We all know that the dream of the ’90s is alive in Portland, where young people go to retire. But sometimes, in Portland or Brooklyn or Austin, all the DIY pickling and knitting and beard-growing starts to become reminiscent of another ’90s entirely — the 1890s. In the seemingly too-good-to-be-true follow-up to last year’s blockbuster musical number, Portlandia’s Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein have brought us “Dream of the 1890s.” Microbrew or die, bitches!

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Today at Flavorpill, we perused Pop Candy’s list of Joy Division/Unknown Pleasures-inspired stuff — especially timely due to that Mickey Mouse tee Disney made. We learned all about the C-word. We watched Vanilla Ice become an indie rock star. We held our breath watching people jump from Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands. We found these Persian stamps to be surreally beautiful. We raised a brow at Twitter’s censorship policy. We smiled at Community writer Megan Ganz’s meeting note doodles. We wanted to adopt a Dire wolf. We heard what advice Snoop Dogg gave Kris Humphries about Kim Kardashian. We were amused by Chris Pratt with a lightsaber. We admired the best of Paris Spring couture. And finally, we liked these hipster Disney princesses — even if we didn’t know that a few of them existed until today.

One of the most valuable players on the Internet over the last year, Tumblr has amazed us in how quickly it’s evolved from a small-staffed, ballsy experiment to a respected, widely used, interactive network of some of the funniest and highest-quality content out there. We’ve found that when we’re looking for some procrastination, inspiration, or just a good laugh, we often wind up on a Tumblr blog. Below the jump, browse through our 15 favorites of 2011, and tell us which others you think we should check out before the year is up. Read More »

Dig what we’re puttin’ down, readers. Sometimes, you just want to find a groovy, little stash and hold back the dawn. Know what we mean? If not, you’re in dire need of the jive talk glossary below, which was included in the packaging for jazz pianist Harry “The Hipster” Gibson’s 1944 album, Boogie Woogie in Blue. “For Characters Who Don’t Dig Jive Talk” is full of both outdated phrases and terms that have stood the test of time. But perhaps the most currently relevant definition is the one Gibson provides for his namesake “hipsters”: “characters who like hot jazz.” So, there you have it. In only 67 years, we have taken a word that use to mean “jazz fans” and turned it into the apparently un-killable mess it is now. Read More »

Conceptualizing his own versions of film and comic book superheroes, David M. Buisán’s illustrations of the caped crusaders prefer to wear skinny jeans and knit caps. His stylized superhero hipsters flash the familiar symbols of their predecessors in the form of chest tattoos and skateboard logos. Certain pieces have been dubbed “pin-ups” by the artist (the adorable lip-biting is a nice touch), putting an interesting spin on the cultural icons and their genesis as symbols of hyper masculinity-turned-objects of sexuality. Other illustrations seem to simply toy with ideas about superhero consumer culture without a total wardrobe transformation. Click through for more of Buisán’s work. Read More »

Chilean artist Fab Ciraolo illustrates hazy, candy-colored images of ’80s cartoon heroes lounging around in their finest vintage garb. Hipster-esque versions of television’s most-loved characters from shows like He-Man, Thundercats, Rainbow Brite, and Jem are decked out in plaids and florals for the amusing series Old School Heroes. If you’ve ever wanted to see what an old-timey He-Man looks like while he golfs on Sundays with Duncan or what She-Ra might wear out shopping with her girls Frosta, Castaspella, and Mermista, click through our slide show for more.

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Today at Flavorpill, we met the cat with two faces. We read the true confessions of a Teenage Manic Pixie Dreamgirl who blames her almost ruined sex life on Zooey Deschanel. We were happy to find out that we’re not the only ones who are completely obsessed with Inspector Spacetime. We visually compared hammer pants with hipsters and discovered that they have more in common than you might think. We wished that Caddyshack‘s Carl Spackler was really getting his own Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor. We tried to imagine a time before camera phones. We took a photo tour of the many, beautiful homes of Pablo Picasso. We checked out the latest Banksy-inspired work from New York-based street artist, Hanksy. We listened to a new song from Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij. We were impressed by Amy Poehler’s ability to morph into different characters. We learned how some of our favorite sketch groups came up with their names. And finally, we were surprised to see that “How Do You Talk To An Angel” topped Billboard’s list of the highest-charting TV show theme songs since 1980. Did anyone you know even watch The Heights?

Yesterday, The Washington Post ran a  2,000-odd word style piece by Ned Martel entitled “Are Hipster Glasses Over? How They Went from Chic to Weak.” Martel begins what will soon become a borderline rant by reporting a story in which White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked about his new spectacles, ostensibly during a press conference in which they should have been talking about, oh, unemployment or national security or something boring like that:

After a middling attempt at humor (“The better to see you with”) and flattery (“You guys look great, actually”), Carney settled on humility, pleading that his new square-rimmed, big-lensed, chunky-framed glasses were dictated by “the ravages of age.”
No luck. “But they’re hipster,” a reporter retorted.
“Really?” Carney said. “I thought they were sort of retro-nerdy.”

Carney lost the glasses two weeks later, and Martel calls foul, sniffing at the official “absent-minded dad tale,” and instead suggesting that Carney’s (incredibly normal-looking) glasses were deemed too ‘scary’ for him to sport. Martel goes on to bemoan the idea of glasses as fashion pieces, claiming that “decades ago, everyone who got glasses got the same pair. Glasses were just glasses — a tool, not a statement. Think of NASA Mission Control, with its many bespectacled rocket scientists in Houston evaluating The Problem. Today’s problem is not what we’re seeing with glasses, but what we’re saying with them. Eyewear has become me-wear.” We’re pretty sure even decades ago, people had different styles of eyewear. Unless — how many decades are we talking?

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We’ll admit it: When we saw the headline “Hogwarts Hipsters,” we sighed a bit. But we couldn’t help but click on these illustrations by deviantART’s Rotae of Harry Potter and friends dressed up like Portlandia extras. Maybe it’s their low-key, tan hues or the endearing caricatures or Hermione’s wonderful caption (“I chose the invisibility cloak because it totally represents my way of life”) or just its innate superiority to Hipster Ariel. Whatever the reason, we enjoy these and hope you do, too. If you don’t, we’re sure you’ll have something to say in the comments.

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This week, the kind folks over at It’s Nice That clued us into the work of Sophie Blackall, a Brooklyn-based artist who recently completed a project illustrating a collection of Craigslist Missed Connections postings, ranging from the painfully sweet to the delightfully strange. Blackall’s work is beautiful and dreamlike, and we love the places her imagination goes with just the limited words of sometimes dashed-off postings. Her drawings have been compiled into a book coming out September 22, which you can pre-order here. Or you can even buy individual prints from her Etsy page. Click through to see some of our favorites, and make sure to check out Blackall’s website for more. And of course, if you see yourself here, let us know!

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