Hipsters

Correction 12/5/06:

In the original version of this post, I referred to Deth Killers as “a clothing company that utilizes [seventies] gang motifs”. It has been brought to my attention (see comment #3) that they are actually a contemporary motorcycle club that makes clothing. This was simply a misunderstanding on my part, and I apologize for it.

I’d also like to be clear that the post itself was never directed at them as a club (since I did not know that they actually existed), but at people who adopt colors as a fashion accessory without having any understanding of what those colors represent. As a real club, that wouldn't apply to Deth Killers in any case.

When I went to see The Warriors the other night, there were some (young, white) folks wearing the colors of fictional gangs (including genuine fake Warriors vests that could be purchased for a mere $100...a $25 discount off the internet price!).

On the one hand, I cut them a little slack because it is a movie, after all, and they were just trying to have some fun on a hot summer night. And, let's be honest, the Warrors vest is kind of cool...

But the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me. As with many things onto which hipsters latch, the reason they're able to be cute about gang colors is that they know they’ll never have to explain themselves to an actual gangster. Because, in their world, gangsters don't really exist. In other words, the whole thing is less about being into gang culture than about being proud of one’s cultural or social isolation. Which is not something to be proud of.

Now don’t get me wrong, I romanticize seventies gang culture as much as anybody. I admit that. But I don’t disrespect people when I do it.

Those old cats didn’t pay for their colors with Paypal – they paid with blood. That’s real. You don’t have to agree with the choices they made, but to take the symbols of their sacrifices is the worst kind of theft, because you’re stealing the meaning of their lives. Which is not hip. At all.

I happened to be reading Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" on the way back from the movie, and as I read that second line...

"angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night"

...it really struck me how different today's hipsters are from those of the past: It's hard to imagine a contemporary hipster "burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night" (unless of course "the starry dynamo" was the name of a club frequented by Lindsey Lohan).

And that's what's been lost, really. Did you know that when true school hipster Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (the Grateful Dead's original lead singer) died in 1973, he was buried wearing Hell's Angels colors? Do you know how he got those colors?

They were given to him by the Hell's Angels.

That's what I'm talking about.

[For more information about hipsters, visit your local library or check out this blog post I made last year]