My verdict: Not much like Kreayshawn.
Maybe they just hired the guy to drive their Camaro.
no way. totes his camaro that he loaned them for the video in exchange for...one doesn't like the speculate.
I guess I'm just disarmed by her total, unashamed skankiness.
But do you want to p-pound on her muffin?
What's this young lady going to do with herself in a few years when her muffin value declines in relation to the newer batch of muffins? I think she'll find the experience distressing.
OT: I remain somewhat mystified by the drinking of patrón tequila being the ne plus ultra for rappers who wish to signify that they are not merely "in da club," but in the vip room with drugs and bitches. I guess I quit drinking too soon to fully appreciate its wonderfulness? I've tried it, but by that point I was more or less permanently like bond in casino royale, when he's asked whether he wants his martini shaken or stirred and says "do I look like I give a damn?" it has alcohol in it? get that over here, y'all, so I can lightly color it with some misleading mixer, composing 90% vodka 10% OJ screwdrivers (and you know that wasn't how my momma taught me when I was little.)
hell, what's she going to do once she figures out what the fuck a cupcake is? she doesn't strike me as the thinking-ahead-type.
8: Would it make her stop singing?
10: I suppose it rhymes and scans well.
"I got diamonds on my neck/got patrón in my cup/if you want it come and get it shorty/I don't give a fuck."
It's got a sense of humour. Driving around Pittsburgh (apparently) in Autumn is gangsta? Could be rural England. Those copper sulfate crystals that are supposed to be crystal meth? Or the Monopoly money they're throwing around.
Interesting that the Camaro is the universal, eternal car of the skank, just as fishnet is the universal, eternal leg wear. Skanks in the year 2525 will prefer Camaros.
Skanks in the year 2525 will prefer Camaros.
If man is still alive
If women can survive they may find ...
Could be rural England.
Nah, if it was rural England they'd be in a small Merc or an Audi. Camaros would be geek cars.
16: Driving around Pittsburgh
Yes--from the walls along the road either Highland or Schenley Park (maybe Frick). A little bit of poundin' the Google and I see that she is right out of Moby Hick's neighborhood and does a lot of local dance, choreography and the like. Also, local big firm lawyer dad (mumble trademark filing mumble). And I gotta say the guy in the Camaro looks verrry familiar...gonna see if the wife has a positive ID*--may just be the dad.
*Not that I'd out him here, although if he was worried about it he probably would not have agreed to the cameo at the end.
Science-fiction characters seem oddly interested in the 20th century. For example, one of the characters on Star Trek Voyager liked 20th century muscle cars. This is presumably because writers are lazy, but I like to imagine science-fictiony explanations for why culture peaked in the 20th century and then declined. A simple unified explanation for Star Trek is that while people in the future have benefited from 5 extra centuries of technological development, this cornucopia has made them dumber, which is why their own culture is comparatively unimaginative. Simultaneously this explains why it takes them a whole episode to figure out the solution to their problems.
And her "muffin" is apparently gluten-free (beginning cupcake sequence is at a neighborhood gluten-free bakery).
further to 17: though we had a 67 camaro convertible when I was a kid and I don't know that we attracted skanks particularly. but a car full of a whole family...my stepdad used to let us stand up in back. it was awesome. he was not mr. safety, really.
I like to imagine science-fictiony explanations for why culture peaked in the 20th century and then declined.
It's not that it peaked, but that people stopped recording stuff in non-volatile media. After 1990, as you know, Captain, the rise of the first primitive computer networks meant that cultural creativity increasingly shifted online; and changes in data recording formats and the bitter DRM Wars of the early 21st century mean that very little of post-1990 culture has survived. Books, unless you burn them, last for centuries; a computer disk can be obsolete or unreadable in as little as a decade. From our point of view here in 2350, human culture entered a black hole in 1990 from which it has only recently emerged. Hence our starship captains are fans of Sherlock Holmes, of Raymond Chandler, of 1960s muscle cars; but never of Black Hole cultural icons who are lost to us, often, in all but name. When we think of the lost masterpieces of Coldplay, of Ke$ha, or of Michael Bay, we can only wonder and mourn.
(This argument based on one used by Charlie Stross in his novel "Glasshouse").
I fear that my niece will be playing this soon enough. She's deluged with guys at the muffin-pounding level of sophistication. As far as I know she's warding them off effectively. She mostly seem to have girl friends. Her older sister is a lesbian and we're all hoping that she is too.
