Writing

Life is a Mixtape

Awhile back, someone gave me a mixtape.

It wasn’t just any ol’ mixtape.
This person, a boy, carefully selected a medley of music ranging from Tom Waits to Gil Scott-Heron, dropped it all onto a USB drive, and then fused the USB drive into a gutted cassette cartridge, therefore creating a USB mixtape.
The idea that someone wanted to give me a mixtape was lost upon me at first. However, over time the significance became more clearer. You see, it had been a long time since a boy made a mixtape solely for me. The connotation often affiliated with such an act had become foreign to me. A gesture of a time long ago.
At least I thought.
In return, I arduously made the boy a mixtape. Though creatively inferior to his own present, it held the same emphasis nonetheless.
Since the day I received the modern day version of the classic mixtape, I’ve thought a lot about it’s bearing on contemporary culture.

Being the articulate sage I am not, Rob Sheffield, from his book, “Love is a Mixtape”, sums it up better (more…)

April 21, 2010 by
Writing

Your Down n’ Dirty Austin Thrift Store Guide

I’ve officially become an expert on Austin thrift stores.
You wanna know why?
Because I’ve been to every single freakin’ one in search of a dresser.
Though I ended up empty handed (most furniture fell under the “Oh my God! Is that covered in rat poop?!” or “What!? This floral golf bag is worth more than my car!?” categories), I did come across some other great finds and colorful characters.

Forget Cream or Feathers, this is your down n’ dirty Austin thrift store guide:

1.) Thrift Town– 10 stars out of 10
Thrift Town is my absolute most favorite thrift store in Austin. Located down south at Stassney and Manchaca, this store not only has the best selection of clothing and shoes, but it’s clean, the staff is friendly, and they boast terrific daily and monthly specials. Sign up for their VIP email list to hear more about it. Thrift Town rocks because it has the perfect mix of contemporary and vintage clothing and the absolute best selection of shoes. Prices are relatively low. If you wait for the (more…)

April 20, 2010 by
Writing

My Man Harpo

(Prepare to be blown away with my nerdiness…)

When I was a little girl, I loved many men.

Men that played unpopular instruments. Men that made irreverent jokes. Men who wore thick horn-rimmed glasses. Men with big Jewish noses.

However, there was only one man that captured and owned my tiny heart.
The trouble was, he was 110 years old and thirty years dead.
Harpo Adolph Arthur Marx will forever be my number one guy.
What makes a ten year-old fall in love with a person she’s a.) never met b.) will never meet c.) never heard speak d.) knows is about 5’5″, bald, and can’t read or write?
What factors in one’s life lead to a perverted obsession such as this?
There I would be, sitting two feet from the TV screen, watching a scratchy second-generation VHS copy of The Marx Brothers’ “Cocoanuts” or “Animal Crackers” over and over. My eyes transfixed on the impish mute bopping from scene to scene. Something about his glint suggested that he would show me the secrets to the Universe, and I was willing (more…)
April 19, 2010 by
Writing

Coachella 2010

So Coachella starts today.

Five years ago I vowed that I would never step foot in Indio, CA ever again.
In 2005, I bought tickets so my gentlemen friend and I could attend together. I really wanted to see Wolf Parade and he really really liked Eagles of Death Metal (how 2005 of us). I spent somewhere around $400 for the weekend tickets and he conveniently told me that he did not want to go, and oh, hey, I don’t really wanna see you anymore.
Stuck with these tickets, I was bound and determine to go and have a good time. I was going to show him! How could he, someone who looked like a serial killer in his Nebraska driver’s license photo, dump me?!
The only person who would buy my ticket was my 36 year-old roommate who the week prior tried to kiss me while I was plucking my eyebrows in the bathroom and he was drunk off of champagne.
So we went… and I was angry and resentful the entire time.
36 year-old roommate got so stoned that I had to carry his flat ass around the 100 degree desert. By the (more…)
April 15, 2010 by
Writing

How to Dress Like Your Hipster Idols

When I was a little girl, if I liked something a lot, I typically tried to emulate it.
Take for instance the time I burned a cork and drew giant Jewish eyebrows on myself to transform into Rod Serling. Or the other time I burned a cork and drew giant Jewish eyebrows on myself to look like Groucho Marx. Or the time I burned a cork and drew giant Greek/Italian/Arab eyebrows on myself to look like Frank Zappa.
Hm.
Looking back at that paragraph just explained a lot.
I truly believe that certain movies and characters have defined who I am today. Annie Hall told me it was ok to dress like a boy. Pee-Wee showed me the advantages of bow-ties. George McFly and Egon Spengler proved that nerdy could be sexy. Andie Walsh explained to me that buying second-hand can look classy. Sloane Peterson told me that fringe jackets and shorts kind of go together?
If you’re anything like me, then you like to honor your hipster “young, creative urbanite” Gods. Below are some of my favorite hipster “young, creative urbanite” (more…)
April 14, 2010 by
Writing

