[SIC] 139: Let the Speaker Go Boom

May 6th, 2021

Hi all,

This week’s cross-section of my brain for your inspection. Lots of heady stuff, particularly in the first section, so start there. From there, wall to wall gold. Lemme know what you think of it.

Thanks to Isaac, David and Iolanda for ideas this week. Always welcome and invited - and that goes for everybody reading this. HMU! And of course thanks everybody. for the feedback and kind words via email, Twitter, IG and here in the comments. Elsewhere, nobody deduced the source of last week’s title, but Eric Martucci won the $20 prize with his answer: “Marmalade.”

[SIC] Talks continues this week with Paul Munford, founder, Editor-in-Chief and major domo of the excellent Lean Luxe, which publishes a great newsletter that I borrow frequently from (and you should subscribe to). This one’s been in the works for a minute now - I’m stoked to be meeting Paul for the first time live in this chat. You can tune in 4p ET today on my IG live @dietznutz, or find it in my grid thereafter. Will be fun. Meantime, go forth below.

xo Ben

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Think Piece: 

• Matt Klein’s Zine interview with Chris Dancy is typically thought-provoking, for those in the futures game. Key Quote (from Matt, as it were): “When algorithms know what we want before we do, we crave things that jut don’t make sense.”

• Via Maekan: The art of documentation and expression in photography has been replaced by the "personality market."

• Via Trapital: Jarrod Dicker asks: “Media Ownership Model: Why Subscribe When You Can Invest?”

• Highsnobiety and the Civilization guys are doing a free six-week “course” of newsletter pieces on the intersection of gaming and luxury. 

• Apropos: Nevermind the NFT bollocks: Here’s the HTF (Hard to Find) (NYT) 

• Corollary, via 2PM: How remote work is killing Manhattan's storefronts (NYT) 

Support your local sources: 

• If five of you click on this referral link to Protocol, I get a mug or something. Considering how much info I source from David Pierce and co, I’d encourage you to follow them, even without the drinkware. 

• The Rebooting is an excellent newsletter and you can sponsor it.  (You, being a marketing boss with a budget, since there are a bunch of you here). 

• [SIC] buddy Syd Allen Ash’s got a new podcast, from her Canadian perch and you should check it. (Instagram) 

Marketing: 

• DWR got a VLOG (Dezeen) 

• Via Public Announcement: ‘Reaching hardcore fans’: Brands are testing out OnlyFans as a marketing channel (Modern Retail)

• Travis Scott Doesn't Like 'Branding' or 'Marketing,' but He's So Damn Good at Both (Adweek) 

• Related: Lil Yachty is releasing a nail polish(Hypebeast)

• Can Halal Cosmetics Ride the Clean Beauty Wave? (Business of Fashion)

• Also because it’s 2021, BTS has an hour-long viral video of (not quite) animated butter melting. (Hypebeast). 

Food & Drink:

• Big Lean Luxe energy: Food52 acquired cookware GOAT Dansk. 

• Snaxshot’s epic take on New World Water is worth it for the baby brands alone. (Substack)

• Acronymia: Luxury brands are so obsessed with HWNIs that they miss UHWNIs and HENRYs both. Jing Daily explains. 

  

Art: 

• The secret art of restoration. Part sleuth, part therapist and part miracle worker: Simon Gillespie is a modern master of illumination (FT) 

• Via Colossal: Open-source museum Scan the World hosts an impressive archive of 18,000 scans of iconic and obscure artifacts—the eclectic collection spans artworks like the “Bust of Nefertiti” and Rodin's "The Thinker" in addition to other items like chimpanzee skulls—that are available for download.

• Related, via Jing Daily: How Digital Art Collectors Are Showing Art On Their TVs (Forbes) 

• While a museum grows in Williamsburg.. (NYT)  

Received Wisdom: 

• Via Justin Regan: the Jeff Grosso book is gems. RIP. (Instagram)  

• Via CCI: Why China Is Pioneering the Next Generation of Social Media (Rest of World)

• While back in the US, from David Bloom: "Creators are making bank selling....Google spreadsheets" (Mashable) 

• Via CCI: How Women’s Digital Habits Are Evolving in China in 2021 (Emarketer) 

Textilesia

• 3D textiles could "replace concrete and cement" in construction says textile GOAT Hella Jongerius (Dezeen)

• Corollary: Environmentalism is replacing formalism in architecture (Dezeen) 

• From Isaac Dietz: “Early Kickstarter algorithmic knitting project is winding down; has some cool photos of arbitrary knit patterns / computational textiles”