If she wasn't in that particular world (HS) she'd be a much happier and more interesting person. If you're in it it takes over your life.
This is actually, IIRC, one of the explanations as to why we have so little non-liturgical classical literature from the 3rd - 5th centuries. Literary technology was transitioning from the scroll to the codex and then to the book, and in the consequent winnowing out when existing works were recopied as they wore out, there was a (natural in retrospect) priority to ensuring the past classics were kept, more than contemporary literature. Consider yourself a scribe in the library of Alexandria - would you rather copy a fresh copy of Homer or, say, Danihel Fulvus' Pausius Cifra
your views interest me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter, ajay.
She looks eerily like Rachel Berry on Glee.
Yes--from the walls along the road either Highland or Schenley Park (maybe Frick). A little bit of poundin' the Google and I see that she is right out of Moby Hick's neighborhood and does a lot of local dance, choreography and the like. Also, local big firm lawyer dad (mumble trademark filing mumble).
I wouldn't be surprised if she actually works at that bakery. If I recall correctly it's across the street from an Orthodox books and Judaica store.
I'm fairly certain that those walls are in Schenley Park, but I can't tell for sure. I've never been inside that particular bakery because I like my glutten, but there is certainly one by that name on Murray. Ned is off by only a block. But the exteriors aren't of that bakery.
At 58 seconds is the clearest tell. That's Forbes Avenue between Murray and Shady. I put it in high resolution and I can read the rug and the sign reflected in the glass of the door. At 1:22, you are still on the same stretch of Forbes.
The more I think about it (i.e. look at google street view), the more I'm sure those walls are Serpentine Drive in Schenley.
I don't have speakers, so I still have no idea what they were saying or how they sound.
Hey - Cameros are now skank cars?! Maybe nowadays, but back in the 70s if you saw a Camero it was driven by a young woman, and if it had a spoiler on the back it was driven by a pretty young woman. You could count on that. They women didn't seem like skanks as they drove by.
I feel like the muffin/cupcake distinction is getting eroded by the continued sweetification of muffins. Like, soon there will be no distinction except the presence or absence of frosting.
Mr. President, we must no allow erosion of the muffin-cupcake gap.
And I gotta say the guy in the Camaro looks verrry familiar...gonna see if the wife has a positive ID*--may just be the dad.
Man, that's an awkward parenting position I'm not looking forward to.
"Honey, you know I support all your creative endeavors, but maybe the video you post online should be a little less...I don't even know how to say it to you...umm..."
Like, soon there will be no distinction except the presence or absence of frosting.
the muffin-cupcake gap
Anyone have any good muffin recipes to use all of this low-hanging fruit?
43. Yes, but they're for English muffins - NOT crumpet.
42: I don't even know how to say it to you...umm.. you do know the difference between muffins and cupcakes, right?
For starters, one doesn't pound a cupcake. That would just be gauche.
I like to imagine science-fictiony explanations for why culture peaked in the 20th century and then declined.
Then you should read Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson (nominated for a 2010 Hugo). The 20th century is called the era of carbon efflorescence, and in the reactionary, broken 22nd century, people wonder at the bits of movies and textbooks they are able to scavenge from the junk heaps. It's actually a much better book than what I'm describing here--with characters and everything!
I think this video and song are very tongue-in-cheek (no, not that cheek), but clearly others do not take it this way! It's a moderately interesting exercise to work out what the markers of hipster irony are, and how they are missing in this video. If everyone was white, would be it be ironic enough? Like the "I'm on a boat" song? Which was still awful, but awful in a different way. Dad driving the car at the end is a pretty f'ing big giveaway. Or their mad crib, which is plainly just someone's house (complete with window boxes in the kitchen -- how hip-hop is gardening?) Maybe everyone needs to wear trucker hats.
In contrast Kreayshawn truly identifies with hip-hop culture.
Mostly listening to Caribou today. "Swim" is nice.
It would be easier to take it as totally tongue-in-cheek were it not for the unironic lingerie and stripper dance moves. On the other hand, there is a totally hard-core cupcake decorating party.
Pittsburgh doesn't have strippers in a way that outsiders can understand.
Science-fiction characters seem oddly interested in the 20th century. For example, one of the characters on Star Trek Voyager liked 20th century muscle cars.
Don't forget baseball in DS9 - which they explicitly described as very obscure; presumably everyone in Star Trek has their own 20C thing to be a fan of.
