Blogging is so fin, I'd rather go bust a Moby...

Translation: Blogging is so bad/undesirable, I'd rather go dance...

To give you a taste of this post, I thought I'd throw some Hipster slang into the title. An alternative subculture, the Hipster derives it's name from the word hip or hep, and hip is what it's all about. The Hipster Handbook gives us an excellent definition "Hipster - One who possesses tastes, social attitudes, and opinions deemed cool by the cool. (Note: it is no longer recommended that one use the term "cool"; a Hipster would instead say "deck.") The Hipster walks among the masses in daily life but is not a part of them and shuns or reduces to kitsch anything held dear by the mainstream. A Hipster ideally possesses no more than 2% body fat."

You know you've seen them. They are (according to themselves) impossibly cool, so cool that they no longer use that word. The girls are almost exclusively dressed in American Apparel and that guys own the same jeans that I do! I've noticed the Hipster is far more prevalent in Ottawa, than in my home-base Vancouver, but this could be attributed to the fact that my main environment is now a university campus.

The thing that defines this subculture is the interest of all things "deck." Unlike many other identities, this group doesn't have a unifying political or social cause. They base their identities on what they like, not who they are or what they believe. Which, when you think about it, seems to ring true for most Canadians. It's all about being cool, just don't confuse them with scenesters...

Formerly PageSixSIxSix

Internet fixture and celebrity blogger, Perez Hilton, spends his days writing all the juicy gossip about celebs. He seems to get information earlier than most tabloids and constantly tries to "out" those celebrities he feels are in the closet. While his information seems to be earlier than most and his doodling over the stars' pictures is amusing, when did he become famous? He has a TV show, a radio show, a blog, has just released a song, appears in numerous magazines, newspapers and music videos and is evening winning awards such as the Terra Hispanic of the Year. But his influence is also a bit frightening. When Perez recommends a song or an artist, chances are that in a few weeks that artist will be all over the radio and one of the top downloaded songs on iTunes. It's said that Mika and Katy Perry owe their initial success to Perez Hilton. When he says a Celeb is now "over," it seems they fall from fame. Now he's even influencing politics and famously bashed McCain and endorsed Obama. Perez has become a part of the media, but uses his stance as a blogger as an excuse for bias. Whether hes dangerous or not, his site can still become addicting!

http://perezhilton.com/

The Great Facebook Addiction

You know it had to be done. Today's popular culture cannot be discussed without Facebook. Though it was only launched in 2004, Mark Zuckerbergs creation has exploded. With 110 million users worldwide, it's obvious that we're all addicted. Whether we're "creeping" someones profile, looking at pictures or joining groups, it seems we can't get enough. It has expanded, with applications that some people love but most find annoying, (Seriously, I do NOT want to play zombie tag with you, so stop asking.) There's the Facebook Marketplace, where you can sell or buy online. And I personally know someone who found their current roommate through the roommate search application. That still doesn't answer the question of why we're so addicted, checking Facebook at least once a day...

My answer is that we're all nosy. We all like to know what going on with our Facebook "friends" - most of whom are actually slight acquaintances.

It also goes in the routine of procrastinating. Check email, check facebook, check whatever blogs I'm into at the moment, start homework after 50 minutes.

Whatever it is that attracts us to faceb - oh, gotta go, somebody just wrote on my wall...

www.facebook.com

High Fugshion

Celebrities and fashion go hand in hand and both are deeply entrenched in pop culture. We have a fascination for what famous people do and especially what they wear. Personally, I find it MOST entertaining when celebs are in between stylists and their bad taste in clothes runs wild! Enter the FUG.

http://gofugyourself.celebuzz.com/

This has been named in one of the top 25 most powerful blogs and is Internet equivalent to the fashion police. Behold, an example of fug:



As Heather and Jessica would say, "Fugly is the new pretty!"

10 Dollar Mix

Want to know what music has everybody singing in the shower and dancing alone in their bedrooms? For only 10 dollars, you too can own the music that the youth of Canada are listening to - today. Artists come and go but it's a pop culture experts job to be well versed in all of them. You can't be seen listening to the wrong Pussycat Dolls song, singing along to Don'tcha! It changes pretty fast, but you can always keep up to date on the biggest hits by checking out iTunes. The iTunes Store keeps a list of its top ten most downloaded songs and it's constantly updated. So what's fashionable in music right now? iTunes gives us this:

1. Womanizer - Britney Spears
2. If I Were a Boy - Beyonce
3. Hot N Cold - Katy Perry
4. Let it Rock - Kevin Rudolf & Lil Wayne
5. So What - Pink
6. Gotta Be Somebody - Nickelback
7. Disturbia - Rihanna
8. Live Your Life - T.I. featuring Rihanna
9. Love Lockdown - Kanye West
10. The End - Andrew F

So there you have it, the most downloaded songs in Canada. Danced to in cars all over the country, though I'd be inclined to throw Nickelback out the window...