New bohemianism: beards, pickling beets, Fleet Foxes, rye...

Or just people going about their everyday lives until a self-styled critic decides it's a trend?

"Aw mom, beards again?"

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/01/07/music.edie.brickell.ap/story.edie.brickell.ap.jpg

You know something isn't isn't really new if somebody has to stick "new" in front of it to remind you.

Normally, I'd be defending the concept of sociocultural trends against Dan M.'s usual skepticism, but in this particular case, I can't get on board. I mean, I don't see a "new bohemianism" in 2008 any more than there was one in 2002 or 1993 or 1985.

Also, Dan M OTM

xpost Yeah, like New Zealand! (I kid)

I live in Austin, wear a beard, dislike eating beets (and haven't encountered anyone talking about pickling them), have a vague knowledge that Fleet Foxes are some band, and don't have a clue about what you're driving at with the word 'rye' - whiskey? bread? grass?

Or just people going about their everyday lives until a self-styled critic decides it's a trend?

-- dan m, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 20:05 (4 minutes ago) Link

I hear the ILX collective hivemind exploding as one. Who will be around to pick apart that particular trend?

http://www.srcf.ucam.org/fitzjcr/images/stories/billybulletin/2006-01-24-tramp.jpg

Beards can get fucked, the rest I'm all for.

No, wait, nu-folk can get fucked too.

i hate when people say they "wear a beard" like its a fucking scarf or something

suggest alternatives. "have a beard" sounds like it's a pet.

hate when people say they "wear a beard" like its a fucking scarf or something

yeah, it's not like they take it off before bed and leave it with their wallet and keys on the dresser or something.

"Have a beard" is not categorically different from "have a pierced ear" or "have a bald spot."

I've been shaving every other day for the first time in my life. I kind of miss having a long beard, but I was starting to look like a roadie for My Morning Jacket.

I prefer "grow face" as in "that guy grows face."

i think beards are just swell and i like rye and pickled things
what is a fleet foxes tho

sing songy folk band from Seattle

"Have a beard" is not categorically different from "have a pierced ear" or "have a bald spot."

-- jaymc, Wednesday, July 9, 2008 4:21 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

i wear a bald spot

the only thing i know about them is that they have the duchess & the duke opening for them on tour.

xpost.

Wait - is pickling beets a band?

Have/Wear beard. Hate Fleet Foxes.

"too lazy to shave"

Also that first bit is a just a tad petty, jmc. I don't disagree that those concepts exist, I just think that far too often they are formed with little to no precision, scientific rigor, or real understanding of more than the critic's own experiences. Then again, you've already heard me say that 9000 times. xposts

pickling beats.

I prefer pickled turnips.

Dilly beans are the BOMB. My mom's been on the sharp edge of that trend for ~40 years.

have a beard just SOUNDS fucking stupid

i don't think i've ever had a pickled beet. they can't be worse than pickled eggs.

You just haven't had the right pickled egg yet!

grow face!!! omg

how are these bohemians different from hippies?

bohemians have better drugs

I like pickled radishes thanks to the Koreans, those famous nu-bohomeians. And picked garlic thanks to the Spanish tapas place on Grand St, which, ditto.

they aren't dirty like dirty, awful, stinking hippies are.

xpost. what que said.

http://www.toadking.com/6x9=42/itisamystery.gif

I ain't aware of too many beets. I know what I know and I don't know these *Fleet*s.

Guys, let's just talk about food, okay? How do you think they get the attached end of pickled garlic cloves so perfectly rounded? It looks like it was tumbled, mine never look that smooth.

"got a beard"

I don't disagree that those concepts exist, I just think that far too often they are formed with little to no precision, scientific rigor, or real understanding of more than the critic's own experiences.

That is probably true, and I wouldn't argue with you on that. I think maybe where we differ is that despite all of that, trends are awfully fun for me to think and talk about.

I'd say that if someone was wearing that hat/scarf number this week in LA, they'd be warm, regardless of bohemian or otherwise.

x-post.

Cultural trends of the lifestyle sort suggested here (in a throwaway fashion, just cos I was interested if anyone would take it up, or it'd be dismissed as bullshit, which is fine) never have precision, scientific rigor etc. They are often about the critic's incestuous little circle (whether describing yuppies in 86, or electroclashers in the 02), and pointedly ignore 99.4% of the population. Doesn't mean that they shouldn't be found interesting, or that there's no such thing as a zeitgeist. I was most interested in whether there was any cross-pollination between newspaper polls that talk about gas prices / unemployment / greenhouse gases, and style / lifestyle choices amongst 20/30 something urban dwellers. If not, fine.

EVAAAAAAAA

I dunno, I feel like a lot of the time people talking about trends are magnifying some relatively not-that-big thing in their own circles, whereas most of the buzz I keep seeing about the back-to-the-land types of today seems to be coming from people who don't qualify for the "trend" in any way and might not even KNOW anyone who does.

Besides, it's already over: the Times reported on it.

The only kind of farming that's bohemian is failed farming.

i don't know, i think going "back to the land" is something urban dwellers fantasize about? i sure do.

i've never seen anyone pickling beets. i've known people with beards all my life. my dad drank rye. so calling this a "trend" is kind of absurd to me. it's like asking about this "trend" where people get progressively older until they die.

words i hate: zeitgeist

that's only one word

Can I cross-post to several days ago and say that I like the semi-archaic "wear a beard" construction? It refers to a stylistic choice, like wearing your hair down or wearing your trousers loose. If we were really awesome we could even try and use "wear" and "have" differently, to denote this: i.e., if you live in the woods and don't care either way, you have a beard; if you woke up one day and decided you'd look snappy with a beard and proceeded to grow one, you wear one.

