craftsmanship, consumerism, virtue, privilege, and quality

ta

I'm not suggesting the etsy business model is gonna save america, just that it's not 'a bad thing'

i'm going to make cat bacon by the way. can't fail.

whimsical microbrewery to the world/artisanal knife maker, flea market of bent wire/city of skinny jeans.

why is the 'brooklyn' brand really any more ridiculous than any other brand in 2012?

iatee's kinda right btw. so's s.clover. the yuppie bullshit chocolate blogbait model has advantages in that it's essentially a patronage system for artisanal craftspeople with some pr savvy, and at its best, it can divert a significant amount of money (relatively speaking) into the hands of third-world producers. that's all to the good! downside, of course, is that it's a small niche market, like making paintings, horseshoes or beer for the aristocracy. only a few get to play at that level, and sadly, in the modern age, those few tend to be slumming aristocrats.

why is the 'brooklyn' brand really any more ridiculous than any other brand in 2012?

i lived in brooklyn. as a result, i would never buy "brooklyn industries" crap if my life depended on it. the very idea makes my skin crawl. exploiters pimping out the very fact of their exploitation. no. i will not play that game. even mcdonalds is less offensive. it at least is content to mean absolutely nothing.

what are they exploiting, it's just a word

ah, come on, nothing is ever "just" anything

everything means something, really means a bunch of different things, depending on your perspective

there's a strange and obstinate sort of literalism to your vision. i respect its consistency but just can't embrace it.

people buy the stupidest shit, and not just people in brooklyn, people everywhere. there are about 5 billion times as many designer t-shirts in the world as designer jars of pickles. somebody created a new market for something via branding? great, one more person with a job.

yeah, that part i'm cool with. more power to the creatively inclined! don't mean i gotta pay $18 dollars for your jar of merely adequate pickles. or embrace your hives-inducing "made in brooklyn" branding.

i lived in brooklyn. as a result, i would never buy "brooklyn industries" crap if my life depended on it.

lol @ u

it's almost as if there is something inherently, almost commodifiably authentic about the true Brooklyn spirit

there's a certain type of noxious boosterism that attaches to some neighborhoods/boroughs, for instance hackney in london is approaching brooklyn levels of boastful swag, you see shirts that say things like "proper east" on them, but you don't see the same things in quite the same quantity or force in places like brixton or queens

and i'm not sure why, like what determines these almost hysterical levels of neighborhood "pride" or whatever

"i lived in hollister, california and i wouldn't buy 'hollister' crap if my life depended on it."

it's funny what those things connote, as well; I remember hearing about the Wilmslow credit card that was available to certain Mancunians at I guess some point in the '90s, speaking to one's success & place; or conversely the M21 branded tote bags you can get in the sorta right-on area of Chorlton in Manchester today, identifying you as an environmentally conscious resident.
xp

i buy local pickles :(

but everyone made fun of them on here cuz they were "fermented" instead of "pickled". :(

you try and make a pickle!

at least they're fucking trying! what the fuck have you done!? happy 50th birthday ian mackaye. sucks that you had to ruin the washington dc brand though you sanctimonious humorless hand-crafted straightedge bastard!

http://www.viceland.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ianmackaye.jpg

http://www.fritolay.com/assets/images/blue/tostitos-artisan-roasted-garlic-black-bean.gif

http://www.thatfreebiesite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Free-Dominos-Pizza-300x257.jpg

http://gabbeliphotography.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451ff1869e20167629f2e8e970b-350wi

job creators.

labor economy is good for strawmen itt

the article raises some interesting questions almost in spite of itself i think. the author is awfully agonized over how precious and god, how even embarrassing this whole artisanal phenomenon is! such conflicted feelings about tiny-batch granola and what is implies about him, as a person! if the author ruefully confesses a vulnerability to these handcrafted enticements, at least it's self aware! it's kind of funny, as much as he points out the broad caricature of the craft food industry he comes across as just as much of a caricature of a cultural critic.

That kind of good old-fashioned entrepreneurship can cost you friends in the east–of–the–East River artisan scene. The Brooklyn Kitchen, one of Brooklyn Salsa’s first retail accounts, stopped carrying the product. “I liked it better when it was a fresh product, not jarred,” co-owner Harry Rosenblum says. “They expanded. I saw it in a lot of places. It was a less special thing to offer.”

just amazing how worked up people are willing to get about some white people selling slightly overpriced food

creating cultural identity via the new sincerity

i think the article has interesting questions about how & whether these companies can grow to a larger scale --and if so, where should they grow? it's not just a little bizarre to think that a booming company is 'selling out' when they are becoming more efficient and employing more people! is there some perceived cultural value inherent to small-scale production other than the exclusivity & scarcity of its output? does 'authenticity' just mean this self-conscious, self-imposed scarcity?

for some brands it does, but there is prob a limit to the markup on salsa unlike hermes bags or whatever

idk, man, I have seen some pretty expensive salsa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSxnieYctVM

I like how they made it seem like the cow was talking at the end

idk, man, I have seen some pretty expensive salsa

well I guess people weren't willing to pay $500 for a bag before the created a market for it, so who knows, maybe $500 salsa is in our future

idk if you can fairly compare durable goods & food products like that but $500 is a steal for any hermes bag

tbf, older upscale brands typically are of high quality and will last forever, unless they've bowed to market demand and started churning out lower-quality product

then there's the new brands or some dude constructing stuff out of his apartment with unknown durability and longevity

maybe somebody will say '$500 is a steal for good salsa' in 10 years

you know that guy who is always like "irl a hamburger should cost $100" i think about that sometimes like would i pay $100 for a hamburger? a pretty good hamburger like once a year, maybe i would. like if it were a special birthday hamburger

hermes burger

Always hear Rancid's "Cash, Culture and Violence" when this thread pops up

you know that guy who is always like "irl a hamburger should cost $100"

you mean iatee?

well him but also this other guy

tbf this is why I think the demonizing of stuff as "pink slime" or whatever else is dumb. If people want to be stupid and eat a bunch of hamburgers per week, then there is no reason to raise a ton more cattle just so that they can overconsume top quality beef rather than sponging up the remaindered beef and not complaining about the difference.

artisan burgers on your birthday, responsible minimal meat consumption the other days

otm and you can get someone else to pay on your birthday

i don't think you can say these businesses are artificially creating a demand for fancy unconventional artisan foods, i mean, at least not in new york.

your tastes will expand to spend your income one way or another

http://www.cnbc.com/id/22040234/A_Visit_to_Warren_Buffett_s_Favorite_Restaurant

to do so would be cynical! and cynicism is just not part of the mission statement of my brooklyn-based handcraft pork rinds enterprise