Down in the Bowery

     I think we can agree that the new wave of social activists is half excellent and half AWFUL. Both groups feel the need to try new things they wouldn't normally have in their culture. However, the first group exhibits its tolerance by loving all cultures equally, while the other wears its "hip activities" like badges. The less familiar their vocabulary is to others, the smarter and better they think they are. They're the exact opposite of ethnocentric. They actually embrace all other cultures more than their own. But they still believe that they're making a change for the better by liking feminist Facebook pages and growing beards. (The beards are actually pretty great most of the time, but I digress.)

     These hipstery douche canoes are indeed making a change. But is it really for the better? Do we really need another subculture that demands to be seen as "better" because of their differences? The word "tolerance" seems to have lost its meaning to them even though they think they're fighting for it.
    

Ahhhhhh. Just needed a breather real quick.

     I went down to the Bowery to see a great band recently and ran directly into this sort of person. First, when going to concerts, I tend to wear almost the same thing every time. With the expectation that there will be at least 2 beers, several ounces of weed, and gallons of sweat crashing into me by the end of the night, I never wear anything good. A t-shirt, old jeans, and a sweatshirt are good enough for me. Nothing else needs to enter the depths of the concert pit for there is no limit to the number of spin cycles those clothes will have to go through before they emerge anywhere near the way they started.

     The only mistake I made was wearing my college sweatshirt. Right out of Penn Station I got the classic "GO SEAWOLVES" from a Stony Brook alumnus. Not a surprise since about half of the world seems to go there. But that was the last bit of kindness good ol' SB would get that night. We took a subway that plopped us right next to the Bowery Ballroom and waltzed right on in. We were looking forward to meeting exciting chaps like ourselves, but we were unhappily surprised. Not a single mellow fellow to be found. Only snarky hipster folk dressed to the nines. Possibly even the tens. There were dress shoes, slacks, ties, vests, and millions of shades of lipstick. Yet the only two jeans were worn by yours truly and her best friend, Chris. Feeling awfully out of place we sank into a corner and just observed for a while. What we found ourselves looking at was this exact scene of gargling dweebs from the TV show Louie.

The squawking is all perfectly accurate. Throw in

a vest and tuck in a few shirts and you could say

that you saw San Fermin too.

     The concert started and we weasled our way to the front thinking the party people must be waiting for us there. Wrong again. The sea of awfuls stretched all the way from the stage to the back of the crowd. Not a single fun-loving being would be joining us. A cloak of pessimism started to fall and stuck to our clothes like the smell of an old fire. Then, few people started noticing my Stony Brook garb. They immediately started to hoot and holler. (Not laugh. I mean hoot like owls and holler like monkeys.) Apparently we were too young to know the struggles of adult life (arguable) and not worth the space we occupy (just wrong). Hey, I may not know where I'll be when I'm their age, but I'll certainly have better things to talk about. So laugh it up funny man because at least we know how to have a good time.

     Finally, the beautiful brass section of San Fermin bellowed through the joint. A head bob or two ensued, but that was about all the movement they were willing to bother with. It was of course a spectacular show, but I definitely didn't want anything to do with that crowd of shmoes. Afterwards, instead of mingling with the shmoe foe, we did a bit of gabbing with the band. I mean... we did a bit of gabbing with THE BAND! How cool! The other fans weren't so interested in the band which definitely seemed a little odd. It was probably cause they were dressed down like we were. Either way, more fun for us!