TigerHead

April 26, 2007

Notes Towards the Definition of the Hipster

It is not often that I feel like a cultural alien. My formative years, which afforded me the priceless opportunity to forge a fine intellect and noble character, were instead spent imbibing cable TV, movies, magazines and every significant album in the rock and rap canons. I therefore know the weight and nuance of the associations borne by words such as ʻNascarʼ and ʻCristalʼ and can deploy them to well calibrated effect. In the past year, however, I have felt myself socially crippled when faced with jokes, insights and analogies that hinged on understanding of the nature and habits of a human type known as ʻThe Hipsterʼ, a type with whom I was only vaguely acquainted.

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Sex Toy Party

Jess is the President of her campus’s pro-choice group, Rider University Vox. She has also been moonlighting as a saleswoman for a sex toy company since January. Pink pro-choice posters hung behind the display table last Friday night in the Terrace library, where she had arranged a mélange of dildos, vibrators, bottles, and anal beads for her sex toy demonstration.

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Museumologies

When I stepped into the René Magritte exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, I stepped into a Magritte painting. The artist in many of his paintings depicted the ultimate “common man,” pudgy and ambivalent in bowler hat, … Read More

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Born in the U.S.S.R.

When the U.S.S.R. collapsed, the world marveled at how quickly a superpower could unravel. But for Serguei Oushakine, all it took to knock down Communist Russia was a good book.

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The Verse Debate, Part 1

In an episode of The Simpsons, Ned Flanders goes mad. Lashing out wildly at every person in the town of Springfield, Flanders’ acid tongue finally rests on Lisa Simpson, the town know-it-all. “And here is Lisa,” Flanders snaps, “Springfield’s answer … Read More

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The Verse Debate, Part 2

Or rather, your notion of the face in Baudelaire is evasive. Poetry’s stock has fallen; that of the novel, the short story—that of prose—has risen. The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books have run articles addressing the … Read More

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The Mystery Behind the Music Man

Last month, senior music major Steve Eaton presented his thesis composition. The performance was broken into two sections. In the first, the audience sat in typical fashion, facing the musicians as they played. The last piece of the first section was two minutes long. The song consisted of one chord, played once and sustained over the duration of the piece. The movement of the song was all in the flux and change of the chord as the wavelengths gradually distended, warped, and eventually faded.

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Verbatim

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Overheard upstairs at Charter

Young Woman: Take off that turtleneck, hot stuff.
Young Man: Anything you say, baby.
Young Woman: Why're you wearing a second turtleneck underneath your turtleneck?
Young Man: Have you lost interest yet?

Overheard in Terrace tap room

Chick: Wait, you hooked up with a girl?
Gay dude: Yeah, but come on, she had huge tits.
Chick: Does that do anything for you?
Gay dude: Well, kinda. They’re fun to play with. Like Legos.

Overheard in a Forbes hallway

Student Running for USG Office: (Knocks on Door)
Guy: (Answer door) Hello!
Student Running for USG Office: You are so great at hearing!

Conversation between a roommate and his junior football player roommate

Football Player: Yo man, what is this building? I've always wanted to know what building this is.
Roomate: Dude, this is Terrace. Terrace.