the re-birth of "cool"

So my friend Jae just emailed me this article from a NY times op-ed columnist named David Brooks. I just about died when i read it because it is seriously genius. laced with thick sarcasm, this man really captured what it means to be "cool" these days.. which by the way is totally ridiculous, but almost entirely true considering this is how much of the "in" crown operates. read and enjoy.

(**side note... there are some arduous words throughout this article, so don't worry.. i've gone through and highlighted the best ones and looked up the definition for you. apparently using extra big words that no one even knows the definition of... up's your "cool" factor. i know. you're welcome.)


August 8, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Lord of the Memes
By DAVID BROOKS

Dear Dr. Kierkegaard,
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.

ice cream man havoc and the end of summer.

this is how my most favorite summer of all began. i mean.. last summer was great and all, but this one was my favorite of all i think:
Kendrika was graduating. Kristina was about to marry Nathan. I had finished my first semester as a part-time student again... and Africa was in clear view.
it really was a notable summer. i traveled more in 2 months than i have probably all year. i got to see the landscapes of Malawi, my hometown of san jose, santa cruz... i snorkeled and cleaned the rivers in yosemite, had many dinners outside in my backyard with my sisters, and of course.. enjoyed the youthful bliss of disneyland and inflatable water slides.
and then this happened.. i mean, it's really not that bad, just definitely worth documentation considering.. ok.
so i'm at the end-of-the-summer "we love long beach" picnic yesterday, and everything was free (food/face painting.. other arts and craft type things) and there was this ice cream man truck there giving away free ice cream. so i obviously got excited about the possibility of enjoying a 50/50 (orange and cream) bar in the hot sun of long beach... to cap off a pretty perfect summer. and so i get my ice cream bar, unwrap it, go to take my first lick of it.. and what happens? my TOUNGE gets STUCK to it. i'm not exaggerating. so at first i'm like.. as cool as a cucumber (literally).. just trying to unstick my tongue and pretending like it's not that big of a deal. but then.. my lips also get stuck so now i'm starting to get nervous and think "oh shoot... this is worse than the tongue stuck to the pole scene in a christmas story." the panic sets in and i realize that this is serious business. i calmly walk over to keslie and tell her that my face is practially stuck to this popsicle (so dumb.. i know).. and she's like "well.. you what??" so i run over to the trash can and rip the thing out from my mouth (probably not the BEST idea).. and everything immediately goes numb.. and then starts bleeding. i mean WHO DOES THAT? i'm making it sound much more scary and traumatic than it actually was because it only took me about 20 minutes to recover.. once the bleeding stopped and i went to rite aid to buy neosporin. so anyways.. today it's like 150% better. i'm convinced that it's because (so i've been told) that the mouth is the fastest healing part of our bodies. but be warned.. do not get free ice cream from the ice cream man and then try and eat it without letting it thaw out for about oh.. 15 minutes. i found out afterwards from a few people that they actually kept the ice cream cold with dry ice. shouldn't that be illegal?

so i changed my mind about not being ready for the cold weather. well.. maybe i'm still not so ready for the cold weather.. so much as i'm ready for it to be fall again. there's something about waking up and being super cozy in my warm bed.. and then walking outside and wanting to put on boots and a big sweater and drink tea all day long. today was the first day i felt like that. i walked out of my room this morning and the air smelled crispy. and it was all foggy... and i kind of got excited. the past few days i have accidentally dressed for "cooler" weather.. only to travel miles away from home and realize day after day that i live in southern california and summer lasts through september.. if not october as well, and i am NOT dressed appropriately for the weather. i'm ready to bring out the coats and ever growing collection of boots. i'm ready to see the leaves turn red and wear warm knit caps everyday. maybe i'm ready to slip and slide in a few puddles (i'm very clumsy) or sink my feet into a mound of snow. this is a good season.

the mumford.

