How to Spot the "Artsy" Dilettanti in the Philippines

(Copy-pasted from a chat with my friend. Not all items are written by me.)

1. They have uncombed, probably unwashed, hair.

2. They’d wear maroon or lavender or stripey maroon or stripey lavender shirt (or any color gravitating to a brownish hue), and scarfs that make no freakin’ sense to wear in this sweltering tropical country.

3. They’d refuse to listen to any types of music unless it’s rock. If it’s not rock it sucks, but if it’s a rock rendition of any songs from other genres (like Sade’s No Ordinary Love) it’s automatically good.

4. They’d brush up knowledge on super obscure indie artists or movies or books to appear more “well-versed”. But, if you mention ANY indie artists they don’t know of, they’d snark and say “I don’t like them anyway” and then proceed to mention OTHER indie artists until it becomes a game of “who drops the most names”.

5. They’d never dance, unless it’s mock dance. like “ooh look at people dancing to Rihanna’s Umbrella [which I really don’t like, in case you’re wondering], i’m soo gonna dance to it too in a snarky way to prove just how stupid everyone else looks!”

6. They LOOOOOOVE Tim Burton and especially his Jack Skellington!

7. They’d refuse to watch basketball or any sports by saying it’s too physical and therefore barbaric.

8. Ask them about what they like in a certain music, book, and movie, and they’ll say things like “avant-garde”, “its brilliant scope”, “the masterfully meticulous setpieces”, or “the grandness of its visions”. Setpiece, too, seems to be their favorite word.

9. Their favorite style of photography is Lomography.

10. They’d always look smug, and they stare at you not with their eyes, but with their noses.

11. They’d tell you “MULTIPLY, FACEBOOK, FRIENDSTER, TWITTER AND PLURK ARE FOR WUSSES” (even if they secretly have accounts on those places) and say the ultimate social networking site is DEVIANTART!

12. They like making swirly-swooshy digital arts.

13. They only know 2 kinds of moods… sullen and more sullen, as though the world owes them for not understanding them better.

14. Whenever anyone confesses to liking something popular, they’d have just 1 knee-jerk reaction: “You’re into that?! *snickers*”

(I am guilty of at least 1 or 2 items.)