"I Love My Ramen"

I'm not sure where we are at currently, but throughout history there has been this cycle where the counter-culture does its thing, becomes little more popular where it starts filtering through different social circles, then goes through several variations and questions, once the media gets involved (sometimes it happens earlier on in this cycle and therefore starts the germination) it loses whatever made it what it is. Except these days, what it is is that its contrived. The movements are thought of ahead of time and becomes a self-fulfilled prophecy. There earliest one I can think of that has affected my generation in the "punk" movement of the late 70's, particularly in England with the Sex Pistols.

Through myriad first-person accounts, there was never a meeting to decide nor was there a concentrated effort to define their scene. It was something that happened organically within the societal and cultural conditions at that time. The same could be said about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand being the explosive event setting off what became World War I; that event, in itself, did not start WWI but the conditions at the time was waiting for something to set it off. That was what the scene that involved the Sex Pistols was like. Whatever the case, anything worth its weight never is labeled by the people involved at that time; it is given to them later on by people looking in on it.

Today it comes as scenesters and hipsters. These are what should be counter-culture but just like any other self-imposed scene, claiming individualism, uniqueness, and counter-culture attitudes and angst towards all that is the complacency of the masses which are manipulated and marketed towards. This is what attracted me towards all my interests in life, but what has always angered me is the apparent hypocrisy and their inability to see that they are just caricatures of an annoying, ridiculous stereotype. In That Was Then, This is Now, which in the novel was a sequel to the Outsiders, SE Hinton said that there were still the Greasers and the Socs', but one could not tell them apart because the Socs' now dressed like Greasers, but, essentially, they paid money for their clothes, etc. When I read that, I took to it because, just like other voices I attach to sometimes, they are able to articulate my frustrations about certain issues at the time.

So today, I am not able to tell the true counter-culture and the annoying hipsters - which I get lumped into because what I normally do or did is what became their identity - which is also something that follows me through life. This includes my dress, glasses, bicycling, what is considered a fucking man-bun (which is something I took from my friend Mike in LA because I liked long hair but hate ponytails and I liked the top-knot style with what was my style at the time), even anything remotely stylish gets associated. But that is not even the thing that confuses me, it confuses me because in circles where one would see "real" counter-culture people is diffused into what is mainstream culture. There is a residual effect from annoying cultural-relevant messes such as Napolean Dynamite and the American Office where that vernacular and attitude is bled into pop-culture so much that it is accepted to a point of being cool to be marketed towards and falling for it or being just as a complacent, time-wasting piece-of-shit to be so media influenced and tabloid swallower with superficial characteristics and ethics and moral beliefs like Bernie Sanders (who is good and practical for reasons most hipsters do not understand), Vegetarianism (which is more disasterous than being a moderate, ethical consumer of meat), pro-marijuana legalization (which I agree with, but not in the idiotic way liberals go about it), climate change believer (being more informed than what is presented to me by the media), conflict-free products.

Although I am not conflict-free, I do not support Apple. I have an iPod which I eventually got for deeper reasons other than it was marketed to me, but I do not have an iPad or iMac or iPhone, nor do I want one. First off, in the beginning, if one was not into music or video or gaming, Apples were unnnecessary, but not with better technology any computer will do. My $300 computer does everything I need it to do on a better level than I look for. And I've always had a portable music device and only got an iPod after my wife had got me one and minidisc players (which could do everything an iPod could do plus more) were going to be obsolete.

But everywhere one goes, one cannot but be assaulted by the hipster-marketing attempts in such ridiculous places. The other night we stayed at the Hampton Inn. They are trying way hard to be hip. Who the hell would use a corporate hotel chain with a shitty hot breakfast (which I like, but more to the point, it is not a destination breakfast place) as a "cool" place to associated themselves with? Hipster, that's who. Real or mainstream culture types? Does not matter. It is part of everyone's agenda to play along with this annoying marketing. Bacon on anything? Sign me up. The recent McDonald's breakfast all day, obviously marketed by and towards hipster-leaning people, with their annoying future-looking people based on the current hipster trademarks of black-framed glasses, man-bun, asking stupid questions about simple obvious things, bad taste in food (which is the ironic thing with hipsters. Lots of food critics and cultural food icon-chefs make fun of hipsters and avoid places where one sees them, yet they seem to hold this idea that they are sophisticated with the foods they eat), but also worse when they like those bad food based on marketing (Taco Bell breakfast, Burger King bacon stuff, any commercial pushing anything these days) with some stupid gimmick/angle. I worked at Jack in the Box throughout high school and at some point in the mid-90's we already were doing breakfast all day. Secondly, most grills do that as well. Thirdly, depending on the establishment and set-up, there is a reason other places do not serve all day. Fourthly, fuck you!

