Orthodox Jews are Hipsters

Today our ceramics class presented final projects. I was a little concerned because half of my "Family of Cylinders" was still baking away in the kiln, and the remainder of my stuff was unglazed...some of it not even fired for the first time. The reason for this is that a) I'm American, so I don't understand when the israeli potters blab about "bisque" and "angobi" and "chomer" and all that hebrew clay jargon. b) I am not in the ceramics department. I am in fine arts, so i don't spend every breathing minute in the pottery studio. c) glaze is expensive and I don't want to buy dozens of colors by myself. and d) I like throwing pots on the wheel a lot more than spending hours meticulously painting designs on a piece of clay.

So this morning, despite the fact that the world was working against me, I was confident. This class is a learning experience. I don't need pots and mugs to take away, I now have a skill. My other classmates, on the other hand, were freaking out. I think 4 girls were on the verge of tears. One girl was so finicky with her fishing line, trying to create the illusion that her pots were suspended in mid-air. People brought tablecloths to place their work on, and you could hear them trembling as the teacher walked over to their station. This is their lives. Their cares reduced (raised?) to mud.

I guess it's years of army training that does that to you. Anyways, some stuff my instructor said about my work:

- you have improved. your cylinders have grown very tall.

- you approach the clay with grace. you accept what the clay gives you.

- your handles combine ceramics with elements of abstract sculpture.

- you have a steady painting hand. Your designs are like MC Escher.

- you are positive, you don't take everything too seriously. You work confidently and i can tell you enjoy the process.

not bad considering i thought my unglazed collection was shit. maybe she was bullshitting me to be nice, and she'll give me a really bad final grade.

On a more important note, I realized that Orthodox Jews are hipsters.

They are incredibly obscure and exclusive.

Hipsters consider themselves "above others" and elite...we, too are the chosen people.

Rattails= peyis

in Mea Shearim, the big, thick-rimmed glasses are quite a trend, as with indie, underground, hipsterculture.

both are greasy and unshaven.

act incredibly White.

Both are uninformed in mainstream culture and prefer to sit in their hipster dens/shteibles contemplating the esoteric, the etherial, the transcendental: God/Animal Collective.

both maintain higher standards of eating: kashrut/veganism.

This article's funny: http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/n_9756/