The higher the unemployment rates, the more people depend on food stamps, and the more money JP Morgan – the cause of many unemployed citizens – puts in their pockets.

All photos by Collin Ritchie unless otherwise noted.

Jingle…Oops? 

There are always multitudes of heavenly holiday soirees to attend, from Thanksgiving until the ball drops to signify a new year. Unfortunately, these spontaneous mass parties can lead to making a fool of oneself. They often involve booze and always involve the scrutiny of other people who are just waiting to add you to Santa’s Naughty list. Below are some tips to help you make it through the holidays alive and with some semblance of a reputation, friends, and/or a job. (December 21, 2011) << Read More

OpEd: Ditch the Suit, Telecommute

As a college student in the Midwest, I had always imagined my post-degree life as some sort of cross between Sex and the City and The Office. My first couple of jobs after school were indeed in office settings; however, my tastes evolved to prefer web-based start-ups and creative firms over rigid, traditional workplace environments.

Then, after moving to Louisiana, I met The Telecommute. A corner office and direct phone line fell dim to the glow of collaborations and online brainstorming. Having bum luck finding a nine-to-five that appealed to me, I began to source careers of the work-from-home variety. I even attached my name to the title, Freelancer. Business cards could look just how I wanted them, my time was my own, and hell, pants became optional, giving casual Friday a run for its money. But, there is one trap those belonging to the “freelance” crowd fall prey to: distractions. (December 7, 2011) 

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Turkey by moi

A Vegan Thanksgiving, Sans Patchouli

Turkey season is right around the corner.

No, not turkey hunting… turkey eating. Whenever Thanksgiving rolls around, a few different kinds of reactions occur: 1) “Crap, what is my great aunt’s cat’s name again?” 2) “How do I make deviled eggs?”    3) “Where are my sweatpants?”

That last question might be the most common, as it is a tradition to overeat in the name of giving thanks. After all, that’s what New Year’s resolutions are for, right?

But what if a holiday based on celebrating (something involving corn and Pilgrims) could also be a healthy event, where overeating didn’t lead to expanding waistlines? (November 23, 2011)

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One Stop ‘Til Home. 

Capital Area Alliance fighting to make homelessness history in BR.

Baton Rouge area social service agencies are now seeing the final countdown to completing a project almost six years in the making. Earlier this month, a grand opening was held for the One Stop Homeless Services center located at 153 N. 17th Street, near Convention.

“The star in the crown is the One Stop shelter,” said Metro Council woman Tara Wicker, who spoke at the ceremony. “Randy [Nichols] doesn’t wear regular shoes, he wears roller skates with jets.”
Wicker was referring to the executive director of Capital Area Alliance for the Homeless, Randy Nichols. He has been working in tandem with other area organizations since 2005 to pull off the shared goal of a one-stop center.

Upon first hearing the name One Stop, one may think of a convenience store; and in a sense, that may be accurate. The center is the first of its kind in the state, and is aiming to provide all the services those suffering from homelessness might need, under one roof. (November 16, 2011)

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Oh, Holy Light

White Light Night celebrates art, local business, and bright, glowing orbs.

Lights are the common signifier of an approaching holiday season. Green and red Christmas lights, candles on a Menorah, or, for the more decadent, long cascades of flowing white lights draped across expansive balconies. It’s time to get the shopping pants on: the holidays are here. Baton Rouge’s Mid City area prefers this latter decorative aesthetic, but from a more artisan standpoint. White Light Night is the annual soiree hosted by the Mid City Merchants, where white lights represent a local business and the artists they support, inviting patrons to come inside and stay awhile. The 14th Annual White Light Night, nestled in the Mid City Art and Design District, seeks to garner community awareness for local artists, but a noble secondary goal is to promote the holiday of Good-Time Havin’, as evidenced by a map of 49 participating vendors who open their doors to late-night shoppers. (November 16, 2011)

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Garden Party on a Patty

Vegetarians are often forced to answer a small barrage of questions regarding dietary choice: “Do you eat fish?” or, “Where do you get your protein?” (Hint: Beans, grains, and pretty much anything that’s not a vegetable/fruit/cow).

At the very least, it’s pretty well established that burgers are off-limits to the vegetarian and vegan communities. Red meat equals red flag for many Baton Rouge restaurants that are now working to entice the more health-conscious or meat-eschewing patrons. Veggie burgers are the compromise of choice for pubs and taverns that are expanding menus. The phrase can fit neatly on the “Burgers” or “Sandwiches” section of any menu and won’t inspire mass freak-outs regarding such foreign words as “tempeh” or the dreaded “tofu.” Plus, veggie burgers can be baked or microwaved for more “kosher” preparation. After all, it’s just a patty made from the garden. (November 9, 2011)

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OpEd: Senate to Win It

Gov. Bobby Jindal won his bid for second term last week. Pop champagne? It’s hard to get excited about a sure thing. With Jindal winning 66 percent of the votes, and his closest opponent Tara Hollis gathering only 18 percent, perhaps the bubbly can rest on ice for a more enticing occasion.

