[SIC] 117: Grandpa’s Youth is Back

December 3, 2020

Hi all,

The year end approaching prompts a start this week with some ruminations on the future, followed by a check in with the zeitgeist, and winding through the usual topics before ending up with some interesting buyable stuff at the end. Along the way: some great contributions from stalwart [SIC] family Kevin and Syd, some great listening material and a reminder that maybe there’s no such thing as an absolute fact in the end. Dig in.

Meantime, [SIC] Talks returns today with longtime friend Pia Baroncini. Entrepreneur, creative director, podcaster and influencer, Pia wears lots of hats and is a great listen, so it’ll be a fun one. You can find it live on my IG @dietznutz at 5p ET / 2p PT, or on my grid thereafter. Come hang. And, to borrow from Cam Luby, hope you’re all staying positive and testing negative til next we connect.

Ben

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Futurisms: 

• The Life and Death of Sylvia, the Instagram Influencer Who Never Was (Variety)

• Via Contagious:  YouGov’s new white paper on early technology adopters around the globe is free, and goes deep.

• Yacht singer and Broad Band author Claire Evans on Hitchhiker’s Guide author Douglas Adams’s 1990 “fantasy documentary” for the BBC called Hyperland (Aren.na) 

• S/o Earth Crisis: Ikea Pledges to Make 50% of Its Food Plant-Based, Reflecting a Shift in Consumer Diets  (Adweek)

• While the 1st lab-grown meat product has been given the green light to be sold for human consumption. (MIT Technology Review) 

• Also edible: Shrooms are the new weed, per Rave New World (Substack)

• Though, worryingly the fridge might be telling on you. Via The Future Party: The U.S. Air Force is experimenting with software which monitors cell phones to track every connected device on the same network. (WSJ) 

• While in parallel, the US Air Force will have a drone and human pilot face-off, part of a "moonshot" plan to develop autonomous unpiloted fighter aircraft. (BBC) 

• Spurred by Covid lockdowns, museums will bring virtual content into broader play (Jing Culture & Commerce) 

Zeitgest-y:

• From Syd Allen Ash: “This is very cool:” 2020 is a Song.

• RIP KUWTK but fans take note: Beate Karlsson makes silicone shorts that imitate Kim Kardashian's ass. (Dezeen)

• While The New Yorker talks to KKW’s alter-ego Kim Kierkegaardeshian.

• 2020’s words of the year according to Merriam Webster: Pandemic quarantine, asymptomatic, mamba, kraken, defund, antebellum, icon, schadenfreude and malarkey. And one non-word, if you ask me: irregardless. The AP reports. 

• While Giphy’s most-viewed gifs of the year reflect the global emotions of 2020 (It’s Nice That) 

• In parallel, via CCI: Last month, the magazine Youth Digest published its top-ten list of 2020’s defining terms for China, including “cloud construction supervisors” (云监工) and “those who go against the flow” (逆行者, aka frontline workers), the “next wave” (后浪) of young Chinese popularized by Bilibili’s controversial video and “people with a balance” (尾款人) for those who make impulse purchases on credit (especially during e-commerce livestreams).

• Consumers Are Obsessed With Feel-Good Short-Form Content (Adweek) 

• And also: ‘Everyone is grasping for nostalgia and happiness': Why marketers are ringing in the holiday season with more influencers (Digiday)

• Speaking of influence: Pharrell Williams announced Black Ambition,  to support Black and Latinx entrepreneurs in tech, design, healthcare, and consumer products/services (Variety)

• Opportune, given how many gen Zers loathe amazon-but can't quit it (The Information)

Ads and Media Opps:

• Via The New Statesman: Leading economists on how journalists should report on the economy (IPPR)

• In parallel: A Media Operator and WaPo’s Jarrod Dicker team up to assess critiques of the media industry’s business model.Key Quote: “Let’s say that again… it’s not a question of whether consumers should pay for content. It’s a question of if we’ve done enough to deserve being paid for.” 

• And Dicker tells the Press Gazette they’re making ‘insanely unique’ products for publishers. 

• A driver: advertising is going out of fashion and the gatekeepers are locking themselves out (It’s Nice That) 

• What’s more: venerable agency names are expected to disappear in 2021 as individual brands carry less weight. (Ad Age) 

• Meanwhile, Booming chess sales prove Netflix is a potential advertising powerhouse (Quartz)

• Corollary, via WITI: Queen’s Gambit chess fever alert: “Bobby Fischer Against the World is …. online and it’s worth a watch.” (Documentary Mania)

• From Kevin Johanessen: “I haven't thought about Thrillist in a while, “but this [ghost kitchen collaboration with top NYC restaurants] is such a good idea.”

• Via Lean Luxe: the multi-tentacled Hodinkee announced that it raised $40 million from a group of investors that include TCG, LVMH Luxury Ventures (WSJ)

• Which makes PSFK x Avalara’s Digital Commerce Playbook a pertinent read (Avalara) 

Stacks on Stacks: 

• Blackbird Spyplaneinterviewed Lorde about the EXTREME GORP in Antarctica. (Substack) 

• While Substack hosts a weekly silent writing hour for writers on the platform. (Lu.ma) 

• The Substack effect reaches local news: Patch Labs lets local news reporters publish their own newsletters and sell their own ads (Axios)

• Related: How Ben Thompson built a $3M newsletter biz (Business Insider)

• But - it’s not all sweet in newsletters, per Harry Cheadle’s “What Went Wrong” (Substack)

Streamz:

• Via Lean Luxe: ‘Instagram makes you feel part of the art world’ But it’s a lie, says artist Rachel de Joode. (The Art Newspaper)

• Elsewhere in digital misdirection: YouTubecore dissected by Ars Technica. 

