Cool!

[A Lark Ascending]

I am not cool. I have no wish to be cool. The last time I tried to be cool involved turning the collar up on my leather jacket, raising both thumbs and saying “Aaaayhh!” like Fonzie. I was eight. So I struggle to understand why the word ‘cool’ continues to be seen as a badge of approval, when it’s more like a badge you might’ve worn as an audience member for Swap Shop (the boring segment Keith Chegwin presented in a park)....

Read on....

http://www.frootsmag.com/content/issue/chipping/

I'd just throw in 'hip' as well.

Edited June 16, 2012 by A Lark Ascending

[Big Beat Steve]

Ranting about the outward and superficial meaning of "cool" as a sign of approval IMO misses the point. I think this way of using "cool" is just a fad, just like in the US everything that got the nod of approval way back in the 30s was "swell" (AFAIK).

Being, feeling and acting "cool" in the sense of being aloof, detached, independent, untouched by and not realy caring about what others think (and therefore being untouched by passing fads), in short, doing one's own thing and being one's own man, is quite something else. And much more difficult to achieve and to live. Because with many exponents of this latter sense of the word "cool" the way they act makes it clear it is just a superficial masquerade but not something deeply engrained and felt inside.

Hard to put it any other way in brief, but in fact I have come to wonder about this myself. Being the father of a 12-year old son (who's now at the age where everything and everyone that gets the nod of approval needs to be "cool" , I am getting ready for the right moment when to get him to reflect on what he thinks "cool" REALLY is (or whether he knows what it in essence really is). Might turn out interesting ...

But short of that - never mind, it's just a fad word IMO.

Edited June 16, 2012 by Big Beat Steve

[JSngry]

[Chuck Nessa]

Not cool.

[JSngry]

[A Lark Ascending]

[JSngry]

[A Lark Ascending]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't this bloke one of The Rat Pack?

[Ted O'Reilly]

I'd just throw in 'hip' as well.

Dave Frishberg dealt with this...

[A Lark Ascending]

I'd just throw in 'hip' as well.

Dave Frishberg dealt with this...

But it appears no-one listened!

[Big Beat Steve]

:tup

[A Lark Ascending]

1980s hipster.

1990s nerd.

I think I might have just committed jazz-hipster sacrilege.

[BillF]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPzt3A4Se_U

[Ted O'Reilly]

I'd just throw in 'hip' as well.

Dave Frishberg dealt with this...

But it appears no-one listened!

Those who see are often not heard.

[A Lark Ascending]

I'd just throw in 'hip' as well.

Dave Frishberg dealt with this...

But it appears no-one listened!

Those who see are often not heard.

Being seen and heard whilst appearing not to care seems to be what cool aims at.

[Ted O'Reilly]

I'd just throw in 'hip' as well.

Dave Frishberg dealt with this...

But it appears no-one listened!

Those who see are often not heard.

Being seen and heard whilst appearing not to care seems to be what cool aims at.

Is using "whilst" cool?

[JSngry]

Being seen and heard whilst appearing not to care seems to be what cool aims at.

So...this thread is cool!

[Ted O'Reilly]

But...is it hip to be cool, or just hep? I'm so confused! (THAT we all understand, right?)

[JSngry]

As long as you get it right, it doesn't matter.

[Ted O'Reilly]

As long as you get it right, it doesn't matter.

Ah, I get it: "It Don't Mean A Thing..." Cool.

Duke Ellington had a wonderful explanation of where "I'm hip" came from, involving sewer workers and hipwaders. Ed Norton would understand...

Edited June 16, 2012 by Ted O'Reilly

[JSngry]

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. You're very beautiful, very sweet, very gracious, very generous. And this is "Satin Doll." We use it now for the purpose of giving background to this finger-snapping bit. And you are all invited to join the finger-snapping. Crazy. I see I don't have to tell you that one never snaps one's fingers on the beat. It's considered aggressive. Don't push it; just let it fall. And if you would like to be conservatively hip, then at the same time tilt the left earlobe. Establish a state of nonchalance. And if you would like to be respectably cool, then tilt the left earlobe on the beat and snap the finger on the afterbeat. And so by routining one's finger-snapping and choreographing one's earlobe-tilting, one discovers that one can become as cool as one wishes to be.

Beyond category.

[A Lark Ascending]

I'd just throw in 'hip' as well.

Dave Frishberg dealt with this...

But it appears no-one listened!

Those who see are often not heard.

Being seen and heard whilst appearing not to care seems to be what cool aims at.

Is using "whilst" cool?

It was in the latter half of 1883.

The serious point of the article is the problem getting folk music a place in the sun has (one shared by other less commercial musics like jazz). Sometimes it stumbles close to the awareness of the mainstream; but invariably the mood passes. So those who feel it should be part of that mainstream start worrying about making it 'cool' so it can get a permanent place there. The trouble is that usually compromises what makes it unique.

Glasper territory! All part of that 'How do we reach the young folks' angst - you've got to make it 'cool'.

Edited June 16, 2012 by A Lark Ascending

[Ted O'Reilly]

I'd just throw in 'hip' as well.

Dave Frishberg dealt with this...

But it appears no-one listened!

Those who see are often not heard.

Being seen and heard whilst appearing not to care seems to be what cool aims at.

Is using "whilst" cool?

It was in the latter half of 1883.

The serious point of the article is the problem getting folk music a place in the sun has (one shared by other less commercial musics like jazz). Sometimes it stumbles close to the awareness of the mainstream; but invariably the mood passes. So those who feel it should be part of that mainstream start worrying about making it 'cool' so it can get a permanent place there. The trouble is that usually compromises what makes it unique.

Glasper territory! All part of that 'How do we reach the young folks' angst - you've got to make it 'cool'.

All understood, and agreed. But didn't Armstrong once say something like "All music is folk music...I never heard no horse play music"...or such.

I think there used to be a universal understanding that there was Music, and there was Pop -- the Kid's music. It was okay for Kids, and meant to be fleeting. But it was also understood that Kids would grow up and grasp Music. Since about the time of The Beatles, the Kids grew up but kept THEIR music, never accepting Music. And get off my lawn.

[Chuck Nessa]

I think there used to be a universal understanding that there was Music, and there was Pop -- the Kid's music. It was okay for Kids, and meant to be fleeting. But it was also understood that Kids would grow up and grasp Music. Since about the time of The Beatles, the Kids grew up but kept THEIR music, never accepting Music. And get off my lawn.

And a very tidy lawn it is Mr. O'Reilly.

[Ted O'Reilly]

I think there used to be a universal understanding that there was Music, and there was Pop -- the Kid's music. It was okay for Kids, and meant to be fleeting. But it was also understood that Kids would grow up and grasp Music. Since about the time of The Beatles, the Kids grew up but kept THEIR music, never accepting Music. And get off my lawn.

And a very tidy lawn it is Mr. O'Reilly.

That's not what my neighbours say. (But that's cool with me).

Edited June 16, 2012 by Ted O'Reilly