Yalei Wang

What Measures Coolness?

I was posed a question yesterday when i was talking about Beijing to a particular somebody over the web.
" What determines the coolness of Beijing? " aka,
" What determines the coolness of bloody anything in general?".
It's a question that can be posed upon many different things. Cities, Clothes, People. But it's people which often gets our attention the most. I've always wanted to write about ' Coolness ' because it's kind of amazing how powerful it is and how it's got this ability to basically quickly chaperon sense away into oblivion, whilst we look with aghast and admiration at whoever we're looking at ( Or whatever it is we're looking at ). Coolness for me, is a process of LOOKING. Coolness has a lot to do with the visual because what is visual is communicated in an instant and people make snap judgements about everyone in an instant. If you look good or give off a vibe where you're kind of slightly above it all, you're cool. But hey, not too much. Then you look like a try-hard (It's a hard game, my brother)

But coolness can be a way a person acts too. This is often dubbed as ' swag ' and ha! it can be in possession of the most UNLIKELY of people! The thing is though, once you're in the presence of swag, there's no turning back. You're putty in their hands. I'm always attracted to men and women with swag. I have a personality that is quite indifferent to most people ( Maybe a tad snobby ) but when someone has swag, i'm like a lapdog. I try to conceal it as much as possible, but look into my eyes and you'll be able to see that i'm all yours. Swag is one of those things yet again which is impossible to define. It's radiation that transmits itself into the core of your social consciousness. When you see this person, something inside of you thinks, " They're not like us ". Most often than not, people who are cool and who also have swag, are not like us. Are they above us? A little bit, do i dare say?. How I determine whether someone or something is cool or not is primarily visual first. If it's a person, then of course dialogue, world views and attitude are also contributing factors. Success and their 'lineage' have things to do with it too ( Blue bloods ). Most Cool people, they have this casualness about them which suggests, " I don't really give a shit at all ". I like that but it's also frustrating when you want to make a connection with them. Dream on, that would ruin their facade. However, there are caricatures such as Woody Allen who aren't traditionally cool and who are hailed as EXCEPTIONALLY so. For him? It's his uniqueness. It's his anxiety, actually which makes him cool in the end. Who knew that the complete opposite of cool can be cool itself? It's a twist, it's a game, it's what you make of it at that moment and then take with you into the restaurant.

 Coolness is ones ability to confuse and confound someone with the power of that to lead.