The Death of Beer?

broken beer bottle/flikr

The Atlantic investigates the slow fall of "big beer" in The Death of Beer? Money quote:

Follow any dude in oversized glasses into a bar, and you'll see why PBR and Yuengling are doing alright—they've spent serious time and money positioning themselves as the hipster drink of choice. Yes, they're cheaper than Bud Light, but by the slightest of margins. Hardly enough to explain the difference in sales.

Effing Hipsters. The marketing is no surprise, PBR is now owned by a hipster who also owns such venerable culinary pop culture icons as Chef Boyardee and Bumble Bee Tuna.

The difference in sales refers to the big dogs of beer -- Bud, Coors, and the rest. Apparently while "big beer" sales have decreased, craft breweries are increasing in market share but this hasn't slowed the tide of decrease in beer drinking by Americans. Instead folks are drinking more wine and spirits. Is it that American tastes are becoming more bourgeois of the continued democratization of wine as viticulturist look beyond the verdant slopes of California and spirits with the recent renaissance in cocktaillery?

The Hipsters got a promotion

The hipsters of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY have gotten a promotion. Librarians aren't out of vogue, but perhaps just a career stepping stone. Per the NY Times:

Visitors to the show are relatively young, somewhere in their 30s on average, which makes them a decade younger than usual for MoMA, recent surveys showed. And a surprising one-third of this audience had never stepped foot in the museum before.

“We’d never done anything like this,” said Rajendra Roy, the museum’s chief curator of film, who was one of the show’s organizers. “There’s always a learning curve. Would I have done things differently? I don’t think so.”

For a 37-year-old curator, Mr. Roy seems pretty cool about it all, considering that only a few years ago he started his professional life selling tickets at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Yet as museum directors have come to realize, younger minds attract younger audiences. And Mr. Roy is just one of a growing group of rising curatorial stars cutting quite a different figure from the age-old image of museum curator as a fusty academic.

That's right, hipsters have now taken over art and history museums (go figure). Now that's interesting.

Indra Nooyi and PepsiCo charging forward

The Economist has an interesting article on Indra Nooyi and the shifting direction of PepsiCo, a leading manufacturer of snack foods. On March 22 Ms. Nooyi announced that Pepsi was establishing targets of healthiness amongst it's myriad of snack products.

By 2015 the firm aims to reduce the salt in some of its biggest brands by 25%; by 2020, it hopes to reduce the amount of added sugar in its drinks by 25% and the amount of saturated fat in certain snacks by 15%. Pepsi also recently announced that it would be removing all its sugary drinks from schools around the world by 2012.

One could argue that this is in response to First Lady Michelle Obama's speech to the Grocery Manufactures Association, but as The Economist notes:

Under Ms Nooyi, who became boss in 2006, it has stepped up its diversification into products it calls “better for you” and “good for you”, including fruit juices, nuts and porridge (oatmeal, to Americans). Ms Nooyi does not see this as a case of trading profits for virtue. Instead, she insists both are possible—an idea expressed in the firm’s syrupy motto: “Performance with purpose.”

Ms. Nooyi isn't the first woman to strong arm corporate culture at Pepsi Co to change the direction of the company... I'm looking at you Joan Crawford (warning below video is NSFW)

The first week of Lent and Sushi

What's the connection between the first week of Lent and Sushi?

Tempura.

In Latin we call the Ember Days the Quatuor Tempora, or "four times" of the year. This Latin term gave rise to a form of foodwhich I am sure you all know.

In the 16th c. Spanish and Portuguese missionaries settled in Nagasaki, Japan. From their interest in inculturation and out of sensitivity for the ways of the people, they tried to make meatless meals for Embertide, which is a fast time. They started deep-frying shrimp. The Japanese ran with and developed it to perfection. This is “tempura,” again from the Latin term for the Ember Days "Quatuor Tempora".

quiet ubiquity the final taboo

I was a fan of the SyFy show Battle Star Gallactica - as many of my friends were. So when SyFy announced and premiered Caprica - the prequel to the BSG series, I was more than excited to watch. It comes on Friday nights at 9, and most Fridays I'm out and about on the town so I dvr it to watch on Saturday morning or afternoon. This past Friday's episode, which was the series premier after the extra long pilot the previous week, was great. But something caught my attention.

