[SIC] 145: Careless Whisper

June 17th, 2021

So, sounds like we’re officially post pando. And we’re getting a new federal holiday to celebrate. Happy Juneteenth, everybody. Long time coming.

IDK about you but the week’s news has made me feel like dancing. Time then, via WITI, to break out the “dancing socks.” Slowly, slowly to begin with, like maybe to this week’s namesake song, flipped by the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio. After that, maybe find something to make you shuffle a little faster. If we’re sticking to organ Trios, maybe get reacquainted with Young Holt Unlimited . 

Then maybe pre-gaming’s over. And we’re headed to the club. Or at least to Jey Perie’s outstanding La Noxe, the subway stop speakeasy with the thousand spot waiting list. Which, when I visited, brought to mind Deee Lite’s World Clique, that indefatigable deep-pop-dance-club classic. Put it on in ANY situation and watch moods elevate. And dancing socks get moving. Related: Dmitri from Paris in Nouveau York talks early days in NYC, with companion mix (TSOP = the Sound of Paris) and compilation A’ la French. Keep them in your bookmarks and star on this weekend’s open Sonos systems. [BTW: Dmitri from Paris was NOT in Deee-Lite. That was Supa DJ Dmitri. Thanks to James Friedman for correcting me. ]

Waitaminute, are we already into the newsletter? I guess. Thanks then before we go further to all of you reading, and especially to all the friends who send ideas week after week. Love you. Send more, everyone. And if you feel like sharing [SIC] with friends and colleagues, I’d be grateful. Here’s a button:

xo Ben

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Zeitgeist: 

• It’s official: We OD’d on the Internet. Zooming is to real conversation as smoking is to breathing (Medium) 

• How to run a feminist company (Quartz)

• The dark side of the NFT meme boom is… Anthony Weiner (The New Statesman)

• The bleakness of Emily Ratajkowski’s Instagram (Romper) 

• Via After School: Zillennials — born between 1993 and 1998 — are obsessed with decade daydreaming, but what does their nostalgia mean? An expert explains. (Purewow)

• Via Nieman Lab: There’s no escaping the attention economy (The Atlantic) 

• Via Jing Daily: The Biggest Business Risks in 2021 (Visual Capitalist) 

• Related: The “Great resignation" is coming. (Axios) 

• Oh and via Future of Transportation: software is eating the car (IEEE Spectrum) 

• Speaking of eating: Snaxshot’s got a whole thing on “Curation as Edging.” 

Next Up: 

• Letter from Gen Z: here’s how we really use social commerce (The Drum) 

• Gen Z’s Shift To Digital & Sustainable Luxury Is No Joke (Jing Daily) 

• Via Jing Daily: The Buzzwords Reflecting the Frustration of China's Young Generation (BBC)

• Related: Understanding China's Young Consumers (HBR) 

• Via It’s Nice That: This year’s Dazed 100 (Dazed) 

• Why Australia is luxury’s new retail hotspot (Vogue Business)

• Relate via Jing Daily: In “New Era,” Hyperlocal Retail to Be Future, Finds Bain Study (China Daily) 

• Corollary via Axios: the 50 champion cities that will advance to the final round of the 2021 Global Mayors Challenge (Bloomberg Cities)

The Arts: 

• Favorite discovery from last week’s St. Mark’s Zine Fair? The deeply impressive, D.I.Y.  Secret Riso Club (Instagram) 

• Jing Daily interviews Eric HAZE. 

• “She’s kind of like our David Hockney” Fave painter Hilary Pecis is blowing up RN. (Instagram) 

• Related: Sixteen artists you need to know, according to big names in the art world. (NYT) 

• Because, because: A new era of art collecting is upon us. (Jing Culture & Commerce) 

• Courtesy of Drieke Leenknegt: Women in Paris looks rad, if you’re in the City of Lights (Instagram)

• And Patta’s ‘Not in Paris’ contribution celebrates the legacy of Black Panthers artist Emory Douglas (Highsnob) 

• BMW’s done art cars for years. Now Volvo-owned Polestar says buy your car with art. (Jalopnik) 

Brands Doing Things: 

• BTW, Polestar’s ‘moonshot goal’?: a carbon neutral car (Dezeen)

• Related: Shopify’s spending $5M a year to Shopify to spend $5 million per year "to kickstart demand in carbon removal (Dezeen) 

• While via Future of Transportation:  Michelin's inflatable sails hybridize freight ships to cut emissions (New Atlas)

• Executives from Airbnb, Expedia, and Binance launched a DeFi home-sharing platform.  (Cryptoslate)

• While Google, LVMH unveil 'AI partnership' for luxury online shopping (New York Post)

• Corollary: RAFTM Rachel Tashjian bids Welcome to the Age of the Power Collab (GQ)

• Wheaties turned 100. (Axios) 

• While via Ben Evans: Apple produced a 25 minute video explaining the technical basis of its approach to privacy. 