P.S. I realized the other day that Fleet Foxes have some really terrifically constructed lyrics! Or at least one song ("White Winter Hymnal") suddenly jumped out and I noticed all the stuff going on with sound and internal rhyme and whatnot. It looks way worse on paper because the internal rhymes are all emphasized in specific ways, but:

I was following the pack
All swallowed in their coats
With scarves of red
Tied 'round their throats
To keep their little heads
From falling in the snow
And I turned round and there you go!
And Michael you would fall
And turn the white snow red as strawberries
In the summertime

^^ this is just really well put together, the general images, the set-up with colors, the internal rhymes and assonance and alliteration ... so now I have this increasing respect for Fleet Foxes, who aren't always doing the most interesting thing in the universe but are really quite good at what it is that they're doing.

that is terrible

i only count one example of alliteration ("from falling", and maybe strawberries and summertime???) unless I'm missing something huge

ilx prac crit club

and where's the assonance, nabisco, where is it??? is it internal?

i only took one poetry class ever

"their throats" = I guess that counts as alliteration

why would anyone ever say 'wear a beard'??
unless this is a british thing to say, in which case, carry on being british or whatever

follow/swallow

Tied round Their Throats

their/there

etc.

it's not bad -- i'd have to hear it though. i guess i should go to that free concert tomorrow?

not many internal rhymes, but lots of assonance

lots of "rr" sounds

i understand yr point re construction and internal rhyme but blargh

yeah i think the strongest part about those lyrics is the imagery and the imagery is not. . .that great

edie brickell to thread.

And I turned round and there you go!

this line doesn't fit well into the verse... it seems to me...

crunk foxes

I think the free concert is tonight, Am.

RYE

http://i.timeinc.net/recipes/i/recipes/su/07/03/beer-rye-bread-su-1589348-l.jpg

http://www.bellewood-gardens.com/Rye%20Bread_1.jpg

I CAN TOTALLY SEE ROBIN PECKNOLD IN THE CRUST

butter churning is so hot right now

jordan's concert is tonight, the fleet foxes are tomorrow (the 18th)

Oh, I thought you meant in Chicago. It looks like Fleet Foxes are playing a free show in Chicago tonight, a free show in Madison tomorrow, and then coming back to Chicago on Saturday for Pitchfork...?

No matter how many caveats are given y'all pretend not to have sorted out the "lyrics on paper" thing, but I will continue to post bits I like in the full knowledge that everyone will have more fun going "god that's terrible," as if similar bands are doing anything better -- whatevs

The well-turned thing about the imagery is the red-on-white scarves/snow that it kinda suggests at the end may have turned to red-on-white blood/snow. The "there you go" bit breaks meter because it's set on a chord change. The follow/swallow is a nice internal rhyme that I appreciate because the unnecessary rhyme ("swallowed") is a better and more interesting word there than most alternatives. "White snow red as strawberries in the summertime" rolls around well in the mouth and adds a seasonal opposition to the white/red -- whatever, y'all, most everything in there locks together really neatly, if you ask me, but maybe I'm just being over-reminded of a scene in Les Enfants Terrible involving a snowball with a rock inside it.

Amateurist, they do a lot of harmony singing, which I think you might like. Some of the harmonies are interestingly constructed, some more conventional but still nice. (And it's mildly interesting to hear a band like this pay lots of attention to doing multi-part harmonies well instead of just scrounging other, lamer "roots" affectations -- they genuinely sound good singing their harmonies slow and a capella)

nah

;)

:/

The well-turned thing about the imagery is the red-on-white scarves/snow that it kinda suggests at the end may have turned to red-on-white blood/snow.

Yeah, I got that.

fully true tho that it works better in the ear than on the page, if that is the comparison, as i have just heard this on their myspace dot com

i saw these guys a bit before this micro-blowup and they were impressive -- the singing especially, yes. the songs were catchy and memorable hearing them once, live, so they must be doing something right and it's not surprising they are getting buzz. they were obviously going for that minor-key t-bone burnett style space-country and they nailed it. i always appreciate a band who orchestrates things well, and there was plenty of reverb and purposeful echo-y empty space instead of a lot of generic strumming with a pedal steel on top or whatever.

i should add here FWIW, i like these guys okay! their voices are great, songs are cool even if i don't care for their lyrics. but i don't care about lyrics that much.

basically these guys make me feel old
which i am cool with feeling/being! but not via them
haha
ha

if i was me as i was in 2000 today then i wld be all into this
and butter churning

it works better in the ear than on the page

now what'd I JUST say?

oh wait sorry i misread you, je suis desolee

d'accord

Quand on est ensemble...

oui, mais moi...

why would anyone ever say 'wear a beard'??
unless this is a british thing to say, in which case, carry on being british or whatever

He wears his whiskers long
She wears her hair in a bun
etc.

wears GROWS
wears PUTS

Yes, just like that classic song, "if you're going to San Francisco / be sure to PUT some flowers in your hair"

Um that's not the same thing at all!

Am I seriously going to have to get out a dictionary and/or copies of 19th-century literature to convince you guys this usage exists?

No, I'm just being a dick

Haha so am I, kinda. (Jay-Z says "wears her hair in a twist!") It's totally archaic, but I really do like the use of "wear" for styling decisions, including hair growths -- wear your jeans tight, wear your hair long, wear side-whiskers, wear a beard

wear your heart on your sleeve, wear your fingers to the bone, wear a point into the ground, wear out a welcome

i have just been french-english exchanging and in this talk often turns to discussions of the idiomatic and grammatically weird or archaic when trying to find correct translations - it is funny but also confusing because yeah maybe the wear a beard thing etc is right even if only nabisco and people in the 19thC use it

language so crazy

ok but if she has already put her hair in a bun she is wearing her hair in a bun.