• Meanwhile, TikTok is testing longer, three-minute videos  (The Verge)

• Which might change RCA Records’ TikTok strategy, which starts with hiring 10-30 micro-influencers to develop creative concepts around a song, then invest in whichever concept gains traction. (Business Insider)

• Dua Lipa's very expensive concert is the future of livestreaming (Rolling Stone) 

• S/o How Long Gone haha: Spotify says it's dominating the podcasting market because of a million-plus tiny podcasts (The Verge) 

• While, Parler's got a porn problem: Adult businesses target pro-Trump social network (WaPo) 

Art and Artists: 

• The New Statesman on how the artist Edward McKnight Kauffer followed the advertising money, but managed to turn promotional posters into real art. 

• Photographer Rankin on why boredom is key to creativity (The Drum) 

• Via Public Announcement: Cheryl Dunn on Immortalizing the Life of Dash Snow (Interview)

• This Long Century has a pretty incredible catalog of artist contributions that might just eat your afternoon.

Music World: 

• The FACE’s “GOING IN” documentary on the UK Rap Scene.

• Mexican Summer’s Keith Abrahamsson put together a playlist of transporting tunes for The Slowdown. (Spotify) 

• Via Public Announcement: Goldie joins Benji via video link to discuss 25 years of Timeless (BBC iPlayer) 

• In a year without dance floors, Theo Parrish knows the way forward (WaPo)

• [SIC] homie Walter Schriefels gets interviewed for Ernie Ball strings (Instagram) 

• My song of the week: Annie’s “Streets Where I Belong” (Spotify) 

• While Aespa will be a k-pop supergroup whose members are both real and virtual (Musically) 

Fashions: 

• A new report defines and values the potential of the circular fashion industry in a bid to encourage more investment and build scale in a growing area of sustainability. (Vogue Business)

• Via Maekan: Highsnobiety’s “Colette Mon Amour” is coming to wide release on Dec 20th (WWD) 

• Gaming is the new music, asserts 8Ball’s Sean Monahan in his “Gamerbait” post (Substack)

• Including a citation, via Future Party: Balenciaga is showing off its next clothing collection in a video game. (The Verge) 

• While Louis Vuitton is rolling out 20-foot long “taco trucks” that shoppers in NY, NJ and CT can book to to show up right in their driveway. (Input) 

• adidas is giving away up cycled furniture made from their products in a move echoing Surface To Air’s “Sport of Art” project from 2005.  (Input) 

• SKU'd: From Crocs to Uggs, ugly shoes have won (Retail Dive) 

• Meanwhile the resistance is growing. Via Public Announcement, In Defense of Hard Clothes (GQ)

Wheels: 

• Via Future of Transportation: China now has 300 million electric bicycles on its roads. Which explains this video of a massive Taiwanese assembly line: Giant bikes production line in Taiwan (Youtube) 

• Maserati committed to going all-electric by 2025 (Next Green Car) 

Brands do things: 

• McDonald’s gave out free McRibs to … clean shaven people? (Hypebeast)

• Streetwear dons Brain Dead are collab’ing with Magic the Gathering (Instagram)

• Dom Perignon’s former chef de cave, has relocated to rural Japan to make a sake (Financial Times) 

  ’Tis the Season: 

  • Via Jon Caramanica: Kaitlin Phillips curates gift suggestions from a bunch of interesting downtown media types. (Spike Art Mag) 

  • Related, It’s Nice That’s “Nice list” 

  Other Stuff To Buy: 

  

  • Via fave book store One Grand: AOC’s desert island books are weighty, literally, with an average length of ~480 pages per. (Bookshop) 

  • Via Bradley Carbone: 4WorthDoing’s “Our Lives in T-shirts” is in Miami for Art Week and helping bring food to people in need with designs from over 50 artists. (Instagram)

  • There’s a new issue of the always excellent 032c. 

  • And Monster Children’s back in print with their photo annual (Instagram) 

  • Via Future Party: Pop-Up Magazine — known for activations that use smell and taste — are taking a more holistic approach to hybrid marketing by building a $70 “issue in a box,” which gives readers sensory materials that coincide with stories in the mag.

  • Via Ian Bradley: the Black Utopia is a new mag from Black creatives. (Instagram) 

  • Yinka Ilori's first homeware collection (Dezeen) 

  • The New Normal book from Kaleidoscope looks intriguing (Instagram)  

Finally, Finally: 

• Why do we judge creative decisions as simply good or bad? (It’s Nice That) 

• And, I knew I was right! Via It Is What It Is: the findings of a new quantum mechanics study point to the idea that “there is no such thing as an absolute fact, one that is as true for me as it is for you.” (Science Mag)

=====[SIC] 117: Grandpa’s Youth is Back=====