28 and 47 are both explanations I've considered. I also considered the Halford-friendly explanation that it was the effective end of copyright. I think I used to blab about this every time my wife watched Star Trek. And yet I wasn't stabbed once.
I forgot about the baseball. At least Vulcans proved that they were better at it that those weak humans.
50: Pittsburgh doesn't have strippers irony in a way that outsiders can understand.
That lingerie is unironic? Those are exclusively stripper moves? Here is a video of the same group of women doing Steeler Black & Gold on Mt. Washington.
My favorite part is that some advertising algorithm thinks I'm now reasonably likely to buy cake decorating supplies.
Well, you don't build an entire video around a double entendre without at least knowing that you are being silly.
A while back people here distinguished between "I know I'm being ridiculous, but I like it"-level self awareness and genuine "I'm making fun of this sort of thing because I hate it" irony. (This also used to get called second and first level irony.) I think both Kreashawn and these young ladies are more in the former, simply self aware
camp.
It would be wrong to assume, though, that these women are, in real life, skanks.
It would be wrong to assume, though, that these women are, in real life, skanks.
Julia Roberts however, total whore.
That's you driving the Camero, isn't it Stormcrow?
57: That's you driving the Camero, isn't it Stormcrow?
I don't even own a Camaro.
22.* Not that I'd out him here, although if he was worried about it he probably would not have agreed to the cameo at the end.
She made me promise not to embarrass her.
Actually other than being smaller and, um, less robust, not too far off. And I really think I've seen him somewhere--concert, the deli, something like that. Looked familiar even before I realized it was Pittsburgh. But drew a blank with my wife or at least that's what she claimed... hmmm.
48: calling-people-racist-ass racist.
we'd be able to see the hipster irony if everyone were white? like, they presence of any black people whatsoever is making us assume they must really be part of tha thugg life and totally scrambling our internal "trucker hat of the mind" sensibilities? you just actually called us all racist, except for real, you know that, right?
duh, shira and her friends see the humor or they wouldn't have the fucking "look we got sweet rocks---of candy" shit in there. ditto with showing the guy driving the car at the end--one of the cute black guys could have been driving but this is way funnier. but is she dreaming of an SNL skit or a recording contract? does she want to make it as a musician or a humorist?
drew a blank with my wife or at least that's what she claimed... hmmm.
I'm sorry I called your wife skanky, stormcrow. now that I've had my mind blown by w. breeze and realize that white people with black friends can understand irony almost as well as those who don't know black people, I'm willing to concede she may be ironically skanky.
60: No worries, it's not like I told her.
61: Yes, but tell us about what happened to the muffin.
(Probably not the best link to open at the office or around the kids or whatnot.)
Is it even possible to desexualize a cupcake?
69: I never sexualize them. no, really. they're just...an alternative to making cake. I don't like to buy them out because they have too much frosting on them.
69: 69:
Good typo. Or is this yet another episode of Stuff JP Likes to Make Explicit?
59: To be clear, ala, my reasoning is this:
1. I think this video is humorously ironic
2. Apparently others do not (here, and on the Internetz in general)
3. Thus I wonder what changes might be made to the video to make it apparent to the majority of viewers that the video/song is not intended to be taken literally.
4. I posit a few things. For example, I think irony is the dominant mode of expression for hipsters, hipsters are predominantly white, and thus if the video consisted predominantly of white people it would be interpreted by viewers as being ironic. As a mental exercise consider how the "I'm on a boat" video might be interpreted if the protagonists were black.
what, akon is white now? I think that'll come as a surprise to him. if we stipulate the lyrics are unchanged, I would think that black hipsters were making a hilarious video. I'm not mentally disabled.
re: 72.4: you realize, you really are saying that me seeing any black people whatsoever in the video, despite there being plenty of white people too, makes me think the whole thing must be serious and they imagine they're all gangsta and shit. you literally, actually, in real life just called me racist, except for real. since I'm not a republican, I don't think I'm being oppressed, but come the fuck on.
I have made a personal judgment that the video is partially ironic and intentionally has ridiculous elements which the actors/singers realize are silly and fun, but that shira is hoping for a call from a record label rather than SNL. it's serious to the extent that she thinks it's a good song, with silly elements. it's light-hearted and self-aware but not a parody. the lonely island songs and videos are parodies full stop.
that's just an aesthetic judgment and I resent the implication that I'm incapable of even imagining that black people could be ironic hipsters. I'm aware that black people are people and perfectly capable of being hipsters. I've even seen some in the wild in NYC recently! with a kid-n-play ludicrous high and tight fade, it was the greatest thing ever.
