Last time we checked in on Joseph Gordon-Levitt he was Occupying Wall Street and singing a tune with Zooey Deschanel—and now the multitalented actor has kindly requested that you no longer call him a "hipster," please. Which we're cool with, because then he goes a step beyond and actually defines the word "hipster" for us all. Someone that no one has been able to pinpoint since the first bearded man in Williamsburg was spotted with a PBR in his hand. Someone telegram this to the OED, post haste: more ›

Next time you see a guy wearing his hair in a bun, you can thank the NY Times for being on top of this trend. Because there's a feature on the proliferation of this new 'do: "In certain arty neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Bushwick, some men are twisting their long hair into a form more famously worn by librarians, schoolmarms and Katharine Hepburn. But don’t call the male version an up-do or a chignon. Call it a man bun." more ›

Crazed shoppers with an affection for hot shirtless guys weren't the only ones out and about scouring for Black Friday deals—disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner went bargain shopping with pregnant wife Huma Abedin. And Weiner took the opportunity to show off the newest addition to their family: his mustache. Check out pictures here, or just gaze longingly at our 'stache approximation. more ›

Back in May, we met the Hipster Church of Flushing, whose Korean pastor proudly proclaimed himself a hipster and bragged about listening to MGMT. Now, the Times has introduced us to a competing hipster church in Williamsburg, and this one totally has the hallmarks of real hipster down pat. more ›

As the Occupy Wall Street protesters and the media become more familiar with the styles and faces of the NYPD officers charged to watch over Zuccotti Park, "Hipster Cop" AKA 1st Precinct Community Affairs Detective Rick Lee has stood out in a sea of white and blue and drab Law & Order gray. Little is known about Lee—is he gay? Does he have kids? Is he into mumblecore?—but the Sparrow Project has compiled compelling video footage of Hipster Cop in his native habitat. more ›

MTV has a new show coming out centered around a group of friends in their young 20s grappling "with dating, romance and becoming adults" in New York City. It's called I Just Want My Pants Back, adapted from the book, and they're looking for some "hipstras"! Miss Heather spotted this flyer in Greenpoint, which explains exactly what a hipstra is: more ›

Remember when the McKibben Dorms (er, Lofts) were the place where everybody knew your name? Where you could play experimental 8-bit music until six in the morning while throngs of creatively pierced fellow artists interpretively danced about you with nary a care in the world? Well, those days are drawing to close as a crime wave sweeps the area. more ›

According to a new, very important, and very scientific infographic (provided by Buzzfeed): New York is only #2 in overall hipster search volume. Sigh, we're too disaffected to care about what that even means, yawn (did that help us get back to #1?). Why aren't we #1? We have Williamsburg! THE WILLIAMSBURG! more ›

The Camel advertising team has clearly been watching a lot of Mad Men, and is trying so hard (too hard? not hard enough?) to get that thing that Don Draper has. This is actual real-life ad copy for the Williamsburg brand cigarette the company has put out (oh and by the way, there is a Williamsburg brand cigarette, more on that in a sec—first, here's what it's about): “It’s about last call, a sloppy kiss goodbye and a solo saunter to a rock show in an abandoned building... It’s where a tree grows.” As the hipster forefathers would say: alluding to trees growing in Brooklyn is so over. more ›

A drunk hipster "saved" four NYPD officers recently, which sounds like an amazing story, except that it is told in the most annoyingly cumbersome way. So, here's the gist: some guy in Bushwick was up late (around 4:30 a.m.) watching videos of Richard Feynman lectures on YouTube while coming down off a whiskey buzz, when he sees flashlights and hears some noise in the backyard alleyway. more ›

Yesterday, The Smoking Gun published a federal tax lien that showed a Marcos Esparza Bofill over $172 million in back taxes from 2006. Who is Esparza Bofill? Well, TSG calls him a "hipster" as well as a former Alphabet City resident and "a garage music fan who came to New York to try his hand as a day trader" who has since returned to Barcelona. His friend told the Post, "The first thing he said to me [yesterday after learning of the tax bill] was, 'What's the IRS?'" more ›

Dov Charney, founder of American Apparel and a walking caricature of Hipster, declared in a recent Business Week interview that, "Hipster is over." So over. Maybe he blames the group for his failing business, which could soon become delisted on the NYSE; either way, the determined little clothing cockroach refuses to die along with them! more ›

The above photo comes with a caption which reads: “Reopening of the South Fork Bridge after flood in Nov. 1940. 1941 (?)” The photo is believed to be real and unaltered, and can be found at the virtual Bralorne Pioneer Museum. So, what is that modern-day looking hipster with the fancy camera and sunglasses doing in the 1940s? Clearly, we have a time traveler on our hands. more ›

After news that Williamsburg had the lowest rate of completing and mailing their 2010 Census forms—and a scathing NPR segment that suggested hipsters were too cool to complete them*—Stephen Colbert decided to look at the situation, suggesting it could be a genius plan to increase their hipster cred. Here's video (hipster census part starts at 1:50): more ›

Has the Age of the Hipster come to an end? And if so, will "helpster" be the next word that everyone calls other people, but no one uses to describe themselves? That's the question raised in this New York Press article, which details the rise of "helpsters" — socially conscious cool kids who have stopped acting like "disaffected aesthetes with nihilistic tendencies" and started becoming "motivated and committed Samaritans." more ›

