[SIC] 154: Era Edit

August 19th, 2021

Thanks to Sharese, James, Gerhard, Iolanda, and Murphy for suggestions this week; and everyone else, contributions are welcome - you can just reply to this email if you have something you think I’ll appreciate. And please do feel free to share this email, too. Here’s a button:

No [SIC] Talk this week, but next Thursday I’ll be chatting with Sam Bompas from Bompas & Parr, the London-based “Architects of Taste” whose food-first experiences I’ve followed since way back in 2013.  Sam leads a creative studio of artists, architects, chefs, designers and strategists, so it’ll be fun getting his take / taste on the weekly digest of developments. It’ll be at 4p ET / 9p BST next Thursday @dietznutz (and you can find all my previous conversations there, in the meantime).

Art this week is by Susumu Kamijo, who’s got a show coming up at Harper’s East Hampton, including a bunch of poodle paintings like the one here. While you’re there, stop by next door at fave gallery Halsey McKay, who’s got Ted Gahl and Ryan Travis Christian now, and Hillary Pecis coming up.

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On IP Dreaming:

• First of all, Office Hours proposes a 2021 update of C.R.E.A.M to I.P.R.E.A.M. Which given what follows, seems about right, even if it doesn’t roll off the tongue.

• Via Axios Sports: Alabama freshman DB Ga'Quincy McKinstry, whose nickname is Kool-Aid, signed a deal with the drink company, (ESPN) while Georgia QB J.T. Daniels signed two monster deals — one with a trading card company and one with Zaxby's. Daniels plans to share half his trading card earnings with teammates. (DawnoftheDawg)

• What Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Black Widow’ Legal Battle Means for the Future of Hollywood (Variety) 

• And Riot Games announced a record label in a push to become a character-driven entertainment empire—a new universe. (Inquirer)

• Via Jing Culture & Commerce: Shifting Perspectives: How Museums Are Capitalising On Their Cultural IP To Diversify Their Business And Reach Younger Audiences (CEO Today)

On the Metaverse:

• Via 2pm: A constellation is born: approaching the Web3 platform economy. As many envision a world in which both information and value flow freely, new pathways for sustainable income streams are emerging online (Open Democracy) 

• With the Metaverse on the horizon, its creators reflect on the importance of diversity in the virtual world to come (Digiday) 

• But, from Iolanda Carvalho: Atelier asks"Is identity in the online world so different from the offline one? Below, we discuss some reasons why we think digital selves do and don’t represent something transformative in how we see and understand identity," (Atelier.net)

• Minecraft library provides gamers with "a safe haven for press freedom”. The non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders has built a virtual library to give gamers access to censored books and articles. (Dezeen)

• Meanwhile, via Beats & Bytes: Big Sean is Teaching Kids About Finance—on Minecraft (Fast Company)

On Crypto:

• Not dissimilar, via Morning Brew: A high-level explainer of ethereum. (Twitter)

• Meanwhile, via Marginal Revolution: One-third of investors trade while drunk. (401k Specialist)

• Hence, via Protocol: Walmart is looking for a crypto expert. The hire will help create a "digital currency strategy and product roadmap." (Bloomberg)

• Via Inside Cryptocurrency: Audius Token (AUDIO) skyrocketed 90% following the announcement of a partnership with TikTok. The partnership will allow artists on Audius to share their music through TikTok videos and is a first for TikTok’s Sound Kit SDK.

On Startups:

• Via Declarative Statements, Product-Led Growth: A Guide. Huge buzz-word in VC/startups right now. Easier than done. This is a good starter to learn more.

• Via Lean Luxe: How to turn a career in journalism into a retail business. (Gestalten)

• Related: the rise of Daily Paper, streetwear’s African-inspired label, from a blog to an international force. (BoF) 

On Platforms:

• The Drum sits down with Discord CMO Tesa Argones to talk inclusivity, weird and wacky creative, community-focused marketing and the illusion of competition.

