[SIC] 128: Amoeba Anemoia

February 18th, 2021

Hi all, 

Back in the snow again (so excuse the slight delay in arrival - I was shoveling). It’s been a week of long conversations/listening sessions for me this week, set off by lots of time spent on Clubhouse and watching docs on Youtube. Appropriately, key links in those zones this week (with just a touch of complementary psychology, to boot). 

Elsewhere, there are now more than 1000 people getting my weekly digest of developments, and it means a ton to me that you’d take time to share it.  Thanks to Emily Gray and especially to Colin Nagy for turning people onto the newsletter this past week. Likewise and as always, I’m grateful to friends (and strangers) who’ve contributed ideas - especially this week’s power sextet of Ben, Gerhard, John, Iolanda, Nadege and David. Really appreciate the shouts, crew. And keep ‘em coming, everybody. 

There’s no [SIC] Talks today, but I’ll be back next week with a true creative legend, the photographer and director Cheryl Dunn. I can’t remember when I met Cheryl but I know for sure I was a fan first. She’s been central to creative scenes beginning in SF in the 1990s (alongside artists like Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee among many others), in documenting the wider world of the “Beautiful Losers,” and generally holding down the art and practice of street photography around the world over the last three decades. Beyond that, hjer most recent film “Moments Like This Never Last” sold out at NYC Doc, the first digital film I’ve ever heard of doing so. She’s the best, in other words.

Mark your calendars and come hang with us next Thursday 2/25 at 4p ET.  And visit past [SIC] Talks any time, in my grid @dietznutz. Meanwhile, enjoy this week’s links:

=====[SIC] 128:  Amoeba Anemoia=====

Gestalt to Start: 

• Via NYT: We are all conduits in the “hype machine (Penguin Books) 

• Hence, the very postmodern problem of “hyperreality” in which simulations and symbols that feel real lead to disagreements over what is true. (Stanford.edu) 

• That being the case, Adam Curtis’s 7-hour+ opus ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ and Jeremy Deller’s hourlong ‘Everybody In the Place’ and are du jour binges to make you feel everything simultaneously. (YouTube)

• Not least of which b/c the soundtracks are killer.  Somebody collected all the songs from the Curtis doc here in a playlist and it’s amazing. (Spotify)

In Tunes: 

• How Grown-Up Tumblr Teens Are Bringing Early-‘10s Alternative Back to the Charts (Billboard)’

• Speaking of 90s guys: via Music Redef: Camper Van / Cracker front man David Lowery wrote “Songwriters have been shorted nearly 1/2 billion dollars by streaming services in last decade" in response to news that some money is being released. (Twitter) 

• Related, also via Music Redef:  A radical proposal for a publicly funded music streaming service, worth a read even if you're skeptical (Real Life)

  

In the Media 

• The New Yorker (of all places) asks “What are Magazines Good For?” 

• Your Gen Z Marketing Isn't Working. Here's Why. (Morning Consult)

• In response? WarnerMedia is going after toddlers (Variety)

• From Iolanda Carvalho:  On brands and culture (or... about last night) - Backslash, the cultural intelligence unit of TBWA\Worldwide, has released its 2021 Edges report, outlining meaningful cultural shifts that have the scale and longevity to propel a brand toward a greater share of the future. (WARC)

Meanwhile, In Da Club:

• Via Nieman Lab: Ben Thompson on the Inevitability of Clubhouse (Stratechery)  

• But does Clubhouse Mean Bad Things for Podcasting? A Podcaster says no. (Vulture) 

• Elsewhere: “Taylo” on Clubhouse Breaks Through (NYT) 

• Related apropos of Taylo’s typical beat: Reach for the stars- what Clubhouse can learn from TikTok (FT) 

• Via Music Redef, great headline on this piece from [SIC] buddy and Taylo colleague Jon Caramanica: How Do Pop Stars Come to TikTok? Hat in Hand, Grasping at Buzz (NYT)

• The Drum on the right and wrong ways for marketers to use clubhouse. 

• Via Future Party: Burger King CEO invites everyone to his Clubhouse earnings call (Business Insider) 

• You've been invited to Clubhouse. Your privacy hasn't. (Recode)

In Feeds:

• Via Future Party: For its 25th Anniversary, Pokémon has recruited Post Malone to do a virtual concert. The event is set to kick off on February 27 at 7pm ET (The Verge) 

• Via Jing Daily: OnlyFans To Pinterest: Inside Rebecca Minkoff’s Multi-pronged Strategy To Drive NYFW Buzz (Glossy) 

• Via Maekan: The growth of the creator economy will rely heavily on music as its catalyst (Musicxtechxfuture)

• Oh and LinkedIn’s got a creator program and it seems really chill ;) (Axios)

  

IniTech: 

• Airbnb is building a brand new technical hub in Atlanta, which is home to more Black college graduates (and engineers) than anywhere else in the country, meaning it has a deep talent pool for companies looking to diversify their workforce (Protocol) 

• Forget Uber for X, Airbnb for X or Stripe for X. The hot new thing to be in tech is "Switzerland for X." (Protocol)

• Speaking of Switzerland: Tyler Brule goes to prison: Monocle’s “Arresting Architecture” explores “best practice in the design of prisons.”

