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Houston has made Travel + Leisure's top 36 list of cities for hanging out with hipsters and we have no idea what they’re talking about.
First of all, who plans their vacations around the best place to hang out with hipsters? Anyone? I didn’t think so. Second of all here’s how they define a hipster: you’ll know one when you see one. (But don’t even think of asking one just to make sure.)
Then there’s their description of Houston:
"Like many cities, Houston gives nicknames to its trendy neighborhoods. Case in point: LoWe, short for Lower Westheimer, where you can hang out at Mediterranean-themed coffee shop Agora, dive lounge Catbirds, or El Real Tex-Mex within a historic 1930s theater. Houston also has two seemingly incompatible draws, according to readers: it ranked well for both luxury shopping and for being affordable."
How does one pronounce LoWe? Is it like Lowe’s the construction store? Or is it like low-we? I'm guessing no one but the hipsters doing their affordable luxury shopping in the Galleria know how to pronounce this word.
Click next for more ridiculousness on hipster tourism. To see the complete list go here.
Michael Paulsen / Houston Chronicle
Houston is behind Nashville and Kansas City. Well, at least it beat out Anchorage.
"We're No. 26! We're No. 26!"
"Hipsters" and Houston are like oil and water (pun intended).
LoWe? I thought they just called it Montrose.
We do. I live right behind poison girl and have NEVER heard the term LoWe before. what kind of fudgery is that!?
Hipsters are everywhere. It used to be they were isolated to Starbucks, Whole Foods now they are everywhere...
How to spot:
Wool cap....all year long
Multiple simultaneous plaids
Feeble attempt at facial hair growth
Malcolm X or similar eyewear
Mac/Apple products exclusively
Intentionally uncool(and therefore hip)transportation device
Perpetual sneer or pensive pout
Partially exposed unoriginal tattoo(s)
Pretty spot on there Mike. Brilliant. The only thing you forgot was "Ipod full of music nobody's heard of except their hipster friends, because nobody else has heard of them."
Am i the only one who never heard the term 'LoWe' until I reading this?
Safe to say that LoWe is exclusive hipster lingo. I am sure I am not even allowed to try to say it. On the other hand, I can say that lower Westheimer mid 80' was significantly "hipper" than it is today. Especially when my Polo collar was flipped to the "up" position.
Yes! Back when cruising Westheimer and doing Chinese fire drills with your flipped up collar. Those were the days.
Hahaha!
you forgot to add skinny jeans to your list!
Houston is so OVER.
Please leave then....
Fargo, ND is calling your name.....
I used to subscribe to Travel and Leisure, but dropped my subscription because of ridiculousness like this.
we ARE a big city lol so what
What exactly does one do when they “hang out?” I am only 37 so I desperately need to know so I don’t appear old for my time!
Interesting that I've lived in Montrose for many years and never heard the term LoWe. My guess is that absolutely nobody uses this term. Montrose is Montrose.
Except for those people who call it The Montrose.
I like to call it 'The 'Trose'. But no one gets that.
I call it the 'trose too!
I liked Houston before any of your posers liked it, but now that it is popular, it is SOOOO over.
LoWe? i like to call it "the trose". keep it trill.
Houston can't be hipster. It's too "accessible."
I think what they mean is you can have a weekend like this if you Couchsurf in Houston. http://themysteriousandthemundane.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-trip-in-houst...
Seriously, "hipsters" don't actually exist on purpose. No one likes stereotypes, particularly young people just doing their thing.
I think what Travel + Leisure means but doesn't have the words for, is that that Houston is a great place to get lost and find yourself. For example, about a year ago I couchsurfed in Houston, http://themysteriousandthemundane.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-trip-in-houst...
This is just so ironic.
Ok the author was exaggerating, but still, hipster is the word for modern well dressed young people . the more yall fight it the more its true lol.
This reminds me of the ‘The lexicon of grunge: Breaking the code’ that made the New York Times after Sup Pop recepionist Megan Jasper made it up on the fly when she was asked what the cool kids said in Seattle....
http://musicology.typepad.com/dialm/files/grunge.pdf
I had to register at their site just to add to the chorus of voices letting them know that no human being in the history of Westheimer Road has ever, ever, ever called that s**t LoWe. If you're going to make something up, get more creative than that.
you guys know how many hipsters it takes to change a lightbulb????
its an obscure number, and you'll never know
Hoops, that is really funny; but, I must wonder how many people reading this will be "enlightened enough" to "get it.."
On the one hand, it's nice to get a shout out in T&L (How hip is THAT) but on the other hand, it seems like they interviewed a MidToe(Mid Towner) or worse, an O-loo(Outer Looper) for the story.
Now excuse me. I have to go get another pack of cloves from Hollywood.
"The dream of the 90's is alive in LoWe"
I've lived in Montrose 19 years, never heard 'LoWe'. We call it Montrose, or the gayborhood. Only outer loopers stick their stupid monikers on our shit.
Houston, stop trying to be Austin. It ain't workin'.
Austin is trying to "Keep It Weird"...
Seriously, micmac99; do you really think "anywhere" would want to be AUSTIN???? "Nowhere" wants to be THAT WIERD and Austin just cannot help itself!
We never want to be Austin...EVER!!!!
I thought u had to b on a spiral of loathing and self-destruction, with the ability to quit drugs or alcohol anytime u want but won't because it will tarnish your rep as a hipster.
I think I would literally spit on anyone using the term LoWe. I already have to fight not to do that with "uptown." Wanna know where uptown is? The Medical Center. When you consider where downtown and midtown are, it becomes obvious.
And then some douchebag decided it would be cute to call the Galleria area that, instead.
Grrrrrrrrrr.
I have been here 56 years and it has always been called lower westheimer or the montrose district it was a run down neighbothood in the 50's in the 60's the hippies moved in and then the gay community kind of took over in the mid to late 70's ,i have heard it refered to as the homo heights but thats kind of crude.
I can't think of anyone inside or outside the loop, even 100 miles away who doesn't call Montrose either "Montrose" or "The Montrose". I think the writter made up LoWe because he didn't do the research required to write an article about Houston.
I have never heard the nickname "LoWe", or even anything relatively similar. It's Montrose, and that's that. I know a few people who call it "the Montrose" or "the 'trose", but I'm pretty sure "LoWe" was coined in this article. We're not Austin, this isn't SoCo.
Of course not. It's MoRo (Montrose/River Oaks border)
Or MoRON? Montrose/River Oaks Neighborhood.
Actually, I like that area and would never call it that.
LoWe? Never heard of it... because it's MONTROSE. Although "hipsters" are plentiful these days, It's yuppies doing all the name changing to attempt a rebrand of their newly adopted in-town neighborhoods.
Hipster? Lower Westheimer? LoWe? I've heard it all.
I was into Houston before anyone! Who uses the term "LoWe" for lower Westheimer? Nobody would know what you where or what you were talking about.
There is no such thing as "LoWe". Someone must have made that up to confuse the yuppy hipsters and tourists.
Quit trying to me LoWe happen!!!! Ugh!
So is a hipster like porn? You'll know it when you when you see it.
I think Montrose is about as sweet as Houston gets. Everything else is lame. Yes, even River Oaks. Austin is cool, San Fran is better, Honolulu: less than 5% of the population try to be "cool" or show off their status. Fuck Houston, I left for a reason. Nothing there but over-commercialization and people who don't give a f**k about their neighbors. Sounds fun to me.