Hipsters in Detroit

**Modusvivendi** · January-28-12, 03:14 AM

I keep reading references to there being hipsters in Detroit. Where do they tend to hang out? Are there many? What attracts them and their skinny jeans and ironic facial hair to Detroit?

**Alley** · January-28-12, 03:29 AM

laaaast call!

**RaumVogel** · January-28-12, 04:27 AM

It's Stonefronts fault!

**Baselinepunk** · January-28-12, 09:58 AM

The best refrigerator magnet I've seen in a long time:

"Hipsters did not invent DETROIT"

Love it!

**Gianni** · January-28-12, 10:06 AM

I believe Danny coined the phrase "skinny jean white kids" on this forum years ago. He spotted that trend before it even had the name "hipster."

**Detroit_uke** · January-28-12, 10:23 AM

Hey - Elvis was a "skinny jean white kid" - except then the jeans were called drainpipe jeans. As for the term "hipster" - just another label - reminds me of greaser or frat - way back when...gotta have those labels.

**KOMPOST** · January-28-12, 10:25 AM

Real cool, daddy-o. Like...beautiful, babies.
Now, what's this I'm hearing about some hep cats hanging around the D-town?
That's so beat.

**RaumVogel** · January-28-12, 10:56 AM

**BRAZZMAN** · January-28-12, 11:04 AM

“The Beat Generation, that was a vision that we had, John Clellon Holmes and I, and Allen Ginsberg in an even wilder way, in the late forties, of a generation of crazy, illuminated hipsters suddenly rising and roaming America, serious, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere, ragged, beatific, beautiful in an ugly graceful new way--a vision gleaned from the way we had heard the word 'beat' spoken on streetcorners on Times Square and in the Village, in other cities in the downtown city night of postwar America--beat, meaning down and out but full of intense conviction--We'd even heard old 1910 Daddy Hipsters of the streets speak the word that way, with a melancholy sneer--It never meant juvenile delinquents, it meant characters of a special spirituality who didn't gang up but were solitary Bartlebies staring out the dead wall window of our civilization--the subterraneans heroes who'd finally turned from the 'freedom' machine of the West and were taking drugs, digging bop, having flashes of insight, experiencing the 'derangement of the senses,' talking strange, being poor and glad, prophesying a new style for American culture, a new style [[we thought), a new incantation--The same thing was almost going on in the postwar France of Sartre and Genet and what's more we knew about it--But as to the actual existence of a Beat Generation, chances are it was really just an idea in our minds--We'd stay up 24 hours drinking cup after cup of black coffee, playing record after record of Wardell Gray, Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Willie Jackson, Lennie Tristano and all the rest, talking madly about that holy new feeling out there in the streets- -We'd write stories about some strange beatific Negro hepcat saint with goatee hitchhiking across Iowa with taped up horn bringing the secret message of blowing to other coasts, other cities, like a veritable Walter the Penniless leading an invisible First Crusade- -We had our mystic heroes and wrote, nay sung novels about them, erected long poems celebrating the new 'angels' of the American underground--In actuality there was only a handful of real hip swinging cats and what there was vanished mightily swiftly during the Korean War when [[and after) a sinister new kind of efficiency appeared in America, maybe it was the result of the universalization of Television and nothing else [[the Polite Total Police Control of Dragnet's 'peace' officers) but the beat characters after 1950 vanished into jails and madhouses, or were shamed into silent conformity, the generation itself was shortlived and small in number.”
― Jack Kerouac

bartock · January-28-12, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by Modusvivendi

I keep reading references to there being hipsters in Detroit. Where do they tend to hang out? Are there many? What attracts them and their skinny jeans and ironic facial hair to Detroit?

"skinny jeans and ironic facial hair" - best description I've ever read!

...the ones I've seen of late are wearing some sort of Capri-jean that end about halfway down the shin.

**Detroit_uke** · January-28-12, 12:40 PM

bartock - those Capri-jeans - they're vintage - from the 50's - used to call them "peddle-pushers" - so that when you rode your bike the cuffs wouldn't get stuck in the spokes....cuz that hurts...I can attest to that - and missing a piece of my heel becuz of that! Ouch!

**Gannon** · January-28-12, 02:08 PM

Ah, the darkside of the fixed-gear hub...

**Gannon** · January-28-12, 02:16 PM

...we know you've met it by your wardrobe.

**antongast** · January-28-12, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by Modusvivendi

Where do they tend to hang out?

Try the Majestic, Bronx Bar, or D'Mongo's, for starters.

**Jimaz** · January-28-12, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by BRAZZMAN

... but the beat characters after 1950 vanished into jails and madhouses, or were shamed into silent conformity, the generation itself was shortlived and small in number.”
― Jack Kerouac

Wow. That made me search for Zen and The Beat Way.