Now that he’s managed to secure the governor’s seat for another term, Jindal is tasked with staffing his VIP trove of cohorts – and they better make him look good. Specifically, Jindal has his eyes on the heads of the Louisiana Congress, announcing his recommendations for Senate President and House speaker. Contenders for these positions may not have the comfort of such a wide margin either. (November 2, 2011)

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Credit: Photo courtesy of Gulf Restoration Network

Great Balls of Oil!

Oil sheen spotted in the Gulf of Mexico causes many to worry, but an LSU researcher says it might not be time to jump ship. (October 5, 2011)

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OpEd: Justice Is[n't] Served

“I don’t see why everyone is so upset about this wrongful conviction,” someone posted on Facebook last week, referring to Troy Davis’ execution in the state of Georgia Wednesday night. “They happen all the time, and there have been worse cases.”

Troy Davis was convisted of murdering Police Officer Mark MacPhail in 1991. After multiple attempts at appeal, he was executed last week. (September 28, 2011)

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The Style of the Tiger

Whether your game-day involves lounging in a collapsible purple and gold lazy boy surrounded by family, BBQ, and ice-cold brew, or beer-bonging a Purple Haze/Four Loko hybrid until passing out on the Parade Grounds, there’s no doubt the LSU tailgating experience is its own special blend, modified by each attendee until it’s just right. (September 7, 2011)

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[Compost]ition

No one seems to take the trash out anymore.

Perhaps you’ve seen that weird food scrap bucket in your trendy neighbor’s kitchen, or the chicken-wire cylinder on the outskirts of the nearby community garden. Composting is the new recycling, and people across Baton Rouge are starting to put their trash to work. (August 31, 2011)  << Read More

Slick Scampi

Shrimp & Petroleum Fest celebrates two seemingly opposing Louisiana livelihoods.

Oil and water don’t mix, but over a year after the leak gushing from British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill was capped, Louisianans are gearing up for an old chartered tradition: the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Fest. (August 31, 2011)

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Q & A: Now Serving Southern Dawgz

New hot dog stand prevents hunger, DWIs. (August 31, 2011)

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Cilantro: The Great Polarizer

“Go wash your mouth out with soap.”

For some, this punishment might be as unpleasant as eating a leafy green typically used in Chinese and Mexican dishes: cilantro. (August 17, 2011)

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OpEd: Is This Real Life?

Local reform organization takes “scared straight” into another dimension

I recently participated in a good, hearty day of inmate-produced festivities in the BR prison’s multipurpose room, as part of a “scared straight” type of reform organization, Reality Behind Bars, aimed at troubled youth. (August 10, 2011)

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Teaching America Has Its Perks

A look at the direction of La.’s Teach for America campaign, just in time for TFA week. Nine-year-olds in low-income districts are three grade levels behind their high-income counterparts.

The task of educating America’s youth is not all black SUVs and bottle service. Teach for America (TFA), a national education program, serves rural and urban areas using the blood, sweat, and tears of young college graduates. But TFA also provides education reform advocates an all-access pass to policy change outside the classroom. (May 4, 2011)

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Higher Education Drops It Low

Many LSU higher education programs are up on the chopping block – but at what cost to students?

Many Louisiana students choose a master’s or doctoral program to further their education, but the choice may not exist much longer for some areas of study.

An arsenal of humanities majors may have to fill out barista applications sooner than anticipated.

The Louisiana Board of Regents slapped a “low-completers” label on a total of 34 LSU higher education programs last month, including six master’s programs and one doctoral program in the College of Humanities & Social Sciences. Now the pressure is on, as the Board gears up to decide the fate of these completion slackers in light of a state budget shortfall of more than $1 billion.

Bad news for aspiring Antarctic explorers or cartel liaisons (I kid!), among those programs becoming state-budget lackeys are master’s degrees in Hispanic studies and geography. Other master’s degrees up for review are philosophy, French, communication studies, and sociology, several of which are linked to successful Ph.D. programs. (April 27, 2011) 

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Do-It-Yourself culture has become synonymous with HGTV, garden planters made from recycled boots and Etsy-inspired jewelry making. However, a few decades ago, DIY was an ethos ascribed to by underground punks, and later riot grrrl feminism, as a way to catch a breather from the heavy hand of The Man (i.e. capitalistic consumption). With artists struggling to make it, mediocre rock bands being launched into super fame by mega labels, and writers needing to sign book deals at corporate bookstores, some youth movements took their art into their own hands, saying, “I can make this myself. And I will.”

Enter the zine, or fanzine. Zines are small, handcrafted magazines circulated throughout a relatively tiny clientele (at least, before the widespread accessibility of the Internet), typically among those united by a shared interest. The topics are quite broad, be it comics, anti-Cosmopolitan fashion, politics or “How to Start a Band,” but all zines are self-published mainly using low-budget methods like photocopiers.

