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Music, Pop Culture

Just Kids: What is Art?


Last night I finished Patti Smith’s book about her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids. Lying in bed with tears rolling down into my neck, I had so many thoughts racing through my head. Life, death, New York, art, the artist, the idea that a love can transcend multiple planes. I laid still, taking in everything I had just read and letting it permeate. It was a good book and I enjoyed the journey.

However, during my time reading Just Kids, there was an underlying current that kept gnawing at my psyche. An idea that made me question my own views on art and the artist. Mid-way through the book I began questioning the validity of the two characters. I chastised them both for being directionless, for creating for the sake of creating with seeming disregard to what the medium was. To me, they appeared to be waiting for something to stick. Robert in particular bothered me for his creative ambitions seemed to solely revolve around fame and fortune. His creative outlets (more…)

January 21, 2011 by
Music, Pop Culture

Trapped in the Closet: The Audience Participation Guide

Once in awhile a movie comes along that really makes you stop and think. A movie that makes you question the very essence of our existence. The nature of Mankind and the dilemma of choice.

A movie that revives your faith in artists, the act of creating, and the quality of work that is being birthed into the world.

A movie that makes you laugh, cry, sing, jump up and cheer, take off your pants and start humping the living room floor.

A movie like Trapped in the Closet.

There is no finer hip-hopera set in Chicago than R.Kelly’s roman a clef about closet hiding, Beretta wielding, crusty-ass ho’ing, and midget porking. R. Kelly has single-handedly created, owned, and destroyed a genre with this film.

Released in 2005 and 2007, the Trapped in the Closet saga now boasts 22 chapters with more rumored to come. The story follows the epic journey of Sylvester (played by R. Kelly, which coincidentally is his middle name) and the trials and tribulations of being a player in Chi-town. The film begins with (more…)

January 20, 2011 by
Film, Music, Pop Culture

Prince Pubic Hair Jeff Goldblum Boner Time

My mother always taught me to aim high and by God she taught me well for you see, Ladies and Gentlemen, I’ve discovered that when one Googles “Prince pubic hair”, “Freddie Mercury chest hair” and “Jeff Goldblum boner” Hipstercrite is the very first search result that comes up on Google.

I know what you’re thinking- that is some pretty impressive shit.

Well, it took me a very long time to get to Prince Pubic Hair Freddie Mercury Chest Hair Jeff Goldblum Boner status in life. I knew when I was a little girl that it would be a difficult task but one day, I would achieve such notoriety.

It wasn’t an easy journey though.

The first time I wrote about Prince’s pubic hair it caused strain on the relationship between my father and I. It was in the early stages of my blog and boundaries had yet been established between what my parents and my blog. My Dad, at the time, thought my blog was a parental buffet of offspring information and was surprised when he read my post about Prince’s pubic (more…)

January 19, 2011 by
Hipstercrite Life

The Plight of the Only Child


I’m a left-handed Jewish only child Gemini female from a divorced family.

Well, Taurus now if you ask whoever the hell came up with the new zodiacs.

I know what you’re thinking. After re-reading the first sentence, I’m thinking the same thing too.

She must be a lot of work.

It’s easy to think that if you believe the stereotypes regarding left-handers, Jews, former Geminis, females and only children.

Oy vey! Do they write nasty things about only children! Just the other day I came across an article where they describe only children as “narcissistic”, “self-centered”, “stubborn”, “autonomous”, “alienating”, “loners”, “aloof” and “odd”.

How dare they!

They left out “uniquely gifted”, “supremely intelligent” and “God’s greatest gift to the world”, duh.

What I read about only children both enlightened and scared the living shit out of me. Some publications try to give us the benefit of the doubt and state that the generalizations of only children are typically not true, (more…)

January 18, 2011 by
Pop Culture

In the Shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Unsung Women of the Civil Rights Movement


While getting myself reacquainted with Martin Luther King Jr. this weekend, I came to discover a civil rights activist by the name of Daisy Bates who is often minutely discussed in the history books. A force to be reckon with, Daisy Bates was a strong spirited woman who helped call for integration in Arkansas by organizing the Little Rock Nine. The Little Rock Nine was one of the early major events in the Civil Rights Movement wherein nine young African-American children bravely attended the racially divided Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

In addition to her leadership in Little Rock, Daisy and her husband, L.C., created one of the first civil rights oriented newspapers called the Arkansas State Press, she was president of the Arkansas NAACP chapter, she served in anti-poverty programs under Johnson’s administration , and she was a published author. However, Daisy’s journey was not an easy one- she discovered by the teasing of her peers that her mother was raped and killed (more…)

January 17, 2011 by
Austin

Your Austin Daily Deal Guide

If you’re anything like me, you’ve signed up for a million daily deal emails and they clutter your inbox each morning. Many of them don’t interest me, but I leave them there anyways just in case later in the day I change my mind. I usually don’t and then I forget about them and that is how I have over 2,000 emails in my inbox.

