Pieced together from adbusters.org
Are you a hipster? I ask the girl sitting next to me. She’s wearing big dangling earrings, an American Apparel V-neck tee, non-prescription eyeglasses and an inappropriately warm wool coat. “Fuck no,” she says, laughing back the last of her glass before she hops off to the dance floor.
After punk was plasticized and hip hop lost its impetus for social change, all of the formerly dominant streams of “counter-culture” have merged together. Now, one mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior has come to define the generally indefinable idea of the “Hipster.”
An artificial appropriation of different styles from different eras, the hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” – a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society. The American Apparel V-neck shirt, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and Parliament cigarettes are symbols and icons of working or revolutionary classes that have been appropriated by hipsterdom and drained of meaning. Ten years ago, a man wearing a plain V-neck tee and drinking a Pabst would never be accused of being a trend-follower. But in 2008, such things have become shameless clichés of a class of individuals that seek to escape their own wealth and privilege by immersing themselves in the aesthetic of the working class. This obsession with “street-cred” reaches its apex of absurdity as hipsters have recently and wholeheartedly adopted the fixed-gear bike as the only acceptable form of transportation – only to have brakes installed on a piece of machinery that is defined by its lack thereof. Punks wear their tattered threads and studded leather jackets with honor, priding themselves on their innovative and cheap methods of self-expression and rebellion. B-boys and b-girls announce themselves to anyone within earshot with baggy gear and boomboxes. But it is rare, if not impossible, to find an individual who will proclaim themself a proud hipster. It’s an odd dance of self-identity – adamantly denying your existence while wearing clearly defined symbols that proclaims it.
We haven’t had a chance to interview Jimmy @ Skate Thru Life yet so I just grabbed the mission statement off the Skate Thru Life site:
The Mission of Skate Thru Life is not only to further the positive image of the sport of skateboarding, but to do so by helping to build free community skate parks. Skateboarding is an activity that runs into problems at times with local business owners and police, etc. I love banzing down a huge hill just like the next guy, or skating a cool parking lot, but not everybody else loves it when skateboarders are present. Given the reality of this situation, the solution is to build more free skate parks. Almost every athlete has a place to engage in their respective sports provided to them by their cities. More and more municipalities these days are recognizing the need for free community skate parks, and more and more of them are popping up all over the place. We as community members, however, have to make things happen. If we don’t do anything, almost no city is just going to up and build a free skate park.
Check out the Tony Hawk Foundation for more information about becoming active in your community in terms of getting a free skate park built.
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Although Sunday at San Diego’s COMIC-CON International can be a little light on the freaks and geeks which populate the earlier days of the convention, Swasted’s lone CON correspondent is bringing you the best of what’s left in the following series of shots which also serve as an unspoken criticism of the iPhone’s indoor photo capabilities. Enjoy!
Last week California’s senior senator, Democrat Dianne Feinstein cosigned the ballot argument against Prop. 19, The Regulate, Control & Tax Cannabis Initiative of 2010, which would allow adults 21 years or older to privately possess and cultivate marijuana for personal use.
Senator Feinstein’s public opposition is hardly surprising. After all, if there is one thing about marijuana we are certain of it’s that the public is well ahead of the politicians when it comes to the issue of enacting common sense cannabis law reforms. But that doesn’t mean that Feinstein’s fear-mongering — and yes, that is exactly what it is; at one point the senator claims that the passage of Prop. 19 will ‘require’ employees to sell marijuana laced cosmetics (huh?) and candy bars in the office — doesn’t warrant a public smack down. This is the same bitch that voted for the patriot act and internet censorship, should we really be surprised?
For the full scoop on Feinstein’s misguided opposition, visit, L.A. Times
Local, News, North County, San Diego
California, cannabis, Feinstein, Green Team, L.A. Times, marijuana, NORMAL, Pot, Prop. 19, weed
I love baseball and it would be nice to have a Triple-A stadium down the street but I’m not sure this is a good idea. No cash from the Padres? Is this really the way most minor league stadium deals are structured?
From NCTimes.com
Landing the top minor league team of the San Diego Padres would require Escondido to pay the entire $45 million cost to build a 9,000-seat ballpark and to give the team all revenue from concessions and naming rights, city officials said Monday.
Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler said the city’s motive for spending so much money without any immediate revenue in return would be spurring development of a large district of shops, restaurants and condominiums near the ballpark, which would be built on mostly vacant city land between Washington Avenue and the Sprinter rail line.
“A ballpark would be a cool anchor that changes the way people feel about that area,” said Pfeiler, predicting the ballpark would attract many millions of dollars in private development to the industrial zone south of Highway 78 and east of Interstate 15. “This is the quickest way to get what we want to happen there.”
