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The family that eats Fluff together turns into pirates together
By adamg on Sat, 09/25/2010 - 7:25pm
Today was Union Square's annual Fluff Festival, this year celebrating Fluffy whoopie pies (but don't worry: Roving bands of entrepreneurs sold Fluffernutters).
No Fluff Festival would be complete without either the Flufferettes or a Pharaoh of Fluff:
Of course, every imaginable type of Fluff food was available:
You came for the Fluff but stayed for the swing dancing:
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
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Comments
How did I miss you?
I was there from 4:30 to 7:30. Maybe you left before I arrived?
Just missed
Yeah, I think we left about 4:30.
Way more photos
Here.
Any ironic hipsters show up?
Any ironic hipsters show up?
Fluff is for everyone - even
Fluff is for everyone - even ironic hipsters. Fluff brings people together across the irony barrier.
It's true
The hipsters are generally more energetic than their Gen X-and-up cohorts, but they definitely share once fluff fest comes around. The old crank in me cringes at all the fixed gear bikes and cool camp counselor wannabes, but this event wouldn't happen without them and they show genuine interest in the neighborhood and keeping it lively. Hate their youth some other day: Just have a good time at Fluff Fest.
Fun
That thing was fun; Kickass Cupcakes' Fluff cupcake and Fluff parfait were both amazing. A hint, though; do NOT eat a Fluffernutter, parts of a cupcake and pairfat, and then eat Indian food afterwards. If you do, you're just an ass (i.e., I was an ass).
Wow, designer fluff cupcakes?
Wow, designer fluff cupcakes? Guess a guy'd have to do some serious power yoga or bike to a far-off farmers' maket on his fixie to burn-off that kind of caloric intake. It's nice to see Somerville embracing its unique identity and not succumbing to goofy trends like rock n' roll flea markets or silly art happenings. Oh, wait--my bad.
It seems the 'Ville is being steered by a hipster elite and the money-hungry small buisness owners looking to profit off them (indy coffee shops, gastro-pubs, fitness studios, boutique stores, etc.). In other words, a very vocal 10% of the city's population is determining what kind of public "art" we're stuck looking at, how much needless traffic we have on our roads, and just how much smugness we all have swallow on a day-to-day basis. How is it that somebody gets a half-baked idea for an art installation and that translates into the tiny park at Summer and Bow looking like somebody vomited paper streamers all over it? Exactly how arbitrary is the "taste" behind this malarkey and what checks are in place to make sure that the city doesn't turn into a New England's most densely-populated Shepard Fairey mural?
Translation:
Just be boring, dammit!
Better Translation:
No need-they're boring already with their hipster-by-the-numbers aesthetic.
Oh My
That was a truly inspired rant! I think it has very high artistic and literary merit and was tremendously spirited if not ... dare I say it ... ironic!
Oh, for Fluff's sake
Shorter: Damn kids, get offa my lawn!
It was, as it always is, a goofy, fun celebration of a quirky bit of local history. I didn't see any irony at the thing. I saw a lot of people - not all of them hipsters - just having a good time.
Seriously
Yeah, I was there, and I'm definitely no lover of hipster-chic. What's a bit of fun, eh? People gotta settle down.
Also, I see nothing wrong with indie coffee shops if the coffee is good and not too pricey. I see nothing wrong with specialty bakeries if their products are damned tasty (although they are *always* a little too pricey). Live and let live.
Not quite as short, but more accurate:
Damn kids, stop using public space (which belongs to everybody) like it's your own private art installation. Why not save it for the next Open Studios where people have a choice whether to look at it or not?
Or, more to the point:
Damn Union Square Main Streets and City of Somerville, stop catering to one, and only one, sort of artistic taste in your attempts to draw Cambridge and Boston money into Union Square--it's just DULL. I've never seen people trying so desparately to make a neighborhood cool in my entire life.
BTW, I'm young, I have a graduate education, and I'm not from around here, lest anybody think I'm some Save-Our-Somerville crab. I'm a different kind of crab entirely, LOL, one who's worried about waking up to a kinetic sculpture in his front yard because somebody in flannel thought it was a neat idea.
How sad...
...that a person still young should already be so cranky and curudgeonly. Perhaps you will be lucky enough to grow out of this affliction.
Bravo!
Such amazing commentary-as-performance-art can only be the result of a retrograde sense of fabulous irony.
Do let us know when you will be holding another happening or entertaining at an installation.
I dunno, man
First off, I may have misread your post, so honestly, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like you're a little more miffed about a certain public art installation than the Fluff Fest? Or maybe just the general attitude you feel is behind both? Anyway, the festival was a less permanent mark on the area, so I don't think it's as deserving of your ire. Just my opinion.
Second, I'll give you the point that ugly art pieces can look really crappy right out in some public area; it can be highly annoying. But if you think about it, any art installation is going to cater to a relatively narrow sense of taste. Granted, some art is more universally accepted than other art, but you'll always have someone griping about how it "doesn't go with the feel of the neighborhood" or "is an outdated aesthetic". I guess there's no accounting for taste, but there's just not much you can do when the city decides to approve an installation. Except to secretly go back at night and pee on it...