Kramer: "I'm hip."
Barry (the sniffing accoutant): "Hip to what?."
Kramer: "The whole scene."
No, the following post isn't going to be about that particular episode of 'Seinfeld.' That's been touched upon before.
Nor, will it be about the growing trend across America of wearing menacing-looking Snowman T-shirts.
Instead, the topic of today is hipsters.
Where you stand on the issue probably depends on how you answer the following question:
When a band release a "single" do you a) like it? b) scoff at it? c) I only listen to live performances of local artists.
If you answered 'a' you're definitely not a hipster. If you answered 'b' you might be a hipster. If you answered 'c' then you likely own a couple different tweed blazers that look just great over an ironically-phrased T-shirt.
Hipsters are the subject of today's post because I definitely was in the midst of a pretty thick swarm of them Saturday and lived to tell about it.
The setting was the Theater at Madison Square Garden. The draw was stand up comedy from British comedian Ricky Gervais, the creator of the original 'The Office.'
And boy howdy, if the room wasn't packed with a thousand Andy Samberg lookalikes, plus one guy in a Jermain Defoe Spurs shirt, then I don't know what. The guy sitting next to me, whom I sold my extra ticket to explained how, "He rarely comes this far uptown for a show." And was later noted how he's going to see some band I've never heard of at a venue I've never heard of. Shit, my plan of waiting to sell the ticket to a hot chick simply wasn't going to happen at this particular show.
It was interesting, though, that this hip New York City culture-vulture crowd seemed to yuck it to Gervais' relatively old material. Yes, I'll admit I own both his UK-standup specials and own a region free DVD player, which makes me more of a nerd than a hipster, right? Here's a good portion of "Animals." And here is the beginning to "Politics."
Later on I found out the proceeds of the show went to a charity, which I think was run by David Bowie, who introduced Gervais with a stirring rendition of 'Chubby little loser.' This prompted some of Gervais' new material..."The Thin White Duke and the Short Fat Duck."
There was nothing wrong with Gervais using his old routine. He was only in America for really this one show, plus a few warmup gigs at 'Tribeca' (a place only the cool and the supercool may enter). It's doubtful if Seinfeld himself played London he'd write up a whole new routine, maybe a few new jokes, likely about bangers and or mash, right?
It was also curious that this, presumably left-leaning crowd, didn't seem to have a tough time giggling at Gervais' subject matter -- 'mentals', the obese, monkey-fuckers and other social miscreants. And make no mistake this crowd was the New York you saw portrayed on 'Friends' and 'Seinfeld.' (Read between the lines yourself.)
To use a Mike Francesa rating sytsem, Gervais was good, not great.
If you hadn't heard the material otherwise and only knew him as the fat guy from Extras then it was probably an 8 out of 10.
A quick aside -- what's the deal with the seats at the Theater at MSG. Did they buy them at auction from when Ebbetts Field closed down? Shit, these seats were not designed for 21st century man. Do they bring in new ones for the annual NBA Draft?
The worst part of the hipsters -- co-opting my Detroit baseball Tigers Olde English 'D'. Witness the horror from my lousy camera-phone below. (If you're reading this, I'm shaking my fist at you, guy.)
Ok, one more aside from NYC. I love cabbies, and or drivers. We took a car from Greg's girlfriend's (yes, the Greg W.) home in The Queens. Naturally, the driver was chatty, eventually informing us how he was from Egypt. Wait, that's getting ahead of things. (No, the driver did not 'soot' his eyes like a prostitute a la Marc Antony in the final two episodes of 'Rome' if that's what you're thinking.)
During some of my 'material' on the ride I was talking about things that are secretly bad for you. The list includes Gatorade, which prompted Ibrahim from the front seat to hold up his Mountain Blast 32 oz bottle. Jillian (Greg's main squeeze and a gracious host I might add) added on to my anti-Gatorade spiel, mentioning how it gives you Kidney Stones...which Ibrahim actually had!
Too bad he drew a blank stare when I mentioned my support of fellow Egyptian and Tottenham hitman Mido.
___________________
Around the world of soccer
A couple things from the weekend worth mentioning...