Oh, and the main point is that there isn’t one: profit isn’t in the set of objectives, but connecting with like-minded individuals and finding a channel for self-expression is. Additionally, copyrights aren’t included either, as reproduction and remix culture play a large part in the content and production of DIY. For a much better definition of these eclectic phenomena, check out thedescription of the NYC Zine Fest.

With the prominence and ease of self-publishing, online zines have been able to connect with like-minded individuals regardless of geography. This pervasiveness has since allowed certain zines to reach an influential status among niche communities.

For example, zine cum magazine Bitch has become a coffee table staple for academics in the world of Women’s and Gender Studies, but the publication is still very important to feminist and women’s rights movements, as well as to female-driven media overall. It allows multiple voices, interested in related issues, to discourse freely about the nuances within movements like feminism and what hurdles women and LGBT citizens still face.

Bitch also pushes the boundaries of discussion regarding sex, politics, art and the media, addressing ways in which the typical notions of such aspects of society often impose upon and oppress its minority members. Thus, even with its much larger readership, Bitch manages to accomplish what zines of the past have done, and its online content retains the hodge-podge feel of a self-published print version.

While many zines are related to grassroots grrrl efforts, not all of them are, and just as many have progressed into web fandom. For instance, did you know the popular nerd culture website BoingBoing was once a small-circulation zine? All four Boing Boing contributors are, or have been, contributing writers for Wired magazine, as well, exemplifying the collaborative nature of zines. Dazed Digital was born into a collage-esque website from its zine seedling Dazed and Confused.

Though many zines have found their way to a specialized corner of the web, many zines are still operating in old print style. Less famous but pretty cool is the Dum Dum Zine, which combines art, poetry and music and retains the zine aesthetic with visually striking PDF issues (a popular format for web distributed zines that allows the old school look and feel while still calling the Internet home).

The aforementioned Etsy features pages upon pages of zinesters selling their ideas and feelings, as well as their artistic ingenuity, to fellow DIYers. One featured publication seems particularly pertinent to today’s youth, namely The Radical Uprise Zine. Another site,ZineWorld, offers news on publishing, access to featured zines and help with distributing small-scale print mags all over the world (though certainly not the only resource that offers this service). ZineWiki acts as a curator for all there is to know about zines.

L.A. Zine Fest exhibits hundreds of California zines for the curious public, and other major cities, like Toronto and NYC, are doing similar things to place zine creators in line with other types of artists.

PRISM is a Kickstarter project looking for funding for a handmade mixed media zine. “The goal of this publication is to create a collage of current art/culture scenes from throughout the U.S. and the world…[it] seeks to establish a platform for multi-media sharing through the tactile, aural and visual experience of print, images, sounds (CD) and movies (DVD) and to extend and elaborate those expressions through its online presence.” It reached its goal in June, so be on the lookout for this artistic and innovative gem.

What can we expect from the zine of the future? Likely the same vitality as always.“Despite what you’ve heard, zines aren’t dead.” Not hardly.

“The history of performance art in the twentieth century is the history of a permissive, open-ended medium with endless variables, executed by artists impatient with the limitations of more established forms, and determined to take their art directly to the public.” — RoseLee Goldberg, Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present

If you were to scan blogs or journals for works of performance art, you’re likely to stumble upon the name RoseLee Goldberg. As an art critic, Goldberg’s writings portray an interesting and eclectic mix of performance artists. Her interpretation of these artists’ work demonstrates performance to be vital in understanding all other art mediums today.

“Performance challenges categorization, which was originally its point,” said Chrissie Iles (Whitney Museum of American Art) in The New York Times last year. But what exactly is performance art? Many people find themselves asking this question when told it’s not the same as a scripted play. “By its very nature, performance defies precise or easy definition beyond the simple declaration that it is live art by artists,” Goldberg wrote. Performance pieces challenge audience members to think in unconventional ways, allowing them to experience raw emotions as they happen, rather than illicit a predetermined response.

Performance art (not to be confused with the performing arts, like ballet) began roughly in the 1960s, using art practices that present the human body in front of a live audience to explore ideas and concepts. Topics generally range from autobiographical stories, like growing up as a member of a minority group, to overtly political themes, such as protesting wars or oppression. The techniques used in performance can be as simple as a single performer telling stories on stage or as complex as a performance troupe with elaborate costumes, props and fully designed sets. A common misconception is that performance artists are attempting to be controversial for the sole sake of shock value. Although performance can be shocking, it can also be as understated as asking the audience to smile into a mirror.

Goldberg also has her eye on other artists as well. She prophetically said, “Some of the most compelling performance comes directly from visual artists whom you might not associate with performance …We’re heading for another big wave of performance art because it allows for pure invention having nothing to do with the marketplace.” Here’s a quick introduction to three of my favorites:

Tim Miller. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Miller regarding his one-man show Lay of the Land, which I was fortunate enough to experience firsthand. Performing since the early ’80s, Miller explores “the artistic, spiritual and political topography of his identity as a gay man.” His shows are funny, moving and could be considered controversial…if you can’t handle discussions of sex or queer identity.

