Living in an ultra cosmopolitan city, London, I take it upon myself to be cultured. Now, it goes without saying that I have visited all the galleries and museums around town. That's obvious beyond itself. Don't bother asking me if I've seen such-a-such exhibition etc. - of course I have!
But, seeing as I know what's hot and what's not (I read umpteen magazines which never fail to prove my predictions), I know that low is the new high culture. Trash is flash if you know what I mean. So nowadays if you want to be really cultured, you have to find the right standard of crappiness to partake in and enjoy.
For example, instead of learning a musical instrument and becoming a high quality concert-level musician, you simply must take up the new video game that's sweeping the cool of the nation off their feet: Rock Band. It's available in all three formats of the newest fashion accessory - Wii, XBox 360 or PlayStation 3 - and it is honestly as cool as cucumbers can be.
What you do is invite three of your fashionable, socialite friends around for sushi and bottled water and then hook them up to the games console. Choose the most rhythmic of the bunch to play drums and the least to take vocals. The remaining two will most likely squabble over guitar and bass, neither wanting to play bass, which is probably the most unappreciated and undervalued instrument in showbiz.
I play guitar. And then away you go. The four of you can play a multitude of songs, although it is undoubtedly cooler to steer away from mainstream rock such as Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and stick to the lesser known and therefore lower-culture bands, such as the magnificent Coheed & Cambria and the oddly named Vagiant.
Glorious music will have your neighbours tapping their feet and shaking their hips to the beat - unless you have neighbours like mine who do not appreciate such high culture and prefer to bang on my ceiling so that they can watch their very, very uncool nature programmes.
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Do you know what "cool" means?
About Me
- Shari Last
- I'm a freelance writer specialising in film and lifestyle. I've had work published in Total DVD and the Sunday Times Magazine, as well as in the giant coffee table books Superyacht and New York.
Some more info...
I've always been into film and popular culture, although before I decided to make these areas my career, it was more based on the fact that I enjoyed going to the cinema, reading books, listening to contemporary music and generally enjoying life around me.
Choosing what degree to study at uni, I settled on English with Film for no other reason than that it sounded fun. I'd always liked English - reading and writing were my strengths - and film, well, why not?
Two years into my degree at King's College London, I realised that I did actually want to pursue a career in this field. So, I told myself, I'd better get a move on in terms of work experience.
During that summer I worked - for free - at various magazines, newspapers and publishing houses, including Total Film, Total DVD, NME, The Jewish News and Penguin. Although I didn't earn money, I gained experience and assurance that this is what I want to do.
The following summer I secured two internships, one at Tatler and one at The Sunday Times Magazine. By then I was looking for a full-time job.
A few months and what seemed to me a few million job applications later, I was appointed freelance Assistant Editor at Gloria, a publishing house specialising in huge-format, luxury coffee table books on diverse topics. I contributed to the books Superyacht and New York.
I am now writing freelance articles and working on my first novel. I've also started a new blog: Diary of a Cool Girl, partly because I thought the name was too good to waste, and partly because I wanted to try my hand at blogging. It's meant to be tongue in cheek and slightly amusing. But we shall see...
Choosing what degree to study at uni, I settled on English with Film for no other reason than that it sounded fun. I'd always liked English - reading and writing were my strengths - and film, well, why not?
Two years into my degree at King's College London, I realised that I did actually want to pursue a career in this field. So, I told myself, I'd better get a move on in terms of work experience.
During that summer I worked - for free - at various magazines, newspapers and publishing houses, including Total Film, Total DVD, NME, The Jewish News and Penguin. Although I didn't earn money, I gained experience and assurance that this is what I want to do.
The following summer I secured two internships, one at Tatler and one at The Sunday Times Magazine. By then I was looking for a full-time job.
A few months and what seemed to me a few million job applications later, I was appointed freelance Assistant Editor at Gloria, a publishing house specialising in huge-format, luxury coffee table books on diverse topics. I contributed to the books Superyacht and New York.
I am now writing freelance articles and working on my first novel. I've also started a new blog: Diary of a Cool Girl, partly because I thought the name was too good to waste, and partly because I wanted to try my hand at blogging. It's meant to be tongue in cheek and slightly amusing. But we shall see...
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