Hipsters of previous cool Generations find themselves in a pickle, for which I have coined a term – “Before Damn Social Media”, aka: BDSM! They lived through really interesting times. However, documentation of those adventures is sorely lacking. Unlike now, no facebook, no Instagram, no tweets, no instant gratification by bragging for likes!
So much was different, film was very expensive and mostly black and white. Video cameras were just becoming available at a very high price. Even Super 8 was costly. Gossip had to be spread by talking! So the evidence of those times skews to the few who actually had friends with the money to take pictures or film of them.
If you were going to an event where you want to make a splash, most of the photographs would be black and white. Then the makeup should be applied monochrome to give the best effect . Now of course, there is facetune. Personally, I find a lot of my best shots were printed in the papers. So now I only have those little dot screened and yellowed with age proofs of “yes!, I was something to be reckoned with! “. ( Don’t all young people think they are a destined for greatness?)
And what of all the stories of those times? Nowadays people say “pics or it didn’t happen” . People are writing memoirs that they are cutting and pasting from memories obscured by partying and the passage of time. I think we should all make up some really outrageous tall tales together and try to pass them off. And then all this next gen will be impressed and try to recreate some impossible scenarios. For instance, remember that time that “insert dead underground celebrity name here” and I decided to hang off East Village roofs by our ankles? Everyone started doing it… a real craze! And then “insert artist here” painted our portraits but it got burned down when the fabulous club we were at caught fire because we were lighting farts on stage with ( insert perpetually blitzed out of their mind rockstar who could never deny this made-up story because they can’t remember shit). Oh yeah, and I was wearing a bra on my head when I was doing it. Very cool….everyone wore one. I wonder if people would start wearing bras as hats if we all got down on lying about an unprovable past.
Hey,… WAIT A MINNIT ! MAYBE DRUNK PEOPLE NEVER ACTUALLY WORE LAMPSHADES ON THEIR HEADS! POP’S CULTURE LIED TO ME.!!
