Little House Of Haute: "What a long strange trip it's been"

I've mentioned my brother in past posts. In fact, when I go back and read this blog I notice just how much Zeb's name comes up in my writing. I talk about him more than my cat, my friends, or even my significant other of ten years. I guess when it comes down to it my brother is the closest person I know to me. Not only were we spawned from the same biology, but raised in the same environment. Basically, we get each others weird, and believe me where I come from there's a lot of it to go around.

Now don't get me wrong, in no way am I criticizing my upbringing. I'm just stating that it played a major part in the creative, quirky, and slightly neurotic person I've become today. I'm thankful for my differences. Everyone should be. Heck, it's these personality quirks that make me the left handed girl wearing the "Good art won't match your sofa," t shirt, drinking out of a coffee mug that I hand threw, while entertaining friends by playing CSNY's, "Deja Vu," on vinyl. Thinking back, I literally was doing this once and an acquaintance of mine exclaimed to me she, "Couldn't believe how artsy I was. I was a walking cliche!" At the time, this comment totally took me by surprise. "Walking cliche?" I was just hanging out doing the stuff I always do.

Since then I find myself paying attention to the subtle differences between a, "person like me," and the general public of South Dakota. I'll admit I always knew I was kind of different. I remember my Chemistry teacher in high school looking at my outfit of bell bottoms and a crochet sweater and stating with a fairly disgusted look on his face, "Where do you even get this stuff?" Of course, for a person as headstrong, (and that's putting it nicely, one could just say cocky,) as me this kind of comment just fueled the fire. So, at this time I want to thank you Mr. S. for playing an integral role in molding this natural hipster.

Yes, I said it. I admit to being a hipster, (even though I still stand by the fact that I'm too old to be one.) You can only be labeled a hipster so many times by different individuals until you start to wonder. Luckily for me, I have a wonderful hipster brother to open my eyes. Recently, Zeb was in town visiting for a few days. While he was here he snapped the majority of the above pictures for my blog. We had a wonderful time taking glamour shots of each other, wandering town aimlessly, and perusing different record stores. It was around this time that I got very excited to find a Serge Gainsbourg album on vinyl. As I gasped and pulled it aggressively off the shelf before any other customer could claim it, I could hear my brother snickering behind me. "Hipster," he said and then continued to mock not only my choice of music, but the leopard print fanny pack I had worn for the outing, (which I will continue to defend, because when shopping for vinyl it's extremely helpful to have both hands free.)

I too started to laugh at the ridiculousness of my stereotypical self until I realized that the person mocking me had a totally greased out Morrissey style pompadour and a vintage, "Nixon is my man," button on his coat. I then started laughing harder at the idea of the two of us accusing each other of being hipsters. Both of us trying to be so, "different," but essentially always ending up the same person. I guess I take comfort in the fact that I know at least one other weirdo who's just like me.

In closing, nobody I know likes being called a hipster. However, it seems to be the socially acceptable way of labeling someone who's a little odd. So apparently, hipsters like to shop for vinyl. They like to drink mineral water and roam around town aimlessly for hours taking artsy pictures of each other wearing thrift store clothing. Also I hear they like to go to comic book shops too. Wait, really? I thought that was geeks. Uh oh, maybe Zeb and I are just geeks with good outfits. Either way, every time I visit with my brother I know I'm with my people.

-r

...oh yeah, and then this happened. What a long strange trip it has been!