** Thankfully, while most leagues have grinded down, the race in La Liga is just heating up. All the leaders won, so the top four remains: Real Madrid (69), Barcelona (69), Sevilla (67) and Valencia (65).
Real needed a 90th minute goal from wantaway back Roberto Carlos to win 3-2 at Recreativo. Barcelona added to it's already massive goal difference with a 6-0 thrashing of Athletico Madrid. Europe's likely Golden Boot winner -- Freddy Kanoute -- scored the winner for Sevilla.
Remember, the season runs until June 17 in Spain, that's why it'll take so long for a certain Golden Balls to wash ashore in Los Angeles.
** Oh, my beloved wacky Dutch. More weird and wild playoff action this weekend, as AZ beat Ajax 2-0 in the first leg of their Champions League qualification. Personally, I'd like to see AZ win because the world needs to know about the awesomeness that is Kew Jaliens and Danny Koevermans.
** East German side Hansa Rostock gained promotion into the 1.Bundesliga. Watch out, they have some rather swarthy hooligans. Honest.
** MLS -- With their win Saturday at defending champ Houston, New England has likely established itself as the team to beat early on. ... The Galaxy continue to stagnant, drawing Chivas 1-1. ... The Red Bulls picked up a 4-0 victory over Columbus. Juan Pablo Angel credited with a goal and two assists. Didn't see the game so I'd like to know if they were actually assists or if the league office is simply trying to pad his stats to get him on 'Sportscenter' or something, now that they have to compete with, gasp, the WNBA for airtime. ... Toronto crashed back to earth, losing to DC United as Jaime Moreno tied Jason Kreis for the league's all-time goal mark.
** In transfer news, Manchester United finally, and I mean finally seems to have finalized their deal with Bayern for Owen 'I'm not Rubbish' Hargreaves. There are all sorts of crazy rumours floating around right now, and I'm going to do my best to not say anything until the ink is dry. It's just too damn much otherwise. They've dubbed it the silly season for a reason.
** Also, Brasilian legend Romario netted his 1,000th goal, finally, playing for Vasco down in his homeland. Let me offer a nice big, yawn.
Tuesday: A nice, handy-dandy Champions League preview as only we can do it.
Barry (the sniffing accoutant): "Hip to what?."
Kramer: "The whole scene."
No, the following post isn't going to be about that particular episode of 'Seinfeld.' That's been touched upon before.
Nor, will it be about the growing trend across America of wearing menacing-looking Snowman T-shirts.
Instead, the topic of today is hipsters.
Where you stand on the issue probably depends on how you answer the following question:
When a band release a "single" do you a) like it? b) scoff at it? c) I only listen to live performances of local artists.
If you answered 'a' you're definitely not a hipster. If you answered 'b' you might be a hipster. If you answered 'c' then you likely own a couple different tweed blazers that look just great over an ironically-phrased T-shirt.
Hipsters are the subject of today's post because I definitely was in the midst of a pretty thick swarm of them Saturday and lived to tell about it.
The setting was the Theater at Madison Square Garden. The draw was stand up comedy from British comedian Ricky Gervais, the creator of the original 'The Office.'
And boy howdy, if the room wasn't packed with a thousand Andy Samberg lookalikes, plus one guy in a Jermain Defoe Spurs shirt, then I don't know what. The guy sitting next to me, whom I sold my extra ticket to explained how, "He rarely comes this far uptown for a show." And was later noted how he's going to see some band I've never heard of at a venue I've never heard of. Shit, my plan of waiting to sell the ticket to a hot chick simply wasn't going to happen at this particular show.
It was interesting, though, that this hip New York City culture-vulture crowd seemed to yuck it to Gervais' relatively old material. Yes, I'll admit I own both his UK-standup specials and own a region free DVD player, which makes me more of a nerd than a hipster, right? Here's a good portion of "Animals." And here is the beginning to "Politics."
Later on I found out the proceeds of the show went to a charity, which I think was run by David Bowie, who introduced Gervais with a stirring rendition of 'Chubby little loser.' This prompted some of Gervais' new material..."The Thin White Duke and the Short Fat Duck."
There was nothing wrong with Gervais using his old routine. He was only in America for really this one show, plus a few warmup gigs at 'Tribeca' (a place only the cool and the supercool may enter). It's doubtful if Seinfeld himself played London he'd write up a whole new routine, maybe a few new jokes, likely about bangers and or mash, right?
