[SIC] 150: Post-Frisson Demimonde

July 22, 2021

Hi all,

Welcome of this week’s cross section of my brain. I was struck by something Harper Reed said this week in WITI’s Monday Media Diet. Specifically, it’s that his newsletter selections are “all very good at giving [him] information that isn't contextual to [his] current world.” Which gives me something to aim for, with [SIC]. Let me know how I can do more of that for you.

[SIC] Talks is going off this week with Brynn Wallner of Dimepiece, who I’m really stoked to meet; she’s taken off in such an interesting way this spring/summer by pioneering a youthful, women-first take on the world of watches, orchestrated across platforms. Judging by her podcast appearances on things like How Long Gone this should be a really fun one, too. Check it at 4P ET on my IG Live @dietznutz, and thereafter in my grid.

Other contributors to my brain this week: thanks Jeff, James, David, Heidi, Isaac, Rob, Murphy and Iolanda for links - I love them. And special shout to Katelynn Donnelly for her shout out to [SIC] in her Declarative Statements post on Sunday; welcome to everyone who subscribed as a result. Glad to have you here.

Last thing before we get into it: art this week is sniped from the Drake’s guide to mixing up their version of a michelada, which I agree is a superior summer refreshment. My improvements on their recipe:  Tecate (workingman’s choice) over Pacifico, and Pick-a-Pepper (classic, not mango) subbed for Worchestershire. Hot sauce, go for something that’s not too vinegar-y. Frank’s Red Hot works, but Valentina is the pick if you can get it. 

Cheers.

Ben

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The Big Picture

• Via Marginal Revolution: All Possible Views About Humanity's Future Are Wild (Cold Takes)

• Related: solution to climate change? Everyone move in together!  "Planet-wide regeneration could result in a safer climate after a few hundred years (if we all live in a single mega city bubble type situation) (Dezeen) 

• Cash is canceled (Axios) 

• Corollary: this is legit fascinating, capitalism in the 21st Century type stuff. From David Bloom: “The China crackdown is making Bitcoin mining more profitable than ever.” (Fortune) 

• From Isaac Dietz: “Not exactly news but a good read for those that didn’t understand this innately: Modern Art was a CIA Weapon.” (The Independent)

Conversations

• Since we’re talking watches with Brynn, via Lean Luxe: Hodinkee chats with John Malkovich about his extravagantly expensive Richard Mille habit.

• Not a conversation, and I have mixed feelings generally about Todd Snyder but this TS x Timex watch is cool and on sale at Nordstrom Rack. Great gift. 

• Elsewhere in conversations: [SIC] Homie and Internet donkey Crombie interviews Agua Donkeys director M.P. Cunningham for Monster Children.

• While from Heidi Hartwig: Dave is the best! Check it out! [An interview with [SIC Homie Dave Ortiz] of Our New York and Dave’s Quality Meats fame] (Friends From New York)

Fashions

• Via Maekan: A look back on Superfuture, one of the early pioneers of the street fashion forum. (Highsnobiety) 

• NIL boys: Michigan Wolverines football players to create custom jerseys to sell with the player's name and number on the back. (ESPN) 

• Also all-American, via Public Announcement: Introducing The New American Sportswear. 10 American brands, from Telfar to Fear of God to Aimé Leon Dore, are setting the agenda for American style around the globe. (GQ) 

• But, but, via Jing Daily: Chinese Sneaker Brands Increasingly Leaving Western Competitors Red Faced with wild designs (DMARGE)  

• Corollary: Amy Gunther-Ellington, get that bag! Li-Ning Moves Into Skateboarding With Erik Ellington (WWD) 

• Elsewhere in skateboarding, via Kaspar van Lierop: Jessup is making skateboard griptape out of ground up Nikes (EIN Presswire)

• Speaking of recycling: How Vintage Foootball Shirts became Big Business thanks to folks like Drake. (The FACE) 

• Related: The Entourage effect: Hidden RSRCH traces the provenance of fake streetwear beef like no one else.  Comme des fuck down, you might say.  

