CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

A Mini-Outbreak of Hipsters

(123 posts)
  • Started 12 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from gembo

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  1. Tom
    Member

    Min, I think it's okay for one person to do it, like Bike Snob. But it feels a bit distasteful if a group start criticising someone for their appearance. Riding dangerously on the other hand is fair game imo.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  2. crowriver
    Member

    Well that's Copenhagen Cycle Chic banned by Min for a start. Unless the cyclist is on a turbo trainer in their own home, or roaming their private Baronial estate, they are parading around in public looking like that. Therefore they should not be bothered by any fashion critique.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  3. Min
    Member

    Who gets to judge whether someone is wearing the right shoes or not (how can you tell?) and if it was about dangerous cycling that why wasn't it on the "today's rubbish cycling" thread?

    Posted 12 years ago #
  4. Min
    Member

    "they are parading around in public looking like that and therefore fair game."

    What a stupid attitude. What makes you qualified to decide who is tastefully dressed or who is not?

    You are acting like a bunch of playground bullies.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  5. Roibeard
    Member

    <Suitably chastened>

    Yep, there's a bit of difference from posting a photo and being complimentary, versus posting it for criticism, and even then what happens doesn't always align with the poster's intent.

    Although hopefully we can still enjoy the "chic" [1], without becoming exclusive - I don't think it's in the CCE ethos to exclude any subset of cyclists, is it?

    Robert
    [1] No surprise to those that know me...

    Posted 12 years ago #
  6. Min
    Member

    I didn't mean to snap like an old schoolmarm but I really don't see how this helps to encourage people to start (or keep) cycling. What if one of these people joins the forum to discover we have been sniggering about them behind their back?

    And yes, I'd definitely ban Copenhagen Cycle Chic.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  7. Tom
    Member

    I stand by everything I've said - but you can accuse me of going off-topic if you like.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  8. I shall cease and desist.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  9. chdot
    Admin

    I don't know.

    I go to a school to encourage people to cycle and a min-i-war breaks out.

    I'm half with min - the half that says that we shouldn't make fun of people who have bikes they ride.

    Taking photos in public is perfectly legal (even in Las Vegas).

    I'm sure a fair number of people on hip/chic bikes (though chic is more about attire) actually want to be looked at/photographed.

    They will be aware that some people think they look silly.

    They will be aware that some people are just jealous.

    Either way they probably don't care.

    But

    This is CCE so play nice.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  10. crowriver
    Member

    What makes you qualified to decide who is tastefully dressed or who is not?

    That's a whole other discussion. Also I don't recall actually questioning the sartorial choices of the gentleman in the photo. However if I was minded to do so, I'd have no qualms: how one dresses in publc is a public statement in most cases.

    I can recommend reading Bourdeiu on Taste and its social significance if you are interested in looking further.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  11. kaputnik
    Moderator

    What makes you qualified to decide who is tastefully dressed or who is not?

    My SPAM cycling jersey does :)

    I agree with Min's sentimonies, but reserve the right to decide who is, in my considered opinion, tastefully cycling (by which I mean, safley, considerately, etc.) or otherwise.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  12. crowriver
    Member

    Oh yeah, here's an article I dug up a while back (possibly during an earlier discussion of Hipsterdom). You need to parse from the North American context, but as we're in the Anglo-Saxon sphere of influence not that tricky.

    The Hipster in the Mirror (2010)

    Posted 12 years ago #
  13. Roibeard
    Member

    @crowriver - thanks for the link, definitely thought provoking.

    I had a perspective shifting moment this morning at the school gates, as I was mentally looking down on another parent based on their clothes - I found the thought itself disturbing as, even if we ignore the superficiality, it's not honourable to disparage anyone, never mind disparage them on the basis of their clothing. And of course, I'm not a paragon of sartorial excellence either!

    It would be so easy to let pride (or inverted pride) slip in.

    Robert

    Posted 12 years ago #
  14. recombodna
    Member

    I went out on a wee training run today,forgot the time and had to rush to the school gates in full on Fred mode......... got the pi55 ripped right out of me by the my mum "friends" ..... ach I don't care. ;-p

    Posted 12 years ago #
  15. crowriver
    Member

    @recombodna: ah, Fred. Even cycling's not immune from a bit of looking down noses at each other.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_(bicycling)

    Posted 12 years ago #
  16. crowriver
    Member

    The original Fred (1935):


    Photograph of Fred A. Birchmore and bike 'Bucephalus', Clarke County, Georgia, 1935 or 1936

    Another Bucephalus, outside Edinburgh City Chambers:

