Comments on: WhatIsTheDefinitionOfCool?

By: dangennoe

dangennoe — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:39:12 +0000

Beau Brummel’s a particularly interesting one because it asks the question, can cool transcend its time. Essentially if someone was cool in the 1800s – way before the modern use of the term even existed – can they be cool today? I’d argue, in general, no. What was cool then probably isn’t today, just as what’s cool today probably wouldn’t be in a hundred years time. Yet Beau Brummel probably disproves my theory. In which case, I need a new theory!

You’ve still got two more though Tim! Top five. What about people today, anyone now who you think he really got it?

By: Tim Footman

Tim Footman — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:46:45 +0000

Beau Brummel. Although he may not pass the Dalston test.

Steve Cropper from the MGs, for knowing that less is more.

Breakfast at the Tsukiji Fish Market.

By: dangennoe

dangennoe — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:45:40 +0000

You may suggest Mr Waits and I will gladly add him to the list. I also like this idea of extremes of human expression. While not the whole picture, I think it’s fair to say they’re a key component.

Thanks,

By: johnocide

johnocide — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:33:53 +0000

May I suggest, Tom Waits be added to the list. The reasons that make people cool are inexplicable, but traits often found include being calm, but not unresponsive. Confident, but not arrogant. A consistent balance between the extremes of human expression.

But I could be wrong.

By: dangennoe

dangennoe — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:05:21 +0000

Good point well made.

SO, the key therefore would be to find something that a 14 year old in Dalston, a 33 year old in Streatham and a 60 year old in Hampstead all agree on. In which case the mission is to find whatever it is that Keith Richards and Johnny Depp have in common – Depp is just cool and Richards inspired Captain Jack in Pirates Of The Caribbean who is cool no matter what age you are… even if you don’t like the films themselves, which I don’t. Depp and Richards both have cool.

So, while cool is definitely going to be in the eye of the beholder, chances are that while my cool list and those of a 14 year old and a 60 year old are likely to be very different, they’ll share certain properties, the things which make them inherently cool. It also begs the question, does your definition of cool change with age? I thought Top Cat, ‘Hey TC’, was cool when I was 10 and I still think he’s cool now for the same reasons. Mmmm. What we need is a 14 year old from Dalston to ask. I’ll go and find one.

By: simiant

simiant — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:41:55 +0000

What is cool in the eye of the beholder though? All the people you have picked, yes, can be used as examples of the ‘traditional definition’ of cool. But are they cool if your’re a 14 year old boy living in Dalston?

By: Pas

Pas — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:57:55 +0000

Can’t believe you didn’t add my picture – i am sooooooooo cool!

Or at least the famous picture of Miles Davis!

Really like your new site , especially my husband on one of your screens!! Aaahw

X Pas

By: dangennoe

dangennoe — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:39:25 +0000

Will add Dino to the list. He was indeed very cool, not least because of all the Rat Pack, he was the one who in real life was the least interested in the broads and booze and liked nothing better than watching a good movie when he came off stage. So Dino goes on. Thanks. Keep them coming.

By: stelladelray

stelladelray — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:55:59 +0000

you forgot to include Dean Martin in your photo gallery… he is cool every which way you look at the defintion of cool…