Daily Deal Coupons are where it’s at. In fact, they’re quickly taking over the world. Soon enough you’ll be cross analyzing your best offers for your next car, your child’s college, and your retirement condo.

Considering Austin is one of the leading American cities for technology and startups, it comes as no surprise that not only are most daily deals available here, but some even originated from here!

Below is a comprehensive list of what daily deals are out there (available for Austin and other major cities) and which ones started in Austin. Enjoy!

Please let me know who I’m forgetting!

General
Buy With Me

Crowd Savings

January 14, 2011 by
Pop Culture, Writing

How to Date an Incarcerated Pirate Farmer Who Loves Cats

While perusing one of my favorite websites, 20-Nothings, I came across a recent New York Times article about the rise of niche dating. Wanna date a old wealthy bearded Vegan who loves Macs? Well, then there are plenty of options for you. However, I noticed that a few important demographics were left out of the list and thought I’d include them below.

Pirate Passions– “Pirates Passions be a 100% free social networrrkin’ an’ online datin’ site ferrr buccanneers an’ buccanneers at hearrrt“

Free and full of people who absolutely do not look like pirates, this is a great way to get your Capitan Ron freak on. Example of what you will find: “CreepyOlGuy”, 43 years old, enjoys eating brains, currently lives on a pirate ship with his wife and children, Pagan.



Cowboy Cowgirl- “Welcome to Cowboy Cowgirl! Where Country meets Country!”

Ever want to date someone who never removes their cowboy hat (ahem, Robert Rodriguez)? Then this is the site for you! Where every match states that they enjoy the finer (more…)

January 13, 2011 by
Writing

Behind the Mask of Googly Eyes and Felt: Finding Balance Between Blogging and Real Life

It was while watching a grown woman brush the hair of a ventriloquist dummy that I realized I may have an obsession with blogging. The show was My Strange Addiction and the episode was about a sassy and pretty (in a “I write messages to myself on the mirror in lipstick” sort-of-way) young lady who has no life outside of caring for her “babies”- a.k.a. nine ventriloquist dummies that she carries around in a suitcase. Her friends and family are concerned that she is spending way too much time with her inanimate buddies and slowly becoming disconnected from the human race. Like most people in denial, she tells them that they just don’t understand and that she is happy with her life. The young woman states, “My babies let me say things I can’t get away with in real life,” so Ms. Fruitcake roams the streets with a puppet stuffed on her fist looking for people to berate. She can hide from the world behind her mask made of felt and googly eyes.

I too may hide behind a mask of felt and googly (more…)

January 12, 2011 by
Hipstercrite Life

The First Time I Put A Whoopie Cushion Against My Bare Ass and Other Firsts

source

Starting a new job has left me feeling creatively drained, so I’ve been turning to inspirational websites to get me out of my rut. One writing exercise I came across is writing down a list of your firsts. So that is exactly what I did…

The First Time I Put A Whoopie Cushion Against My Bare Ass
When I was ten years-old, I came up with an ingenious idea- to put a whoopie cushion IN my underwear and sit on it in a public area. By putting it in my underwear, no one would see the whoopie cushion and think I had the most massive farts on the planet- obviously. I attempted this trick at a garage sale my Grandmother was having. I waited for peak customer foot traffic and strategically placed a chair amidst the hairless Chia Pets and romance novels. I then ran behind a bush, blew up my whoopie cushion, and stuck it in my underwear. Knowing that no one was looking at my ten-year-old bubble butt, I walked up to the chair with near paralyzing anticipation and sat down. What I dreamed of happening (more…)

January 11, 2011 by
20-Something, Hipstercrite Life

Teenage Lyrics from a Twenty-Something Poetry-Hater

 I have a secret to confess.

I don’t like poetry.

I never have and most likely never will.

However, when I was younger I used to like to write songs with very emo lyrics about boys.
Or hypothetical reverends.

Music has always been in my blood. My Dad is a pianist and I played the piano for twelve years and tenor saxophone for eight. Typically I’d write these songs about boys on the piano, for it was difficult to translate the twenty-something angst through the breathy wail of a tenor saxophone hanging around my neck.

During this time I also kept a journal equipped with stickers, pasted in Tom Ford ads, doodles of a cartoon girl who looked like me, and these lyrics I wrote about boys. Cleaning my bedroom last night, I came across my old journals and discovered that I wrote all of this teenage tripe THREE years ago when I was 24. I must have forgotten that when I was 15, I only wrote songs about dinosaurs and David Bowie.

I’m going to share some of these embarrassing lyrics/non-poems with (more…)

January 10, 2011 by