Works Cited

Works Cited

Baldwin, James. If Black English Isn’t A Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? July 29,1979. Web. March 14, 2011.
~ This short essay talks about the evolving of Black English through the African Diaspora. Baldwin asks the question that language plays and how it ultimately reveals the speaker. We discover why language is so critical to our identity. The theme of identity is a common one throughout my essay.

Bamboozled. Dir. Spike Lee. Perf. Damon Wayans, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Savion   Glover. New Line Cinema. 2000. DVD.
~The film Bamboozled, by director Spike Lee is a challenge to the status quo. In an attempt to get fired from a major T.V. network career, the main character Dela decides to bring back the minstrel show. After the audience makes it a hit, Dela has a whole other set of problems. This film challenges ideas of racism and identity. I believe I can also tie this film to ideas of the trickster and also the role of language.

Leland, John. Hip: The History. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. Print.
~This will be the main foundation for the definition of hip. Leland uses multiple examples of hip and makes a case for each of the sources I will be using. I plan to examine each source further and relate them to the "shape hip takes."

‘‘The Killers,’ Ernest Hemingway: Interpretation.’’ In Understanding Fiction, edited by Cleanth Brooks, Jr. and Robert Penn Warren. Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1943, pp. 306—25.
~This is a Hemingway classic short story that challenges the idea of identity and time. This can been thought of in a hip light due to the break from orthodoxy and challenges the constraints of time. The concept that arises a huge epiphany is when we discover that the time inside is different from the time outside. This concept pokes at the rational construction of reality; and that is hip!

The hour that doesn't exist!

          I don't know about anyone else, but I am beginning to show signs of DHS (Defining Hip Syndrome).
Symptoms are: Increased cynicism, lack of motivation towards time related tasks, the nagging belief that everyone is a hipster, and various minor physical reactions to jazz music. 


In a brief attempt to repair my sanity, or what is left, I have decided to separate myself from these superfluous thoughts.


On to other topics, What happens to the the hour between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. during the upcoming time change?
Hypothetically we are supposed to set out clocks forward around 2 in the morning, thus becoming 3 a.m. right?
So the hour from 2 a.m to 3 a.m is a mystery. 
We don't actually find that hour until fall back, which occurs seven months later. So that mystery hour is just floating around space, probably chillin' with Tupac and Elvis. 


Where ever it goes, I am just relieved that it eventually comes back. Time, like energy, is relative and cannot be subtracted - it is neither created or destroyed; It re-shapes itself.


It was Albert Einstein who said, 
"The only reason for time, is so that everything doesn't happen at once."


Einstein, most famously know for his Theory of Relativity, understood that the faster an object was moving, the faster time moved relative to the stationary object. Since none of us can actually travel at the speed of light yet, this may be difficult to test. I'll just take Al's word for it!

Trickster Me This?

Talking about the Trickster this week has really given me a run for my money; I seem to be at a loss of ammo.

I don’t know why but for some reason when I think current trickster, a picture of Hugh Laurie comes to mind…

He plays Dr. House on the television show House, in which he is a complete smart ass but also happens to be a brilliant doctor. Each show usually ends with House saving someone’s life but only at the expense of making the other characters feel inadequate. House, like most Tricksters, uses his knowledge to fix situations that could potentially make him look bad. After all, it is just fiction.

As for a real live Trickster, that’s a tough one. Normally I would say Lady GaGa, but she has been my answer for everything lately, so I’m pondering this one…

I feel like there are numerous political figures that could be classified as a Trickster, it seems to be their area of expertise.

Take President Obama for example, he had to use his ‘wit and ingenuity’ to win the presidency, and he is constantly having to dodge stereotypes by the mass public but he does it in a smooth operator kind of way that allows you to think he is part trickster. His power is his language and I think he uses that to his advantage; most politicians are this way.

Another current Trickster – Johnny Depp?

Johnny Depp has had a longtime successful acting career, but how did he get started?

He actually avoided mainstream movies to do what he wanted, which were smaller roles and quirkier films, like Benny and Joon. He was looked at as a rebel for giving Hollywood the middle finger and still becoming one of today’s most popular actor. I think in this regard he defies classification. He has done everything from being a musician to making cartoons and still has time to be a family man. I think Johnny gets the last laugh here because he has crafted his stage to fit his lifestyle. 

Hip in Portland-No Thank You!

I have walked through the valley of Hipster and I have seen their wrath!

The city of Portland has taken “hipster” to a whole other dimension, and that’s putting it nice.

I recently took a trip to Portland, OR. to see a true living legend, Eric Clapton – who helped to create ‘hip’ through his various widespread tribute recordings of early blues musicians like Robert Johnson and also his own knack for the guitar, but I wasn’t prepared for the series of strange events that followed.

I arrived at my hotel The Jupiter, just before the rain began its evening pour. All seemed well until I got to my hotel room. I was told that this was one of the ‘hippest’ hotels in Portland, and the brightly packaged condom and earplugs on my nightstand, should have told me everything I needed to know.  Under normal circumstances, this would not have bothered me, but on this trip I happened to be traveling with my Father, awkward is right.

“I thought it was a three star hotel, sorry dad.”

In fact, the Jupiter was just an old Travel Lodge that had been DIY’ed to resemble a modern art boutique. 

“Look, if I wanted to stay up all night getting trashed and listening to indie pop, I would have stayed in Boise.”

I was under the impression I had booked a classy night stay, unless pink condoms are your idea of classy - I apologize.

Also on my nightstand was a guide to Portland, “this should be fun!”