Yoko Ono. She may be less well-known to the world than her famous counterpart, but within performance art, she was and is much more influential even than John Lennon was to rock ‘n’ roll. Due to her works’ conceptual nature, performance pieces by Ono often get recreatedagain and again within the field to explore the original idea in different contexts. The “Tunafish Sandwich Piece,” which was originally just a written work in the conceptual art book Grapefruit, has become subject to the remix culture performance art enables.

The Wooster Group. This performance art group evolved from a small group in the mid-1970s formed around the autobiographical impulses of Spalding Gray, according to their website. They have been active ever since, operating out of their permanent home since conception, “The Performing Garage.” The Group offers radical adaptations that mix literature, live sound and pop culture with performance art methods. For live viewings of The Wooster Group’s performances, go here. Below is a low-quality taping of “Birdie”.

As an audience member watching a work of 21st century performance art, it is important to sit back and simply let the performance happen. Don’t try to read meaning the first time around before saying “I don’t get it.” There might not be just one thing to get; it’s the experience of simultaneously participating and observing that’s really the point.

Millennial darling Jonathon Safran Foer has some haters:

Everything is Illuminated: A poignant indie film fulfilling the repertoire of many a college students’ “must-see” movies, the kind that changes your vantage point on life, taking your perspective from that of a recent high school grad to that of a young adult.

But before it was a movie starring Elijah Wood, Illuminated was a Times-proclaimed “work of genius” written by Jonathon Safran Foer. And upon reading Foer’s first book, my heartstrings, and those of many other Millennials, were illuminated, too, and began to gravitate towards the prose of this young author.

Illuminated presents a beautiful historical manifesto of a young American Jew trekking across Ukraine to find the savior of his grandfather’s life in 1943. But really, it’s a novel about love, multiculturalism and family, with very quirky anecdotes sprinkled here and there via letters exchanged between the vegetarian protagonist (Foer) and his novice “translator” Alex. Hilarious dialogue and memorable exchanges stem from a language barrier between Foer and Alex (who learned English from a thesaurus) Alex’s “blind” grandfather and a “deranged seeing-eye bitch” named Sammy Davis, Jr., Jr. — what’s not to love?

Illuminated touches on many characteristics ingrained in young people, potentially mirroring those of Foer himself, who wrote the book at age 20. Even during the portions of the book written by the fictional Alex, during which he and Foer chat about American pop culture, there is a realism to the bonds formed that very much resonates with transitioning young people, attempting to find their own destinies. It’s no wonder Illuminated has been compared to A Clockwork Orange, another coming of age “must-see.”

Critics didn’t peer so fondly upon Foer’s sophomore novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, however. The Huffington Post shortly after declared Foer one of the 15 most overrated contemporary authors, calling him gimmicky and “always quick to jump on to the bandwagon of the moment.” They even knocked Illuminated, saying “a more pretentious ‘magical realist’ novel was never written” because it appealed to the slacker generation. Of Incredibly Close,HuffPo accuses Foer of riding “the 9/11-novel gravy train…giving us a nine-year-old with the brain of a 28-year-old Jonathan Safran Foer.” The extreme aversion to giving Foer any accolades for this second novel mainly came from aged literary critics, even while many young people were hanging on every word. Can’t win ‘em all.

Perhaps Foer’s novels appeal to a younger generation’s sensibilities because he’s actually lived their plight and shares common interests. It’s not completely off-base for a twentysomething to understand what it means when Foer writes, “I got incredibly heavy boots about how relatively insignificant life is, and how, compared to the universe and compared to time, it didn’t even matter if I existed at all.” Uh, hello, sounds like a recent grad trying to matter in the world!

Personally, the most riveting and habit-changing of Foer’s collection to date is Eating Animals, though HuffPo didn’t like that one either, saying “having cashed in on 9/11, and seeing no obvious fictional goldmine to plunder, [Foer] moved on to nonfiction withEating Animals…his best book yet, his only barely readable one, but without a single original thought.” In Eating Animals, Foer, now a new father, began exploring giving up meat and delved deep into the inefficiencies and downright horrors of the factory farm industry, including such nightmares as insanely escalated animal abuse and rogue diseases caused by over-consumption of antibiotics from farmed livestock. No big deal.

Many people, including Natalie Portman, found Eating Animals a highly original text and changed their lifestyles because of it. Young and radical does not irrelevant make. In fact,Eating Animals inspired a recurrent faceoff between Foer and meat extraordinaire Anthony Bourdain. Foer seems unfazed by the suggestions that he’s a dilettante for environmental writing and asserts a heightened interest in the cause with the line of thinking that it’s just something people need to realize: Factory farming is the number one contributor to global warming.

Perhaps adding to the critique that Foer is an avante-guardian, his latest, Tree of Codes, is a performance art piece of its own. Foer’s all-time favorite book, Bruno Schulz’s Cinnamon Shops (retitled The Street Of Crocodiles when translated into English) has been reconstructedinto a sort of erudite Jenga board. As if on cue, arbiters clamored to claim that Tree of Codesis an attempt to assuage “wobbly critical standing.” Why not just let the guy make a work of art from his favorite novel?

