tl;dr is a weekly roundup of the best posts on Highsnobiety written by Four Pins alumnus, Jon Moy. He kindly hopes you’ll read it more than you did Four Pins.
What have you guys been up to this week? Been productive? I know I have.
I spent one day arguing with people on twitter, another day I got fixated on how to convert old air-cooled cars to electric power, and yesterday I drove like 45 minutes out of my way to try these Korean chicken wings that were a bit of a letdown. Let’s just say that the thirteen Yelp reviews co-signing this particular establishment’s “authenticity” should have been a warning that maybe the chicken wings wouldn’t be worth the 45-minute drive…
I promise that this column will never be as misleading as a group of Yelp reviews. And, even if it is, I mean, all you did was click on a few things. I drove 45 minutes to eat chicken wings that were middling at best. Man, middling chicken wings can really mess up an otherwise productive week.
You know what isn’t middling at all? BAPE. I fucking love BAPE. If you currently spend a disproportionate amount of your income on sweatshirts and stuff, you should love BAPE too. The presence of a BAPE Deepcut or two in someone’s wardrobe is a surefire sign that they have at least one thing in common with me. If you don’t have a BAPE Deepcut, feel free to maybe purchase something from this collaboration they did with Champion so we can maybe hang out one day. (You should probably also read this aweome biography of NIGO too.)
This next paragraph is going to appeal to a fairly small niche of my already small niche of fans. Call that a niche squared.
Do you guys ever see Katakana, Kanji, or really any lettering that is or supposed to be of Asian descent, and just get super bummed? Like, I know it’s fucked up to stereotype, but if I see a white guy wearing something emblazoned in Katakana I automatically assume he has a creepy case of Asian Fetish. I know it’s not fair, but that’s what I do. And while I don’t think streetwear’s appropriation of Asian culture has been as egregious as some of the other cultures it has appropriated, the prevalence of Katakana lately has been at least a lil’ problematic. Read this interview with two individuals responding to this trend and then we’ll talk about the Ghost in the Shell casting.
This week everyone’s been asking, “is the Ghost in the Shell casting racist?” like they already don’t know the answer. If you’re wondering about my answer, you only have to look at literally the first few frames of the original movie adaptation, that outline the setting of the movie by describing how “…society has not yet been too computerized to erase nations and races…” That is a literal translation of the film’s intro. So I don’t want to hear the “she’s a cyborg, the whole conceit of the movie is that humans via technology have transcended race and are defining a new society,” argument in favor of this casting choice ever again. The movie is about that exact tension-between one’s personal identity and one’s surroundings, both physical and virtual.
I feel like that last paragraph will force my editors to throw an “op-ed” tag on this particular column [NOPE – Ed], but the more I think about it, every week this column is just more and more like, my opinion, man. But, instead of opinion I’m gonna give you guys straight facts for the next hundred words or so.
This new Nike TechLab Transform jacket is fucking dope. And, while Nike went with “transform”, I think a more apt verb would be “Voltron”. Like, yes, the jacket can transform its outer shell into a backpack, but really this system is two jackets that Voltron together into one layered jacket system. The tech fleece base layer is perfect, if you just need a light layer, and the storable, transformable woven shell will Voltron up if you need a little more protection from inclement weather.
Watch the accompanying video and imagine all the ways your brunch rival will be jealous when they watch you Voltron into a semi-permeable, membrane-ensconced expert on topics like avocado toast and just how much beet juice turns a dank pressed juice cocktail into a gross “healthy start.”
Maybe next time we’ll talk about the dankest expensive pressed juice flavors.
See you decidedly un-middling individuals next week…
– Jon Moy
Check back next Sunday for a new edition of tl;dr