C5A BEATS

THE PBR PHENOMENON DECONSTRUCTED

You may have noticed a trend over at least the past couple of people raging against hipsters for being shallow trend-followers.  You don't necessarily have to actually know what a hipster is to complain about them, but more astute complainers will know that they drink Pabst Blue Ribbon beer for the "ironic effect".  This meme has even recently been cemented in the mainstream media with reports mentioning PBR's "[adverb, e.g strangely, highly, etc.] effective" "word-of-mouth campaign" playing up to the hipster sense of irony.  No evidence of this "word-of-mouth marketing campaign" is cited other than other articles repeating the same thing while relishing the irony of an anti-conformist, anti-corporate subculture being seduced by corporate marketing.

Having no preference, a hipster may be likely to choose PBR because of the can design.  The design hasn't changed in years, signifying a more authentic relationship with the customer than those beer companies that update their labels to entice customers.  Not so ironic a choice, just a conscious evaluation of the design as it reflects on the choices the company makes.

A hipster may choose to drink PBR because their friends drink PBR:  not much different from any social group that has their favorite beers such as Budweiser or Guinness.  If everyone in a group agrees on a brand of beer, it's easier to buy a 12-pack or a case for a party that no one will bitch and moan about.

The most important reason hipsters drink PBR is economic.  Hipsters are generally people from a middle-class upbringing who are involved in the local indie music scene.  What that should tell you is that they hold aesthetics above affluence.  Having a lesser drive towards affluence, they tend to not make much money.  Being middle class tells you they're advantaged enough to not have to drink the cheapest form of alcohol available like bums and welfare cases.  PBR is the beer of choice of people who have enough money see a band at a bar, but not enough to waste it on upgrading their beer while they're there.  It is in fact the drink of choice for white bar patrons living above poverty conditions with a limited disposable income, at least in the South.

Tennessee Rounders - 2007-01-12 - Pabst Blue Ribbon [128kbps vbr]

In the South, PBR is the cheapest beer you can get in most bars.   It's also the cheapest non-light, non-ice brewed beer you can get at just about any gas station, aside from Milwaukee's Best which sux.  This doesn't have as much to do with customer demand as it does with Pabst Brewing Company's pricing and distribution.  Bar owners there don't sell it because customers demand it, they sell it because customers there tend to go to bars that offer cheap beer and PBR has chosen to cater to that market. 

It shouldn't be surprising that traveling indie bands playing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, artists, and liberal arts majors who move to New York and live on a tight budget while starting their careers would bring their preference in beer with them.  In New York, PBR is expensive, like all beer, so it's particularly hard for people there to understand why hipsters drink it, but it's still usually one dollar cheaper in bars than other beers.  Aside from saving a buck, it's better to ask specifically for a PBR than to ask for "the cheapest beer you have" in front of a girl you may want to bone later. 

I just wanted to clear all that up because it's kind of sad to see the same rant repeated by different people about "hipsters" and their "trends" and the irony of their "ironic" beers.  You can go on believing that the trend started with PBR's marketing team showing up at drug parties and dingey rock venues telling people that PBR is ironic, but drinking PBR has less to do with irony and some vaporous "word-of-mouth marketing campaign" and more with economics and Pabst's distribution model.  There's people that drink PBR based solely on the brand's cultural cache while imbuing it with an aura of irony, but is that act any worse than criticizing it based solely on the brand's cultural cache while imbuing it with an aura of irony?

MEGHAN McCAIN MIGHT DELETE HER TWITTER

Meghan McCain, daughter of John McCain, posted this picture on twitter showing off her book, got called a slut, and is now considering deleting her twitter profile.  Here are the relevant tweets in chronological order:

McCainBlogette http://twitpic.com/ljzq4 - my "spontaneous" night in... 18 hours, 49 minutes ago

McCainBlogette so I took a fun picture not thinking anything about what I was wearing but apparently anything other than a pantsuit I am a slut, this is 18 hours, 28 minutes ago

McCainBlogette why I have been considering deleting my twitter account, what once was fun now just seems like a vessel for harassment 18 hours, 28 minutes ago

McCainBlogette I am going to take some more time to think about it but seriously I was just trying to be funny with the book and that I'm a dork staying in 18 hours, 27 minutes ago

McCainBlogette when I am alone in my apartment, I wear tank tops and sweat pants, I had no idea this makes me a "slut", I can't even tell you how hurt I am 18 hours, 13 minutes ago

McCainBlogette ok I am getting the fuck off twitter, promise not to delete my account until I sleep on it, thank you for the nice words supporters 18 hours, 11 minutes ago 

McCainBlogette I do want to apologize to anyone that was offended by my twitpic, I have clearly made a huge mistake and am sorry 2 those that are offended. 18 hours, 2 minutes ago

UPDATE (04:04PM EST):  She will not be deleting her twitter, treating this as a learning experience instead.

McCainBlogette I would like to thank my family and friends for their support. This has been an embarrassing experience but also a learning one. I will not 19 minutes ago

McCainBlogette be deleting my twitter account but I will be more careful in the future about my use with the medium. 18 minutes ago

UPDATE (2009-12-01 04:07AM EST):  She said a few more things about it but I lost interest in blogging about it.  Sorry if you think this entry would've benefited from being more comprehensive.

MICKEY MANTLE RECALLS A YANKEE STADIUM MEMORY

HOW TO HOST A WINDOWS 7 PARTY

[via Valleywag]

I wonder if Microsoft meant this to go viral. I'm leaning towards thinking they didn't. It's been online since at least August 26.

