 The feeling's back again! Everytime I sit down in front of my laptop and think of what to write for the next week's column, I think of the word limit and feel like a very fat lady trying to fit into a very tight corset. Thanks to my editor, Chris, I was truly enthusiastic about doing right-to-the-bone research on "hipsterdom." Yeah, coolhunting is already uncool, sorry. However when I found so many detailed articles on this "fresh" issue, I just couldn't make up my mind and choose one aspect. So this week, just as an introduction, I will be helping you understand what we will be dealing with throughout the semester. So, here we go...
Hipsterdom! Come again? As it is clearly stated in the divine webpages, it "refers to the hierarchy within the sub-culture of hipsters. Being a part of this hierarchy often has to do with 'being in the know': knowing what is popular at the moment with art, music and fashion. The hierarchy culminates into a top 1% of people who are what marketing companies refer to as the ‘trend-setters,’ the people that define what's cool and that everyone else inevitably follows. Hipsterdom is generally confined to people between the ages of 18 to 30, often middle class, often educated in Liberal Arts."
 My favorite explanation comes from The Journal of Mental Environment:
"These hipster zombies… are the idols of the style pages, the darlings of viral marketers and the marks of predatory real-estate agents," wrote Christian Lorentzen in a Time Out New York article entitled 'Why the Hipster Must Die.' "And they must be buried for cool to be reborn."
So, as I dig out more on this issue, you keep checking your myspace pages to track down hipsters with flourescent sunglasses, skinny jeans and many "extraordinary" accessories!
Yišit Turhan (EE/IV)
yt_coolhunter@yahoo.com
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