The Art Snob Archive

Williamsburg - March 30 2007

This Summer, It’s Better in Brooklyn

So here we are, dear friends, at the end of another term; at last, I, the art snob, can pack away my vintage typewriter and begin hacking away at the 143-item summer reading list I’ve prepared. Ahead of you, however, are five months of emptiness, devoid of my cultural expertise and stunning wit, and who knows, by the time the fall comes around I might be so incredibly indie that I will be unable to write for Imprint and forced to start some sort of ‘zine’. In that case, I feel obliged to prepare you for the intellectual Dark Age that will undoubtedly follow my passing.

I was going to write up a detailed how-to manual including various music blogs, literary quarterlies, fine arts journals, etc. for you to study during these summer months, just so you don’t fall behind, but I feel that such a thing may be too valuable, akin to a magician giving away his secrets. Snobbery is a delicate art; as much as someone may wish to have an intellectual equal, they must realize that the more of them there are the less cool they become.

In the spirit of a modern dance-punk band covering their favourite new wave act from the 80s, however, I will direct you to the source of much of my infinite wisdom and awesomeness. Yes, dear readers, since June 2006 I have been following a group of four hipsters (and one stockbroker) around their daily lives in an anthropological experiment to determine the source of “artiness.”

This is not as stalker-ish as it sounds, and I assure you it has nothing to do with that wretched device known as “Facebook” (Friendster way more indie, anyway). These five bright, young subjects of my study do exist on the Interweb, it is true, but they call www.theburg.tv their home.

For those of you who have not yet come across this delightful Internet sitcom, I would like to endorse it as the perfect solution to the inevitable malaise you will feel once I stop writing my column for the summer. In fact, a familiarity with this fine piece of online television will increase your cred exponentially; the very first episode, in fact, is called just that: “Cred”.

The Burg charts the urban drama that comes with being a twenty something artist in Williamsburg, a neighbourhood in Brooklyn, New York renowned for its creative community. Its main characters span the spectrum of hipsterdom: Xander is a struggling filmmaker, Jed a struggling musician, Courtney a struggling actress, and Spring a struggling political and environmental activist. Ryan, the stockbroker, is the loveable odd man out, and many of you aspiring art snobs may be able to relate to his struggle to fit in with the “scene”.

The brainchild of two Brooklyn natives, The Burg spans eleven episodes and a number of shorts, all available for viewing on the website. I wholeheartedly suggest viewing them in order to fully benefit from their message. It should be noted that some critics have called the show a satire of hipster culture, but I can’t see how anything that deals with such important topics as indecipherable noise punk and early 90s fashion could not be taken seriously

The Burg emphasizes the virtue of drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon from a can, the necessity for girls to be “cute and political”, and the ironic value of having My Humps as the ring tone on your cell phone. As an added bonus, each show features a local Brooklyn band that you can subsequently claim to have “discovered” to all you friends.

Essentially, The Burg will provide for you in 15 minute masterpieces all the joy I usually bring you in my six hundred word opuses. When you find yourself unable to sleep in my absence this summer, visit www.theburg.tv and remember what its like to be better than everyone else. Godspeed, friends.

posted by HLL @ Tuesday, April 03, 2007 0 comments