Do we want 2 be ‘cool’ / ‘kewl’?

Posted by carles | February 17, 2015 | 32 Comments


I was listening to Calvin Love’s hit auth song “Cool” this President’s Day Weekend. It made me wonder if I could ever be ‘cool’ again, or if ‘coolness’ is some construct that is meant for 9-19 year old dummies. I’m just glad I’m trying to be auth these days, which is way better than trying to be ‘alt’ because ‘alt’ is just some dumb version of ‘cool.’

Is mainstream cool what lamestreamers r trying 2 be?
Is ‘alt’ like ‘alternative’ 2 ‘mainstream cool’?
But ‘alt’ is just sorta as lame as ‘cool’ bc they are both scalable in a shopping mall/music festival / have sweatshops make crop tops and leggings kinda way?
cool-sunglasses

In the song, Calvin Love sings:

Ur so cool
and that’s the truth
and I’m yours.
Together we are lost in this world
Dancing in the night with this world.

Sorta seems like true auth love. U just want another person who ‘transcends’ cool in the consumer/indie/UrbanOutfitters way. Some1 ‘cool’ who ‘gets it.’ Some one you can be lost in this world with. Soem one you can dance in the night in this world, and sorta just ‘get it’ together.

calvin-love-cool-photo

Calvin Love seems pretty auth, but might sorta be more Homeshake-ish in a post-MacDemarco RockNRoll NiteClub auth era kind of way.
Who is the next Mac Demarco? Should it be Porches or Jerry Paper?

Is he just ‘a poor man’s John Maus’?

Does Calvin Love seem ‘auth’?
What does ‘cool’ mean to u?
Is ‘cool’ even something that ppl want 2 be?
What kind of ppl still want to be ‘cool’? Ppl who wear Oakleys?
Did you do anything for Valentine’s Day?
How has auth been going 4 u?

Please keep emailing me auth music that you have been listening 2, and any other vibes that u want to share.

If this post gets 13.3 comments, I will post again.

Previous auth p0sts

Auth Music
The Career of Jerry Paper
What is auth?
Auth Dance Music
Related topix: , , ,

Read more blogs abt Authentic Music
  • H.D. Broreau

    really wish i hadn’t stopped smoking

  • Jonathan Kaplan

    Auth isn’t a pit. Auth is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail, and never get to try again.

    • carles #1 fan

      dam

  • Jack Auth

    Cool is something that used to mean “straying away from the conservative/norm”.
    Someone unaffected by the world around them. Carefree and not afraid to be themselves. Everyone wanted to be “cool”. And they tried. After that it became sort of a way to “fit in”/the new “norm”. People would try to emulate others’ cool/chill vibes, and that was not very chill at all. Cool shifted into being “fashionably attractive”. “Cool” became “uncool” when everyone became concerned over whether they were cool or not. Auth is the future.

    • dat_bro06

      As early adopters of auth, how can we prevent our worldview / philosophy from being co-opted as a ‘KPI’ in the social hierarchy of bro’s & bbs?

  • Chefischer

    Isn’t it obvious that by calling it Auth you/we have already failed?

    • Fuxalt

      Why do anything? We’re all doomed to fail eventually. Heart failure, or kidney failure, it doesn’t matter. I think we’re making an effort to create a system where we can identify what is authentic/art vs content that heavily relies on audience testing and focus groups to be successful. Sure, auth could go lamestream in the future, but we shouldn’t resort to quietism because we don’t think we make a difference.

      • Chefischer

        Oh I get it. But why must a “buzz worthy” term as unauthentic as Auth be used to describe a movement to be and find what is real?

    • carleser

      Auth Sounds Like Goth.

      • Sierra

        omg carles not only reads the comments but he replies to them omg omg

  • Youth Group Bro

    I’ve given up on being a gatekeeper for an elite cultural space, I’m ready to just play the game as it really is. I’m thinking about starting a lenadunhamwave webseries where I have sex with average looking people and viewers can fat shame my average to slightly overweight body. I’ll call it “brave art” and ride NPR/New Yorker Magazine/Left Wing Culture Warrior waves and then gain more publicity with the inevitable Fox News backlash. I’ll be a household name with my own premium cable show in under a year.

  • http://twitter.com/nickrob Nick Robinson

    Not sure Calvin Love is auth.

    • Brewski

      Definitely not auth… more like an alt posing as auth

      • Music hound

        Yes Calvin Love is authentic. I have known the dude for over 20 years. He has always walked to his own beat. In high school he stood out like a sore thumb in a very cool way. He was always very different, quiet and reflective. He didn’t have creative say on this vid and thought it was ridiculous. Go and see him live and meet him. He is one of the nicest dudes you will ever meet and crazy creative.

        • actressssss

          I really like the song and video. It makes me feel love vibes.

          • Music hound

            The video is good, he thought the eagle mask was ridiculous only. He definitely, shares the love with those movie star looks and lips.

  • ChrisBrownSwag

    Cool,to me, means whatever I can do to achieve that “more Homeshake-ish in a post-MacDemarco RockNRoll niteclub” kinda vibe.
    Those guys are practically the definition
    of auth!

  • joeb

    cool died alt failed auth _____

  • Sierra

    calvin love is a kewl name, but ned rocknroll has one of the kewlest name of all time, THE KEWLEST NAME OF ALL TIME. [via kanye west]

  • Poot Gibson

    Calvin Love’s “Cool” sounds very similar to David Bowie’s This Is Not America…

  • The Big Dick Bandit

    Carles pleease stop

  • The Big Dick Bandit

    This is Authful

  • Eugen Thermo-Nuclear Sandow

    3<=

  • pandabro

    coolness is having courage. courage to do what’s right.

    you should be comfortable in whatever clothes you want to wear, even if it’s a lamestream brand like nautica

  • DrewBaylorFromElizabethtown

    I’m only posting here to help meet the comment volume requirement necessary for more content. I hope this comment and page view will be viewed as meaningful so that I may be perceived as being authentically interested in carles.buzz content [because I really am].

  • AFR-auth

    As a person who liked indie and hipster music but identified less amd less with a culture defining itself more rigidly over time, I feel like AUTH may have been given a death sentance in being named, just like people are given one upon birth. I think if you keep asking what auth is you’re going to destroy it. Just let it be, part of it’s charm is that it’s hard to see.

    Is auth played from the back of your mom’s honda that you borrowed? Is that lame? Is it auth because it happened without you making it happen? Is auth happening at all? Did we all miss the auth? Quick let’s find auth! Here it is! HERE IT IS!

    That is what the death of auth will sound like, and when AUTH becomes cool, that will be when it is finally diagnosed with a terminal cancer.

    • dat_bro06

      ‘The 1st rule of Auth is…’

      God, we suck

  • Brewski

    Im still unclear if we are trying to #breaktheinternet or #savetheinternet… my tumblr is very confusing and I am starting to feel unauth… plz help

    • Travelpussy69fourtwentyblazeit

      I’ll help you! Okay first of all delete yer tumblr. Secondly kill yerself. Problems solved. Forever.

      • Brewski

        Secondly is an authentic word

  • lukeoneil47

    #HealthAuth

  • monchichi

    Auth schmoth.