Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Mead and other boozy revivals

Find your special place at the local renn fest

Meadiocratiy: faire to middling
Meadiocratiy: faire to middling

Dear Hipster:

At this point, I have heard of hipster bars putting just about everything into a cocktail, or even straight up opening entire bars devoted to obscure alcohols. However, I have yet to run into a restaurant or bar menu that makes a big deal out of mead (the medieval drink made from fermented honey). If hipsters will get drunk on anything, and make getting drunk on anything cool, why is mead the only alcoholic beverage I can think of that hasn’t had a hipster revival?

— Tasha

Sponsored
Sponsored

Hipster can revivalize (not the same as ‘revive’) just about anything. Even sherry, which at one point in time seemed exclusively the province of drag queens and teenagers stealing from Mom’s pantry, has been featured at hipster bars over the past decade of boozy revivals. But the thing about a revival is that you need to have gone away first before you can get revivalized (again, not revived, because that’s necromancy). You may not have noticed, but mead has been there the whole time, getting a very specific subset of people totally sloshed at renaissance fair(e)s throughout the country.

You see, because of its undeniably medieval associations (which are arguably erroneous, or at least exaggerated, given the inordinate amount of weak beer consumed by medieval peasantry, who apparently viewed beer as a kind of “liquid bread” during their short and brutal lives), mead has long had a special place at the local renn fest, usually right next to the giant turkey leg stand. And because the corsets and breeches crowd has basically staked a permanent claim on mead, it remains perpetually off-limits for hipster revival — hence the lack of attention given to fermented honey at even the hipsterest watering holes.

Hey DJ:

Is this an accurate statement: Most nerds are not hipsters, but all hipsters are nerds?

— Wink Sajack

You know, it’s funny, because just the other day I was thinking to myself, “I wonder if any logicians ever read this column?” You’ve given me a good chance to answer that question, because, on the fairly safe assumption I manage to get this almost totally wrong, any logicians who happen to be perusing the Reader will surely leap at the opportunity to set me straight.

Anyway, if we take your initial premise as true (that “most nerds are not hipsters”), then it must also be true that some nerds are hipsters — although in fairness, I think this also requires us to make an assumption that all nerds are either hipsters or not hipsters, which seems fair as a practical matter. The premise that some nerds are hipsters also includes the contrapositive premise that some hipsters are nerds, which falls short of your conclusion that “all hipsters are nerds.”

Logicians, feel free to jump in there and let me know if I’ve gotten it wrong.

Setting aside proof by logic, I can tell you from experience that all hipsters have at least a little nerd in them. I am, of course, using “nerd” more expansively than a strict constructionist, who would not stray far beyond a vision of the pocket protector-wearing engineer in the white short-sleeved shirt. In fact, the phrase, “I’m a little bit of a nerd” is practically required for any self-respecting hipster, because subject matter nerdiness implies a deep reserve of knowledge on an extremely niche subject. The more random and obscure the is, the better!

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Bringing Order to the Christmas Chaos

There is a sense of grandeur in Messiah that period performance mavens miss.
Next Article

Reader writer Chris Ahrens tells the story of Windansea

The shack is a landmark declaring, “The best break in the area is out there.”
Meadiocratiy: faire to middling
Meadiocratiy: faire to middling

Dear Hipster:

At this point, I have heard of hipster bars putting just about everything into a cocktail, or even straight up opening entire bars devoted to obscure alcohols. However, I have yet to run into a restaurant or bar menu that makes a big deal out of mead (the medieval drink made from fermented honey). If hipsters will get drunk on anything, and make getting drunk on anything cool, why is mead the only alcoholic beverage I can think of that hasn’t had a hipster revival?

— Tasha

Sponsored
Sponsored

Hipster can revivalize (not the same as ‘revive’) just about anything. Even sherry, which at one point in time seemed exclusively the province of drag queens and teenagers stealing from Mom’s pantry, has been featured at hipster bars over the past decade of boozy revivals. But the thing about a revival is that you need to have gone away first before you can get revivalized (again, not revived, because that’s necromancy). You may not have noticed, but mead has been there the whole time, getting a very specific subset of people totally sloshed at renaissance fair(e)s throughout the country.

You see, because of its undeniably medieval associations (which are arguably erroneous, or at least exaggerated, given the inordinate amount of weak beer consumed by medieval peasantry, who apparently viewed beer as a kind of “liquid bread” during their short and brutal lives), mead has long had a special place at the local renn fest, usually right next to the giant turkey leg stand. And because the corsets and breeches crowd has basically staked a permanent claim on mead, it remains perpetually off-limits for hipster revival — hence the lack of attention given to fermented honey at even the hipsterest watering holes.

Hey DJ:

Is this an accurate statement: Most nerds are not hipsters, but all hipsters are nerds?

— Wink Sajack

You know, it’s funny, because just the other day I was thinking to myself, “I wonder if any logicians ever read this column?” You’ve given me a good chance to answer that question, because, on the fairly safe assumption I manage to get this almost totally wrong, any logicians who happen to be perusing the Reader will surely leap at the opportunity to set me straight.

Anyway, if we take your initial premise as true (that “most nerds are not hipsters”), then it must also be true that some nerds are hipsters — although in fairness, I think this also requires us to make an assumption that all nerds are either hipsters or not hipsters, which seems fair as a practical matter. The premise that some nerds are hipsters also includes the contrapositive premise that some hipsters are nerds, which falls short of your conclusion that “all hipsters are nerds.”

Logicians, feel free to jump in there and let me know if I’ve gotten it wrong.

Setting aside proof by logic, I can tell you from experience that all hipsters have at least a little nerd in them. I am, of course, using “nerd” more expansively than a strict constructionist, who would not stray far beyond a vision of the pocket protector-wearing engineer in the white short-sleeved shirt. In fact, the phrase, “I’m a little bit of a nerd” is practically required for any self-respecting hipster, because subject matter nerdiness implies a deep reserve of knowledge on an extremely niche subject. The more random and obscure the is, the better!

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Houston ex-mayor donates to Toni Atkins governor fund

LGBT fights in common
Next Article

Big kited bluefin on the Red Rooster III

Lake fishing heating up as the weather cools
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader