My Brooklyn ‘hood is on the water facing Manhattan. Aside from being musician central, Williamsburg is a half-blue collar, half-gentrifying neighborhood with four ethnicities: Polish-stan, Hasidic-stan, Latino-stan and Hipsterville (Diesel denim with red stitching, messenger bag in earth tones, fauxhawk bed-head and a big gay belt buckle). It’s also got a high PQ (poseur quotient.) I swear upon your grandma’s shriveled National Geographics that I’ve seen people sell pink trucker hats by the subway entrance with an airbrushed ‘Bitch’ on the front.
Sometimes you run into desis with pierced eyebrows and mutton-chop sideburns. You know those signs on Disneyland rides, ‘You must be this tall to ride?’ The L train has a sign, ‘You must be this hip to move here.’ I’m totally dragging down the curve as a stealth sinc duppie (single-income-no-colonialism desi-urban-professional). Tonight a thin brown girl in a black sack dress rode a big Huffy with wide handlebars down the sidewalk, the kind of bike you see in pre-WWII photos. We exchanged subtle, curious glances while trying not to let the other intrude on our indie brown singularity.
In today’s NYT Escapes: 36 Hours, Brooklyn.
“Thriving a century ago, Brooklyn fell off the map around the time the Dodgers went Hollywood. Now it’s back. Over the last decade or so, a new generation of immigrants in search of affordable rents have brought youthful energy to the patchwork of distinctive neighborhoods. Progress, both good and bad, can be seen in strands of new parks that will eventually share space along the waterfront with towering high-rises and a new cruise-ship terminal, and the possibility of a new basketball stadium looms near downtown. A weekend is hardly enough time to take in the borough’s many sides, so try to see as much of today’s Brooklyn as you can – while you still can.”
And here I am spinning my wheels trying to get Astoria of the ground.
I see a brown hipsters every time i go to billyburg now – i find myself equal parts annoyed, curious, and happy – i too, find myself doing the standard desi stare/non-stare. Urge to hate them is high – but I can’t judge, I love Black Sabbath.
If I worked in Manhattan, I think I’d still rather live in Brooklyn….. Nothing like a little rustic character. And it’s so anti-desi-parent! The absolute opposite of clean, shiny, new suburbia.(Mind you, I’ve never been!But my alias mpd Mr. Kottah has… heh heh.) I hope it doesn’t b/c overly hipsterville before I get a chance to visit!
ps. re: Sinc duppie -lol – thank you very much, I’ll use that!