Carolinian

Issue date: 4/14/03 Section: Features

The Jewfro on the left and the Tossed Caesar on the right.

College is a perfect time to reinvent yourself. Away from the conforming pressures of high school and living at home under your parents' watchful stare, you are free to expand your horizons and become any sort of person that you want. However, in this time of reinvention it is important to avoid the identity pitfalls that befall so many of us: the unwashed hippie, the overambitious entrepreneur, the frat guy. Luckily, there is now a book to guide the impressionable on their way to an identity that is truly tasteful and cool: the invaluable, the incomparable, The Hipster Handbook (Robert Lanham, Anchor Books).

Indeed, there is no particularly good reason to at least look at this book. It doesn't take particularly long to read and it's considerably funnier than your average dreadfully un-hip sitcom. Plus, it makes a great coffee table book, especially if you have self-aware hipster friends with a good sense of humor, who will undoubtedly recognize their own quirks and habits being mentioned in the book. But the book's greatest value is undoubtedly what is has to teach, both for the aspiring hipster and those who suspect that they themselves may in fact belong to this elusive breed.

The best way I can think to elucidate on this subject is by examining myself, and determining if I may be a hipster. Starting from the opening "11 Clues You May Be a Hipster," things seem to be pointing in the hipster direction for me. Examples: I carry a messenger bag and occasionally can be seen wearing horn rimmed glasses; I consider myself cultured but have "pop vices" (the book mentions Elimidate, Quiet Riot, and Entertainment Weekly; I personally prefer Blind Date and often read a friend's copies of Entertainment Weekly before they have a chance to). What else? I own albums put out by labels like Matador, Dischord, and Drag City, and now that I think about it, I really do only have about one "Republican friend", whom I have at times referred to as "my Republican friend." Sadly I am not into vegetarian dinner parties, but I will admit to sometimes wanting my hair to have an "unwashed" look. So there are a good seven out of eleven clues that apply to me, and all the clues "That You May Not Be a Hipster" (such as having affection for Sunday School, suburbs, Dave Matthews, and SUV's) don't really apply. So things are looking good.

Continued...

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