• Jess King FTW. "The Netflix of Wellness": Inside the Hollywoodization of Peloton.  The Hollywood Reporter

A Time and Place: 

• Via After School: Zillennials — born between 1993 and 1998 — are obsessed with decade daydreaming, but what does their nostalgia mean? An expert explains. (Purewow)

• Via Ruby Dispatch: When Sofia Coppola was the queen of 90's music videos. (i-D) 

• Via Music Redef: In the ’80s, Post-Punk Filled New York Clubs. Their Videos Captured It (NYT) 

• Remembering Punk, the Magazine, Music, Moment in Time (Please Kill Me)

• Booming Brixton: reggae music, Michelin stars and million-pound homes (FT) 

• Basement Jaxx rejoinder: “I live in Camberwell. She lives in Brixton.” The Camberwell EP (Spotify) 

• Related: The Secret History of Basement Jaxx (Musicism) 

• More canonically: The definitive history of house music (Beat Portal)

• And Detroit’s Electronic Music Scene, Seen Through Its Black Creators (Hyperallergic) 

Musicalia: 

• Support your local! Via NYT: Less than 1 percent of the independent venues, like clubs and theaters, that applied for a special federal pandemic aid program have received it. (Gothamist)

• Or, via Marginal Revolution: Buy shares in your favorite musicians? (Ted Gioia) 

• Music Discovery Is Entering New Age, With Streaming at the Helm (Billboard)

• “Debt” forgiveness for artists from Sony (Deadline) 

• Via Music Redef:  Let’s welcome Sony’s forward-thinking move on unrecouped artists. But let’s keep going. (Music Business Worldwide)

• Related, via Beats & Bytes: Are Hip-Hop Catalogs The Next ‘Evergreens?’  (Synch Tank)

• When Max Pask and Justin Strauss went to DeeWee (Instagram) 

TikTokkery: 

• TikTok's Latest Trend Is Making Commercials (Slate)

• Logical then that Gen Z-focused agency HawkeZ has signed Crocs as its first major client, as it heads for ‘world domination.’ (The Drum) 

• Adult Swim Didn't Start Its TikTok Trend, but the Network Is Running With It (Adweek)

• Elsewhere, via Garbage Day. TikTokers Are Embracing The “Coconut Girl” Aesthetic As Summer 2021’s Defining Style. (Intheknow)

• Potentially related? I have literally no idea what any of this High Tea edition is about, which probably makes it quite important in some way that will be obvious in a few years. (Substack) 

• Via After School: Meet Miss Teen Crypto!

Fashionists: 

• The Hamburger Eyes beachwear stuff succeeds in being both tripped-out and totally straightforward. And even if you’re not a summer person, the towel will massage your brain year-round. 

• Inside MSCHF's Bold, Brilliant, Slightly Unhinged Plan to Shake Up Streetwear (Esquire)

• Via 2Pm: The Paris Review of all places, on the love of sneakers. 

• Insert ‘fast fashion’ joke:  Ferrari is betting on a full-on runway collection with a  glossy lifestyle concept store designed by Sybarite (BoF / Dezeen)

• New brand alert: Phoenix Rising (Instagram) 

• When fashion enters football, expect an industry earthquake: Highsnob’s report (Google Drive)

• Related: All the Euro 2020 Kits (Dezeen)

• Via Lean Luxe: 'I like this idea more and more––buy less, but buy something with a story to tell, that will be passed on to future generations.'" (Airmail)

• Corollary: via Beats & Bytes: Galaxy, the first fashion resale marketplace powered by live video, is launching this month. (WWD)

It’s Called Science. Heard of it?

• Via 1440: Not surprising: laughing gas—a mix of oxygen and nitrous oxide—shows positive effects in patients with treatment-resistant depression.(WUSTL)

• Via Marginal Revolution: Are advertisers coming for your (actual) dreams? (Science)

• Related via Maekan: Why some people have an overactive "mind's eye" and some have none at all (NYT)

Media-errs...

• Brian Morrissey’s The Rebooting really is a fantastic source of info and inspiration (for me at least). Great breakdown of the post-pandemic opportunities in media / publishing this week. 

• Including a tip about a new newsletter platform called Beehiiv that promises more flexibility than Substack, Ghost et al.  (Twitter) 

• “The summer the youth own New York” is not a particularly good story but IS a good demonstration of digital media’s storytelling superiority (but you have to subscribe to the Sunday Times to get that….) 

• Quartz obsesses over the Swiss Army knife. 

• Corollary via Nieman: Can Quartz become a scrappy media startup again? (Simon Owens) 

• Via Simon Owens: The Globe & Mail developed a content recommendation engine it calls Sophi, guided by machine learning, and it’s generating measurable results in terms of subscriber conversion. (Digiday)

• Speaking of technology, via Marginal Revolution: a16z’s “Futures” site is full of…

Famous People Doing Things: 

• Retail investors uber alles (and apparently Elon’s not the only star single-handledly moving the market). Cristiano Ronaldo's removal of two Coca-Cola bottles at a Euro 2020 news conference coincided with a $4 billion drop in the market value.(ESPN) 

• James Harden Joins Board of Saks Online Business (Business of Fashion) 

• Kevin Garnett has launched Gaming Society, a gamification and content platform that aims to amplify fan engagement while educating bettors. (Forbes) 

• Pharrell and Chanel Launch Mentorship Program for Black and Latinx Entrepreneurs (Hypebeast)

• And a Private School for Low-Income Students in Virginia  (Hypebeast) 

• Not to be outdone: Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine To Open High School in Los Angeles  (Hypebeast)

• While via Lean Luxe: Ralph Lauren launched a hot dog stand (Vogue)

Finally: 

• Father’s Day alert: I’m pretty sure your dad (me) needs this Tenacious Triple Pick / Probe Set With Case. Country Comm helpfully notes while they “look a lot like dental tools, they are not FDA approved for medical use. However, they are approved and recommended for use with your weapon system, knives, electronics and just about any general mechanical maintenance.” Got it? ! Got it! 

• And speaking of good gifts, [SIC] homies and Cookie Hoops podstars Ben Detrick and Andrew Kuo got a boodk coming you should preorder if you like basketball or art or both. (Instagram) 

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