• Li-Ning is ushering in a new era of sneaker design (Highsnobiety) 

• While LVMH will stay all-new, thanks (WWD) 

• Corollary: Get yr white tees here: Wirecutter debuts two new sections, including one about evergreen / classics. (Adweek)

• Elsewhere in that new-new: Blackbird Spyplane’s Mach 3+ predictions for the year ahead (Substack) 

• Also via Blackbird Spyplane: Tomorrow at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT the NYU Costume Studies program is hosting a free virtual talk going DEEP on the swaggy history of US Postal Service uniforms from 1868 to the present day. (NYU)

• She’s crafty: DIY design gawd Nicole Mccglaughlin snags a gig as Arcteryx ambasssador. (Hypebeast) 

• Via Lean Luxe: There’s been an uptick in squishy furniture and the NYT has noticed. 

• Related: Instagram’s favorite explainer, Hart Copy, takes on Instagram’s favorite chair (Instagram)

  

Headphones On: 

• Via Ruby Hibiscus’s excellent cultural Dispatch this week: a master compilation of Factory Records recordings, New Order, Joy Division, Durutti Column, The Wake … Happy Mondays (Spotify) 

• Via Garbage Day: TayLo live on sidechannel last week.  Here’s a recording [for free] )(Patreon)

• Moneyballer: Michael Lewis on the Masters in Business Pod (Ritholtz) 

• The FACE’s best new African music from April 

• Via Music Redef: if emo can be rehabbed, why not ska? (AV Club) 

• To that end, Fishbone’s first EP is a touchstone (even if looking back on it, funny-for-funny’s sake didn’t work). (Spotify)

• Plus, the “Party at Ground Zero” video is early MTV gold and was directed by Henry Selick, who later made “The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Coraline."  (Youtube) 

Words v. Deeds

• You know it when you see it, for sure. Cheugy is not to be confused with Chuggi. (NYT / Amazon) 

• Hot Goldfish and Chuggis, even? (Retail Dive) 

• While [SIC] Talks alum and NYHC OG Walter Schreifels talks to a magazine. (Instagram)

Talk Value

• Clubhouse App Creates Space for Open Talk in Middle East(The New York Times)

• The Ken Burns “Hemingway” doc is a just podcast with pictures (The Dirt)

• Via Declarative Statements; Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting 2021. Watch the 5 hour meeting (or just read a recap) here.

• Apple's and Epic's full slideshows arguing why they should win at trial (The Verge)

• Via Simon Owens: Why your favorite new NPR show might sound a lot like a podcast (WaPo) Key Quote: odcasts ... generate NPR’s largest chunk of corporate sponsorship money, one of the public radio giant’s most important sources of revenue. The amount that NPR’s podcasts have made through this avenue has tripled in the past five years.

• Doomscrolling moved to desktop, in the pandemic, suggesting that users prefer to engage more with article pages when they have the opportunity to read them on a bigger screen. (Axios)

• Related? TikTok personalities are making a name for themselves by delivering news to Gen Z  (WaPo)  

• And from David Bloom: “Good piece co-written by my long-time friend and Forbes colleague Dawn Chmielewski about the craziness at TikTok over a tumultuous year of political intrusions and cultural explosion.” The Inside Story Of TikTok’s Tumultuous Rise—And How It Defeated Trump  (Forbes) 

• Elsewhere on the creator train: Clubhouse announced its Creator First program finalists and some of the pitches look pretty interesting TBH.

Iolandaverse Redux (all links from super-referrer Iolanda Carvalho): 

• This one is so cool we almost forget that Interbrand is "selling" their services in the end... 😉 Key Quote: “In this series, we shift from conventional sector analysis to arena thinking. We focus on human needs – to Play, Move, Connect, and more – and explore the competitive battles at the edge of culture, business and innovation.”

• A daily data calendar. A year in Lockdown Trends. We all know our lives changed during the pandemic, but what was trending on this date a year ago? 

• Who Owns the Games Industry, and What Lies Ahead? (Atelier)

• Is regenerative agriculture the new fashion fix? This“Regeneration Rising” report is super cool (Wundermanthompson) 

• Elsewhere: The European Super League and the Power of Fans (Interbrand) 

• You know this one, from Activision Blizzard, of course... super cool project. Waiting for Fernando Machado to bring it on with AB.

Finally, for roaming creative types: 

• Via WITI: Efficiency is the enemy. Get you some slack. (Farnam Street) 

• Colossal shares a selection of opportunities for artists, designers, and writers, and May's edition includes listings that range from a multi-disciplinary residency in the Everglades to funds for arts writers. 

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