At some point I had a lot of thoughts in my head and was going to organize them into some meaningful/culturally relevant treatise, but since this post has been sitting in the ‘drafts’ section for the last 9 months, I figured I’d just drop the links and perhaps start a conversation in the comments section.
Without further adieu, los links.
via paul mittleman on the honeyeeblog – i once read an entire book about the science and theory of memes, i think i understood 10% of it…
“These tastemakers surf the obscure niches of the culture market bringing back fashion-forward nuggets of coolness for their throngs of grateful disciples.
Second, in order to cement your status in the cultural elite, you want to be already sick of everything no one else has even heard of.”
Lord of the Memes
NY Times Op-Ed
Published: August 7, 2008
By DAVID BROOKS
All my life I’ve been a successful pseudo-intellectual, sprinkling quotations from Kafka, Epictetus and Derrida into my conversations, impressing dates and making my friends feel mentally inferior. But over the last few years, it’s stopped working. People just look at me blankly. My artificially inflated self-esteem is on the wane. What happened?
Existential in Exeter
Dear Existential,
It pains me to see so many people being pseudo-intellectual in the wrong way. It desecrates the memory of the great poseurs of the past. And it is all the more frustrating because your error is so simple and yet so fundamental.
You have failed to keep pace with the current code of intellectual one-upsmanship. You have failed to appreciate that over the past few years, there has been a tectonic shift in the basis of good taste.
You must remember that there have been three epochs of intellectual affectation. The first, lasting from approximately 1400 to 1965, was the great age of snobbery. Cultural artifacts existed in a hierarchy, with opera and fine art at the top, and stripping at the bottom. The social climbing pseud merely had to familiarize himself with the forms at the top of the hierarchy and febrile acolytes would perch at his feet.
In 1960, for example, he merely had to follow the code of high modernism. He would master some impenetrably difficult work of art from T.S. Eliot or Ezra Pound and then brood contemplatively at parties about Lionel Trilling’s misinterpretation of it. A successful date might consist of going to a reading of “The Waste Land,” contemplating the hollowness of the human condition and then going home to drink Russian vodka and suck on the gas pipe.
This code died sometime in the late 1960s and was replaced by the code of the Higher Eclectica. The old hierarchy of the arts was dismissed as hopelessly reactionary. Instead, any cultural artifact produced by a member of a colonially oppressed out-group was deemed artistically and intellectually superior.
During this period, status rewards went to the ostentatious cultural omnivores — those who could publicly savor an infinite range of historically hegemonized cultural products. It was necessary to have a record collection that contained “a little bit of everything” (except heavy metal): bluegrass, rap, world music, salsa and Gregorian chant. It was useful to decorate one’s living room with African or Thai religious totems — any religion so long as it was one you could not conceivably believe in.
But on or about June 29, 2007, human character changed. That, of course, was the release date of the first iPhone.
On that date, media displaced culture. As commenters on The American Scene blog have pointed out, the means of transmission replaced the content of culture as the center of historical excitement and as the marker of social status.
Now the global thought-leader is defined less by what culture he enjoys than by the smartphone, social bookmarking site, social network and e-mail provider he uses to store and transmit it. (In this era, MySpace is the new leisure suit and an AOL e-mail address is a scarlet letter of techno-shame.)
Today, Kindle can change the world, but nobody expects much from a mere novel. The brain overshadows the mind. Design overshadows art.
This transition has produced some new status rules. In the first place, prestige has shifted from the producer of art to the aggregator and the appraiser. Inventors, artists and writers come and go, but buzz is forever. Maximum status goes to the Gladwellian heroes who occupy the convergence points of the Internet infosystem — Web sites like Pitchfork for music, Gizmodo for gadgets, Bookforum for ideas, etc.
These tastemakers surf the obscure niches of the culture market bringing back fashion-forward nuggets of coolness for their throngs of grateful disciples.
Second, in order to cement your status in the cultural elite, you want to be already sick of everything no one else has even heard of.
