Review: Good Advice for Trendy Young People of All Ages by Jennifer Blowdryer
The new “advice” tome edited by Jennifer Blowdryer, Good Advice for Young Trendy People of All Ages (Manic D Press), can be summed up thusly:

Rule Number One: Don’t be an asshole.
Rule Number Two: Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Rule Number Three: “All the booze in the world will not help you write like Charles Bukowski, likewise heroin and William Burroughs or Jim Carroll. You are not as bright as them.”

A collection of essays by performance artists, writers, musicians, addicts, convicts and assorted other scenesters, Good Advice for Young Trendy People of All Ages is an amusing tome for hipsters and wannabes everywhere. It won’t be of much use to the jaded downtown New York City crowd, but will probably give hope and inspiration for kids stuck in dead end towns. While a sixteen-year old in a faded rustbelt city probably won’t really need advice on How To Work a Room, it will at least prepare them not to act like an asshole if they finally get to do so.

While not really a serious advice / self-help book (it’s classified as “pop culture”), Good Advice… is hardly a joke, either. For example, if you really want to be an ArtStar, stop blathering about the projects you want to do and go out there and actually perform them. If you’re not on the guest list, don’t try to use your alleged indie cred to get you in for free, because the door guy really doesn’t care. It’s okay to have a job, but the right kind of job – bartender, hairdresser, flunky. Other trendy people can be your allies (and help you find gigs), but watch out for Arch Rivals who are up to no good. Finally, tip well, and “Never tip less than a dollar. You just look like a boob.”

Overall, a fun fluffy read for the trendy, wannabe trendy, and even those with no interest in being trendy at all (just to see how the other half lives, darling).

Good Advice for Trendy Young People of All Ages by Jennifer Blowdryer (Manic D Press)
- posted by Synd-e @ 12:57 PM