Last night I finally attended a screening of Channel 101: NY (formerly “Channel 102″). It was fun, and free, and I’ll be going back.
It took place in the back room of a bar on the Lower East Side, a neighborhood I used to visit more frequently in my long-ago youth. Back then everyone seemed slightly older and hipper than me. Now they seem substantially younger and hipper. I’m pretty much okay with that.
Just before the lights were dimmed for the short films, I had a sudden, strange realization. Of the 60-odd people in the crowd, approximately 10 were wearing glasses. EVERY SINGLE PAIR OF GLASSES was a variation of these:
Some with thinner frames, some with slightly more rounded corners, but all in that Tina Fey/German Intellectual style. Maybe it’s some sort of post-modern thing? We all wear the same glasses, because we realize that it’s ironic for “hipsters” to also be “conformists,” and we embrace that irony. I guess that’s cool. I (heart) irony, and always will.
Just to be clear, I have nothing against glasses like those. I honestly think they make people look sexy and smart. If I ever need glasses, I’ll probably get glasses like those, and hopefully they will make me look sexier and smarter.
Or maybe I’ll go with these, as worn by Mister Glasses, titular character of a fantastic short that was screened last night:
3 Comments
I think you give the average hipster way too much credit for getting the irony of how conformist they actually are. Same with the tossled-hair-that-looks-like-i-don’t-care-except-it-took-me-25-minutes-to-do-this hair style. And I take issue with the postmodern notion that being ironically aware of the fact that you’re doing something lame at all vindicates its lameness. Now, if they are just trying to look good, I agree with you that its a mission accomplished. The nerd-chic glasses movement is one of the great fashion developments of our time, and one well worth conforming to. I recently jumped on the band wagon myself after a bad eye infection caused me to have to give up contacts. I guess there are many routes to ironic hipness, and conjunctivitis is apparently one of them.
I was one of those 60 people. I’m not ashamed.
I’m assuming you weren’t at the 7:00 screening, because I don’t remember seeing you. If you WERE there… 11 pairs! Almost too much hip for one room to handle!
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