Can It Be So Simple ‘07
In the shower one day I found myself trying to think of a scorching hot take I could write about. This desire was born from little besides feeling threatened by the sheer power of Katie’s most recent articles. Eventually, an idea popped into my head: “2007 was the last culturally important year.” It was a dumb thought, but it sounded catchy and, as time went on, continued to prove itself correct.
2007 was the year of far too many excellent musical releases — from AJJ’s People Who Can Eat People Are The Luckiest People In The World, to M.I.A.’s Kala, to most of hardcore’s best projects, Down to Nothing’s The Most, Have Heart’s the Things We Carry, Cold World’s No Omega, and Trapped Under Ice’s Demo 2007. And think about it, weight the sheer number of books and films worth paying attention to. It was in 2008 that the original Iron Man released and Hollywood was sucked into the vortex of hundred million dollar crash-bang bullshit. A24 has not yet been brought to the world and the “cinephile” moniker could still be reserved for people who babbled like chimpanzees at the “ADULT FILMS” joke in The Simpsons. Porn had not yet become an organized destructive force that brain washed our young men and raped our women. In fact, Pornhub was only in its first year.
Sound & Fury ‘07
Anyone with a reasonably developed awareness of fixed gear bikes has likely heard of MASH. It was a few years ago that a picture of a MASH frame started my love affair with fixies. The bike shop/builder’s filmography is incredible — presenting beautiful sequences of man and machine existing in harmony against the backdrop of sunny San Francisco and a soundtrack of everything from punk to synth-pop to hip hop. Few videos of theirs provoke such a visceral emotional response as their original 2007 full length. I was awestruck to see a guy in a black Arc’teryx on a clean black Bianchi skidding the city’s many hills soundtracked by a pulsating Eyedea & Abilities track. A black Arc’teryx in fucking 2007. It was a clear testament to someone who knew their stuff. And such is the whole vibe of the video, it features one courier specifically talking about how a few years before almost no one in SF rode brakeless fixies, it was new, it was special. There’s something pure about the subculture portrayed in the video, it’s a study into the niche. The video credits thank Supreme, Visvim, and Stüssy Japan, seemingly because the three companies helped to fund the making of the film. This is from an era when the internet was small, subcultures stuck together, guys learned about bikes from hanging out at shops, talking to people. Now, I can create an entire parts list for a dream build from Reddit posts and YouTube videos filled with people attempting to lecture me on the “purity” of riding a fixed gear. Fuck your purity, there is no purity on the internet.
We have been corrupted by the rapid expansion of the internet, hobby and culture has suffered as a result of instant accessibility. It used to be you wanted to get into a band, you went to a show, you bought an album. Now Spotify makes you a weekly playlist of just the right music. I hate it.
In 2007, Kimi Räikkönen won his first and only Formula 1 championship in his first season with Ferrari. For ten of the thirteen years since, I have watched Vettel or Hamilton drearily cruise to victory again and again and again. Räikkönen was new, MASH was new. Nowadays, the only thing new is diseases and technology and technology is not sexy. Technology isn’t sexy because it is designed for people who aren’t sexy. Culture was sexy. God, I fucking miss it.
