saving me from trendy hipsterhood

I recently ran into a trendy hipster the other day when I was at the hospital cafeteria.  He asked me about teaching and I shared a few stories.  When I mentioned the murals being painted over, we talked about Banksy and the concept of creative destruction and destructive creation.  Our conversation shifted to Sufjan Stevens and whether or not the Top 40 pop appeal of Owl City is a good thing and I got real passionate in my anger at Ray LaMontagne for selling his songs to an insurance company.  Before he left, he made a comment on the processed cafeteria food and we ended up talking about gardening.

As I left, I had a lingering sense that I could easily become that guy.  I mean, I could very easily end up being that trendy hipster prototype and as cool as that might be, it will never be a reality for the following reasons:

• My lack of ability to fit into tight pants and my overall lack of style
  
• My brother, who is smart and unpretentious and reminds me that intelligence is not in any way tide to indie music
  
• The fact that I live in a suburb where they rhyme their traffic warnings
• The Folgers coffee that I drink with milk and sugar instead of going for a soy latte
  
• The number of times we've eaten a dinner out of a box
• My students, who are unimpressed if I know who Banksy is or if I have any album from The Neutral Milk Hotel
• I listen to NPR instead of Democracy Now
  
• The fact that I still follow the 49ers.  If a trendy hipster is allowed any sport, it's baseball, because that's so vintage and old-school, like vinyl. 
• The fact that, no matter how much I might like indie music, my favorite band will always be Counting Crows
• I haven't been to a concert in ages
  
• I use Linux instead of Mac 

the banksy photograph was taken from flickr creative commons