This one goes out to Ronnie. “Hipster” is a word with so much baggage (baggage like leaking garbage), you have to weigh what you’re saying against the taste it leaves in your mouth. I’ve never agreed with anyone on what it actually means (talk about narcissism of small differences). But I’d guess that for most people, hipsterdom is the uncanny valley of good taste; not only are you obviously trying to be cool, but what you’re trying for isn’t even that cool.

Speaking for myself, even if I occasionally feel this way, I trust I’m not so fucked as to fully embody it. And I gotta believe part of the reason you pick up this paper is because you have enough faith in yourself to decide what you like and not leave it up to p4k (AKA Consumer Reports) or whatever bullshit to color in your cultural world. I’ll go on record as saying most of what’s represented in these pages is way more about going with the Boston flow than some PR masterplan.

Maybe back in the beat days when hipness was elite, it meant something to have taste. But I doubt it… and anyway, (a would-be hipster’s) nostalgia for old school hipsters is not the twist I’ve been driving at. I’m saying liking cool shit doesn’t make you cool. If you’re special, and hopefully someone thinks you are, than the shit you like is cool because you like it. That’s it. There’s no such thing as “good taste,” unless your idea of shelter is a sand castle.