[SIC] #120: Just Order All the Memes

December 24, 2020

Hi all,

Here’s hoping this reaches you on a relaxed holiday of some description - we all need one. There’s Pudding article Ray Kang sent me this week that applies AI analysis to our music choices and judges them awful (it’s fun, you should do it too), so I’ve gone light on year-end list links in hopes of avoiding such a fate with my picks. I couldn’t help but include a few standout lists in my section, though. And upon reflection, Tame Impala’s “Lost in Yesterday” and Charli XCX’s “Anthems” were the two songs I identified with the most this year. Check out the lyrics and make what you will of that. Anyway, thanks to Ray for sending, and to Barnett, Rich and Ben for their suggestions.

If you’ve got an hour this afternoon, [SIC] Talks is back with my guest Diallo Riddle, whom I met in the early aughts when he was the young music director at the Standard Downtown in LA, before he became the Emmy-nominated writer, producer, showrunner and performer he is today. Think Fallon’s “Late Night,” “Silicon Valley,” “Marlon” and most recently “Sherman’s Showcase”. Diallo’s a very smart guy and it’ll be an interesting conversation for sure. Come hang @dietznutz on IG Live today at 4p ET/ 1p PT, or find it in my grid thereafter.

I’ll be back next week with a New Year’s Eve dispatch. So til then - happy holidays to you and yours from me and mine. And thanks for being here.

Ben

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Compulsory but interesting end-of-year links: 

• 2020 was bad — but not nearly the worst (Axios) 

• Monster Children’s worst songs of the year

• Related, from Ray Kang: “link to share with you and SIC!” [Our sophisticated A.I. judges your awful taste in music.] (The Pudding) 

• Via 1440: Time magazine's 100 best photos of 2020.

• Esquire’s Best Memes of 2020.  

• Quartersnacks's Top Skate Videos of the year. 

• 2020 Newsletter of the Year, Blackbird Spyplane’s “Gorp Awards” (Substack) 

Speaking of Fashions:  

• From Barnett Zitron: “a tip for newsletter:” The Year of Telfar (NYT) 

• The year TV became our catwalk (Buro) 

• Via CCI: Raf Simon launched one of the first examples of designer DTC with a personally branded online store and multidisciplinary platform, History Of My World.

Elsewhere in Creative Types:

• Virgil Abloh doesn't "believe in disciplines" and instead thinks architecture should be used to explore many things. In this interview, he explains how his architectural training helped create Off White (Dezeen) 

• Glam Cult on creative director Willo Perron(Instagram) 

• Style role models Chris Gibbs of Union and Beth Birkett of Bephie’s Beauty Supply on The Treatment pod (KCRW)

• The Dominican crew soundtracking the Bronx and beyond (The FACE) 

  

"Socialsism" isn’t a word but should be: 

• From Rich Hartell:  8Ball’s Hypehouse House Genericide. “Not something I was familiar with [but worth checking out] (Substack) 

• Corollary: could Marketers Ruin TikTok? (Marker)

• A Year in Music on TikTok from “male manipulator music” to Flo Milli and nightcore remixes (Pitchfork)

• Related: How Dubsmash Can Help Reddit Compete (Adweek)

• Via CCI: China’s Mashup Musical Memes Are Losing Their Punch (Sixth Tone) 

Other Listening Material: 

• S/o Cosmo, Catchdubs, A-Trak and gang: the legendary Hollerboard has a redux and it’s super fun. (Instagram)

• While Holler-adjacent Franchise Mag’s FRANCHISE RADIO hit NTS last week. 

• It starts with Boz Scaggs, nuff said. Aime Leon Dore’s store playlist Vol. 4:  (Spotify) 

• Josey Rebelle’s mix of the year, per Resident Advisor (Instagram) 

• Related: Avalanches “Music Makes Me High” is disco bliss. (Spotify) 

• Via Music Redef, Saxophone Colossus, Sonny Rollins’s Bright Spots from his long career. (Jazz Times) 

• More bright spots: Sisters With Transistors, a documentary from Lisa Rovner and narrated by Laurie Anderson, delves into a fascinating history of Electronic Music’s Female Pioneers (Hyperallergic) 

Surveillance, Capitalism. Capitalism, Surveillance:  

• Speaking of AI judging you, via Nieman Lab: Never mind the Shkreli, The butt pajamas will follow you forever (Gizmodo) 

• No wonder then, via Jing Daily: Chinese netizens are freaked out by facial recognition (Technode) 

• Also via Jing Daily: The Rise of Men in China’s “She-conomy” (China Internet Watch)

• Shopping in augmented reality (NYT) 

• Via Axios: Microsoft, in a fascinating weekend post, provided details of how the hackers hid their break-in, using a software update for SolarWinds' Orion network management platform to gain access to thousands of institutions’ systems.