• From Murphy: “I came across an article on how the internet has killed the style tribes in the past 25 years … an interesting argument.” (Ape To Gentleman) 

• Jon Oliver’s takeover of mid-price America continues with Macy’s new “And Now This” fashion line. JK but really, no naming exercise?  (Retail Dive)

• Corollary: (Re)Introducing the “Brand Universe.” From Virgil to the Fashion World and Beyond.  (Highsnobiety) 

• Long Beach, break out yr grails. ComplexCon is back IRL.  (Complex) 

• Which means you’ll want to be wearing something (via Blackbird Spyplane) from L.A.-based hand-drawn-tee depot Dylan’s T-Shirt Club, which is owned and operated by a 7-year-old kid (Instagram)

Arts & Designs

• Apropos of this Kanye record everyone seems to be excited about, Apartamento visited cover artist Louise Bourgeois’s Chelsea townhouse in Issue 27.   

• Elsewhere in origins: The Uffizi is suing Pornhub for going too hard on the canon. (Hyperallergic) 

• Corollary, via RoStarr: GOAT curator Aaron Rose’s IG post of is canon-level material. “Here’s some art-nerd stuff for ya. A hand-drawn diagram I did years ago for Tokion magazine outlining a few decades of social/creative networks that have led to what we now call “street culture”. (Instagram)

• Via Office Hours: The Black Experience in Graphic Design (Print Mag)

• Unrelated but pertinent: designer Hats Richardson interviewed in It’s Nice That (Instagram) 

• Franchise highlighted a new collaboration between contemporary artist Marcus Leslie Singleton and Variable Editions that resulted in a variety of very fun limited edition James Harden-focused pieces.

• Speaking of editions, boot-shaped vases seem to be the wave right now, with Idea Generale doing Margiela Tabi boots for plants (Highsnobiety) 

• And artist Matt McCormick doing Cowboy Boots. (Instagram) 

• More boot-y: high heeled candle holders by Laura Walker (Highsnobiety)

Ear Worms:

• After posting the vinyl reissue of I Get Wet last week, it was pointed out to me that maybe Andrew WK doesn’t exist? (Tone Deaf) 

• Also weird, via Music Ally: Weird Spotify Playlists hunts down some of the quirkier collections on the streaming service. (Twitter)

• Can Tyler, the Creator can ever transcend his musical past? (The New Statesman)

• And Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis’s new record store - with stuff from his personal collection - is Atlantis (Monocle) 

• On the subject of goats, via Music Redef: Big Zen Energy GOAT,  Rick Rubin talks to Marc Maron on the WTF Pod

• While SIC] Homie Jamal Henderson breaks LeBron’s entertainment aspirations on the Trapital Podcast (Spotify)

• Ghostly founder and [SIC] homie Sam Valenti talks to Gagosian about ripping Frankie Knuckles vinyl. 

• Speaking of OG heads: Tim Sweeney’s Beats in Space’s got a new playlist which you should definitely listen to (Instagram) 

• The free-for-all is free for all. Clubhouse is out of Beta. (TechCrunch)

• While the next big social network trend? Shortform audio (The Verge) 

• The kids are also really into Peppa Pig, innit? (NYPost) 

• And via WITI: the rise of Spotify streaming farms (RJA)

• But wherefore my Franz Ferdinand remixes? Via Music Redef: If your entire collection is on a streaming service, good luck accessing it in 10 or 20 years.  (The Atlantic) 

Market ‘ting:

• Why marketers love mashups, from mac 'n' cheese ice cream to baked bean smoothies.  (Fast Company)

• Related, what your dog knows about marketing. IE: you’ll eat anything. (Medium) 

• Also scary, via Marcus Bosch: I’m scared of the person the TikTok algorithm thinks I am. (The Atlantic) 

• Meanwhile: the child tax credit is blowing up on TikTok. (Vox)  

• Via The Information: TikTok is opening a pop-up “For You House” in London running from July 22 to August 8, which intends to mimic the experience of visiting TikTok’s For You Page of recommended videos. (Westfield)

Media

• No parents allowed!! Rolling Stone’s gonna go get weird now. (NYT)

• Speaking of weird; via Future Party: find the love of your life through your love of memes? That’s the pitch behind a new app called Schmooze.

