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Please get out more. Lots of folks in East Coast cities not living a boho/yuppie life who are confident, quirky, and own their weirdness - for centuries.
The West Coast does not own weirdness or even the concept of "New Age." To bring it back to the topic ("2022 weirdness," SF feels so normcore - unwilling to look beyond its own gaze to reinvigorate itself after covid and if you actually study the hippie movement, lots of transplants to the city came from privileged backgrounds - no wonder there's a strong current of anti-development/out of the box creative thinking in the city now. SF is normcore and has been for a couple of years now. If you want grungy and weird, go to Philly, New York, or Providence - oh they stay open later as well.
Ok, then I"m sure there are plenty of representations of Boston or Providence as meccas of American counterculture in our popular culture! I can't think of any, but there must be some movies or TV shows out there that someone can point me to!
Please get out more. Lots of folks in East Coast cities not living a boho/yuppie life who are confident, quirky, and own their weirdness - for centuries.
The West Coast does not own weirdness or even the concept of "New Age." To bring it back to the topic ("2022 weirdness," SF feels so normcore - unwilling to look beyond its own gaze to reinvigorate itself after covid and if you actually study the hippie movement, lots of transplants to the city came from privileged backgrounds - no wonder there's a strong current of anti-development/out of the box creative thinking in the city now. SF is normcore and has been for a couple of years now. If you want grungy and weird, go to Philly, New York, or Providence - oh they stay open later as well.
Reminds me of this quote from John Waters:
“My favorite characters are people who think they’re normal but they’re not. I live in Baltimore, and it’s full of people like that. I’ve also lived in New York, which is full of people who think they’re crazy, but they’re completely normal.”
Maybe Cambridge/Somerville would be a better match than Boston.
Once upon a time, I think Allston, JP, Fenway, and the South End could’ve held their own. But you’re right: Boston’s quirky hoods have had a hard time maintaining it in the face of gentrification. Camberville I’ll is still carrying the torch perhaps more so that it’s neighbor to the south, but it’s struggled to. Harvard Square is much less weird now than it was 30-40years ago and Davis is trending that way. Has been for some time.
I said in the OP but will repeat, I’m interested in comparing both city-propers, and metro areas. Metro areas can be limited to Cambridge/Somerville and Oakland/Berkeley or it can extend to Providence and San Jose.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Losfrisco
Ok, then I"m sure there are plenty of representations of Boston or Providence as meccas of American counterculture in our popular culture! I can't think of any, but there must be some movies or TV shows out there that someone can point me to!
There are relatively few depictions of either city in pop culture in general. Providence only has Family Guy and Dumb and Dumber. Boston generally has a slew of movies and shows about crooked Irish cops. Obviously neither is a very accurate depiction of the cities. RISD’s not full of Peter Griffins and you won’t see a ton of Marky Marks running dramatically across Mission Hill.
I think maybe I chose poor wording with using “Weird” in the title. Perhaps I should’ve gone with “Authentic”. Having people judge the cities by which is closer to 2010s tv series “Portlandia” feels like it misses the mark a little.
While gentrification has taken its toll in both cities since 2000, I'd say that San Fran is a more offbeat now the Boston, mainly because there's a lot of wierdness/artsiness/counter-culture activity in the San Fran metro--notably Berkeley and Oakland. I don't see that in the close-in neighbors of Boston. IMO, even Cambridge seems a bit button-down by comparison to these two.
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