Someone is hunting hipsters in Brooklyn using pink neon shades, a pack of American Spirits, a fixed-gear bike chain and a can of PBR as bait.
But aren’t they already extinct?
Nowadays, the hipster is bought and sold by big brands like American Apparel, GAP and Urban Outfitters. Even Camel has distributed “Williamsburg” brand cigarettes.
“‘Williamsburg’ has come to mean ‘hipster’ to a lot of people who don’t live there,” said Niki Budnick, 25, a Greenpoint resident and producer. “No self-respecting hipster would buy ‘Williamsburg’ cigarettes.”
Yet bodegas are selling out of the packs, which proclaim, “It’s about last call, a sloppy kiss goodbye and a solo saunter to a rock show in an abandoned building. It’s where a tree grows.”
All very nice, but if the hipsters have disappeared, who is smoking them? The doucheoisie? The fauxhemians?
“Stuff Hipsters Hate” creator Brenna Ehrlich said hipsters aren’t gone – just further underground. “No one admits to being a hipster.”
What’s in a name?
The debate rages on:
» “The word hipster has a silent sneer associated with it,” said Sarah Maslin Nir, a writer that chronicles hipster nightlife for The New York Times Nocturnalist column. “It’s someone who’s obsessed with the edge of fashion, music and culture. They wear granny glasses and cat sweaters — as long as it works on Bedford [Avenue].”
» The term, however, dates back to the time when grandma’s glasses were still new. The beat generation popularized the term before Pabst got its Ribbon, when cool was just about jazz and Jack Kerouac.
» Hipsters were originally known for appropriating the lifestyle of a jazz musician, whether or not they could actually play an instrument.
