Simon got me to take another look at Blue States Lose. It’s a Gawker column that mocks particularly excessive outfits worn clubbing by New York hipsters. I’m not going to try to articulate my emotional response to this, so instead I’ll discuss its educational merits:

Ironically (in a hipster way), Gawker is considered a hipster brand, and Blue States Lose is a copy of Vice Magazine’s (which is also a hipster brand) Dos and Don’ts column. In addition to being hipsterish in itself, Blue States Lose does a good job visually explaining what a hipster is. If you prefer it in writing, this surprisingly high-level article in Time Out New York is quite comprehensive for that region. One of the observations the article makes demonstrates how the Creative Class can be chasing cool and yet still be an economic engine:

The mainstream hipster is not an artist or a musician. He has an office job, and wears one hat to work and another at night…[she] has learned to simulate rebellion while procuring and furnishing a comfortable two-bedroom.

I was also shocked to see an admission that “philosophers” (Baudrillard and company?) warned about “fetishiz[ing] the authentic and regurgitat[ing] it with a winking inauthenticity”. I guess philosophy is useful for something after all! (Although nobody mentioned how to stop it…)