Documentaries are definitely guilty pleasures of mine - and one I came across recently really caught my attention.
Peter York, a cultural commentator and author who has created a documentary called Peter York's: Hipster Handbook. He explores the most ironic conventional subcultures - the hipster. It seemed to be about making, selling and self-consciously consuming products that came with some lengthy, complicated story in order to justify the whopping price tag!
Being involved in the whole business, as makers or buyers, transforms people into what York called micro-connoisseurs (and its expensive living in cool areas, drinking 10-quid coffees!).
Dressing like a workman, particularly a vintage workman from Appalachia, was perhaps a way of reclaiming the macho. Brewing ale like your ancestors and restoring old cameras was perhaps about looking to the past for something authentic and certain.
I personally believe, you can't say we lived in certain times now, but did we ever? Entertaining, funny and insightful as York was, that seemed to be the main hole in his argument. All history has changed, old certainties are dying away, people are scrabbling to get them back.
This documentary may still be available on BBC iPlayer but if not I'm sure you'll be able to find it lingering on YouTube - definitely worth a watch!
Tell me your opinions!
Brandi Kristine
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