• Related: Discord the movie. (YouTube)

• Via Ben Evans: Useful profile of Figma, now both a hot company ($10bn) and a model for a particular kind of software built around workflows rather than documents or messaging. (Forbes) 

• Also via Ben Evans; Glass is a new flickr-meet-instagram photography app. (Om.co)

• Via Jing Daily: Bilibili Overtakes Alibaba’s Youku. Bilibili has surpassed 65 million daily active users (DAUs), making it the third-most-popular after iQiyi and Tencent Video in China. (Latepost)

• While OnlyFans has launched a streaming platform and app designed to show it has more to offer than personalized porn. (The Drum) 

On Workplaces:

• But umm, guys? The Passion Economy is a trap (Sociology of Business)

• Related: Why are so many knowledge workers quitting?  (New Yorker)

• And, via Choire Sicha: What happens when all your coworkers quit? (The Cut)

• Unhelpfully: the problem with millennial work books? It’s “a publishing trend pretending to provide the answers to structural problems that merely acknowledges a broken system and seeks to address it through superficial, commercially-friendly solutions” (The New Statesman)

• “The White Lotus” is not a good show (sorry, it’s not. Yes, I watched it). But the way it skewers digital journalism is pretty on point, points out Neiman Lab.

• Related: Those mean girls from HBO’s “The White Lotus” explain themselves. (NYT) 

On Listening:

• Jake Burghart (who literally wrote the book on making video at VICE) on John McSwain’s Cutting Class podcast. (Spotify)

• Meanwhile via Music Redef: The history of electronic music is inside a warehouse in Harleysville, Pa (WHYY) 

• S/o to [SIC] Talks album Walter Schreifels, whose legendary Quicksand has a new album on Epitaph out now (Instagram)

• Via Public Announcement: Luxury’s guide to the new rules of audio advertising. Chanel and Estée Lauder are some of the luxury brands turning to audio marketing, which means taking some creative risks. (Vogue Business)

On The Youth:

• From Sharese Bullock-Bailey: “Sharing a news item on impact from your Penn pal” [on Ghetto Film School’s new fellowship program] (Variety)

• Via After School: Glamour UK’s 24 Under 24 is a great who’s who in Gen Z.

• The New York photographer reinventing Larry Clark’s “Kids” for Asian teens.  In a photo project titled Asian Kids, photographer Gabriel Chiu went around New York shooting East Asian teenagers smoking, riding the subway, bunking off and making out. (The FACE) 

• Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit co-founder, explained the evolution of young investors’ attitudes toward trading on the “Community x Capital” podcast. Key Quote: “We went from ‘I have no idea what buying and selling stocks is about’ to ‘Oh yeah, I buy worthless meme crypto on the toilet from my phone.’”

• To wit: A year ago, the 24-year-old made just above minimum wage managing a Cold Stone Creamery. Today, he’s managing a $1-million-plus investment deal to open his very own ice cream shop. (Bullish Roundup)

On Brands:

• Mastercard is saying goodbye to the magnetic stripe (Axios)

• Netflix inserted an IRL “Chess Review” mini-mag in with issues of Vanity Fair this month in select DMAs. The e-reader version is here. “Queens Gambit S2” coming soon, apparently. 

• Speaking of clever partnerships: Revel and OnlyNY partnered up on a merch line and some custom scooters that I have been seeing all over the place in Greenpoint recently. (OnlyNY)

• Via Ruby Dispatch: Deep cut celebrity commercials made for Japanese brands. (YouTube)

• Behind The Cost For Brands To Hire Influencers-The Complex Math Explained (Ad Age)

• Hence, early adopters, you can now Join Complex Collective and get a bunch of exclusive swag and access, in exchange (presumably) for your opinion and data.  (Complex)

On Fashion:

• An unfiltered conversation on fashion’s gatekeeping problem (Highsnobiety)

• Also, Chloe Sevigny and Andrew Richardson in conversation about the 90s (Hypebeast)

• And Highsnob goes inside the worlds new fashion capital, CDMX. 

• Black Ivy: A Style Revolt is a forthcoming book about the iconic riffs on trad American style by Black cultural icons in the late 20th century. (Reel Art Press)

• Related: s/o to [SIC] homie Jian DeLeon on the launch of Found in Translation: A New Language of American Style, a shop concept at Nordstrom celebrating how global heritage and underground subculture have shaped modern menswear. (Instagram)

• Elsewhere in inspired juxtaposition: the Wackiest Collab In Recent Sneaker History sees two designers each take one shoe each, in a stylishly non-matching pair. (GQ) 

• While Jing Daily’s first issue of Collabs and Drops Unpacks the Impact of 3 Viral Collaborations.