you know sometimes when you go to a concert to see an artist and you have no idea who the openers are.. and then you realize you wish you hadn't shown up to the venue so early and now have to endure 32 minutes of complete boredom? well my friends.. that was definitely not the case tonight. tonight could not have been better in fact. danika, marika, maddie and i went to go see our favorite singer of the summer.. maybe even the year i don't know.. named laura marling. we love her. and we got there sort of early and ended up ordering fries and enjoying this super good opening band. i just feel like that sort of thing rarely happens, and anyways.. they call themselves mumford and sons and are really good. really really good. i suppose almost any folky-sounding band of lads from the UK are fine in my book. their set of instruments included a banjo, mandolin, xylophone, stand up base, guitar (obvs.) and a nord synth/organ... and 4 amazingly harmonized voices. so, needless to say.. they were a happy surprise addition to our evening. and if course laura marling ruled. she was everything i was hoping she'd be. hah. so sweet and simple and just a lovely singer.
we could not help ourselves.. how often does one of your favorite artists come all the way to the states to play a pretty small intimate show and then come out afterwards to actually talk to people. soooo... we took advantage of the oportunity.. sort of felt dorky about it... but then graciously thanked winston for introducing us.

resurrection of jane.

is anybody else aware of the fact that in 47 days we are reverting back from the bliss of daylight savings? this evening when i peeked outside of my little office window at 7:30pm, it was already black outside.. which reminded me that in 47 short days.. it will be pitch black by like- 6pm. i'm not sure i'm ready to accept the cold weather that is looming so close outside. not to mention right inside my bedroom that is detached from the house and constructed almost entirely of windows... making the inside temp. just about as cold as the outside. i pulled out my down comforter yesterday that was buried far away in the abyss that exists behind the big brown chair in my room. it's laying comfortably on my cubby of a bed.

for whatever reason.. it decided that the concept of having a blog was all of the sudden a super good idea to me. i am always running through all these different thoughts in my head and i think i just appreciate writing for writing's sake. long, long before the geniuses over at myspace came up with myspace, and before even friendster existed.. there was this website called live journal. holy s. do you remember that? that freaking time capsule that i can't break back into and unlock because i forgot my stupid password. i had a live journal account when i was 17 or 18.. or maybe 19. i can't remember, but i wish i could see what my pre-twentysomething mind was thinking..when i moved to LA, i gave up the habit of recording my life for everyone to see.

maybe that's a good thing. maybe i'd be super embarrassed at myself right now.

today i went to biola and ate lunch with danika (below). danika is a really special girl. it's ridiculous how she has so much knowledge of everything biblical. well, maybe not everything obviously. but it's quite impressive. she was telling me about how she was interviewed today for this magazine, and they were asking her something along the lines of what she thought about how "non-christians" view believers and why they view us as such a different subculture amongst our western society. she made a good point that well.. for starters, it's sad that because we believers are normal human beings.. with faults and weaknesses and sin and guilt and it's silly that a lot of well meaning christians have been so unfairly pigeonholed into this subcategory of humans that are radical and self-righteous and narrow. and don't get me wrong.. for the record.. i do dislike the word "christian..." mostly because a ton of people hold this negative stigma along with the word. and rightly so. there are soo many ridiculous people out there.. on television.. in church.. that are super judgemental and critical and just wear an unloving face that misrepresents Christ in so many ways. as taboo as i think this topic is for so many, i can't help but bring it up because i obviously think it's so important to be decent human being who does happen to follow Christ and is sensitive to the realities of good and evil.. happiness and sadness.. feelings of conviction.. etc. etc. and are aware that these feelings, these "convictions" i guess.. could not have possibly evolved out of nowhere. and the difference between "our" world view and "theirs" is that believers choose to adopt a doctrine of faith in a single God.. just one. not many gods that are changing and breed fear, but one that gives us a good and meaningful representation of what it means to just love and accept people..however best we are capable, and to do it with purpose. people want to take an agnostic stance on faith, and that's ok i guess.. for someone else -- but there is no stability in that you see.. i feel like you would always be grasping for some truth... christianity or otherwise.. something to center your life on.. but it would always be changing.