America's top ten hipster cities

Travel and Leisure magazine just came out with the top ten most hipster friendly cities, which got me reflecting on what is a hipster? what does that word mean? where did this all begin? Firstly, if you ask a hipster what a hipster is, they will describe with disdain a person who has ironic facial hair, tight jeans and a holier than thou attitude, while sipping on their soy latte and surfing Pitchfork on their MacBook pro. The actual definition is not really that elusive, its as simple as the definition for pornography "I know it when I see it" undoubtedly, many people who live in urban areas can point out a hipster when they see one but couldn't really give you a definitive definition. 
   Recently I re-watched "High Fidelity" staring John Cusack and Jack Black, and I realized that movie came out in 2000, at that time I was living in New York City, and Williamsburg was the birthplace, or origin of hipsterdom.  If High Fidelity were to come out now, those people would be identified as hipsters, ten years before that they were slackers, around 1980 they were new wave or part of the Madonna or Jean-Micheal Basquit art and music scene in SoHo.  If you go back further you can say the Velvet Underground were hipsters and before that Allen Ginsburg and his Beat Generation crew.  My point being, its a counter culture, you have a mainstream and then you have those that are either a bit ahead of the curve as far as societal values or those that are outsiders to what they consider a bland, corrupt, or evil mainstream of politics, banks and corporations.  In some ways they are right, but just like the hipster ethos will eventually become mainstream and co-opted by the corporations, you can look through history and see how this has happens with each counter culture movement along the way.    This is nothing new, and once Hipsterdom is fully mainstream it will die out and be reborn as something else. 

Jobs, career, what's admirable?

      It's funny what jobs society deems cool and which people look at with contempt, of course this varies on society, country and region, but universally some are seen as more admirable than others where ever you are in the world.  Actor, musician, writer, certain business people, artists, you get the picture.  Those jobs are seen as somehow better than janitor, garbageman, insurance salesman, but if you are going to die, and you can't take your job with you, what does it matter what you do for a living? Most people just need money to pay the bills or get by, so what does it matter what they do to make money.  Sure, you may say we admire those with talent, but that is something that should not be admired, it's like admiring someone for being tall, these are the gifts people are born with our without.   One should be admired for honesty, character, being humble, or better yet, no one should look down upon or admire anyone else.  The act of admiring others is basically an ego thing that comes down to putting yourself either above or below someone else, comparing, measuring.   Every person is on their own trip, it's your personal journey.  Do what you do to the best of your ability, don't worry about anyone else because you aren't perfect and neither am I. 

Slow Carb Diet week three

This is my third week on the Slow Carb Diet.  My weight this morning was 182 pounds down from my high of 197.5 around six weeks ago, I had started a version of the low carb diet but didn't start seeing real results until I started the strict slow carb diet.  This week my energy has been a bit lower but I feel this is because I have been eating mostly protein and vegetables, not as many beans as is recommended.  Today I had egg whites for breakfast with a bit of salsa and 4% cottage cheese, about one large scoop of the cottage cheese.  A chicken fajita bowl minus rice and cheese with some guacamole from Chipotle for lunch and a shredded beef fajita bowl minus rice and cheese for dinner also with a scoop of guacamole.  My mouth has been dry, I have been drinking quite a bit of water but this is something I am not sure why is happening.  Other than some minor cravings, for sugar and cheese, I am planning on continuing the slow carb diet for a long time, as long as I can.  Most of the restrictions can be adapted in most restaurants or places of dining once you get the hang of it.

Tape (film review) Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman

Very well written drama with sharp dialogue.  Linklater proves again here why he was one of the best writers of dialogue of the 90's.  Ethan Hawke plays a loose canon drug dealer and volunteer firefighter who travels to Lansing Michigan to attend his High School buddies film screening at the Lansing Film Festival.  The drama begins right as the two reconnect and keeps escalating.  Captivating interactions, great character studies and many twists and turns.  Again Linklater shows what can be done with solid actors, a good script and a low budget.  The entire film takes place in one room.  Incidentally this would be a good play as well.  Reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock s "Rope" which also took place in one room and built an intriguing story and film.  "Tape" is a thinking persons film, if you are looking for something cerebral this is a great choice, if you want lots of bangs and action look elsewhere.

Collapse (film review)

As a fan of Chris Smith the director of "Collapse" earlier work like "Home Movie" and "American Movie" I eagerly anticipated this 2009 documentary.  The film is well done, almost in Errol Morris style with a haunting score, and random clips played while the interviewee speaks.  Micheal Ruppert the subject of the film, has a long history of whistle blowing dating back to the 1980's.  He speaks in a style that is a combination of a conspiracy theorist and a professor but with a wealth of facts and knowledge.  Overall, his theories are intriguing about peak oil, and quite possibly he is right about what he says, however I disagree with his doom and gloom prophecies, I believe that necessity is the mother of invention.  With a combination of wind, solar, recycling and resourcefulness from local farming our species can avert the impeding depletion of the worlds remaining oil reserves assuming they are indeed running out.  He negates part of his own argument by referencing Cuba and how they turned to local farming and now are producing the best organic food they have had in years.  I do agree with him that our current industrial model of food production is completely wasteful and unsustainable.  Overall, a captivating film and worth watching.

Slacker (film review)

Oh college, good times.  Oh the early nineties, the pseudo intellectual college conversations with some small nuggets of wisdom here and there.  "Slacker" watching this film, 21 years after it came out it is clear how important this movie is now, was then in many ways.  The first is everyone in the film is much skinnier than people are today, no one is distracted by "Facebook" or "Twitter" on their phones while in a bar or coffee shop together.  People seem much more engaged in each others pseudo-intellectual conversations than they are today.  This film is a time capsule, in retrospect a more innocent time, a more peaceful and calmer time for America.   In many ways this movie was one of the first, if not the first to kick off the 90's independent movie renaissance, which only years later after "Pulp Fiction" became bought out by the Wienstiens.  This was before YouTube, before people could pick up a camera and make a movie but in many ways foreshadowed what was to come.  "Slacker" showed that good dialogue, a small budget and some creativity can produce an interesting, intriguing and fun film.  Cheers to Richard Linklater.

The Long Goodbye (film review)

Easily one of Altman's best films and an early precursor to other films later in the decade by the director. The Long Goodbye is a fine transition in style to Altmans later films like "Nashville" and "A Wedding" Elliot Gould does an outstanding job portraying the outre detective Phillip Marlowe, using his mumbling, bumbling, smart ass speaking style, as a technique to keep the film under the illusion that everything is in motion, like the ocean waves in the film, Marlowe speaks in a sort of beatnik type "Daddy-O" style combined with a smooth talking private eye, and the result works perfectly. The film works like it is timed by a metronome, it rolls along, seamlessly in a way that only Altman can achieve, and like the rhythm of the waves and Marlowe's speech, the camera is constantly in motion as well. The roving camera does an excellent job of allowing the viewer to feel as though they are witnessing more action than actually exists on screen.

Wade (Sterling Hayden) is a fantastic Hemingway-esque writer in the film. Hayden's size and booming voice, in conjunction with his alcoholism and potential brutality, lend an aroma of unpredictableness to his character. Wade's beautiful wife, who has a mysterious bruise on her face, is like a timid, loyal animal, subjected to the whims of her over bearing master. Henry Gibson, who plays Wade's doctor, is excellent as a sort of despotic mouse, who frightens an elephant into conforming to his will, this irony is one of the films intriguing, bizarre twists.

This film works well as a character study, and is one of the best films of the seventies. A must see for every student of film. 9/10