It was also curious that this, presumably left-leaning crowd, didn't seem to have a tough time giggling at Gervais' subject matter -- 'mentals', the obese, monkey-fuckers and other social miscreants. And make no mistake this crowd was the New York you saw portrayed on 'Friends' and 'Seinfeld.' (Read between the lines yourself.)
To use a Mike Francesa rating sytsem, Gervais was good, not great.
If you hadn't heard the material otherwise and only knew him as the fat guy from Extras then it was probably an 8 out of 10.
A quick aside -- what's the deal with the seats at the Theater at MSG. Did they buy them at auction from when Ebbetts Field closed down? Shit, these seats were not designed for 21st century man. Do they bring in new ones for the annual NBA Draft?
The worst part of the hipsters -- co-opting my Detroit baseball Tigers Olde English 'D'. Witness the horror from my lousy camera-phone below. (If you're reading this, I'm shaking my fist at you, guy.)
Ok, one more aside from NYC. I love cabbies, and or drivers. We took a car from Greg's girlfriend's (yes, the Greg W.) home in The Queens. Naturally, the driver was chatty, eventually informing us how he was from Egypt. Wait, that's getting ahead of things. (No, the driver did not 'soot' his eyes like a prostitute a la Marc Antony in the final two episodes of 'Rome' if that's what you're thinking.)
During some of my 'material' on the ride I was talking about things that are secretly bad for you. The list includes Gatorade, which prompted Ibrahim from the front seat to hold up his Mountain Blast 32 oz bottle. Jillian (Greg's main squeeze and a gracious host I might add) added on to my anti-Gatorade spiel, mentioning how it gives you Kidney Stones...which Ibrahim actually had!
Too bad he drew a blank stare when I mentioned my support of fellow Egyptian and Tottenham hitman Mido.
Around the world of soccer
A couple things from the weekend worth mentioning...
** Thankfully, while most leagues have grinded down, the race in La Liga is just heating up. All the leaders won, so the top four remains: Real Madrid (69), Barcelona (69), Sevilla (67) and Valencia (65).
Real needed a 90th minute goal from wantaway back Roberto Carlos to win 3-2 at Recreativo. Barcelona added to it's already massive goal difference with a 6-0 thrashing of Athletico Madrid. Europe's likely Golden Boot winner -- Freddy Kanoute -- scored the winner for Sevilla.
Remember, the season runs until June 17 in Spain, that's why it'll take so long for a certain Golden Balls to wash ashore in Los Angeles.
** Oh, my beloved wacky Dutch. More weird and wild playoff action this weekend, as AZ beat Ajax 2-0 in the first leg of their Champions League qualification. Personally, I'd like to see AZ win because the world needs to know about the awesomeness that is Kew Jaliens and Danny Koevermans.
** East German side Hansa Rostock gained promotion into the 1.Bundesliga. Watch out, they have some rather swarthy hooligans. Honest.
** MLS -- With their win Saturday at defending champ Houston, New England has likely established itself as the team to beat early on. ... The Galaxy continue to stagnant, drawing Chivas 1-1. ... The Red Bulls picked up a 4-0 victory over Columbus. Juan Pablo Angel credited with a goal and two assists. Didn't see the game so I'd like to know if they were actually assists or if the league office is simply trying to pad his stats to get him on 'Sportscenter' or something, now that they have to compete with, gasp, the WNBA for airtime. ... Toronto crashed back to earth, losing to DC United as Jaime Moreno tied Jason Kreis for the league's all-time goal mark.
** In transfer news, Manchester United finally, and I mean finally seems to have finalized their deal with Bayern for Owen 'I'm not Rubbish' Hargreaves. There are all sorts of crazy rumours floating around right now, and I'm going to do my best to not say anything until the ink is dry. It's just too damn much otherwise. They've dubbed it the silly season for a reason.
** Also, Brasilian legend Romario netted his 1,000th goal, finally, playing for Vasco down in his homeland. Let me offer a nice big, yawn.
Tuesday: A nice, handy-dandy Champions League preview as only we can do it.
Labels: cab rides, New York City, ricky gervais, Soccer
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