In Theaters: 

• Americans are consuming more foreign content than ever (Axios)

• Via Music Redef:  "The art of cinema," writes director (and de facto music supervisor) Martin Scorcese in an essay about Fellini, "is being systematically devalued, sidelined, demeaned, and reduced to its lowest common denominator, 'content.'" (Harpers) 

• Colossal highlights HBO's new documentary Black Art: In the Absence of Light. on the rich legacy of black art, though Hyperallergic says the celebration around it is premature. 

In Fashion: 

• Designer darlings go to mainstream brands (Business of Fashion) 

• From John Rough:  “Little kid me fucking loves this [Topps Project 70]. Share it with the people!” (Topps.com)  

• Speaking of John Rough: How sneakerheads ruined online shopping (Vox)

• Via CCI: Fashion brand Loewe’s series highlighting traditional crafts in China offers a glimpse into the lives of families dedicated to preserving skills and techniques for future generations like Feng Xiang woodblock prints, Yuting cakes from Guangdong in the south, and Daoming woven bamboo.

• Valentine’s Day hangover, courtesy of Jing Daily: The Next Frontier: Selling Luxury Through Virtual Love Partners?

• The Next Social Media Frontier for Fashion (Vogue Business)

• Also, can a digital wardrobe make me more sustainable? (Buro) 

In Potables & Comestibles:

• Via Ryan Mack: The Reinvention of Matty Matheson (Complex) 

• Via Dealbook: Start-ups are hacking whiskey, distilling “aged” spirits in days instead of decades. (NYT)

• While, s/o to Joe Marchese, just in time for Cannes Lions: there’s rose tequila, apparently (Linkedin)

• Via Quartz: Mushrooms are my new bag! (NYT)  

In Combination: 

• Via Noticing: Entrepreneurs around the world are combining recycled & waste plastic with sand to make bricks that are cheaper and more durable than concrete (Kottke) 

• Same Energy, is a simple visual search engine that’s particularly adept at gathering results with similar patterns, compositions, and textures. Still in beta and minimal by design, with a focus on the image rather than keywords. (Colossal) 

In Real Life:

• I blame Chris Black: How did an upscale grocery store in Los Angeles become the unofficial hangout for the young, beautiful and bored? (NYT) 

• NY’ers: 20 local Black-owned businesses and creatives will be taking part in the Black Creatives & Culture Market at City Point on February 20 and 21 (BKMag)

In Action: 

• Via Riley Poor: Nike did skiing? Apparently yes, and its all told here.  (Terrane) 

• Via Future of Rransportation: To spot a MAMIL is to see a 'Middle-Age Man In Lycra' riding an expensive bicycle. As Yeats wrote: 'We can only begin to live when we conceive life as a tragedy.' (Wikipedia)

• Also via  FOT: Cowboy e-bikes can route bicyclists around pollution on their commute (The Verge) 

• From Nadege Winter:  Check out  DINÉ SKATE GARDEN PROJECT, a love offering for the kids living in remote communities on Navajo Nation ❤️ Text GOSKATE to 707070. Supported by @orendatribe who is fantastic (luminous woman, great store and more) (Instagram) 

In Concept: 

• A new project from Google Arts + Culture uses machine learning and Kandinsky’s extensive color theories to interpret what the painter might have heard when painting. (Hyperallergic) 

• Related: It’s Nice That spotlights 10 artists exploring the relationship between sound and vision with an assist from Spotify. 

• Via Quartz: An Oklahoma museum has a room made of chocolate. The walls are coated in 100 pounds of the stuff to recreate artist Ed Ruscha’s 1970 installation “Chocolate Room.” (WSJ)

• Via Jing Culture & Commerce: Meet Ai-Da, The Robot Artist Who Is Making An Exhibition Of Herself (The Times) 

• From David Bloom: Meow Wolf’s “Omega Mart” in Vegas sells wolf treats and has a deep fake Willie Nelson in its promo spot. (Hollywood Reporter) 

  

In Conclusion: 

• Happy birthday Hamburger Eyes! 

• From Ben Pruess: Get a load of these fucking boots! (Design Boom) 

• Bring Back Slogans! (The New Consumer) 

• The world’s most searched consumer brands (Visual Capitalist) 

• An elusive look at wolverines (NYT) 

• From Gerhard Stochl: "Meant to submit this for the newsletter ... Best piece about living in NYC that I’ve read in a while. Mostly because it’s so unpretentious and not about some sort of supposed hipster neighborhood. Have also experienced all these scenarios first-hand (especially with Lukas). And yes, 2 Bros is a decent slice. 🍕🗽” (New Yorker)

=====[SIC] 128:  Amoeba Anemoia=====