Culture Map Austin's "Hipstercrite" Lauren Modery
A couple weeks ago a writer for Culture Map Austin, Lauren Modery, wrote an interesting piece looking at what city might be the “next Austin.” (You may have seen the link on our Facebook page.) Modery says in her piece that she was looking for “cities that hipsters can flock to now that other, older hipsters have crimped their style of being on the forefront of a burgeoning scene.”
It’s no surprise to anyone I know that Richmond earned a mention: I see so much of Richmond reflected in the show Portlandia (was Portland Austin before Austin was?) and in the hipster street fashion Brooklyn-based style blogs, it’s hard to imagine a discussion about hipsters that completely overlooks Richmond. Some people disagree, of course. And others don’t see hipsters (which is just code for “young people” as far as I’m concerned) as a good thing. But, overall, Richmond’s a pretty flannel and big-glasses kind of place.
What was more surprising, at least to me: when Culture Map ran a poll as a follow-up to that story, asking readers to vote for their choice of the next Austin, RVA trounced the competition, garnering 72% of the vote! (Of course, if you’re really a hipster, I don’t think you’re allow to care about the outcome of online polls, at least non-ironically.)
In story about the poll results, Modery wrote “Congratulations, Richmond, you’re the next hipster city of America! With that being said, let me tell you what comes with that honor. Shepard Fairey street art, Californians, food trailers, 2 more additional American Apparels, pedicabs, more music festivals than you’ll know what to do with, random Ryan Gosling sightings, a W Hotel and gluten-free, dairy-free air sandwiches.”
RVA Creates Ryan Gosling Sightings? I know some people who would definitely be into that…