Freelance Blogging and You

Sometimes I love blogging.
Sometimes I want to push blogging out of a moving car.
Anyway I look at it, blogging has become a big part of my life (i.e. my butt is getting bigger).
Through Hipstercrite, I’ve received some wonderful paid blogging opportunities. Some of them are permanent, some of them are not.
I’m always on the look out for more writing opportunities and if they pay, all the better.
Below are some freelance blogging websites that I’ve come across in my year of blogging. Most of them you’ve probably heard of, but maybe haven’t tried. Here are my experiences:

Seed- Seed is a new freelance blogging/photography network created by AOL. I became acquainted with Seed through assignments I took on for Spinner during SXSW. I was really impressed with the quality of assignments, pay, and quick turn around of payment that Seed offers. They have writing assignments for AOL subsidiaries Stylist, Parentdish, ShelterPop, and other blogs such as PopEater, WalletPop, Gadling, and the list goes (more…)

April 13, 2010 by
Writing

Discovering Your Sexuality Through Hairy Gay Men

Remember that age when you started discovering your sexuality?

That awkward, dreadful time when you didn’t understand why your male friends suddnely felt the urge to show you their penises while you were trying to reenact “X-files” episodes in the basement of your house, or why you got that funny feeling when you climbed the rope in gym?
When classmates started throwing around the words “pink”, “taco”, “tossing” and “salad” and you still thought they were talking about food, and your class president got detention for receiving something called a “blow job” on the 8th grade school trip to D.C.?
Then there you were. Clueless and wearing a sports bra. Fantisizing over a picture of a shirtless Elton John from 1972 hanging above your bed.

I wish I could say it was 1972 when I would gawk at this picture. That would make a little more sense.
I guess?
However, it was 1997. While all my friends carried pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio and Gavin Rossdale in their text books, I licked my lips over a twenty-five (more…)
April 9, 2010 by
Writing

Baby Hipsters

Hey Everyone!
I decided that the internet needs another hipster photo blog and have created “Baby Hipsters“.
Babies are hipsters too and their voices need to be heard!
I would love for you all to participate, but I definitely don’t need feedback. I already know that this is a stupid, half-ass idea and I don’t need you reminding me of that.
Wait, I do need feedback, but just nothing mean, ok? My delicate ego can’t handle it.
If you’d like to submit a hipstery-looking photo of yourself as a toddler or of your own kid, please email me at [email protected]
Please join in!
Here is a taste of what the website will look like:

Lou thought that going to the Kenny Loggins show would be “ironic”, but ultimately left the concert feeling sad and confused.

Sandra was torn on whether a $60 Jean-Paul Gautier dress in Spanish Mustard from Target was actually a good investment.

Telling her friends and family that it was a “social experiment”, Tami quit her job as an editorial assistant and tried forging a (more…)
April 8, 2010 by
Writing

Fashion- Necklaces for the "Young, Creative Urbanite"

The word “hipster” dead?
Nah. Never!
Here are some of my favorite Etsy hipster finds this week.
It’s all about necklaces.

Can I ride your pennyfarth? $28
Cover of the next Bret Easton Ellis novel $110

Mr. Hatstache wants to be close to you $13.99

Taken and gilded from the tiniest deer in the world $29

God’s (or whomever’s) greatest gift- the saltine cracker $18

Gun $140

Stabby LeBear $10

What all animals really want to do to Poodles $10


Mr. Octopus, The Song-and-Dance Man! $21.99

For those who can’t tie $15

Dirty Diana $16.75
Jazz hands! $16.75

When routine bites hard $152
April 7, 2010 by
Writing

Choose Your Own Adventure

I’ve discovered as of late, that my creative output is directly related to the amount of uncomfortable experiences I encounter on a weekly basis (for example, last September’s run-in with my housemate who tried doing her best impression of Danny Bonaduce circa 1989) . When my life is traversing down the proverbial road, resembling a drunk driver looking for the glowing beacon of an all-night Taco Bell, my writing is at it’s peak. When I work 12 hour days and fall asleep in my work clothes at 10PM next to a bottle of Don Juilo, my writing lags. So, in order for me to fulfill the promise I made to myself as I drove east from California to Texas with no plan other than to write, I will begin actively seeking out fish-out-of-water scenarios for myself and the sake of my writing.
Here are some examples of what I would like to experience:
-I’ve always wanted to drive through the bayou and “accidently” come across an old Southern Baptist church. A heavenly light will gleam through the clapboard (more…)
April 6, 2010 by