Those who have attempted such a creation before, artists such as William S. Burroughs, were also considered outlandish and frivolous in their day. Foer challenges conventional notions of authorship with Codes because, while not penning the text himself, his vision — a piece of himself — clearly breaks through despite the harsh criticisms in order to pay homage to his hero. Similarly, Foer left his mark in a compilation inspired by another of his more whimsical champions, Joseph Cornell in A Convergence of Birds.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=16503295&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

There are those who would always see Foer as a perpetual dreamer: “Had it not been for conglomerate publishing desperate to anoint young marketable stars, he would still be looking into Joseph Cornell’s boxes.” Critics of young authors like Foer, who throw out words such as “pretentious” and decry that he can’t measure up to literary works the likes of Fitzgerald, really just mean, “Hey, sonny boy, you’re too young to matter. Try growing up a bit.”

Give it 50 years — hopefully we have the foresight not to squash the creativity of the generation after ours.

Originally published in The Next Great Generation.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt Hits RECord on Collaboration:

Have you ever come up with an idea for something without the clear means to pull it off? Say, creating a zine about…feminist clowns. Or putting together a short film about…the aftermath of house parties (using only a FlipCam and a Polaroid, of course). Part of a young person’s prerogative is to be perpetually full of ideas without necessarily knowing how to do things like self-publish or execute video edits. That’s where art collaborations come in: Crowdsourcing via social channels to help artists implement their visions — getting by with a little help from their friends.

HitRECord.org is an online collaborative production company that leaves the artistic vision in the hands of its constituents. And the man behind the curtain? Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Yes, thatJoseph Gordon-Levitt, of indie film masterpieces Brick and The Lookout and, more recently,(500) Days Of Summer and Inception. While many actors nowadays choose to embark on strange or “artistic” side projects like starring in soap operas or teaching a namesake college course (or maybe that’s just James Franco), HitRECord.org seems genuinely altruistic — a truly free artistic venture.

Gordon-Levitt (a.k.a. RegularJOE or HitRECord Joe) envisioned a community where he could leverage his Hollywood fame to help everyman (or -woman) artists find each other and get their art off the ground. Based on a mantra he enacted for his own life (“Just hit record, just do it”), the project blew up in 2010 after five years in the making. It’s now a professionally designed and well-organized collective with everything from an intro video to a t-shirt design conceptualized and created using various overlaying contributions from those every(wo)men.

“Rather than just exhibiting and admiring each other’s work as isolated individuals, we gather here to collectively work on projects together. Videos, writing, photography, music, anything — we call them all RECords,” says the website. No Internet theft debates on this site: Every “RECord” posted is up for grabs to remix and remix again; HitRECord is a completely fluid space.

But not all the community works are destined to live on the web for all eternity. Gordon-Levitt sends some creations (the “finished” projects) to places like Sundance or SxSW to garner a little attention for the artists involved. If a project turns a profit, half of the money goes back to supporting the HitRECord community and the other half is split between all contributors.

For example, Morgan and Destiny’s Eleventeeth Date: The Zeppelin Zoo is a short film that arose from someone posting an idea for a collaboration. Someone else wrote a poem. Another person drew companion sketches, and another RECorder animated them. Several remixes later, Morgan and Destiny’s Eleventeenth Date was a fully-fledged piece, ready to go off to it’s first screening at SxSW. “Our man Morgan and his lovebuddy Destiny, along with Mssr. Foodpenguin and that dastardly dip-stick Lionel premiered to two jam-packed houses in Austin,” Gordon-Levitt wrote.

If you don’t really have the art-collab spirit or didn’t inherit the artsy-fartsy gene, you can participate by simply RECommending your favorite works, which helps Gordon-Levitt find potential new artists to launch onto HitRECord’s featured section. “When I want to direct the community’s creative energy towards something in particular, I feature that RECord [in that section],” he explains on the website. “Some Featured RECords are already quite polished, while some just show a lot of potential, but these are the ones that I’d first encourage you to download and do something with. Refine them, revise them, remix them, reRECord them.”

Another published work sold in The RECord Store is The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, a first-edition, 64-page hardback “tiny book” featuring 31 “favorite tiny stories and illustrations” by 45 writers and artists. The entries to The Tiny Book were sourced from 2,312 contributions to HitRECord user wirrow’s Tiny Stories collaboration.

Gordon-Levitt’s ethos easily comes across like a glaring red “REC” button: Works of art can be pirated, revamped and shared, not owned and protected to get dusty on a shelf or in an archive. They’re almost…alive. So what’s stopping anyone from just pushing that button and seeing what happens? After all, you can just do it again.

Volume One of HitRECord’s RECollection, a mixed media compilation of the best RECords is available now for presale on HitRECord.org.