When you first come across some obscure cultural artifact — an unknown indie band, organic skate sneakers or wireless headphones from Finland — you will want to erupt with ecstatic enthusiasm. This will highlight the importance of your cultural discovery, the fineness of your discerning taste, and your early adopter insiderness for having found it before anyone else.
Then, a few weeks later, after the object is slightly better known, you will dismiss all the hype with a gesture of putrid disgust. This will demonstrate your lofty superiority to the sluggish masses. It will show how far ahead of the crowd you are and how distantly you have already ventured into the future.
If you can do this, becoming not only an early adopter, but an early discarder, you will realize greater status rewards than you ever imagined. Remember, cultural epochs come and go, but one-upsmanship is forever.
As the new draft pick for the Consortium team, I bring to you my first post. Let’s make it an introduction since many of you might not know me.
I was born a Gemini on Friday the 13th in the Pacific Northwest. I spent my youth mostly in Seattle and it’s Northern regions with half of my summers up in Richmond/Vancouver Canada. I just graduated the University of Washington, which is where I met Alex and then Nick when he visited a year or so ago.
What will I be dropping on you?
Life in the Emerald (City) no doubt. Streetwear/shoe criticisms, maybe. A lot of reminiscing (word to Pete & CL) and thoughts of young man trying to make it in his field (industrial design). and Hip Hop. I’ll be talking about that a lot, and referring to it even more. I already did in this post.
Let me end quick like, so pump up the volume like Rakim and dream of the Sesame Street I wish I had when I was a kid.
bert & ernie – ante up
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Big up to the Consortium and extended fam worldwide. Just got everything off the ground out here in the West Coast. Lot’s of catching up to do on all sides, north, south, east and west so stay tuned.
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when the statement “the best performance of the century” is thrown around, you know something good is in store
a few things happened in two-thousand-and-seven. some new albums came out, some new films were released, there were also a few new books written. some old music was discovered, a few old movies were introduced and some classic stories were read. a new continent opened up and along with it a great new adventure. friends came and went, new friends came and some of them went too. a handful of things took place in two-thousand-and-seven, here’s a sampling of those things that connected with me.
new places
san francisco – first time in s.f. by the bay, possibly a contendor with nyc for favorite american city? only time will tell
tokyo – well, i basically live there and it’s pretty much a given that this city competes for best in the world in my rankings
hong kong – right up there with tokyo, maybe above it..?
sydney – okay, can i have multiple favorite cities; going to have to break them down by continent
top five books (that i read in 07)
the remains of the day – kazuo ishiguro
never let me go – kazuo ishiguro
the nick adams stories – hemingway
why i am not a christian – bertrand russell
the alchemist – paulo coelho
another great post on the honeyee blog by john c. jay partner in wieden + kennedy – this one concerning the culture of the historic marketing and creative firm. w+k began and is headquartered in a city near and dear to me – portland, oregon. they have handled marketing for some of the biggest names out there and most of nike’s iconic marketing schemes were devised within the walls of w+k. wieden and kennedy represents a place and a culture that i could really see myself in one day. the creativity, variety of subject matter and cosmopolitan(ness) of the firm appeals to me on all levels. i filled out their ‘w+k seeking’ online questionnaire – one day, maybe…check it out for yourself here:
honeyee
(*natalie portman is a dream)
great article from last sunday’s new york times style magazine via john j and the honeyee blog. talks about the current state of art and how the art world has just blown up lately prompting some to question the state of the art game. check it here
if you’re in the market for a good magazine subscription – something to read on those long winter nights, let me recommend Monocle Magazine. Monocle is only eight issues old so if you jump now you can act like you knew before everyone else feels the hype. run by tyler brule, the same dude that brought us Wallpaper magazine in the early 90s. the magazine is the perfect read for someone with an international experience, a love for world affairs, culture, design and the finer things in life. i purchased a subscription a few months ago after discovering the magazine on the shelves of borders in brisbane, australia. although the price is fairly hefty it is probably the only magazine i will renew a subscription to when it comes up. check out the website www.monoclemagazine.com and if you like it i’ll hook you up with my password an user name. got to get back at that french canadian bastard for charging such a subscription fee! word