    Posted 12 years ago #
  17. recombodna
    Member

    "like"

    Posted 12 years ago #
  18. Uberuce
    Member

    Pfft. When you people have shown up at a primary school in lycra-bear mode, dripping with sweat and under the hypercritical eyes of P7 girls with only a handful of weeks left under your care/authority, then you can talk to me about public derision.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  19. chdot
    Admin

  20. Instography
    Member

    Dearie me.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  21. Claggy Cog
    Member

    Previously as a member of the CTC if you went on group rides there was a strict dress code, which including berets or titfers to be worn at a specific angle, plus fours, and argyle socks, and presumably sensible shoes. You also tightened your toe straps up so tight that you had to flick them open before stopping, it was club etiquette. Anyway I thought hipsters were a cut of trouser that sat on the hips and did not refer to a people who fit into a stereotypical type of dress code...like goths, chavs, preppies, etc.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  22. gembo
    Member

    been too busy to post this earlier but still going for it - from the mighty pen of Edwyn Collins (whose auntie ran a B&B in Ayr)

    I'm so transparent you can guess without question
    I need something or other to cover my expression
    Buy me some sunspecs like the ones you wore
    From the local hipsters' store
    You need me more or less, I need you more and more

    More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmania.com/untitled_melody_lyrics_orange_juice.html
    All about Orange Juice: http://www.musictory.com/music/Orange+Juice

    Posted 12 years ago #
  23. Claggy Cog
    Member

    Should have done more research...times have moved on!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_%28contemporary_subculture%29

    @gembo I am sure Edwyn Collins is more famous than his Mum's B&B, maybe only just!!

    Posted 12 years ago #
  24. Uberuce
    Member

    My laundry basket is called a Hipster. Owned it for 10 years and only noticed today. Coincidence? Well, obviously. Furthermore, the term 'hipster' is used so frequently in my interwebz social circles that it would be more improbable to notice the label on a day without reference to said fuzzily defined and possibly-me-containing group than on one with.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  25. gembo
    Member

    @claggyclog

    I would have guessed Jack Kerouac's On The Road as time of hipster coinage but I would have been a little incorrect. It was Edwyn Collins' Auntie who ran the B and B in Ayr.

    The 'achingly hip' Postcard Records flat in Glasgow circa 1980 was on West Princes St I think down nearer the Ballet School Hall of Residence, I was at the non-hipster end of West Princes St near the Doublet Bar circa 1985. I always seemed to miss that hipster boat.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  26. crowriver
    Member

    Hmm. It would seem I may have been right about hipsters adopting BMX.

    Saw what can only be described as a hipster with a huge 'Bluto'/Uberuce ginder beard cycling down Leith Walk on a quite nice BMX today. On the pavement, crossing on green man, squeal of brakes as he tried to avoid hitting pedestrians...

    I suppose it's inevitable that, following the late 1970s/early 1980s cachet of fixies made from old steel racers that a mid-1980s BMX fad was next. Raleigh Shoppers or equivalent seem to be "in" for the female hipsters.

    One positive from this shift might be that nice old 531 frames should flood onto the market (assuming they've not all been completely totalled) and lower prices. Hence spawning a few 'audax bike' projects?

    Posted 12 years ago #
  27. Uberuce
    Member

    Just so long as there's not a Grandpa roadster fad. I've a hankering to make a project of one of them to replace the iron horse I donated.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  28. chdot
    Admin

  29. crowriver
    Member

    From that blog:

    TIMBERYARD
    10 Lady Lawson Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9DS

    Timberyard is a new style of restaurant aware of sustainability & the environment. Ingredients are supplied by small, local, artisan growers, breeders, producers & foragers.

    This amazing restaurant space has a south facing yard for sunny days & a wood burning stove for colder nights & private dining in an authentic brick shed. It is a space for growing, curing, smoking, drying, eating & drinking.

    Sigh. This used to be an actual timber yard, with a joiner's shop attached. The students from ECA got all kinds of stuff fabricated there as recently as 10 years ago. More evidence of gentrification leading to 'hollowing out' of the local economy.

    Posted 12 years ago #
  30. gembo
    Member

    @crowriver

    We have banged on about our love of Lawson's Timber before. made B and Q seem like hell. Would sell you a nail on its own. Cut wood to any size. Full of trapdoors to basements and attics.

    The folk running Timberyard are lovely family. Prices quite steep. place is loved by Jay Rayner, if that does not put you off?

    Lawson's timber still going out at sight hill industrial estate.

    The premises lay empty for many years and the restoration is thoughtful

    Posted 12 years ago #

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