• For John Cheever fans: Swimply is Airbnb for pools.  (Daily Upside) 

• And via Front Office Sports, Peloton is rolling out an in-app video game. (The Verge)

Mind-Alteration

• Shout out James Fucking Friedman. Via Elevator: The rise of casual DMT, aka “The Businessman’s Trip” (VICE)

• Related, from Jeff Carvalho: “This [Stoner Cats] is genius.”

• Separately, (s/o Guillermo Andrade): How “Behold a Pale Horse Influenced A Generation of Hip Hop Albums” (Vulture)  

Foodstuffs

• Chew on this, meat eaters. Vegans > Inflation (Axios)

• Hence, Vegan Bacon is booming. (Bloomberg) 

• The Early Majority get a lesson in pickling vegetables.  

• My go-to, personally, is Mark Bittman’s half sours. (NYT)

Influencers

• What to Do When Haters Come Gunning for Your Brand (Bloomberg)

• Nothing, maybe? Because It’s game over for traditional IG influencers (Medium) 

• Au contraire: Tumblr debuts Post+, a subscription service for Gen Z creators (TechCrunch)

• Elsewhere, the celebrity hype machine collides with crypto hysteria. What could possibly go wrong? (Fast Company) 

Related, Shopping:

• Buzzfeed’s growing an early (for America) foray into livestream shopping (Digiday) 

• Once again this week, from Rob Hubbert this time: The profound takeaway… Nike still cool. What’s actually cool to buy according to teens. (Strategist) 

• My take? Via Jason Nocito: grab Jason Fulford’s ‘photo no-no’s’ book (Instagram)

• And skateboard legends Jason Lee and Greg Hunt’s new book, too (Instagram) 

• The MAEKAN Shop launches later this week with a collaboration involving DSPTCH, candles with WOODCO, a few T-shirts, and a disposable camera featuring unique exposed film from Psychedelic Blues.

• Speaking of Maekan: Eugene had a chat with The Woke Shop’s Darrell Camara and Josh Parker.

Iolanda’s Picks (all selections from [SIC].pt correspondent Iolanda Carvalho

“Another week, another spin on the merry-go-round, as we say here in Portugal... 😉

• NFTing goes on and on and on:  collections of the upcoming and existing artwork are released as blocks in the metaverse. (Design Taxi)

• The future of driving has no sound and no smell, I guess this is how Ford is trying to keep the senses part of the driving experience in the EV era...? 😉 (Slash Gear)

• Very cool piece on brands and gaming from Faris Yakob on WARC (I´m a fan of Faris and I usually like everything he writes or says, I think this is a good one, regardless of my fandom, but will let you be the judge of that...). [Key Quote]: “No good idea in advertising is ever wasted, they get endlessly recycled instead. Sometimes they inspire enough new ideas to create a recognizable new medium."

• And this one JUST because it’s skateboarding... FKA twigs Directed Facebook's Olympics Ad About Skateboarding (Musebyclio)”

Finally: Things to Do This Week:

• Diamond Hands: The Robinhood IPO Roadshow is this Saturday, July 24 from 12-1 PM PT / 3-4 PM ET.

• Listen to this: [SIC] Talks alum Walter Schriefels’s legendary Quicksand has a new single (Instagram)  

• It’s a Hole Jungle: Pick up a plant in an artist-made pot at fave gallery The Hole this weekend.  (The Hole) 

• Get tix: [SIC] Homie Piotr Orlov’s Dada Strain programs a live show August 6th at Littlefield in Gowanus that looks rad. (Instagram) 

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