oil or you could go to the Mobile Gas Station located at 17661 Ventura Blvd Encino, CA (818) 788-3626 where they change your oil, hand wash your car, and detail & vacuum the inside of your car all for $28.00. You should change your oil every 3,000-5,000 miles. If you don't live in LA, I would suggest going to your local Wal-Mart!

FOOD

If all this reading has made you incredibly hungry you should check out my new cooking blog: http://eatingkristen.blogspot.com/

LOANS

A lot of my friends who graduated after me have been asking me for help concerning their student loans. As mentioned in my last blog, you can easily consolidate your loans here, however I failed to mention if you have private school loans they may not be able to help you and in the case of have private loans you should consolidate your loans here.

Before you consolidate though, you can always put your loans into forbearance so you do not have to pay on them right away. I would suggest putting your loans into forbearance for as long as you can so you have time to save money for when you must begin paying on them. Finding a well-paying job right out of college isn't likely for anyone and to qualify for forbearance you can claim a temporary hardship, unemployment, or part time job. It's also important to know that after the forbearance is over you will NOT have a lump sum of accumulating money to pay, instead the bills begin generating after the forbearance is over.

Consolidation does take 30-90 days though, so you should begin this process 1-3 months before your forbearance is over. There are many consolidation plans to choose from including a new income-base plan that fluctuates according to your salary, but does not go over the general planned amount per month. These plans tend to stretch 20-30 years, however you will not be paying on theses loans for the rest of you life. After the 20-30 years, whichever time period you chose, the rest of what you owe is forgiven.

THANKS

Thanks for checking out my blog!