HW 28- Informal research

For this assignment, I researched "cool" on the Internet. I found a few sources that gave tips on how to be cool, and others that defined what is cool right now. I think that from what I found, I realized that cool is a temporary thing, and is basically synonymous with a fad.



Source #1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_(aesthetic)

This source, I found to be highly irrelevant, and often times flat out wrong. In trying to define cool in a wikipedia entry, the entry missed the point of cool entirely. Since "cool" is highly objective and varies between people, this was really not an accurate account of what makes cool. The article was flooded with generalizations and meaningless charts. I believe that what this article really was showing, was general trends throughout the world. The idea of trends pertains to pop-culture, which is not the same as "cool".

For example, the trend in American colonial pop-culture, was burning witches. Burning witches however, is not exactly cool. I think that cool, can only be truly measured with time and social advances. Often something becomes cool, or popular because it is the best thing available. When something or someone is truly cool, it should transcend it's time, and if it passes that test, than it is truly cool (not a passing fad). That point, led me to my next source, also on wikipedia.



Source #2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis

From what I picked up by reading the "cool" wikipedia page, I realized that if I wanted to look at something/ someone "cool", I needed to find something that has been around for a few contrasting generations. I realized, that Jazz, which started in the early 20th century, is still pretty cool today. From that, I used my own knowledge of Jazz, to pick out the coolest Jazz musician; Miles Davis. Miles Davis was and is the coolest Jazz musician ever to live. His extraordinary talent, lifestyle, and demeanor all made Miles cooler than anyone else.

I know Miles is cool, because Using the test of time, Miles still sells out stores, and still is regarded by many as one of the best musicians to ever live. Also, he had qualities typical of a cool person including a "don't give a fuck" attitude. A self destructive tendency (Miles was a notorious junkie until he sought help from his family back in the south, and kicked his drug abuse for good). Also, despite changing slightly in his attire over the years, Miles never changed who he was, and continued being cool till he died. Additionally, Miles recorded an album called "Birth of the Cool", which simply gave recognition to what everyone else said, and what Miles already knew.



Source #3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnuK0ka9Ho8

In this video, Russell Simmons addresses the question of what is cool, from a transcendentalist perspective. In the video, Simmons talks about how being cool is something that begins from within, and is than left up to outside interpretation. The concept of being calm and self-aware equating with "cool" makes far more sense to me, and is alot more interesting than everything else we have been discussing in class.

Being at peace with yourself, is interesting in this context, because it demonstrates how what you feel inside is often projected on the outside. Additionally, what you project on the outside is what determines your "coolness", as it is what everyone sees when they look and interact with you. The idea of "cool" vs. "tool" makes a lot more sense after watching this video. A "cool" person, is a person who is actually who they say they are, and does not change themselves based off of other peoples opinions, but off of their own inner opinions and consideration of outside information. A "tool" changes based on fads, and changes in accordance to the "cool" people. Differentiating between one and the other is simple, a person who stays true to themselves will have style and a personality which transcends their time, and sets the bar for calmness and confidence. The people who change moment to moment, are the "tools" who look to these confident "cool" people for ideas on how to change in order to be accepted.



Source #4: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/doyle-buehler/mytego-nation/youre-not-cool-i-am-what-cool-finding-cool-factor

I found that this website, like the wikipedia entry on cool, did not seem to provide any real answers of what cool actually is. For the most part, I was reading something which asked more questions and proposed more avenues of research into "cool" than reading it actually answered. The examples that it gave were rather dumb and didn't really spark any new ideas or revelations on this topic. Overall, this was not the best source because it worked with assumptions and hypothetically about cool rather than actual research or facts.



Source #5: "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" Season 4 "America's Next Top Paddy's Billboard Model Contest"

In this episode, their are two characters in particular who exemplify the contrast between a person who has characteristics typical of someone cool, and a character who demonstrates the opposite. Having already established that cool people have confidence and are honest about what they feel inside and show outside, I tried to find what character I felt showed these qualities. What I came up with, was that the character "Mac" was cool. Mac uses this modeling competition in order to bang a lot of really hot models, and doesn't try and pretend he is trying to do something different. Throughout the episode, he uses his position as a judge in the competition to trade sex for a better chance of the girls to win the competition. The girls who do have sex with Mac, end up winning the competition, while the girl who didn't have sex with him, ends up loosing. She is pissed, but Mac reminds her that she didn't have sex with him. So in a way, Mac's honesty and confidence around these hot women demonstrated Mac's "coolness" as a character.

Dennis on the other hand, is a character who was popular in high school, but has since peaked. He is really an average person, but in his attempts to try and prove this wrong, he tries to ignore reality. In this particular episode, Dennis seems to believe that he is capable of being a male model, and competing in this competition. When he competes, he pretty much makes a fool out of himself, but doesn't actually care. He is not a cool character because he clearly tries to hard, and is unaware, that contrary to what he may believe, he is actually not extraordinary. Thus, his inner personality, or perception, is not projected out to other people, who see him far differently than he sees himself.