City Paper Cover Story A Bizarre Back-And-Forth With Dr. Glam & Count Chocula
We should have known something was up when we caught mad heat after Kelly White caught mad heat for daring to smirk in the face of one Penn sociologist’s magnum opus about how, duh, people put on airs when we go out at night. The resulting flap saw author David Grazian being pulled out of our screening series by/with wife/author Meredith Broussard after we refused to print a retraction — though, in the interest of full disclosure, we did offer the chance to do a point/counterpoint, which was refused. (And we’ve still never heard back after our Official Letter Of Apology.) Point is, we should have known that behind all this harumphing, there was a tacit “Don’t you know how IMPORTANT this book is? How DARE you slight it? Don’t you know that David is going to be on the COVER of the CITY PAPER?” Why, pardon us, we didn’t! Littered with some choice quotes about this mystery beast we call GOING OUT AT NIGHT that the one and only A.D. Amorosi was able to coax from Professor Dave, today’s CP cover is filled with gems such as…
“I wouldn’t underestimate Philly nightclub party-hounds,” says Grazian. “They may not be bookworms, but overall, Philly’s bar hoppers are a savvy group who take nightlife frighteningly seriously.”
… and more delights like …
“Shrinking violets and 40-year-old virgins, sure, they were scared,” says Grazian. “But also the popular kids and the beautiful people — especially the popular kids and the beautiful people. I sometimes think we’d all just be better off dressing down, and stop trying so hard to be hip. Having fun should be way more fun than this.”
Remind us to have a word with you later about this “trying too hard” thing, hmm?
CP: We Know, We Know, It’s Just That We’re Married To This Whole Book Quarterly Thing, Back To Normal Next Week, We Promise
March 20th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I sometimes think we’d all just be better off dressing down, and stop trying so hard to be hip.
I don’t even know where to start. Oh wait–I do:
1. To state the painfully obvious: This city is absolutely brimming with people in expensive yet shoddy-looking clothes who could–and really should–make more of an effort. The best dressed person in the room is usually someone who has spent the most thought, not the most money.
2. Artifice and pretense is the point of urbanity and cosmopolitanism: I’d rather be an open narcissist who invites others to join in the fun rather than a disingenuous narcissist who takes themselves too seriously to risk “trying too hard”. In the words of Oscar Wilde: “Fuck that–where are my velvet knickers?”
3. If we want “authenticity” or have decided that we can’t keep up, we should move to Millville.