As the Tauron mafioso Sam Adama is walking his nephew through the Tauron ghetto of Caprica city - he very nonchalantly explains to young William, future Admiral Adama, about he and Williams father began their lives on Caprica after leaving Tauron. He explained how he was trying to "pick up" a guy and William's father "picked up" the guy's sister. The conversation continued with Sam talking about how he and William's father got involved with the Tauron mafia before he breaks some one's window for his boss.

For the characters - the fact that Sam Adama, mafioso, series bad ass, is gay is no issue at all. For me the fan watching it was a "did he just say what I thought he said" moment, and through the power of dvr, and rewinding, I realized he did.

This to me is a huge step in the evolution of gays in popular culture. In decades past we weren't acknowledged at all or shown in a negative light. Then we were the humorous, or witty occasional characters. In the 90's the gays burst out of the closet and onto the main screen, most likely because of the horrors of the AIDS crisis. (well we gotta talk about the Gays somehow -- they're dying in the street!).

But still, when gays weren't presented as victims of disease we were presented on screen as the flamboyant caricature of what people assume gays to be.

I recall the first time that I had seen the ubiquity of homosexuality addressed, which in a way nullifies the ubiquity. In the Simpsons episode from 1997, Homer's phobia. Homer's new gay friend proceeds to take him to places all over Springfield where gays are present. At first the folks seem like your average Joe, then a song and dance number breaks out. It was funny and won many plaudits from media organizations and gay advocacy groups alike for it's positive treatment of the gay community. At one time Homer proclaims:

You know me Marge, I like my beers cold, my TV loud, and homosexuals FLAAAMMING.

It was funny, but it again characterized, like the song and dance numbers, how the straight world wanted, needed, to identify and classify the gay community.

Now most major networks have regular gay characters. From Will & Grace on NBC to Brothers & Sisters and Modern Family on ABC to Glee on Fox, and various Soap Operas on all the major Networks. Each show portrays the character in one light or the other but they all share one thing - the gay character is obsessed with being gay, that's their focus, that's their point of existence, that's how the world sees them -- navel gazers. It's just another caricature.

Granted these stereotypes are based in reality. There are certain segments of the community that are flamboyant, there are segments that are obsessed with being gay, I think it's the evolution of the community as we try to assert both our existence and negotiate our matriculation into the culture and society at large. That's the point of marriage equality and efforts to repeal DADT - it's not for special treatment, it's for equal treatment. We're here, we're queer, and we just want to be left alone.

Perhaps more shows will go the route of Caprica - perhaps others already have, there's a lot of TV programming out there folks -and show gays neither as flamboyant caricatures or as the gay character, after all that's the direction that gay community is moving - acknowledged, accepted, integrated, quiet ubiquity.

Or perhaps Caprica will go the direction of the others, and Sam Adama will make a production of his sexuality - it's too early to tell, but there is promise.

Common Ground with the Rushbo

During the Presidential campaign of '08 I discovered something about John McCain - he too is an ABBA fan. As it happens I have something in fan with Rushbo. It turns out Rush Limbaugh is also a fan of the Gaga. (See him dance to Poker Face!) Music really does offer a chance for finding common ground after all.

Or maybe it's just a Bad Romance.

Can hipsters be Conservatives?

John Guardiano bemoans the temerity of the young "Hipster Cons" as he calls them at David Frum's site. It beggars the question, Can a hipster be a conservative? My answer is, yes.

I've written before about hipsters... it's my own personal obsession to which I've come to the conclusion I myself am one, though I bemoan the fact that I am one, which makes me even more of a hipster -- ooooh, how meta.

Back to the point. I've written before about Christian hipsters, whether they're Evangelical or Catholic, so it's safe to assume that the definition of hipster is not limited to the ironic youth of Brooklyn though there are certain schematas consistent with all class/degrees of hipsters.

Who Guardiano classifies as 'hipsters' is up for debate* - what he calls temerity, a term of derision, put neutrally or positively would best be described in hipster speak as a search for personal/collective authenticity.

To borrow from my posts on Christian hipsters and quote Rabbi Avi Weiss:

"people are looking for a dialectic, people are looking for a commitment that is grounded but not one that is stagnant. The other part of the dialectic is an openness but not without limits."

This is true for all hipsters.

*Conor Friedersdorf actually wrote a post at the American Scene questioning what a hipster is and if he could possibly be one. Take it from me: If you have to ask people if you are a hipster, you probably are a hipster.