Oh that's <i>so</i> cool.

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You can take the thread title at face value or sarcasticly. (I can't spell today).

So what is being cool? The Fonz? Debbie Harry? Lord Byron? Why do people bother to pursue it, way after the teenage years? Why do you choose those jeans? is it fashion? Is it anti-fashion? Why do search engines have a link to 'cool stuff'? is it just a get out, all purpose word like 'shit'?

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 15 May 2003 18:28 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.intheredrecords.com/media/covers/DS-cover.jpg

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 15 May 2003 18:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Lady, if you have to ask, you'll never know.

< /stupid pretentious prick >

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Thursday, 15 May 2003 18:32 (twenty-two years ago)

fuck yes, Horace.

― That Girl (thatgirl), Thursday, 15 May 2003 18:32 (twenty-two years ago)

constant insecurity? I don't know, that sounds like the right reason maybe. (especially if this means that doesn't manifest itself) I guess it's a goal in life which seems easily attainable if only for a few hours or a few minutes daily, after you buy/say/do whatever it is. Unlike say career goals or life goals like family or love or something.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 15 May 2003 18:32 (twenty-two years ago)

we're through being cool
eliminate the ninnies and the twits
going to bang some heads
going to beat some butts
time to show those evil spuds what's what
if you live in a small town
you might meet a dozen or two
young alien types who step out
and dare to declare
we're through being cool
spank the pank who try to drive you nuts
time to clean some house
be a man or a mouse
waste those who make it tuff to get around
if you live in a big place
many factions underground
chase down mister hinky dink
so no trace can be found
we're through being cool
put the tape on erase
rearrange your face
we always liked picasso anyway
mash 'em

― hstencil, Thursday, 15 May 2003 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I woulda posted the new one, but couldn't immediately find a photo of Ode To Joy, which is even better or at least cooler, since it's fulla uptempo songs about d-e-a-t-h (ain't nothing cooler)

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 15 May 2003 18:55 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.art.com/images/PRODUCTS/large/10006000/10006998.jpg

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 15 May 2003 19:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Ronan's thoughts. Any other ideas on why people chase this?

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 15 May 2003 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

why is cool cool?

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 15 May 2003 19:18 (twenty-two years ago)

exactly.

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 15 May 2003 19:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Cool = filter to sort which of the tens or possibly hundreds of people you come in contact with during the day who it might be desirable/aspirational/pragmatic/realistic to make contact with, whether friendship, fuck, or just a lingering glance.

― chester (synkro), Thursday, 15 May 2003 19:30 (twenty-two years ago)

what i find much weirder is why people *don't*. it's probably as a consequence of hanging around with mathematicians that i've met so many people who aren't cool, and are painfully aware of it (admittedly i know more who aren't cool and don't care); but i always want to shake them and go "for fuck's sake, it's not hard, just read a couple of magazines and go buy some clothes!".

― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 15 May 2003 19:32 (twenty-two years ago)

two kindsa people:
1. hipsters
2. suckers

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 15 May 2003 19:34 (twenty-two years ago)

but most of the time it's people who worry about cool that are the suckers.
that's why irony is so cool.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 15 May 2003 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

it IS hard, the social butterfly bit, anyway. unless you go for the type of cool that's "i'm too good to talk to you," but that's not so big in high school.

― Maria (Maria), Thursday, 15 May 2003 20:36 (twenty-two years ago)

The thing which makes it desirable is its ambiguous nature, "cool" could be anything, there's no fixed canon of cool and hence it feels within our control alot, cool is what we are to some extent, but also its how we exist through our friends (people whom we think are cool). The fleeting nature of most of the things which we might do chasing the cool image means that we don't have to worry about fucking up either really.

Personally I think it's often about trying to make what you feel you are and your interests interesting to people. The weirder they are the better.

I'm still missing some killer Nabisco level point on this but I think this is the right general direction. Nabisco save us!

This is a good question, I was thinking about it while shopping.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 15 May 2003 20:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I was hoping for Nabisco too. NABISCO SAVE US!

― Anna (Anna), Friday, 16 May 2003 08:14 (twenty-two years ago)

It's time to make a sacrifice to the Nabisco, someone has angered him.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 16 May 2003 08:19 (twenty-two years ago)

i think when something becomes officially recognized as cool - ie rat pack they lose it.

i think cool is fashion [in anything] that is just ahead of fashion.

and the only way to find cool is look at the anti-cool. so hanging around with mathematicians is probably a good start.

