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Wrong again. Fail. I think you're jealous, but I don't blame you.
Oh boy, he figured me out. I'm so jealous, GRRR!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by RR3
As long as there are successful people, there will be fat, bitter and mediocre people who live in the boonies resenting them for being everything they're not.
How is it that you're defining "successful" here??? Just curious. If it involves adult kickball in Brooklyn or bicycle polo in the L.E.S. or going through the phone booth at Crif Dog into the "secret" speakeasy that everyone knows about (Please Don't Tell!) or any of the other lame hipster things you enjoy, then rest assured your idea of "success" is warped.
As for "the boonies", NJ isn't "the boonies"; where you came from (Iowa, Minnesota, South Carolina, or whatever) is "the boonies". Your birthplace and real home town and state are "the boonies".
Quote:
Originally Posted by RR3
You are obviously jealous of me because I live someplace fabulous aka the Big Apple and you don't. I have it all, you don't. Get over it. I live in what many would refer to as the Center of the Universe - and you don't. Just accept it and move on with your life.
Someplace "fabulous"?? Have you come out to your folks back in Iowa yet, or are you only "fabulous" in your new "home town"???
And which is it, do you live in the Big Apple (NYC) or th Center of the Universe (Los Angeles)??? Make up your mind and get your story straight here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RR3
Every time I travel the country and wind up in these awful "cities" and tell them that I'm from Manhattan, they are either very elated or come across as very hostile towards me. People like you at some point in their lives come to the same realization Henry Hill came to at the end of Goodfellas, which was "I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook." And they need to find someone to blame.
Henry Hill from Goodfellas? Yeah, he was played by the great actor Ray Liotta, who is a New Jerseyan. Like Joe Pesci, also in Goodfellas. Like a lot of great actors (don't make me get the list). Unlike the way nobody of importance comes from your home state.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RR3
I love living in this city because I travel, look around and see what a ****ing sch muck I would be if I were like everyone else and lived a life of mediocrity in one of those low-budget loserville cultural wastelands.
I think you'd manage to be a ****ing sch muck wherever you live.
And I don't think you travel except back to Hick-ville, Middle America to show off to your former friends and your family how "edgy" you have become now that you're a "New Yorker [sic]", by showing them your neighbor-hoodie, pink vans, your lumberjack shirt and skinny jeans... Do you tell them that you earn your money (what mommy and daddy don't mail you) by walking dogs? Or do you stick to your story that you're an artist and let them think you somehow actually make money at that?
Why not in Chicago? Is it possible that Chicago became too small and provincial for Kanye?
For most people "Midwestern" is a synonime of "provincial". Chicago feels like a Midwestern town only bigger, very rural, very provincial. Sure, there is the skyline but well below the city does not offer anything that would warrant calling it global or cosmopolitan: local media outlets do not report on international news or provide national perspective, local art does not warrant any national exposure. Chicago is definetely the most provincial big city in the US. This sentiment is reflected by the national media hardly ever finding anything in Chicago worthy of reporting.
I'm probably gonna get hounded by many saying this(vs. many others who hold back on their opinions), but I 100% agree with you there's a element below the surface of provincialism that's always bothered me about Chicago. I don't agree that this is as widespread as you believe it is, though. We aren't the WORST American city when it comes to this, per se(still don't know enough about all American cities to name a worst city, and I will pass on naming a #1 city for this), but I feel it's always too much above average for my comfort. Sometimes I wonder when I've talked to others in places like Atlanta, Houston, or Dallas, and reading up on the evolution of those metropolitan areas, if their major cities will fall below Chicago in provincialism.
Unless the Chicago region wakes the heck up quickly and elects some non-pandering and intelligent politicians for both the local and state level, and don't kiss up to every minor interest group, I fear our city will slide ever closer to being #1 on this list. Our excellent independent local media(and sadly too many locals ignore reading such papers, both print and online versions) in a way is one of the only things keeping us from being near the very top of the list.
I think the problem is that most people in this forum do not understand the definition of provincialism, otherwise they would never accuse New Your City of being provincial, the whole argument is laughable.
There are different meanings of the word. If you prefer one that's fine, but that doesn't necessarily make others wrong or ignorant.
I would tend to think of "provincial" more as isolated and unsophisticated, but I imagine NYC does have some isolated and unsophisticated people too. In any event NYC was not, in my case, my only choice. It's the only one I put on most and least provincial because I think it's the only one that's paradoxically both, going by New Yorkers I've seen or read. I guessed Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston and Midland-Odessa only on this thread not the other.
Thinking on it now I might add Laredo, Texas as I think I heard they don't even have a real bookstore anymore.
Oh boy, he figured me out. I'm so jealous, GRRR!!!
How is it that you're defining "successful" here??? Just curious. If it involves adult kickball in Brooklyn or bicycle polo in the L.E.S. or going through the phone booth at Crif Dog into the "secret" speakeasy that everyone knows about (Please Don't Tell!) or any of the other lame hipster things you enjoy, then rest assured your idea of "success" is warped.
