hipsters

Bust out the irony before casting is so over

The confusing ad and the labour shortage behind it

Nintendo guns banned, the Turkey Dump & Hipster ads

Colby Cosh explains what hipster candy bars, crazy beards and hucksterism have to do with the future of work

I did a short interview earlier this week with a writer from NOW Magazine in Toronto, about a new art exhibition down in a Parkdale warehouse called A City Renewal Project. I haven’t seen the show, but I gather that what the artists have done is recreate a rundown neighbourhood in the warehouse/gallery, as a way of commenting on gentrification and the way it literally papers over the decay and poverty in our midst.

The worst thing about hipster douchebags is that sometimes they’ll invite you to a goat barbeque in Austin, and then when you get there, they won’t talk to you or introduce you to anyone, and you’ll stand around trying to make small talk with 30 apathetically hostile hipster strangers like a f***ing knob.

Many of you have written to draw my attention to the cover story in the current issue of Adbusters, arguing that hipsterdom represents “the dead end of western civilisation” because, unlike previous countercultures, this one “has been stripped of its subversion and originality.”

Forty years on, it seems everyone these days has an opinion on May 1968 — on its causes, what it meant at the time, what it’s legacy is, etc. — with more essays appearing each day. I was tempted to write a recent Maclean’s column on the topic but was (wisely, very wisely) waved off by my excellent editor, Sarmishta Subramanian.