The Hipster; Subsequent Degradation of all that is Holy and Meaningful in the World.

I'm loathe to say it, but my descent into the pretension of hipster-dom has recently become apparent to me after attending an indie jam at the Downtown Tacoma Urbanxchange.

Going to said session was not my idea; just clearing the air. I was attending with my friend who knew a guy who was playing and wanted to support him in his music (And he was the only decent act surprisingly). They grew up as neighbors, believe me when I say it's not usually where we spend our evenings. Mine are usually spent updating my facebook status to "updating my facebook status."

Firstly, the place that held the little shin dig (where does this cliche come from?), UrbanXchange, is a clothing retailer that buys and sells vintage/used clothing. Generally, I'm all for the thrift shop bargain hunting, but somehow urbanxchange has zapped all of the love out of being thrifty by gearing itself to hipsters. Of which... I am? I am not? I'm not sure...

Urbanxchange's shelves are full of things for the "most discriminating trendsetter to develop a wardrobe representing the most current and relevant fashion brands and styles-at incomparible prices!" Basically, if you took the awesome finds out of thrift stores and sold them in a trendy boutique, but kept that used smell... Urbanxchange is what you'd get.

I like the hunt my friends, and this completely takes away from the "Drop kicking a homeless man and arm wrestling an old asian woman for the last pair of fuzzy pink ear muffs straight from 1984 feeling" that I get from Value Village. Not to mention it makes meaningless the point of retail recovery outfits like the Salvation Army, Value Village, Goodwill. (Well I guess their point is to make money, but I mean like on a grander scale of giving back to the community and recycling sort of thing...)

Point?

Anyway, being at the show made me realize how much I do NOT want to be a hipster. Amidst a gaggle of 18-20 somethings all wearing their tight skinny jeans, thrift buys, and stunner shades listening to crap bands experiment with their homemade crap sounds, I realized I am sooo NOT cool enough to pretend to not care about being cool. Granted... I'm sure in a few years the hipster's will have found a way to make the current not coolness I live in, into something cool. (HEAD IS EXPLODING)

You see, that's their bag baby. They take something that is considered unique, counter-culture and drain all of the specialness out of it by making it trendy, and culturally acceptable.

While I'm not quite a hipster, I might as well give up right now because I'm probably worse. I can't stop this pretension thing when it so obviously is a machine that will roll right over me, that I am already a part of conscious and unconsciously. I sneered at the falseness of the people around me in the tiny back room while listening to their abysmal music, but could equally have sneered at myself for sneering. ;P