The Hipster Grifter IS REAL!

Kari with my puppy and best friend, Brutal.

Kari Ferrell became an overnight sensation when this article: The Hipster Grifter | The New York Observer,  was released just last week. Since then, people have been blogging about their unfortunate encounters with her, uploading pictures (including some naked ones), and on Ebay, someone is even selling a note from Kari written on a matchbook. Please, see for yourself:matchbook note

I decided to jump on this blogging opportunity after much hesitation. But I have been reading so many comments (on other blogs/articles) claiming Kari does not exist and that this is just some great big marketing scheme. Let me tell you naysayers something... she is very real! 

Most of my readers, being my friends, already know this story or have at least heard about Kari and her tall tales, or rather her tiny chubby tales. But I would still like to tell you the story of my short BestFriendship with Little Miss Grifter. 

I met Kari shortly after moving to NY this past fall. One lonely weekend, my internet friend, Jodi, invited me to a comedy show in Manhattan. With no friends and nothing to do, I excitedly accepted. Jodi told me that her friend, Chelsea, could not make it, but that her other friend, Kari, heard about the meet up and invited herself along. 

When Kari arrived, Jodi seemed a little annoyed, but still able to talk and laugh and have fun. I didn't think much of it at the time, Kari seemed so funny and bubbly and just really fun to hang out with. So that night, Kari and I left the bar to go get some late night dinner, and the rest is history. Well, not exactly. As we were eating, Kari and I talked about music, her amazing job, and how we both just moved to NYC. We didn't have much in common, except for the fact that we had both lived in Phoenix and one other major thing... we both LOVE to party. Dance, I mean. We finished eating (I paid for the dinner, btw), exchanged numbers, and boarded the same train to Brooklyn. 

After that night, Kari and I hung out for about two months straight. She told me all about her battle with lung cancer and how she would probably end up dying because she could not pay for some kind of procedure. At first, this was very heavy news. No one wants to deal with the possibility of losing a friend. But she continued to drink and smoke and dance every Friday and Saturday. I was pretty concerned, but she always seemed fine and promised me that she was going to be alright. Cortnie, Kari, and myself.

Just like she promised she could get me on "the list". That's right, you name the show or party, and Kari could get you in. But every time we went to one of these events, I was never on the list. There were times that her name wasn't even on the list. But we got in... every time. I never really saw the charm or even cuteness that others saw in Kari, that's why whenever we did get in to places, I thought it was legit. 

Kari seemed to know everybody. She claimed to date and be close friends with mildly famous musicians, and sometimes she would even call them while I was sitting next to her to ask if they could play at some event or show she was putting on. She also knew a lot of the same people in SLC that my friend Lindsey knows. She name dropped in such a way that it didn't sound completely fabricated or untrue. 

I still kept my guard up. Unlike most, I never let her stay at my house, and aside from paying for our first date, I never paid for or bought Kari anything. She definitely mentioned not being able to cash her checks because of this or that, or not being able to use the ATM, but she always had lots of money on her. She even offered, and quite a few times, to lend me money or to help me buy furniture for my room. No, I did not accept.

During this time, Jodi and Chelsea stopped talking to Kari because of her inconsistent stories and out-of-this-world claims. My friend Keith and I were the last of our group of friends to keep meeting up with Kari, but he was just about done with her as well. He could no longer deal with her asking to stay at his place when her apartment was being "fumigated". He was tired of late night phone calls about her thinking she needed to go to the E.R. because she felt nauseous. And honestly, there is only so much cock-teasing a guy can take. 

After about a month and a half, I was on my own. Kari and I continued to hang out, but just on weekends. No more trips to Ikea or hitting up boutiques on Atlantic. It was really weird, but I felt like our friendship was coming to an end. I was starting to think that everyone was right about her. And still, I had no real proof that her outrageous stories were false. After all, who am I to tell someone they don't have cancer?

At the end of November, with a friendship on the rocks, I get an urgent text message from Jodi telling me to check my email. I was too excited to put it off and ran straight to my room, not knowing what information awaited me. As I stared at Kari's mugshot, I got text messages from a couple of mutual friends asking me if I heard the news. Jodi's email was none other than a mass email to everyone she knew of who knew Kari. I could not believe it. So later that night when I got a text message from Kari asking me what I was doing, I ignored it. I just didn't know what to say to her. Keith felt like we should confront her via text message asking her to leave us alone. So after a couple of days of ignoring her desperate text messages, he did just that. 

Keith, Jodi, and Chelsea never spoke to Kari again. But I did. One drunken night, a couple months later, I see Kari at a bar with a friend. It was a small bar and there was really no avoiding each other. So I went up to Kari and I told her that I was sorry. I didn't say what for, I just looked at her and apologized. She knew what I was talking about, I didn't need to explain in front of her new friend. I just felt bad. I felt like I should have told her why I didn't want to speak to her anymore and why we couldn't be friends. We exchanged a couple of drunken words and parted ways after a minute or two. And I don't see her again for about another month.

So Kari Farrell, the little hipster grifter is real. I won't say that she deserves this internet dragnet, but she's hurt and pissed off a lot of people. Anybody looking for more information or gossip can check out the following link:

This site has links and links and links of more info, pictures, videos, and goodies...

Good Night!