Why am I so upset about all this? I shouldn't be. But it not just because most things I like get hi-jacked by these idiots, but more so because the counter-culture was once a place which spawned creativity and intelligence. Now just a bunch of idiots who are no different than the mainstream but in their minds they are. In fact, most regular people are better than them because they are more certain about who they are at this point in their lives than these easily led bunch of clowns. I saw a commercial where this kid is in a kitchen with his mom and he's wearing a chef's coat and it says his name and "future celebrity chef." That's what is wrong with our society. Celebrity chefs did not grow up with that type of aspiration, especially when washing dishes and peeling potatoes and other menial prep-work which most of those "future celebrity chefs" would not enter the work force doing. As much experience I have in kitchens (commercially) I love washing dishes and entering a new kitchen I am not above washing dishes and prep-work and work my way up. This new "me-generation" want to start as sous-chefs and will not do what it takes to get there.

There are classes for comedians and people write to other comedians to ask how to become one. You fucking go out there and do it. That's how! Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Harvey talked about being asked to speak in those classes and their responses were basically, "If you're in this class, you probably don't have what it takes." It's true. Like Bukowski's "Don't Try" motto. Someone that inept as to take a class to become a comedian, chef, rockstar, would not survive the industry. And if one does it all on their own, to get the success they need, they do not need anything else. For instance, a band with a following big enough to gain the attention of the major labels can do it on their own. The money they get "advanced" to them need to be paid back (for one thing) but also, with their other expenses at the label, there is a reason a million "units" can still be a "failure" and not worth the money. Whereas independently, because one spends less money on producing and marketing and other frilly nonsense, 100,000 "units" one can make a comfortable living. Another thing, a major label is an industry in a capitalist marketplace. If you are interfering with their current product, they can side-line you and control you in a way where you are irrelevant until they milk their current agenda for all its got. Hence, no reason for major labels for the most part...there are exceptions. But the point is, these things all started on their own, and if one has the intelligence and aptitude to figure basic shit out themselves, they can make it - to whatever their idea of making it is.

So with all this in mind, I am making a point that we understand we have to be able to think outside of what we are marketing with or told what or how to believe. One can only be informed as much as we allow ourselves to be. Chris Rock said that when other young comics ask how to become good, he tells them to basically do their stuff by themselves spend more time alone. That is it. One cannot develop when surrounded by yes men and mediocrity. His point was comics today go to the clubs with all their friends and how do you know when something is working when it is all friends around. Chris Hardwick said the same thing with his material that killed in LA but on the road was bunk. Louis CK is the same way with the rounds he does in places like LA. And that is the problem today where one spends too much time being connected with things like their phones, social media, every where. There are no places and no time to be alone with their thoughts, self-reflection and working on things to make them better people; forming their own opinions on things and reading other news sites - other countries' news sites. I keep myself diverse because I know how destructive it can be to be involved with just one thing or one type of mentality. It is so easy to become diffused into that way of thinking.

We are connected today with everything yet we are so separated by ideologies which we cling to. Ideologies keep us from thinking critically about things and having uniqe opinions which, right or wrong, should be able to be intellectually debated and your evolved opinions synthesized by new information and outlook but still open to future information which may change your views on those topics. This is good to keep in mind with elections coming up. People are so fed up with the current way things are, yet we are still buying into that system no matter how against-the-grain we may think we are. If one still just gets their information fronm our news media, they are horribly misinformed - especially if they are aligning themselves with a political ideology.