Thanks.

**Detroitnerd** · January-28-12, 03:28 PM

I sense a generational difference at work. When I was 20, moving into the city was the only way you could flip burgers and still make the rent. And we dressed in resale clothes 'cause that's all we could afford. We loved that there were bars withing walking distance and didn't care that they were dives. We didn't consider ourselves "hipsters" -- more like low-lifes getting by on cheap beer, cheap laughs and cheap thrills.

Now it's a freakin' lifestyle choice. These kids -- probably a lot of them spend more on American Spirits and PBR than I made 20 years ago -- could live anywhere, but choose to live the way we did. Frankly, I like a lot of them, and I did a lot of the same stuff they're doing. But, yeah, sometimes the pretense shows through a little too clearly.

Ravine · January-28-12, 04:28 PM

Brazzman, reading through the Kerouac excerpt was fun, but just seeing Ginsberg's name triggers both contempt and a sadness.
I can barely enjoy "Howl" anymore.

Comparing today's "Hipsters" to the "Beat Generation" is interesting.
We may see the hipsters as being phony and artificial while seeing the beats as being real and genuine.
There may be some truth in that, but I'm not sure; there is a line, somewhere, between seeing each as it was or is and merely seeing the imagery and qualities that we are projecting onto them.

**Detroitej72** · January-28-12, 06:34 PM

Originally Posted by Ravine

There may be some truth in that, but I'm not sure; there is a line, somewhere, between seeing each as it was or is and merely seeing the imagery and qualities that we are projecting onto them.

We tend to romanticize thing seen through the rear view mirror and I am just as guilty of it as everyone else. Hell, I caught myself the other day when I was telling my daughter how much better music was back in my day.

**hudkina** · January-28-12, 06:51 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

I sense a generational difference at work. When I was 20, moving into the city was the only way you could flip burgers and still make the rent. And we dressed in resale clothes 'cause that's all we could afford. We loved that there were bars withing walking distance and didn't care that they were dives. We didn't consider ourselves "hipsters" -- more like low-lifes getting by on cheap beer, cheap laughs and cheap thrills.

Now it's a freakin' lifestyle choice. These kids -- probably a lot of them spend more on American Spirits and PBR than I made 20 years ago -- could live anywhere, but choose to live the way we did. Frankly, I like a lot of them, and I did a lot of the same stuff they're doing. But, yeah, sometimes the pretense shows through a little too clearly.

Don't be embarrassed now that you see what you used to think was cool.

**old guy** · January-28-12, 06:53 PM

I remember reading On The Road, forty some years ago and heading out to discover America within the week. If there are hipsters in Detroit, I can understand why, during these tough times they might want to adopt that lifestyle. Make the best of the hand you're dealt.

**Detroitnerd** · January-28-12, 07:31 PM

Originally Posted by hudkina

Don't be embarrassed now that you see what you used to think was cool.

Not embarrassed, baby. More like 80 percent amused, 20 percent confused.

**dtowncitylover** · January-28-12, 07:37 PM

Originally Posted by bartock

...the ones I've seen of late are wearing some sort of Capri-jean that end about halfway down the shin.

The capri is also all the rage among European men right now, so those hipsters think they're chic. As much as I am an Anglo, Franco, and overall Europhile, I will never wear those.

**Jimaz** · January-28-12, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by Detroit_uke

bartock - those Capri-jeans - they're vintage - from the 50's - used to call them "peddle-pushers" - so that when you rode your bike the cuffs wouldn't get stuck in the spokes....cuz that hurts...I can attest to that - and missing a piece of my heel becuz of that! Ouch!

Then in the 70s they had spring metal bands that would secure all that excess bellbottom material for the same reason.

I had a pair of jeans with more [[humorous/political) patches than original material. <sigh> I miss those jeans. They were a real work of art.

Ravine · January-28-12, 09:56 PM

As a member of the Woodstock generation, I still have moments when I feel a bit let down by the fact that some of the cultural icons of that day were just pumping a well that had a lot of water in it.

The truly sad thing is that, as I write this note, I am trying to come up with an example of one that didn't "sell out," that stayed true to the Flower Power ideals of the day.
I guess I'll have to get back to you on that one.

**Neilr** · January-28-12, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by Ravine

As a member of the Woodstock generation, I still have moments when I feel a bit let down by the fact that some of the cultural icons of that day were just pumping a well that had a lot of water in it.

The truly sad thing is that, as I write this note, I am trying to come up with an example of one that didn't "sell out," that stayed true to the Flower Power ideals of the day.
I guess I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Does Joan Baez perhaps meet your standard?