I've Got Friends in Low Places

[karam]

Hah, great thread!

I have nothing but disdain for snobs, especially those flaunting fake wealth - you know who I mean, people in fancy cars with $500 in the bank and $100,000 in debt.

I am picky on some things and very low brow in others. I love pleb Toscano cigars and prefer them to any Cuban I ever had.

I'll put in the time to find quality stuff, and then won't flinch spending the money on them, but I won't go looking for expensive stuff just because. I don't get the gaping hole some people have in their souls that they feel the need to satisfy other people, or showing off to other people. @tbradsim1 nailed it.

I could afford a fancy car but why would I? My 500cc motorcycle is way more fun.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Hah, great thread!

I have nothing but disdain for snobs, especially those flaunting fake wealth - you know who I mean, people in fancy cars with $500 in the bank and $100,000 in debt.

I am picky on some things and very low brow in others. I love pleb Toscano cigars and prefer them to any Cuban I ever had.

I'll put in the time to find quality stuff, and then won't flinch spending the money on them, but I won't go looking for expensive stuff just because. I don't get the gaping hole some people have in their souls that they feel the need to satisfy other people, or showing off to other people. @tbradsim1 nailed it.

I could afford a fancy car but why would I? My 500cc motorcycle is way more fun.

I have a few packs of Toscano cigars stashed and given how many recommendations they've received in this thread I'm starting to dread the idea of trying one because it might make my horde of pipes obsolete.

 

[Sigmund]

Its interesting, and to be clear... Im not calling anyone out...I find it interesting that a term for inexpensve wares is lowbrow. Its just another product of the type of people Karam is talking about. We live in a culture that worships consumption and wealth. Stuff less than the best is for common cavemen. Its so pervasive it seeps into our lanugage. Its why other than forums I dont do social media. Influencers and our spoiled kids feel that they have to have everything and will still not be happy. Its an illness. If you cant be happy with simple things you cant be happy with the best.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

That's not lowbrow, thats f-ing rad. XS400?

XS650

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Is having to divorce my cousin because I had an affair with her mother a low places kind of thing?

Beyond that, if a restaurant doesn’t have Heinz ketchup I might, if desperate, have a bit of the mystery ketchup and I still use these.

 

[Sobrbiker]

Is having to divorce my cousin because I had an affair with her mother a low places kind of thing?

Beyond that, if a restaurant doesn’t have Heinz ketchup I might, if desperate, have a bit of the mystery ketchup and I still use these.

View attachment 288933

I almost didn’t marry Mrs Sobrbiker because she’s pretty frugal, and brought a bottle of catsup home early in our relationship.
There are quite a few things that a “functional substitute” just will not do, and ketchup is one of them.

I don’t care what anyone chooses to like, believe, treasure, or tout but respect dissipates rapidly when it’s found to be motivated by just following along for the approval of others.

The “hole in the soul” syndrome is sadly rampant.

 

[Daddypants]

View attachment 288667View attachment 288668
I'm not gonna post a picture of my massive Tiki collection because it's too hard to photograph all at once but you get the idea.

Nice XS650. I bet you have a stash of old The Horse Backstreet Choppers magazines stashed around that shop somewhere. Maybe some 70s Easy Riders too.

This is my Stepson (big kid on the right) riding my Dad’s old 1980 Sturgis that he has “chopped”. He painted the Sporty tank himself.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

I bet you have a stash of old The Horse Backstreet Choppers magazines stashed around that shop somewhere.

Your assumption would be correct.

Killer Shovel, and a great paint job!

 

[Jacob74]

Its interesting, and to be clear... Im not calling anyone out...I find it interesting that a term for inexpensve wares is lowbrow. Its just another product of the type of people Karam is talking about. We live in a culture that worships consumption and wealth. Stuff less than the best is for common cavemen. Its so pervasive it seeps into our lanugage. Its why other than forums I dont do social media. Influencers and our spoiled kids feel that they have to have everything and will still not be happy. Its an illness. If you cant be happy with simple things you cant be happy with the best.

It's not just this brand of modern society that worships wealth my friend, it seems to be a human condition. Sumptuary laws that are firmly in the historical record exist in antiquity, well over 2000 years ago and all across the globe, not just in western civilization. Gaining identity and hollow satisfaction from the ownership of rare and pretty things is something people have struggled with since they have been writing down the things they've struggled with.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I am not a "brand" snob. I don't want a Dunhill for the white spot, but because I like the pipe. I used to joke about grinding the nomenclature off of my pipes, but I could really do that and be ok with it.

But some things are just better than others. Take filet mignon verses a tough cut of beef shank. There's a reason one is more expensive than the other. Sure, sure, some people have never even tried filet mignon, so shank is ok with them.

 

[Sigmund]

I dont think that is being a snob. Some stuff is simply better. The cut of beef however, does make people who eat it better. Sadly some people behave otherwise.

 

[canucklehead]

XS650

My mom had an XS650, when I was young I had an XJ650 Maxim, a YX600 Radian, and an XS1100. The old air-cooled Yams were great, very reliable.