I normally only say nice things to other women on the street, like "you look fabulous," or "great dress," or "I love your hair," or whatever. it's non-hassly and cheering. this time I was actually motivated to shout across 5th ave to this guy, "great haircut!"
I can't believe I took time away from paying work, my friends, and my family to research this, but I am sure that 73.3 is correct and this is not a parody video. Shiraz née Krasnow, the chanteuse, dance instructor and graduate of Pittsburgh's Allerdice high school, has this twitter feed that is incomprehensible but decidedly non ironic and there are other public statements so indicating.
Yeoman's work, RH. Here's a more convenient link. She retweeted this, which suggests that the joke is indeed on her.
So far, "Support a Jew from the 412" is my favorite of her tweets.. Also, her name is Shira, not Shiraz, thank you iPhone autocorrect.
I like the one where she RTs someone calling her their second favorite Jewish rapper from Pittsburgh.
78: hilarious. thanks halford; I think you're they real feminist hero here.
75: The lesson here is to always publish your work, since this basically the route I followed in writing 22 (Allderdice is Moby Hickster High) and to link the video* in 53 (their entry in a Steelers contest) but shockingly I do reach somewhat different conclusions re: intent (but not substantively different--I think the twitter etc. is a bit more knowingly written than you do--but clearly a bid to get noticed with regard to dancing/singing). Letting my inner stalker flag fly, Mr. IP Man, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed in September for a POUND ON MY MUFFIN trademark. Which via the listed correspondent led to older male lawyer with the same last name (some might reasonably presume father) pictured here. (those schooled in the arcane art of deriving information from urls can learn a bit more). Anyway it is getting some play here on radio stations here like WAMO,
*If one is so inclined they can find links to few videos of people practicing things she has choreographed.
**Someone better at face recognition than I can weigh in on whether the Camaro dude in the video is a slightly older bewhiskered version of the person in the photo.
80: I'm not an alum or anything.
78: The video was clearly filmed in my neighborhood. Everyone says it is the most Jewish place in the interior U.S.
81.1: No, but through your relative proximity it has acquired some of your panache.
81.2: Everyone says it is the most Jewish place in the interior U.S.
Not sure about that, but there is an eruv (includes Frick Park ... is that kosher?).
82.last: Ah it does pick up a bit of neighborhood on the other side of Frick along Braddock Ave--so I guess it's a connector.
80 -- excellent work. She has registered copyright exclusively to the lyrics, but not to the video or the musical composition, so infringe away for a while without fear of suit. Applying to trademark the phrase in advance was pretty crafty. It seems clear that Att'y Krasn/ow and muffin poundee Kras/now live at the same address in Pgh, in what appears to be a large and (I think for Pgh) very expensive home, in what looks like a nice part of Squirrel Hill.
84:
Based on my extensive experience with PA lawyers (excluding present company), PA male lawyers appear to like much younger girls so maybe he isnt her dad.
Even the shitty parts of Squirrel Hill are nice enough by Pittsburgh standards.
Also, I apparently don't understand how an eruv works. I knew there was one, but I had no idea that it was big enough to hold 40,000 people and take over half hour to cross on foot.
87: I can suggest a novel that explains it pretty well.
A novel which we have in our house right now but that I have not read.
84: in what looks like a nice part of Squirrel Hill.
North of Forbes is a traditional demarcation (plus some parts towards Frick Park). But it might be hurtful to say that on the blog.
Seriously, the eruv is about 1/2 of the inhabitable area of Pittsburgh.
A modern Orthodox friend told me there was an argument that the borders of the island of Manhattan created its own eruv, which is kind of awesome.
That's not far that off. Although the Lower East Side is not within it (does not get below Houston).
I enjoyed the Lana Turner Journal's review of 2011 in music and it's marginally germane to the original topic.
Kind of on topic, because I was near where the video was set. I ran 5.1 miles in 51 minutes*, which is the pace I could only hold for 3.4 miles** at the end of the summer. I credit my 2% Neanderthal genetic code and its superior functioning in colder weather.
* plus six fucking seconds that kept me from reaching my goal of ten minute miles.
** I run a 1.7 mile lap.
