Thursday, October 27, 2005

I Ponder Coolness

One of the many things that I love about reading blogs is that it makes me think about things. Because I also love to write a blog it gets me thinking about my take on what’s going on. So thanks once again to Ed who has got me thinking for the past couple of days about the concept of coolness. Of course Ed’s post was about the dastardly fashionableness of environmentalism and green politics but as I prefer to think about more existential topics I concentrated on coolness and what it actually means. Ed reckons that he is uncool because he doesn’t have a fashionable hairstyle, wears plain clothes and doesn’t much like Franz Ferdinand. He also thinks that iPods aren’t that great looking. Now in my opinion that makes him cooler than the average bear because as far as I can see those dopey so called fashionable hairstyles sported by so many young men just make them look like dicks. I won’t even comment on iPods, FF or men’s fashions. For what do I know? I’m 52.

But it didn’t stop me wondering - what is this indefinable cool? I was not convinced that Ed had the answer. So I turned to the Internet and found my answer. So if you are a young man or woman wondering how to achieve coolness you will find the answer in How To Be Cool: An Essay By Logan Whitehurst

And Ed, you will know what to avoid so that you can remain completely individual and untouched by coolness.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Out of that list, I'd say 5 & 10 were acceptable. Perhaps 9 could be done. And 11 would be nice, but not something I'm likley to end up doing.

8 is the one I think I'm least likley to do. Do I want a mocolatteespressodecaf with vanilla sprinkles and a cherry on top? NO! I want a cup of fucking coffee, black, two sugars. Why complicate perfection?

Oh, and Nelly's Garden is just cool. Don't ask why, it can't be defined. It just is.

Anonymous said...

Fashions come and go, but style is eternal. So no need to be fashionable. As for cool-ness, that is also a fashion of the prevailing winds.

If you have to *try*, you have failed. Not that I claim to be fashionable (as if), stylish (not a chance) or cool (why do I need to pander to everyone? I pander to myself, look after my own, and everyone else can fend for themselves.)

Anything that is invariably popular has lost whatever edge it had in the transition to mainstream.

But I know nowt. Was never cool, never tried, never bothered. (Point aside: Your Z's tamed male was one of the cool ones at primary school.) Which reminds me, perhaps I will post the story of the real reason I grew my hair all those bazillion of years ago.

Still, what Ed said. Tha' Garden is da bomb.

Nelly said...

I couldn't be more chuffed if you dipped me in Chuff Syrup and rolled me down Chuff Mountain.

My next post that I'll take a bit of thinking over will be about men's hairstyles. After all I've seen a lot of them in my time from Brylcreemed quiffs to those strange sort of spikey hairdos lads wear now. As far as I'm concerned there are only three acceptable hairstyles unless your name is Johnny Depp.

So cheers to Marc & Ed - two of the coolest guys I've never met.