• Our buddy, Why Is This Interesting’s Colin Nagy provides some color on the coverage of the hack

• And speaking of WITI, they just launched a podcast and the first episode is up. (Capiche)

• Related: Podcasts Are Getting Shorter. (Megaphone) 

• Luxe Brands Expected to Spur an Audio Ad 'Gold Rush' in 2021 at The New York Times (Adweek)

Brands Doing Things: 

• Via Future Party: Ikea’s UK & Ireland division is on the talent hunt for a chief play officer that’s between the ages of 4-12 (Fast Company) 

• While Tom Sachs & Nike are looking for wear-testers for the new Mars Yard shoe. (Instagram) 

• Burger King sends customers $1 via Venmo to push new value menu (MarketingDive) 

• Frito-Lay hired influencers to make a TV commercial remotely because of the pandemic and said it ended up being cheaper, faster, and more effective (Business Insider Premium)

• In China Starbucks partnered with Diesel on a limited-edition collection of denim products with the theme of “dressing differently” (Content Commerce Insider) 

• From Ben Pruess: KFC partnered with Cooler Master, Intel, Asus, and Seagate to create a gaming console for chicken (and 4K video) with higher resolution capability than the PlayStation 5 and Xbox One, and a chicken chamber. (Business Insider) 

Insight & Research: 

• ‘The Six New Rules of Business’ by Judy Samuelson sounds like the business book I want to read next. (Resetwork) 

• Get out your corporate cards: PSFK has a new “debrief” newsletter you can expense a subscription to. 

Platformations: 

• Via Quartz: Pro athletes are looking for work on LinkedIn. Players are turning to the networking site to find other opportunities, such as endorsement deals or investing, to complement their day jobs.

• Prediction: Spotify will make big waves in video (Nieman Lab) 

• While Square might buy Tidal?!! (Bloomberg) 

• Telegram gets Discord-like group voice chats (The Verge)

• How the plus sign (+) won the streaming wars (LA Times) 

• Via CCI: Bilibili’s year-end film “Undo No More” (不再撤回)  anthropomorphizes 2020 into a young, white-haired man who, as he looks back and considers deleting the entire year with the press of “CTRL+Z” on a handheld computer/controller (but then reconsiders). 

Games, Games, Games. 

• Video games offered us a lifeline in 2020 (Axios) 

• Non-Video games too (Axios) 

• So, the NYT hired a Games editorial director

• Related: I’ve linked to it before, but  Nina Chanel Abney’s Uno Set is really, really worth spending $20 on. Truly a fun collaboration. (Mattel)

Art & Architecture: 

• Via Music Redef: Congress's immense, end-of-year relief package is an item that must be regarded as just this side of a miracle: $15 billion to help save the entertainment industry - the largest public rescue of the arts in U.S. history. (WaPo)

• Apropos: What are Artists for? (The New Yorker)

• Futura talks about the art world (Hyperallergic) 

• Also from Hyperallergic: The Subversive power of quilting. 

• Ai Weiwei’s “Cockroach” is a stunning record of the Hong Kong protests (Artnews) 

• Shady. The Sackler family tried to use the museums that received their money as a way to clear their names (Hyperallergic) 

• Speaking of misguided intent: President Trump passed an executive order stating new US government buildings must be "beautiful,” which given his taste level could mean pretty much anything. (Dezeen)

A Little Holiday Good Cheer?: 

• London Is “Rewilding” and Native Species Are Flocking In (Reasons to be Cheerful) 

• Speaking of: the Village Voice is coming back. (NYT) 

• A COVID-Safe Music Festival has Been Successfully Trialled in Barcelona (Hypebeast) 

Finally, the Flotsam & Jetsam:

• This guy’s skate video substitutes snow for wheels (Instagram) 

• Speaking of snow, via Quartz: Nearly a ton of cocaine washed up on the Marshall Islands. The ghost ship carrying it might have been at sea for years. (CNN) 

• Elsewhere in the Pacific (s/o 3-2-1-Contact fans): Kilauea erupted on Sunday

• And via WITI: The Lionfish Have Invaded, But a Ragtag Army of Divers and Chefs Are Fighting Back (Smithsonian) 

=====[SIC] #120: Twenny Twenny One=====