When asked about the proposal, City Councilman Sam Abed said he was concerned that the city would be committing nearly all of its redevelopment revenue for the next 25 years without any guaranteed return on that investment.
“The deal right now is frontloaded to the Padres and backloaded to the city,” Abed said, noting that the only immediate revenue would be “insignificant” lease payments from the team. “We only benefit if and when all this ancillary development happens.”
From SignOnSanDiego.com:
San Diego’s popular “Dave, Shelly and Chainsaw” radio show has a new home. The long-running morning gabfest, which has been off the local airwaves since January, begins airing Aug. 2 on Jack 100.7 FM — even though the team isn’t complete yet.
Headliners Dave Rickards and Cookie “Chainsaw” Randolph will be back, along with supporting cast Ruth 66, Chris Boyer and Emily Maguire. Shelly Dunn is still under contract with Clear Channel, which owns KGB/101.5 FM, where the show aired for almost 20 years. But Rickards does not plan on letting his show go on without her for too long.
“I’m doing everything I can to get her back,” Rickards said Thursday.
The North County Times is reporting Escondido is pulling ahead of San Marcos as the front-runner to become the next home for the Padres Triple-A baseball team. City officials have been meeting with the Padres to discuss potential plans a new minor league ballpark surrounded by a large shopping and dining district. Escondido officials say their location offers the greater potential for accompanying development and is located south of Highway 78 and just east of Interstate 15.
NCTimes.com
“They like the location and they like the potential for ancillary development,” said attorney Dave Ferguson, who last fall spearheaded an effort to bring a new San Diego Chargers stadium to the same area. Ferguson said the San Marcos ballpark site provided less opportunity for extra revenue.
Padres officials declined to comment Thursday, but Padres chief executive Jeff Moorad told the North County Times last week that the team was leaning away from San Marcos because another city had a better plan.
I’m going to submit my request for Swasted.com press credentials right now…
Landlords of several prominent retail locations throughout Escondido have been offering discounted lease agreements to retailers in hopes of filling their vacancies. So far, it appears its have been working.
Ross and Dick’s Sporting Goods will split the vacant 76,000 square-foot building on 9th Avenue that was formerly Mervyn’s but has sat empty since December 2008. Souplantation will open a new location nearby at an open spot near Applebee’s.
The building on Valley Parkway that was formerly Good Guys will become a Furniture Warehouse store. Another retailer has been secured for a vacancy across the street, formerly Circuit City, but no formal announcement has been made.
An Escondido In-N-Out Burger is currently being built on Valley Parkway just west of the 15 and Ruth’s Chris is adding a location in the new Lexus dealership, also on 9th Avenue.
More at NCTimes.com
E3 2010 is over but the next big event is just over a month away. It’s the San Diego Comic-Con on July 22-25 and the massive convention is already sold out of its tickets. 125,000 people are expected to attend this year’s event and game publishers and related companies are all set to attend.
Game publishers have been making a bigger push to attend Comic-Con in recent years and this year’s exhibitor list shows that’s continuing with companies like EA, Ubisoft, THQ, Capcom, NCsoft and many other listed as attending the how. There should also be a number of game related panels and events at Comic-Con and we will report on them when they are announced.
San Diego Chargers general counsel, Mark Fabiani, spoke in Mission Valley to a gathering of engineers and construction industry professionals about the pursuit of a downtown football stadium. The $750M structure (up to $1B w/ roof) faces financing issues because the Chargers expect public money to be contributed, a sensitive proposition in cash-strapped SD. The addition of a retractable fabric roof would allow for convention space and serve as a replacement for the Sports Arena (can’t wait for that demolition party) or MLS franchise.
Fabiani pointed out that by replacing city-owned Qualcomm and Sports Arena sites, SD could generate revenue by selling the unneeded land. Additional savings would also be possible since taxpayers currently are on the hook for up to $300M in improvements to Qualcomm if the Chargers finish out the current lease through 2020.
If the East Village complex is built, the 10 acre site would be the smallest in the NFL (bye-bye traditional tailgating) and the proposed 62,000 capacity would need an additional 8,000 temporary seats in order to host a Super Bowl. The capacity is intentionally undersized to minimize construction costs and ensure regular season sellouts.
The next step in the process is a vote scheduled on June 22 by San Diego City Council to authorize further studies on financing options. If the City approves (write your local councilmember), the County would need to do the same before the project is put to a county-wide public vote. The 2012 presidential primary would be the likeliest opportunity to put the stadium on the ballot.
On the possibility of the Chargers exhausting local sites and leaving town: “We’re closer to the end of this process than the beginning, we’ve been looking for 8 years” and “I’d hate to say this is the last option, we could take another look at the Escondido site, but the stars seem to be aligning downtown.”
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