Thursday, December 16, 2010

This Week in Local Sports: Selby, Mario, Bubba, and Barbie / Important Hipster Article of the Week: "Brooklyn: The Brand"

You can't go outside in Larryville this week without hearing two words: Josh Selby. Yes, the highly-touted recruit is FINALLY slated to emerge from probation during Saturday's home game against USC and turn us from a great team into...possibly the best team that's ever played the sport of basketball (Good timing, too, since Mario Little, according to a Breaking News headline at this moment, was arrested last night for wreaking havoc along Ohio Street). Even the boys are excited about Selby's debut, and yesterday entered a contest to win tickets which required them to post a review of a local business in the LJ-World Marketplace. Read our review of the Replay here:

http://www2.ljworld.com/marketplace/businesses/replay-lounge/

But Selby isn't the only news of note this week in the world of local sports. Tulsa's Bubba Cunningham will (almost certainly) soon replace former AD Lew Perkins. Based on our Southern heritage, we mistakenly believed that all Bubbas were portly gentleman rarely seen without a big dip of Skoal, but this Bubba looks like a respectable fellow and we wish him well. If someone asks if you want to borrow some exercise equipment, just say no, Bubba!

And in holiday sports news, the KU basketball team found time in their busy schedule this week for a little Christmas shopping. Enjoy that Barbie, Markieff!




















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We love articles about hipsterism, especially Brooklyn hipsterism, and this past Sunday's NY-Times offered a piece called "Brooklyn: The Brand," which explores how "Brooklyn hip" is expanding into Manhattan with the recent opening of a new bar called The Brooklyneer:

"This new bar is dedicated to all things Brooklyn, particularly, the menu declares, the borough’s 'newly-emerging food artisans.' There are Brooklyn hot dogs and Brooklyn pickles and Brooklyn whiskey. You can order toast points spread with Boerum Hill-made ricotta and Carroll Gardens-jarred jam, slam oyster shooters with Greenpoint-brewed kombucha."

Naturally, true Brooklyn hipsters are worried about the co-opting of their hipness, while others, such as the managing editor of Brooklyn Based, celebrate such expansion as inevitable and positive:

"Some of the country’s top movements start in Brooklyn, N.Y...trends soon to be sweeping the nation.” Among those trends: “gourmet canning” and “the art of urban farming.”

Here's our personal favorite line from the article:

"There is a $9 chocolate bar produced exclusively for Cool Hunting by the Mast Brothers of Williamsburg, whose preindustrial production techniques and picturesque beards have been celebrated by numerous enthusiasts." (picture below)

Why does no one ever celebrate our picturesque beards?

And could the Captain please make a field trip to The Brooklyneer, slam a few oyster shooters with Greenpoint-brewed kombucha, and report back to us in a new column?

Read the full piece here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/dining/15brooklyn.html

3 comments:

Capt Scrutiny said...

Hmm, the Capt is at first skeptical. It would take some convincing to get me to travel to the W. Village to pay W. Village prices for kitschy Brooklyn products, most of which I've already imbibed, digested and shat out.

Second, those "newly-emerging food artisans" are a despicable bunch. Their simple products are no better than your friends' homemade salsa, pickles or cookies and the arts & crafts are as outrageously stupid and as the prices.

The article fails to mention that most of the jejune minions of the Brooklyn Brand are trust-fund or hedge-fund products that live their lives tinkering and toying while the rest of us work real jobs in order to pay ridiculous NY rents, be it in Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn or the Bronx.

In close, it's likely I'll claim that I'm too busy being a real adult to take in their grade-school cake walk bullshit. And ironically, I will project what Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy say about grad students ("they are the worst people in the world") onto anyone that writes "BK," "Carroll Gardens" or "Boerum Hill" on their self-congratulatory business venture with the sole purpose of charging a higher price.

So is it hip? No. Because hip will never be a self-designation.

On a completely separate note, I'll be selling Queens brand PBRs over Christmas break at the Replay, bring your checkbooks.

unhip in OP said...

When will an off-brand Replay open its doors in Johnson County to bring a little taste of Larryville hip to the suburbs?

An Eastsider said...

What's self-designation?