“Treehugger Evolution Revolution”: (A history of environmentalism). Sure, today’s treehuggers are contributors to the popular sustainability blog or participants in a massive international Environmental art project. But where did they come from? (April 26, 2011)

“Bolivia Says, ‘Respect Your Mama!’”: By introducing a law that will grant legal rights to nature, Bolivia has positioned itself to become Greenpeace’s new BFF.  (April 29, 2011)

Related, but a part of TNGG’s “Not Your Average” theme week, an article on living a “thrifty” lifestyle:

“Lifestyles of the Smart & Thrifty”: The art of thrifting is a mere weekend activity for others, but a lifestyle choice for some. Perhaps it’s the prerogative of the young and indie-cultured, looking to live a life counter to the mainstream. Or maybe it’s just cheaper. (July 6, 2011)

Click headlines for original articles.

The Seattle Sound, Part One: The Ghosts of Grunge’s Past:

Picture Seattle 25 years ago. Much to my dismay, I was nothing but a zygote, but Seattle in the early ‘90s was conceiving something quite different: Nirvana. In September 1991, Nirvana released Nevermind, beckoning savvy, artsy young adults to the rainy West Coast locale, turning the city into an “international hub of art, technology and cafe society,” according to NPR, and launching this newfangled “grunge” into the mainstream.

Grunge is attributed to a specific fashion and musical aesthetic: flannel, distortion, cutoffs, hair. But Nirvana didn’t necessarily create the lifestyle. Before the whole “grunge thing,” also known as “the Seattle sound,” Washington state also harbored punk rock. Grunge was designated by angst, apathy (think “The Boy Who Leans Great”) and, though clad in heavy garb, a stripped-down sound, while the punk scene was hyped to the max, fast-paced and intentionally sloppy and raucous as part of the DIY ethos. Early grunge revolved around Seattle’s indie label Sub Pop, while grunge’s punk parents said “Fuck labels!” And while punk had many different bands and larger cities helping define the genre, (like Fugazi from D.C. or L7 from L.A.), grunge was almost solely relegated to Nirvana and Seattle.

“January of ’88″ musician/producer Jack Endino said about Cobain on NPR: “Here comes this band with no name. They could only afford one reel of tape, and they filled the tape up…They said, ‘That’s OK, put a fade ending on that song…We don’t have any more money.’” That’s how many of the late-‘80s and early-’90s alt kids made music. Record until they ran out of money. And see what happened.”

The Seattle scene wasn’t always a mecca for flannel-clad rockers. It used to be tiny. Charles Cross, writer of the Kurt Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven, said originally, “Everything about Nirvana smelled like basements: the recording studios, where they lived — there’s a mustiness.” (Teen Spirit?)

By 1989, “Nirvana was on its way out of the basement,” NPR said. It’s as though Seattle was thirsting for some band — any band — to take them out of their gloomy status as a rainy port city and launch a steamy hub of punk and alternative bands. And that’s just what happened. Sub Pop released Nirvana’s Bleach, and off they went, spurring the likes of Seattle bands Soundgarden and Alice in Chains to also sign with major labels.

This may have been good for Seattle, but in the eyes of basement-dwellers and, you know, real punks, these bands were considered sellouts. It’s bittersweet for any band to break out of the punk scene because once you leave, you can never come back. To the intentionally struggling bands averting media, Nirvana’s unintentional creation of this grunge movement, and their corporate fame, was like a dagger in their backs.

But Seattle was already a-changin’. Microsoft and Starbucks were beginning to brew. Software and coffee — the dream of twenty-somethings wanting to be close to “real” music but also wanting to pursue a little success themselves. Seattle was the place to be, post-college. Mirroring Nirvana’s success and incidental move away from their broke-ass roots, Seattle began to separate from Washington’s more underground neighboring towns. With all these successful businesses and bands moving in, people were bound to get rich…and make it rain. Real estate went up. Franchises happened. Alt music stations sought corporate sponsors. Eventually the artists and hippies moved out, many to nearby Portland.

Success, why do you ruin everything?! Maybe it’s because success, by it’s very nature, is a capitalist ideal, which is the antithesis of punk rock. You can’t have your indie cred and your stacks of paper.

That doesn’t mean music no longer exists in Seattle. It’s just different. “Seattle’s music scene is thriving; it’s the sound that’s changed,” said NPR. “You’ll probably see a lot of people wearing flannel right now, because that seems to be back in: flannel, beards and folk,” said Jacob McMurray of Seattle’s Experience Music Project, which hosted a Nirvana exhibit this month. So, the grunge fashion may be back…but is it a full-on resurgence of grunge? Have we, in fact, entered into a post-grunge movement? Meh. However, new indie-inspired groups still sign to the Sub Pop label.

As McMurray said, “grunge may be a 20-year-old memory, but it’s part of the continuum of Seattle pop music.” Cities like Seattle may always breed, and turn out, inventors and re-inventors — cyclical movements and ideals for people who can’t go to L.A. or NYC. Seattle may be wealthier thanks to the Starbucks-Nirvana era. But the “punk-grunge” spirit still exists. It’s more than the clothes or the coffee or the music. It’s a lifestyle. “It’s just as cool as it ever was.”