 

[Briar Lee]

Let's make it very clear here... A taste for Low Brow does NOT mean you are a low life... regardless of what a certain solicitor from the town of "California" might say.

And my wife is still a beautiful woman... Mr. Lee, I am not sure if I should tell her that you think her looks expired after she got older.

This song makes a lot of sense to true hillbillies, like me.

One of the things that hurts the soul and pride of the descendants of the victorious blue bellied Yankees who bought up cheap land from the estates of dead Confederates, is that others lump us, in with ignorant, poor, uneducated, Southern hillbillies.

I was sitting in the dorm lobby Friday afternoon smoking a corn cob, visiting with my buddy Jim,,,,

Ready to go home to Humansville for the weekend,,,.

And this well meaning kid, with some girls with him, saw me and said

Are yew a goin’ home to Hooterville with the red necks this here weekend?

May God forgive me.

I didn’t even have time to think.

I grabbed his shirt and looked him hard in the eyes and said

You aren’t about to talk to me like that.

My mother has supper waiting for me, at home.

He apologized all over himself, Jim thought it was funny, and I felt one inch tall, after they left.

Jim asked why I looked so low down, and I said I ought not let a Saint Louis dandy boy get me so mad in front of girls he wouldn’t know what to do with, anyway.

My mother, would be so ashamed of me.

 

[telescopes]

I am not a "brand" snob. I don't want a Dunhill for the white spot, but because I like the pipe. I used to joke about grinding the nomenclature off of my pipes, but I could really do that and be ok with it.

But some things are just better than others. Take filet mignon verses a tough cut of beef shank. There's a reason one is more expensive than the other. Sure, sure, some people have never even tried filet mignon, so shank is ok with them.

I agree with your point.

To me, a low brow choice might be choosing to get your hamburger at George’s Burger Joint rather than the $20 burger at Ruth Chris’s. The one at George’s not only seems to have more flavor, but leaves one much more satisfied. The difference is primarily the atmosphere and the clientele. Truth in advertising, I did eat a steak last sandwich last night at the bar at Ruth Chris’s steakhouse. The sandwich was free but the wine was not. It tasted like a free sandwich .

To other people’s points about price - price point should not seem as a corollary to low brow. Vintage pink flamingos can command a very high price. Low brow is really the joy taken in things that are accessible to common people and are generally dismissed by seekers of things perceived as lacking a higher level of taste and refinement by those who believe they know better.

Low brow, despite what Mr Lee maintains, has nothing to do with the shape of one‘s skull or one‘s character. It is nothing more than a love of the humble and common. It is finding worth in what some would find as worthless.

 

[telescopes]

My mom had an XS650, when I was young I had an XJ650 Maxim, a YX600 Radian, and an XS1100. The old air-cooled Yams were great, very reliable.

I too had a 79 XS 650. Great bike. I sold it to a friend. I regret it but it was aging out badly.

 

[MartyA]

I'm really not sure where I'd fall on the "brow" scale. I can appreciate well made, quality, things, whether it be pipes, fountain pens, telescopes and binoculars, woodworking tools, etc, etc, but I don't want to pay for exceptionally high quality, even at levels where I can afford it. I'll get online and dig around for hours, checking prices and reading reviews, for the best deal I can get on an "acceptable" quality item.

I guess I'm willing to compromise. And really, nobody else cares.

 

[telescopes]

When it comes down to it, if a person is unwilling to admit that they have a bit of a low brow taste in some things, then it's best they take that as their sign that they aren't low brow.

I have no problem embracing the sign. Do I care what others think? Ah, no. And why would I. I am too happy being happy.

My condominium in Laughlin is a perfect example. Anyone who has been to that part of the Colorado River knows it is NOT Aspen.

Bullhead City is a place for river rats, club houses, jet skis, and motorcycles made for desert riding.

Still, I would rather be there, smoking my pipe, and just hanging around my patio then dining in Downtown Palm Springs.

Not that I have anything against the better more refined life.

It is just that it itches my skin.

Yes, I know the difference between Mogan David and a nice 40-50 dollar red wine. It's just that for the most part, I don't care most of the time. Most of the time.

Sometimes I care, but I have to be in the mood for it. I have to be in the mood to dine at LG's Steakhouse or Ruth Chris's or Morgans. Sometimes I am. But most of the time I am not.

I like a well made Manhattan. But I like mine at home with Jim Bean if that's what I have on hand.

Of course I know and can taste the difference.

I just don't care most of the time.

But I don't eat trash and I don't drink or smoke bitter tasting garbage. Low Brow isn't a love for garbage.

 

[Briar Lee]

I like A1 steak sauce on steak. There. I said it .

So do I.

But not catsup/

 

[telescopes]

So do I.

But not catsup/

Now see... that wasn't so hard. Welcome to club Low Brow.

 

[Kobold]

So do I.

But not catsup/

I like catsup on my cake donuts and hot dog. No wonder I have stomach issues.