As for "the boonies", NJ isn't "the boonies"; where you came from (Iowa, Minnesota, South Carolina, or whatever) is "the boonies". Your birthplace and real home town and state are "the boonies".
Someplace "fabulous"?? Have you come out to your folks back in Iowa yet, or are you only "fabulous" in your new "home town"???
And which is it, do you live in the Big Apple (NYC) or th Center of the Universe (Los Angeles)??? Make up your mind and get your story straight here.
Henry Hill from Goodfellas? Yeah, he was played by the great actor Ray Liotta, who is a New Jerseyan. Like Joe Pesci, also in Goodfellas. Like a lot of great actors (don't make me get the list). Unlike the way nobody of importance comes from your home state.
I think you'd manage to be a ****ing sch muck wherever you live.
And I don't think you travel except back to Hick-ville, Middle America to show off to your former friends and your family how "edgy" you have become now that you're a "New Yorker [sic]", by showing them your neighbor-hoodie, pink vans, your lumberjack shirt and skinny jeans... Do you tell them that you earn your money (what mommy and daddy don't mail you) by walking dogs? Or do you stick to your story that you're an artist and let them think you somehow actually make money at that?
I agree with parts of this,but I believe he said hes from San Diego,which I'd hardly consider middle america,let alone hick ville.
Why? New York City is considered one of the three cultural centers of the world so of course from New York perspective most of the US is culturally irrelevant. Do you think anybody outside of your own town really cares about its culture nad arts? Do you think New Yorkers are an exception here?
This forum is so funny, it is called city-data but most folks post from little two-bit town without real culture and voice their serious opinions about all things urban...
The entire thread sounds like "little America" revenge on New York City but at the end you are not going to win that war. Maybe in this forum but in real life you can't live w/o New York's arts, media and business while New York does not give a rat's ass about your existance.
Enjoy.
You would appear to be the very embodiment of what we've been discussing.
I don't agree with picking NYC, but I can partially see why some people would...especially when there are people who think like this:
"the best city in the united states if not the world, you can spend your entire life in nyc and be more cultured than someone who travelled the entire united states.
anyone born here or even who's been here knos that nothing else compares. anywhere else in ny is not even close to being as good as nyc"
from Urban Dictionary.com
This is just one person of course, but I've met native New Yorkers who had never been to Boston, and assumed they weren't really missing anything. That was really disappointing for me, especially because I like each of the unique vibes the cities in the NE corridor have to offer. Meeting someone from Boston is not like visiting here and I'm sure the same goes for anywhere else. Since I'm from a different region, I really felt like I jumped at the chance to visit cities I hadn't visited in the area. International is local in NYC, but in a sense that can (especially nationally) do a disservice to people who think as above.
You would appear to be the very embodiment of what we've been discussing.
But of course. Instead of praising world-acclaimed city like New York with world famous culture New Yorkers should instead focus on cities like Decatur and praise its county rich culture. You probably don't realize how provincial you sound at this very moment.
I agree with parts of this,but I believe he said hes from San Diego,which I'd hardly consider middle america,let alone hick ville.
oops, you're right - he did say it and I forgot. Although, by his standards, if NJ is "the boonies" then San Diego is definitely also "the boonies" and completely hickville. I still get the feeling he's rebelling against his middle america family, probably strict LDS or Christian or at the very least conservative. Not that there's anything bad about any of those but they are typically the backgrounds that hipster transplants who move to NYC come from.
Just the fact he considers San Diego to be devoid of culture, etc. is indicative of his provincial mindset (albeit for his "adopted" new "home town" - "adopted" also in quotes because he doesn't even truly adopt NY City, in reality).
There are different meanings of the word. If you prefer one that's fine, but that doesn't necessarily make others wrong or ignorant.
No, there is only one definition of provinciality and it refers to certain quality of people livening in the provinces - the countryside as you would say today. The quality that separates them from people from big cultural centers of the world. People that are a a little behind, little backwards not really interested in the world outside. I bet you have experienced places like this in your life time. New York City however is definitely not one of them as it is considered a frontrunner in global culture.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R.
I would tend to think of "provincial" more as isolated and unsophisticated, but I imagine NYC does have some isolated and unsophisticated people too. .
And again, New York City is neither unsophisticated not isolated. Not being isolated does not mean that you have to be interested in everything, of course you prioritise your interests and if your neck of the woods does not make the top priority list in New York City it does not mean that the people of New York are isolated.
Once again, New York City is considered the top globnal city and of the three cultural centers of the world, if you consider the city provincial than it is your problem.
NYC would be nothing if it didn't have the rest of this country to support it. However you wanna look at it: infrastructure, food supplies, military might, etc. No one is denying its importance, but to claim it is the only thing in America that matters is laughable. NYC would be about as powerful as Singapore and completely reliant on trade with the rest of the world if it was its own country. So keep it in perspective.
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