Kitty Power

A Sip of Haterade

I'll start off by saying that the cold weather is having ill effects on me. I'm wishing the days when I could stroll around any time of day with a tank top and light sweater were back here again. It's gonna be a shit cold winter. I think that much is obvious. I'd like to be in stores buying up thick sweaters and cordoroy and a nice wool coat, but I can't because I'm broke because I still can't get paid for the work I was doing like a month ago. Candicissima = disgruntled.

Anyhoo, Thursday I strolled down to this female DJ event in a music store in midtown. Things like that are exciting to me because I like music, I like supporting women in music, and I like goodie swag, so wild horses wouldn't have kept me away. PrincessNella and I took in the scene, feeling some of the competitors majorly and others not so much. I drew a correlation between the level of "cutesiness" (in terms of "cool" hipster dress and stylistic choices) and attitude with the level of actual skill. Now, the event was supposedly all about the 10 best entries across the country picked to represent here and be held up to be one of the nicest amateur female DJs around. With that said, tell me why these two chicks, stepping up to the decks like they do this all the time, bringing posses simularly attired like they're hitting up the club right after this sucked so fucking hard that they were embarassments to all female DJs. One trick could not mix and had no clue about transitions and scratched the hell out of her records because she had no clue about how to even play a record. I also bitterly noted that they were also the ones who were all "I'm gonna mix up the music, I'm all about different styles" and when they could get two songs to play together without having to stop, put the most dissonant and farthest removed beat wise records together because they had no clue what went together. And then at the end when they thankfully did not get picked to be finalists, one of those bitches had the nerve to yammer over a set from a girl with skills like she was too good to have been passed over. I wanted to be like "fuck you, you need to shut up and watch and learn because she is a DJ. You are a poseur." It also bugged me because the crowd was so male-skewed and you could see all over their faces that they were like "mmm hmm, female DJ contest. I gotta see this...
" When those girls screwed up so totally, you could see some nodding like that was pretty much what they had expected to happen. Grr...just plain old bad DJing pisses me off. I need to get off my ass and get some equipment and put my old show skills to the test. The world needs me.

Then Saturday, Jenny and I went to a reception for some special edition sneaks in this store in Williamsburg. I'm kinda intrigued yet repulsed by most of the truly hip environments. The store was super stark and modern, as if a piece of Soho had been transplanted into a side street warehouse. And then it hit me, what is a hipster really but a yuppie with bummier looking clothing? You've got the overpriced plain items, gentrification of formerly sketch neighborhoods, bad coke habits, obsessions with the latest in electronics, aesthetes flooding the fashion market with special edition originals, I could go on. I'm so out of it in terms of fashion obsession. I've never gotten the big deal with sneaks or jeans or whatever. I mean, I don't care how people spend their money, but I'm not going to get all bent out of shape over a pair of sneakers. If I'm buying a pair, they are to wear a lot, not be brought out for show every once in a while, lovingly washed down and put back in the closet. In the part of the Halloween story previously unblogged, I was hanging out with this guy I met at Sapph in Williamsburg. He lived in this crazy modern apartment, all wood and stone with a terrace and warehouse type doors. He had these sneaks that had like a LV print (with a matching hat) and was wiping them down checking for scuffs. The closet was packed with sneaks and clothes that all looked exactly the same. If this was 1984, it'd have been SoHo and Armani or Gucci and Lacoste, but I still would have been "what the hell am I doing here?"

I suppose it's the wall anyone who is making some sort of effort to be in a scene without really embracing the values (or having the capital to live the life) bumps into sooner or later. Of course, people are more than what they wear or buy or do or live. Maybe I'm disgruntled because I'm just a wannabe, but I don't even know that's true. Even if I did have $160 to spend on a pair of Seven jeans (if they could fit me), I don't know if I'd want to get them. I'd think of all the records and concerts it could buy or the places I could hit up and then just get a pair from Old Navy or something and probably buy a shirt from H&M with the leftovers. I could get a pair of Adidas or Pumas that I know I would always wear and love with what I'd pay for some Dunks. I think I'm just annoyed that so much of what's cool right now has to be about what you've bought. Can I be cool without the iPod or expensive accessories? Sure to me, but does anyone else think so? Then again, do I care what they think? I've marinating on a post about an adventure I had in Williamsburg/Greenpoint a few weeks back and I was telling Jenny that I was put off by the cliquishness. I'm social but inherently a loner and places where everyone is rolling in packs of 3 or more is just off-putting to me. Being in the mix is just currently troublesome, but I'm sure it's just a phase...or perhaps the novelty has worn off. Definitely could be.

ETA: See why I sat on this? I still feel the tone is kinda vitrolic, but what can I do? Meanwhile, here's a link from Abstract Dynamics telling me something I didn't even know about them. Now if someone would've said that about them instead of "they're just dope," I might have been interested. I don't really want to be a hater, man.

Posted by Candicissima at November 11, 2003 02:55 AM