If you make it through the this 8 bazillion word profile in the New York Observer on a crack-smoking hipster, please let us know how it ends. What we learned from a quick scan of the first page is that it doubles as a tip sheet for amateur crackophiles, and also bodegas sell crack kits! The code word at Crack Hipster's bodgea is: "Casaban." And if you say it, "you’re handed a brown paper bag containing the glass tube with a tiny bunched-up ball of steel wool at one end, and a little lighter. It costs $2.50." more ›

According to this Twitter update, farm animals are super in right now amongst the skinny jean set. The witness twote, "I just saw a hipster walking a sheep on Bedford Ave. So hot right now!" People, please take photos next time. more ›

Unsubstantiated! However, one Twitterer recently twote that she "Just found out cops in Williamsburg call hipsters marshmallows because we are white and soft." Whether or not this is true, we would like to recommend that everyone use "marshmallow" going forward — it is much less amorphous than the H word. more ›

Now that Pedro G. Espada has resigned from his $120,000/year specially-created job (don't worry—he won't be paid for his few days of "work"), the spotlight has turned on some other expensive hires. The Post goes critical, reporting that "Amid the most severe fiscal crisis in recent memory and a state hiring freeze...Scratch-master Christopher Sealey was given a $120,000 salary by Senate President Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) in February to head up a five-member team dedicated to 'rebranding' the newly Democratic-controlled Senate." (The Daily News puts Sealey's salary at $100,760/year.) more ›

Did anyone really think that it was only trust fund kids living in Williamsburg? NYMag is on a myth-busting mission in this piece that looks beyond the hipster population in the neighborhood. And it turns out there's even more than just hipsters and those who want to slash them with machetes, there's also "a community of people mostly struggling to get by." The piece contains some informative stats for those who look at Williamsburg as solely a trustafarian paradise—did you know in the last 12 months the median income for the area was $39,663 (the city median is $48,631). Of course, talkin' about food stamps, Trinitarios, and Drano Bombs doesn't exactly move luxury condos (or grab headlines, as the site points out). more ›

Ugh, with the financial crisis totally shredding mommy and daddy's investment portfolio, many young adults in Hipsterland are being forced to find jobs. Times reporter Christine Haughney talked to some landlords and people in the real estate industry, who confirm the tragic trend: parents are cutting back on their contributions to rent and apartment down payments, in some cases eliminating their support entirely. Landlord Ernie DiGiacomo says that instead of getting checks from his tenants' parents, some of them are moving back in with their parents! more ›

Oh universe, please let this be fake. Allegedly there's some reality television casting call signage hanging out in Williamsburg (and being hosted online) that Curbed got a hold of. We can't in good faith even print the entire ad here, but it starts out with a bang, asking: "Did you wake up today around 1:30 EST in your industrial loft, pull on your favorite (and only) pair of cutoff jean shorts, and take a leisurely stroll down Bedford Avenue in search of organic green juice and the new DFA on vinyl?" References to tofu, American Apparel, Dan Deacon and even the Hipster Grifter follow. They're looking for 18-25 year old stereotypical hipsters who won't mind opening their doors up to a camera crew—shouldn't be too hard, especially since there is somehow cash involved—and the email to contact the show ends in hipsterhood.com, though nothing is hosted at that URL right now. Maybe they should just get Kari Ferrell to host a Super Funtime Happy Grifter Game Show Hour where helpless hipsters win fabulous prizes for fending off mouth handjobs. more ›

Question: Is the word "hipster" so over...or is talking about the word so over? Below, a group of self-declared non-hipsters talk circles around what the word actually means. more ›

There was plenty of buzz Monday about Radar's investigative report on $2,000 an hour hipster hookers, but that wasn't the week's only close-up on the oldest profession. A bit further down market, to say the least, the Villager's Laurie Mittelmann pals around with transgender street walkers in the West Village: "While shoes may also pain the feet of males and females, underwear can present unique problems for pre-operation transgender women. They want foxy little numbers, but still need to cover bulging male genitalia." And just like the author of the Radar story, Mittelmann also turns down a paranoid john who approached her for "'rocks and sex.' Apparently, he thought there was a chance this reporter was an undercover cop. 'You’re either going to hook me up with some fun, or hook me up in cuffs,' he said, licking his lips and kneading his pants." Demonstrating enormous self-control, Mittelmann somehow resisted his charms. more ›

The NY Post discovered Williamsburg today, twice! The articles contradict one another, however, and read as though they're describing two different neighborhoods instead of one in flux. One states that today's "Williamsburgers are families, established professionals" while the other says "young hipsters still rule." Well, which is it? The former declares that "as new luxury condos roll out along the waterfront and flank McCarren Park, upscale businesses are opening to attract an ever more well-heeled clientele (and their families)"; the latter asserts that "the new developments are geared to well-off singles and couples who want to be associated with the area's recent hipness. Catering to the development of a family neighborhood doesn't seem to be the objective." Ergo, Williamsburg is neither ideal for the ironic fanny pack set, nor for the sincere fanny pack set...or is it both? Discuss. more ›