The Seattle Sound, Part Two: Grunge 2.0

Now that we’ve got the lay of the land in terms of how Seattle became a hub for grunge music and fashion thanks to Nirvana and other similar bands, let’s take a look at how the environment is now.

We know grunge grew out of punk music and was but a brief flicker in the history of music, stuck in the early ‘90s forever — but what came after? I touched lightly on the fact that Seattle is still harboring musical talent and that its labels are signing bands aligning themselves with the “indie” title, a distant relative of the Nirvanas and Pearl Jams of the world. But that leaves a couple of decades between now and then.

The Huffington Post was riding this same wavelength, as it turns out, releasing a list of “10 Bands Shaping The Post-Nirvana Era.” It leaves a lot to be desired, as none of the picks really harbor the Seattle grunge spirit, though author Jeff Pollack included a few gems like Arcade Fire, Death Cab for Cutie (from Seattle) and The White Stripes. These seem to pretty acceptable answers, though they are the more “mainstream” indie bands, which draws an interesting parallel to Nirvana as the famous poster-child of an otherwise underground music scene.

Plus, Pollack sort of redeemed his list by including some “bands that show the promise of establishing a lasting legacy in the future.” Those would be Seattle groups Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes, plus Bright Eyes, Kings of Leon and Mumford & Sons.

However, bands like Linkin Park and Coldplay are also listed, which makes it seem as though the author’s selections relied a bit heavily on the big names and sales. The criteria of “standing the test of time,” the sales-based criteria, doesn’t necessarily equate to “shaping an era.” But, if you’re going to talk about a post-Nirvana era, you need to look at Seattle, home of the “Seattle sound.” Nirvana helped shape the port city, and the city helped build the band. Other grunge bands in Seattle at the time were Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. So who embodies that “grunge spirit” now? What bands might shape a post-Nirvana era the way Cobain shaped the ‘90s (though nobody can really take his place).

Bands in Seattle no doubt hung out together and bounced ideas off one another, helping to grow each other’s sounds and inspire new songs. Friend of Cobain and Riot Grrrl Kathleen Hanna and her Bikini Kill bandmates hung out in nearby Olympia, creating a feminist facet of the Northwest and, later, D.C. punk scenes. These types of collaborations are what helps artists spread their music and influence people on opposite coasts. It’s how things catch on. With that early camaraderie, Hanna inspired “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” So the story goes, she spray painted “Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit” on a wall while discussing hood rat things like anarchy, a prevalent component to the early Seattle scene. She was referring to Cobain smelling like the deodorant his girlfriend Tobi Vail (Hanna’s bandmate) wore. Cobain didn’t know Teen Spirit was a cosmetic product until after the single dropped. (Once Nirvana signed to a label, however, his and Vail’s relationship fizzled out).

Coming back to the present, I like to think the bands doing the same damn thing in Seattle today are all hanging around playing Wii and jamming in their basements together. Just who are these current Seattle bands? Skipping over the “post-grunge” movement of the late ‘90s to early ‘00s (which included Creed, Staind, Nickelback and other atrocities I don’t care to address), indie-folk darlings Fleet Foxes seem to have the Seattle sound du jour.

Rolling Stone called them one of the “most beloved bands to come [along] in years.” Plus, the group used to record at the same studio where Nirvana recorded Bleach, and Millennial frontman Robin Pecknold was five when Nevermind came out. He seems to have learned a bit from Nirvana’s “problem” of mainstream success, opposing the licensing of their songs for commercials or shows like Grey’s Anatomy.

Pecknold commented in an RS interview: “For me coming from the perspective that the more something has sold, the worse it is – one of those snobby indie asshole guys – I was like, why is this happening? Does that mean our music is bad?” He also laments on a new wave of grunge-inspired fashions in the area — “The whole hippie bro longhaired beardo caricature can sometimes get out of hand” — while calling their own genre “fauxlk” and shunning lifestyle branding by inventing words of their own: “slaughternalia” (Thanksgiving, to a vegan), “merriweather” (to replace hipster); totebag (an uber-liberal douchebag).

Other Seattle bands in this indie-grunge regurg genre include Death Cab for Cutie and Band of Horses, as mentioned above, the now-disassembled Postal Service and A Fine Frenzy. It should be noted also that ex-Nirvana member Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters recently released a new album as well as a documentary, called Back and Forth. Hip-hop is also becoming a prominent part of Seattle underground music.

It seems the Seattle sound may have to be examined outside of the city, with folk and indie not owned by the Northwast as grunge was. Bands from other cities like The Avett Brothers, The Black Keys, Of Montreal and many, many more, seem to belong to this same alt-rock genre, while others like MGMT, Sleigh Bells, The XX and Best Coast present new, experimental sounds, still appealing to a young, spirited demographic with lo-fi or electro-pop feels. Even more bands are coming across from London or Germany to create waves in America: Adele, Jessie J, Yuck and The Kills, to name a few.

Maybe it’s the way in which music spreads these days. Maybe it’s because there are no ideas. Or maybe it’s because it’s not as easy to define a musical influence by the hotbed city it came from, as musicians now pull from online sources and past influences at a rapid rate. Perhaps there is no new Seattle sound. But it doesn’t stop people from trying to get pick up where Kurt Cobain left off.