• From James Friedman: wanted to share this article I stumbled across. Its a few months old but I found it in a doom scroll binge re: Afghanistan. I was struck by how intensely stylish the mujahideen in the first photo of the article look. Imagining what BBSP would write about them…. Wound up reading this [Combat Threads post] too.”

On Board:

• From Gerhard Stochl: [Jenkem breaks down Nike’s first skateboarding ad campaign]  “Really good although I always had mild issues with the “athletes” tag. Especially back then. … The Tennis one is the best.” (YouTube) 

• From Iolanda Carvalho: “On never ending collabs …. Supreme x Shrek? Supreme x Shrek!  (GQ)

• Via Public Announcement: The Story Behind Palace. How a fun-loving English skate company won over Ralph Lauren, Ronaldo, and Wimbledon. (GQ)

• Via Franchise: Lagos-based skate collective Waf is a fave new fashion brand. 

• First it was Gino, now Andrew Allen. Jump roping has officially taken over skateboarding (Instagram)

• Via Public Announcement: Greatest Of All Time: Guy Mariano's 'Life On Video’ (The Berrics)

• From Iolanda Carvalho:  “The skate gaze and art 😉Artist Maiky Maik on how skateboarding helped them become the painter they are today (It’s Nice That)

• From Murphy: “Two skate-related links for you: Ramping It Up: How the Art World Came to Embrace Skateboard Culture (Elephant) and The Renegade Skate-Ramp Builders of New York”  (Curbed)

On Music Scenes Re-Invigorated:

• How Video Games Are Emerging As Essential Platforms For Music Marketing (Ad Age) 

• Via Music Redef: Can Riot Grrrl TikTok Re-Imagine a Flawed Scene? (Billboard)

• Via Music Redef: How Jazz Was Declared Dead--Then Came Roaring Back to LifeAn extract from the new updated edition of the book "The History of Jazz.”(The Honest Broker)

• The book is back. “JUNGLIST” is the heady tale of a music genre’s mid-90s inception. (The FACE) 

• Via Morning Brew: [SIC] homie Steve Aoki interviewed about the future of NFTs in the music biz  (Emerging Tech Brew)

• Vinyl records are apparently bad for the environment.Now, a label has figured out how to produce 100 per cent recyclable records. (The FACE) 

• Via Rave New World: New York City just proposed licenses for certain neighborhoods to be 24-hour nightlife zones (Daily Mail)

• So nightclub stalwart House of Yes launched a creative agency (Instagram)

On Food:

• Beyond Meat trademarks “Beyond Milk” “Beyond Tuna” and … “Beyond Crab?!” (Fox Business)

• And Pizza Hut’s newest toppings in Taiwan are pig’s blood and century eggs. The company chose them by scraping social media posts and creating word clouds of popular foods.

• Monocle’s pod talks to Aussie chef Josh Niland on rethinking how we eat (each individual) fish. Having see Josh breaking down a fish in person, the implications of this are fascinating. 

• 25% of millennials now shop for most or all of their food online. Pre-pandemic, that number was 14%. (Morning Consult)

On the Internets:

• Garbage Day’s Ryan Broderick on stage at Meme in the Moment (and the whole festival is on that link, too. (YouTube)

• Via 1440: A visual history of Rickrolling (Pudding)

On China:

• Lessons From the Most Valuable Luxury Brands in 2021 (Jing Daily)

• Jing Daily’s new report, Chinese Cultural Consumers: The Future of Luxury, looks at a demographic that luxury brands cannot afford to ignore in the China market — the Chinese Cultural Consumer (CCC). (Jing Daily)

Things to Do This Week: 

• Swing thru Snow Peak New York for a first look at the new collection and get free Shy’s Burgers and Miracle Seltzer to boot. It’s Monday 8/23 6-9p. 

• Go visit the newly-reopened Printed Matter on 11th Ave and get your books/zine/art thing happening in person. (Printed Matter)

• Frieze on art shows to see in NY and LA in August. 

• From Murphy: [[SIC] Talks alum Cheryl Dunn’s] “Dash Snow doc at Quad Cinema! Finally!”

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