In Defense of Desert Boots

Desert boots are everywhere; you can't get away from them. They are quickly becoming one of the most popular styles of footwear among North American men.

If you aren't familiar with them, desert boots (also known as chukka boots) are an ankle-length boot, generally made from suede, calfskin or leather, with two or three eyelets and a crepe (or sometimes leather or rubber) sole. Below are the Clark's Originals Desert Boots, modeled after the British military-issue desert boots.

The boots were hugely popular in the late 1940s and 1950s as casual wear, and have now made a comeback - primarily with hipsters and those with hipster fashion sensibilities.

But why are they so popular, you might ask? Well, the obvious reason is that they look vintage, and present somewhat of a counter-cultural image, which is very "in" right now with hipsters and generally fashion-forward folk of all varieties. But beyond the fashion is the function.

I bought a pair of the Clark's yesterday, and I must say, they really live up to the hype! They are very comfortable, and from what I can tell, very durable. And this is true of most desert boots, not just the Clark's - the simplicity of the design and construction makes them less likely to wear out.

The higher-quality desert boots are made by stitching the two leather pieces down to the crepe sole. This makes for a much stronger attachment of the sole to the boot. Crepe soles have their own set of merits, which you can explore further on your own if you feel so inclined; I will satisfy myself by simply touting their comfort and durability.

The Bottom Line:

Hipsters wear desert boots for the vintage fashion and counter-culture image, as they do with most everything else in their wardrobe. However, they rejoice inside silently because this is one of those select instances where their fashion comes with an unsolicited side-order of function.

In Defense of Vinyl

So you heard about this band that is really obscure, and you're hoping to impress your hipster friend by pretending to like them. You tell him you're really getting into this band. Then your friend, without the slightest hint of excitement, says, "Yeah, I've got their first two albums on vinyl. They're pretty good."

He proceeds to expound on the history of the band, how they formed from the remains of some other stellar indie bands that never made it, how they released these two records, how they then sold out to the man, and how their new albums aren't being released on vinyl because the band members sold their souls to Universal Music Group.

And you think to yourself, "I should've known."

Vinyl is quickly becoming a staple of hipster culture. It seems as though it's the one thing hipsters can universally agree doesn't suck. Now, aside from vinyl being less popular than CDs or digital downloads - and therefore more appealing to hipsters - vinyl possesses three attributes, generally perceived as benefits over other forms of media. These are sound quality, really cool packaging, and quantity control.

SOUND QUALITY

Hipsters can go on and on about how vinyl sounds so much better, and how you wouldn't understand.

Unfortunately, the hipsters have a point. Not only does vinyl have a unique sound that is appealing to many who favour the nostalgic and the tangibly authentic, but the physical nature of vinyl records is such that, provided the record was specifically produced to go to vinyl, it can maintain a higher audio quality than almost any other format, and even gives FLAC and WAV lossless audio files a run for their money.

This is because vinyl is the audio equivalent of film for video and photography. No matter how large you blow up an image that is on film, whether through a slide projector or movie projector, you never see pixels. They don't exist, because the picture is stored in a physical format, not a digital one. It's like drawing a picture with a pencil versus printing one off your computer. One has pixels, the other doesn't.

Now, this all breaks down if the production quality of the album isn't up to snuff. A poorly-produced or low-budget album will not sound better on vinyl than a well-produced album on a CD. And if the audio that went onto the vinyl was digital before it got pressed, the audio quality on the vinyl is of course limited to whatever the quality was before it got pressed.

The record will only be that full-resolution, film-like quality if the audio was either created purely with analog equipment and analog mastering (i.e. no computers), or if everything was created without compressing any audio files.

Realistically, the average human can't really tell the difference between a 320kbs MP3 file and a vinyl record in terms of quality. However, vinyl does have that warm, analog sound going for it, which is sort of an intangible benefit.

REALLY COOL PACKAGING

In 1971, The Rolling Stones released an album called "Sticky Fingers" which featured a working zipper attached to the cover, which was a close-up photo of a man's crotch. The listener could unzip the zipper and expose a pair of cotton briefs underneath.

In 2011, Jack White's label, Third Man Records, released what they called the "Triple Decker Record." You can watch the video here, but it's basically a record with a second record inside of it, which you can only access by cutting open the first record, thus destroying it. On the second record is an unreleased, vinyl-only track. And only 300 of these gems are being made - an instant rarity.

Now, if you can tell me of an iTunes download that lets you unzip someone's pants, or a CD inside a CD which contains anything I couldn't find somewhere else on the internet, I would be the first to denounce my affiliation with vinyl records. However, I firmly believe that vinyl still holds the corner market when it comes to really cool packaging.

QUANTITY CONTROL

Virtually all vinyl records have a serial number of sorts etched into the disc, around the outside of the label. This is how collectors and record stores can be sure of whether an album is first edition, or a re-issue of an old album.

Also, when a batch of records is being pressed, only a certain number is made from a set of masters due to wear and tear, and no two sets of masters is completely identical. Add that to the hand-numbering of virtually every vinyl record ever pressed, and you've got a pretty easily traceable medium.

All of this means that information is available on most records as to how many were pressed in total, and by which plants, as well as which batch your particular record likely belongs to. This makes it very easy for a record company to release a limited-edition record on vinyl - once the set number of records has been pressed, they can stop pressing them and throw away the masters. You now have a truly limited-edition product that is completely traceable and verifiable.

THE ATTITUDE

In my opinion, the best thing about vinyl is the attitude that comes with owning a record. I don't mean the pretentious superiority complex - that's just what hipsters develop when their record collection is more obscure than yours. What I value is the understanding that your music is something of value.

A vinyl record is just so tangible; it's something that you have to care for and protect. If it is damaged, you can no longer listen to it properly. If it's dirty, it won't sound the way it should until you clean it.

It's also so much more physical. When you play the record, you see it spin. If you put your hand on it to slow it down, you hear it slow down and you hear the pitch shift down. A CD would just stop playing, because in a way, it's not actually real; the music is just a bunch of ones and zeroes.

I think it's this combined with the limited nature of vinyl and the packaging possibilities that creates the attitude that music is something to be valued, and is so much more than just the individual songs. It creates an emotional attachment to the music that goes beyond what the songs sound like, and extends to how the album feels in your hands, how you care for your record collection, how you gingerly place the needle on the record so as not to damage it while playing it.

The physical entity of the music is like your pet, and the music itself is the payoff you receive for caring for it.

RESPONSE

If you have any comments or questions, I would love to hear them! Feel free to leave any kind of response in the comments.

In Defense of Hipsters

So Jacob wants to defends hipsters... Who cares?

Exactly. It's that kind of apathy that should make you stop and think: perhaps you are already more hipster than you thought. No hipster actually calls themselves by that name, unless they are practicing the delicate art of living life as a hipster for the purpose of irony - or what I like to call... Hipception.

Over the next few months, I will be coming to the defense of the hipster lifestyle through this blog. My goal will be to educate the masses on the benefits of being hipster, not for the purpose of creating more hipsters - it would obviously be counterproductive to make the niche any more mainstream - but rather to present a logical and rational defense of the supposedly illogical and irrational lifestyle led the modern-day hipster.

Now, while my unparalleled apathy and inability to grasp the dynamics of popularity may prevent me from being excited about writing this blog, I would like to assure you that the little hipster man inside of me is pursing his lips and raising an eyebrow with mild intrigue.