ON-TIME CLOCK

This is the ON-Time clock from Fabrica Design. It runs 3 minutes fast. Personally, I'm never just 3 minutes late so it'd be kind of useless to me. Speaking of useless, I tried posting this using the Blogger accelerator in Internet Explorer 8 but the GUI doesn't allow for uploading or embedding pics like the web interface does. Google and Microsoft just wasted 3 minutes of my time with their "accelerator".

LOCAL TV NEWS BANTER: WHY IS IT SO WEIRD?

Whenever I see local news on TV, I pay attention to the "friendly interaction" between the anchor and the other reporter(s) sitting by them. Those little comments they make to each other about the previous report are always really weird. It's unlike any kind of human interaction you'd see anywhere else. It's like they're acting like they're making small talk, but it's totally not small talk because small talk is just something to fill up time or to show a stranger you're stuck next to that you're not an introverted creep thinking about how much you resent them encroaching on your personal space. I suppose it's because local news is targeted at people that don't pay attention to what words mean but how they sound, but if you're not part of this target audience, it does seem really freaking weird. Take this for example:


With most things, you don't get them when you first see them, but the more you see them the more you get it, because you learn about stuff and things make sense as you grow up. Local news though is something that seemed normal to me when I'd watch it as a kid, but the older I get the more it freaks me out. I'm not even so sure that it's these odd asides themselves that are so strange; maybe what's alienating me is the blatant realization that there's an audience for them.

Have you also noticed this? Do you even ever watch the local news? What is the anchor in that video talking about?

PATRICK SWAYZE DIES AT AGE 57

Actor Patrick Swayze died in Los Angeles today after a public bout with pancreatic cancer. "Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said his publicist, Annett Wolf. Swayze is best known for his roles in Ghost, Roadhouse, and Big Trouble In Little China.

HOW EGGS ARE MADE

ODUMCARLOCK'S GUIDE TO BONING B*TCHES

• Realize that every woman is different and prefers different things in bed. No f****ng templates! Just imagination and experimentation!
• Communication! The more you talk the better the sex is, and the better you get.
• Practice. That sh*t really does make perfect.
• Fitness - be healthy, spiritually, physically and psychologically.
• Caring, care for your partner and yourself.
• Respect! For both of you.
• Technique - never stop learning and training and getting better, never be satisfied with who you are, always give it 110%, always try to have better sex than you had last time, never just call it in! If you feel like you're going to have mediocre sex, do something else instead!

BREAKING NEWS: BONO'S FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE DAMPENED BY SLEEP-DEPRIVED COMMONERS

The Associated Press is reporting that the shipment of U2's stage to it's next destination on their multimillion dollar tour has been delayed by protesters kept awake by noise from the 44 hours of round-the-clock work dismantling it following a noisy run of nighttime shows in Dublin, Ireland.

When told of what happened after landing their private jet in Nice, France, where they are staying between shows, the band felt "pure disappointment. It's just really put a damp squib (sponge) on something that was a fantastic experience and fantastic show" said the tour's production director.

There is no word yet whether a lawsuit threatened against the protesters will include a claim for emotional damage incurred by the band.

MEMETARD: A MEME FOR THE POST-MEME AGE

A memetard is someone who repeats overused memes indiscriminately as a conversational crutch.

Examples of memes commonly abused by memetards:

• "Arguing on the internet is like the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded."
• Godwin's Law, godwin, etc.
• "PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals"
• "CAPS LOCK:  CRUISE CONTROL FOR . . . "
•  image macros
• "Cool story, bro"
• "tl;dr"
• "evar", "moar", "an hero", "teh internets", etc.
• bacon
• ninjas vs. pirates
• fail

Please use this meme judiciously.

EDIT: First usage of the memetard meme within a memetic context.

GIRL ALMOST GETS RAPED ON MYSPACE

THE IDEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE U.S. SUPREME COURT, 1937-2007

An infographic at scotusscores.com illustrates the ideological tendencies of the U.S. Supreme Court as a whole and of individual justices on a liberal-conservative scale.

YOUTUBE CENSORING IRANIAN PROTEST VIDEOS

While the media is not being allowed to report what is happening in Iran, Iranian protesters are risking their lives to record video of the situation and upload it to the internet using very limited bandwidth. At the same time, Youtube is deleting them soon after they are uploaded. Most likely because the deleted footage is graphically violent. UPDATE (07:30 17 June 2009): The twitter hashtag for this censorship is #youtubefail. There is a torrent for 11 videos removed from Youtube. The videos may also have been removed by illegitimate DMCA requests by supporters of Ahmadinejad claiming copyright infringement. This is a good reason why the Digital Millenium Copyright Act should be repealed in the U.S.A. UPDATE (08:58 17 June 2009): In response to being called out on this, Youtube has made a statement congratulating itself on going out of it's way to not delete more of these videos because of the critical nature of the situation and suggesting that these videos may have been removed by the users themselves, presumably just after risking their lives attaining them and uploading them with limited bandwidth available. Here is the relevant part of their statement:

We've noticed some claims going around that YouTube has been engaging in acts of censorship and removing some of these videos from the site. Unless a video clearly violates our Community Guidelines, we will not take it down. In general, we do not allow graphic or gratuitous violence on YouTube. However, we make exceptions for videos that have educational, documentary, or scientific value. The limitations being placed on mainstream media reporting from within Iran make it even more important that citizens in Iran be able to use YouTube to capture their experiences for the world to see. Given the critical role these videos are playing in reporting this story to the world, we are doing our best to leave as many of them up as we can. YouTube is, at its core, a global forum for free expression. Take note that if you see a video that is unavailable on the site, it may be because the user decided to remove the video him or herself.

Apparently Youtube's idea of a "global forum for free expression" is one which censors documentation of bloodshed and death at pivotal moments in history--you know, the kind of expression which matters the most.