Oh wait, it was actually just a list of things that you have to do to be considered ‘hip’ in Portland, for serious. Apparently it is no longer hip to use an umbrella during Portland’s monsoon season, throw it away!. Also, not hip, being nice to strangers or in my case, out-of-towners. Also on the list was:"Join a food co-op, get thrown off the max, get a haircut drunk, grow a half-beard, hate California and quit a yoga class.”

Only to name a few, there are 100 of them…. “Oh, now I get why everyone is so rude, they are angry, hung-over, pretentious and soaked?”

So basically this is what “hip” looks like in Portland:

Ironically clothed assholes that also look like they could be homeless, but play in a local band and won’t say thank you if you do them a favor.

I noticed that the dress code for the hipsters seemed to be easily recognizable. Guys: Messy hair, business jacket, retro pants and shoes with no laces. (Some of the guy’s just straight up looked like Charles Manson). Gals: Some sort of artistic sexy-fit shirt that barely covers the hinny, spandex, faux leather boots, usually no make-up, and messy hair.

All the hipsters would stand in the rain, smoking their cigs, with no umbrella!

Remember, umbrellas are so not hip.

 

The ‘hippest’ things about the Jupiter were the chalkboard doors! In fact, if the maid likes your artwork, it could appear on the Jupiter’s blog! Think of the potential!

I realize I may sound a wee-bit cynical, maybe it’s because I haven’t had the chance yet to “join an ironic/drunk sport,” my bad.

Get over yourself Portland, you’ll never be New York, and it’s ok because you will always have the other side of the river.

Source: Finder: Willamette Week’s Guide To Portland. 2010-2011.”100 things you must do to be a Portlander.” Portland, OR.

Ain't No BEAT Without It...

The Beat idea of Perfection from Imperfection...sounds like the Western version of Japanese Wabi-Sabi.


Wabi-Sabi~ Is the Japanese belief that there is beauty in imperfection. "This idea accepts the natural cycle of growth, decay and death." So essentially, it is all around us-all the time!
(Source: What is Wabi-Sabi? ; http://nobleharbor.com/tea/chado/WhatIsWabi-Sabi.htm)


So....If the Beat generation was cultivating this idea of the eternal present, and the acceptance of flaws instead of virtues, isn't that the ultimate way to live? 


Life is imperfect! Sometimes we are addicts, or dead-beats, consumers, sinners, liars, cheats, guilty of not living to our full potentials...I could keep going...


What was the question?


Maybe, the aesthetic of the beats' just grew from the conformity of the Industrial Revolution? They felt repressed and controlled by time - like their lives were a punch card? 


Maybe, the beats' were just representing the legacy of poets and artists that had sacrificed before them - like Whitman or Pollock?


John Leland says, hip has a ..."fetish for failure and self-destruction"(155).

                                                                       Jack Kerouac


                         Maybe this is why we lost so many poets and artists at such a young age?  

There seems to be a sense of romance attached to being           immortalized through the myth of destruction!

Who are the modern 'beats'?

This is a tough question because just like hip is constantly re-defining itself, so is imperfection! 

In recent pop culture, it feels like we have moved past the beauty of flaws and back to the traditional idea of a perfect product, in my opinion. When you download 50 songs in 60 seconds for 99 cents, do you really care how they got there? In their remastered condition with zero static? 

I like my broken needle because the flaws of the album live there~

So...Here is a top 5 list of current hip makers

(whether they know it or not):

Jack White

Lady GaGa

Clint Eastwood

Zooey Deschanel

Chuck Palahniuk

~ Explanations for the Top 5 will be posted at a later date, Thank You.

We are what we hate...

So in today's modern society, where communication mostly involves electricity(she thinks as she types), do we even need F2F communication anymore? Has conversation fallen to the wayside, just like common courtesy and student loans? 


I was given a cell phone when I was 17 years old, for emergency use only. When I turned 18, I had to pay for said phone. 
My parents were always firm believers in not making cell phones a part of our everyday life.
As a result, I rarely check my cell phone or even know where it is. If there happens to be an emergency, I will reach for it like it is my lifesaver.


The other night when I was supposed to be visiting my parents, they were both slouched over in their seats, with both hands on their cell phones, texting! If there is a problem now, they will just text me. So if there ever is an emergency, I will be the last person to know. Thanks a lot! 


This must be another one of those, "do as I say, not as I do" moments, like smoking.


This is an epidemic problem that needs to be examined. 

Now, twitter me this? How egotistical do you have to be, to actually think people care about what you are doing at 2 a.m. at Walmart?

I may be cynical today, but I still won't have a keyboard on my phone tomorrow.

Everything is cheaper than it looks....

Ladies and Gentlemen, Los Angeles....

So when we think of pulp fiction stories and film noir, L.A. comes to mind for two reasons:

#1 – A new genre needs a new location. New York was already happenin’ and L.A. was just getting started.

#2 – L.A. had a certain mystique and mystery surrounding it, partly due to the film industry and partly because of the myth. “Hollywood, where dreams come true”.

Now John Leland has a great point too:

“The [west] coast was a place to contemplate the failure of the open road. Playing against the popular image of California as a land of sunshine and opportunity, pulp writers recast the state as a dark, violent place where the outcasts, drifters and grifters dug in after they ran out of room to run”.

~ So if life on the road was a symbol of masculine freedom, than by the time you reached California, it’s almost as if the road had changed these men into mysterious, dark figures.

~ Identity is out the window. No one really knows who’s who, because people can reinvent themselves by the hour.