LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), a member-supported public media network. Hear our news on-air at our partner site:
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
LAist shed a big fat tear of pity for Los Angeles Times writer Lynell George who was probably forced at gun point to write today's oh-so-lame story, "What is hip?"So, like a dutiful hostage corporate soldier, she interviews both John Leland about his new book Hip: The History and Laren Stover who has recently authored Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge, which tracks the lifestyle.
The story yields nothing but predictable sound bites and pithy headlines like, "It's not cool or edgy or even trendy. Two authors try to put it into words, but one thing is for sure: It's fleeting."
Imagine that.
We're sorry to note that even Gawker found it fit for mockery. Ms. George is a very talented writer, but even she sounds bored out of her mind in this piece.
For those readers still learning about hipsters (yes, there's one born every minute), may we recommend the following titles to supplement the above-mentioned books:
The Improper Bohemians; a re-creation of Greenwich Village in its Heyday by Allen Churchill
Bohemian Paris: Culture, Politics, and the Boundaries of Bourgeois Life, 1830-1930 by Jerrold Seigel
Paris Interzone by James Campbell
The Thief's Journal by Jean Genet
Jack Goldstein and the CalArts Mafia by Richard Hertz
and we enjoyed Lionel Rolfe's essay "Notes of a California Bohemian," which mentions the old Onyx Cafe on Vermont. According to LA.comfidential, a one-time Onyx patron's planning to open a new cafe at Temple and Glendale Blvd in Echo Park.