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“Funky Faces: Pop Stars Not Afraid of Looking Funny”: There are a few new females who are straight-up fearless in the face of less-than-stellar photo ops. Flaunting their “unorthodox”looks, some girls get down and dirty. (June 19, 2011)

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“Riot Grrrl Hasn’t Lost Her Fight”: Twenty years later, our generation has chosen to revel in the short-lived greatness of the Riot Grrrls, in tribute and in the re-creation of their spirit, via music, documentaries and words. (June 30, 2011)

“Loving Woody Allen and His Women”: Decades of fame hasn’t diminished Woody Allen’s ability to cast the best leading ladies of the day, which makes his films palatable for even the most disengaged twenty-something. (October 31, 2011)

“Is Obama a Born Again Neocon?”: Neocon? Liberal Interventionist? Benevolent humanitarian crusader? Where does Obama stand when it comes to Libya? (April 10, 2011)

“Heather Mac Donald, I Hope You’re Kidding. Please STFU”: We need all the women-power we can muster to keep Congress off our backs. Yet Mac Donald is proclaiming that the alarming statistics surrounding campus rape are nothing but a hoax. (April 14, 2011)

“From Playboy to the Burqa Ban: The Freedom for Muslim Women”: There is no right or wrong way to express one’s own individuality. Deciding for Muslim women is how not to save them. (June 13, 2011)

“The Smoke and Mirrors Behind the Wikileaks Dam”: Just as Julian Assange received the Sydney Peace Prize, a Grand Jury investigation into Wikileaks has been leveraged. (June 15, 2011)

“The Southern Abortion Crusades”: Midwestern and Southern states are getting close to banning abortions all together and writing amendments that would put doctors who perform them in jail. (June 27, 2011)

“Too Soon for ‘Combat’?”: ‘Combat Hospital’ is based on a not-so-easily-wrapped foreign engagement. What effect will screening a fictional drama about a current war have on American viewers, particularly Millennials and younger generations? Is it too soon? (July 13, 2011)

“Marriage Mockery: How ‘The Bachelor’ Taunts Gay Americans”: Why is a homosexual marriage contrary to American values, but the glorified potato sack race that is The Bachelor acceptable?

Photos sourced by The Next Great Generation

 “Mama’s Milk”: Cows are producing human milk in China. I’m sorry, what? Yep, human lactation is no longer reserved for our ta-tas. (April 9, 2011)

 “Suing Monsanto”: The company is notorious for suing small farmers who are allegedly infringing   on copyright laws of seeds. Seriously, seeds. Now, the farmers are fighting back. (April 15, 2011)

“Announcing Radiation Water”:  Fallout from Japan’s nuclear disaster might be affecting the U.S. more than the government wants to let on. (April 22, 2011)

“Food Needs Activism Too”: The food activists are out there, advocating for water shortages, genetically modified crops, CAFOs, food deserts and that whole Jamie Oliver revolution. (May 6, 2011)

“Get Rid of the Ag-Gag Bills, Know Your Farms”: Three states have criminalized taking pictures of farms. Now, an initiative called Farmarazzi is fighting back. (May 27, 2011)

“The Gov’s New MyPlate System”: MyPlate, the new USDA icon, shows you which portions, and how much of each, to arrange on your plate. Easy enough when considering other shapes. (June 10, 2011)

“How Free Is Your Free Range?”: Foodie-ism and trending topics like free range foods are a fantasy. Sure, it’s great to imagine “happy cows,” but there’s really no such thing. (June 18, 2011)

“The ‘Farmaceuticals’ Around You”: Would you give up your Tylenol if you knew a plant could get the job done too? Here’s a list of herbs and natural remedies for anything you’d use over-the-counter drugs for. (June 24, 2011)

“WTF Is Food Terrorism?”: Members of Food Not Bombs in Orlando, FL, have been arrested or detained for attempting to feed the homeless in that city. (July 1, 2011)

“The Juice Fast (But Not the Furious)”: Documentary “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead” shows a kind of dieting most people don’t take into consideration: a juice fast. (July 8, 2011)

“Jail Time for Growing…Vegetables”: A Michigan woman has been charged with growing a vegetable garden in her front yard and now faces jail time. Ridiculous? (July 15, 2011)

“Somalian Famine Not Drying Up”: The climate in Somalia is worse than ever. With aid restricted by Islamist rebels in the south, it’s no wonder famine exists, after two decades of steadily increasing starvation due to instability. (July 22, 2011)

“Happy Meals Still Sad”: McDonald’s has introduced a “healthier” version of their kid-portioned meals, without nixing the toy. But is that the right way to go to curb obesity? (July 29, 2011)

“Food Labels With Flair”: If your pre-packaged Lean Cuisine contained a label absolutely disclosing all the bad-for-you-things inside, would you still eat it? (August 19, 2011)

Photo credits sourced by, The Next Great Generation