― arthur woodlouse (arthur woodlouse), Friday, 16 May 2003 09:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Cool is, by definition, not hot. So it is never the next big thing, it is never the pinacle of fashion. Instead it is often perpetuating the attitude that you don't try too hard, you are individual - sure you are aware of the trends, but importantly you take the bits that work for you and leave the rest. Ronan's line above about cool being what makes you interesting is nearly there, cool is just being interesting without cultivating it.

Being too cool for school is okay but you'll never get a job without a decent education.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 16 May 2003 09:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I think when something becomes officially recognised as cool then you can tell who isn't cool by the people who think those things are cool EVEN THOUGH yes actually they are.

I know what Toby means about people who aren't and care about it, it's much happier and more relaxing if you don't, having been on both sides of that particular fence.

A lot of it is sexual neurosis obviously.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 16 May 2003 09:58 (twenty-two years ago)

"cool is just being interesting without cultivating it."

i am not sure i agree with this

everyone cultivates their personality...
i think a lot of people on this thread seem to think "cool" is some kind of duck thing - not showing on the surface how much your are kicking like a bugger/paddling beneath.

i dont think anything is innately cool. sorry i think it is a subjective label given by individual sections of society. no one or thing has an essence of cool.

― arthur woodlouse (arthur woodlouse), Friday, 16 May 2003 10:23 (twenty-two years ago)

ducks are cool.

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 16 May 2003 11:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Nothing may be definitely cool arthur but defining the concept and how people treat it or desire it may still be possible.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 16 May 2003 11:35 (twenty-two years ago)

i had a big think over lunch and i have to take issue with pete over cool and hot being considered opposite in cultural terms. sorry, but i just dont think that's true. the semantic cultural and slang use of these terms are totally divorced from them being opposites in terms of temperature.

no offence but cool and hot are interchangeable, daddio.

i agree the concept of cool exists because we say it does. but i just think it is one of the most subjective [especially temporally speaking] categories you will ever get.

a good book about this subject is "the conquest of cool" by thomas frank. it describes the way use of "cool" as a marketing tool by US advertising man right from the inception of the idea in the 1950s. cool is very aspirational and commercial [according to the book].

― arthur woodlouse (arthur woodlouse), Friday, 16 May 2003 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)

it's definitely aspirational and commercial, but I think maybe the thing is people don't slate being cool or demonise it in the same way other commercial or aspirational things can be slated.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 16 May 2003 12:29 (twenty-two years ago)

but i just think it is one of the most subjective [especially temporally speaking] categories you will ever get.

That's why it interests me. The word is so widespread, yet it's meaning shifts over time, between groups of people etc.

― Anna (Anna), Friday, 16 May 2003 12:31 (twenty-two years ago)

i agree but it is the original "keeping up with the joneses" phenomenon. you can never achieve it and never stop trying.

― arthur woodlouse (arthur woodlouse), Friday, 16 May 2003 12:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay, I know where your coming from with my "by definition" crack and you''re right. But cool!=hot in my book. Hot is attention grabbing, hot is new, now, zingy, tang. Hot can go off the boil quickly - cool has a slightly more classical air to it. Cool stays cool, if it doesn't it wasn't cool in the first place. Cool can go out of fashion even, but that's okay because it is cool. As Ronan says above people don't really have a go at people for being cool (whereas fashion vitim, trendy all has negative connections).

Is The Dude in The Big Lebowski cool? I think this might be the klind of definition I'm slipping towards.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 16 May 2003 12:37 (twenty-two years ago)

i know what you mean but personally i would use [misuse] the category "charming" when it come to the Dude. because in so many ways he is an arse but he is a great man.

may be i just have big aversion to the phrase cool and according to my own personal definitions "cool" as an idea is not cool.

― arthur woodlouse (arthur woodlouse), Friday, 16 May 2003 13:48 (twenty-two years ago)

NABISCO WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN US

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 16 May 2003 15:35 (twenty-two years ago)

haha maybe he is in paris, non?

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 16 May 2003 15:40 (twenty-two years ago)

NABISCO AU SECOURS

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 16 May 2003 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude, didn't you hear? "Cool" is the new cool again!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 16 May 2003 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

right, right, right...and im looking like the money, like the bomb.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 16 May 2003 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

And the thing is Nabisco keeps popping up on aim but refuses to reply or join chats. The punk.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 16 May 2003 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

Hoi Nabisco - tightly packed paragraphed essay on the essence of cool NOW!

(Then 30 laps round the sandlot.)

― Cozen (Cozen), Friday, 20 June 2003 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, white negro, blah blah blah.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 20 June 2003 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

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Oh that's so cool.