[SIC] 155: Not Milk

August 26th, 2021

Hi all,

A scorcher today in NYC. Glad to be inside with the AC. But I’m itching to get out there and circulate. Adding the ‘things to do’ section to [SIC] each week has made me acutely aware of all the interesting things happening in our liminal state of Delta socialization. It’s also reminded me how many things I'm *not* hearing about, especially outside of the New York metro. I’d love to include more of those in future, so if you’ve got events or projects I can point to, HMU.

Speaking of interesting events, [SIC] Talks today will be a good one. My guest is Sam Bompas, co-founder of Bompas & Parr, the “Architects of Taste” who took over the UK’s food experience scene with their jelly constructions in the mid 2010s, and have been on a tear ever since. Sam and I don’t know each other so I’m looking forward to our introduction live in front of an audience. Come heckle. It’s at 4p ET / 9p BST today over @dietznutz, and in my grid thereafter. Shout out Josh Gardiner for connecting me with Sam, too.

And of course thanks to Ricky, Erik and Iolanda for contributions this week; your suggestions make this whole thing better / easier / more relevant. Keep ‘em coming please, everyone.

Photo this week is mine; taken in situ at the Wayne County Fair in Honesdale, PA a couple weeks back. Nothing like a county fair in the summertime. Especially if it’s ten bucks to get in and all the rides are free, like in Wayne County. More of that, please.

Ok. Now, the links:

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Mind Expanders: 

• Via New Statesman: why authenticity is overrated (Times of London)

• Corollary:  BBSP’s interrogation of who gets to wear what is well-considered and of course highly entertaining. (Blackbird Spyplane)

• The inevitable decline of fully open platforms (Seth Godin)

• Via Rachel Tashjian: "Is social media creating new types of people, or simply revealing long-obscured types of people to a segment of the public unaccustomed to seeing them? The latter possibility has embarrassing implications for the media and academia alike." (Harpers)

• Via Trend Report: We’ve had The Great Depression. We’ve The Great Recession. Now we’re in The Great Numbing, a time when everything sucks and everyone is mad.

• Related? In Malibu, a Large Hole Is Being Dug to Contain Your Grief (Hyperallergic) 

More Critical Thinking: 

• Don’t turn novellas into TV.  Literary critic and translator Lily Meyer argues with a previous Dirt issue.

• And Gawker agrees with me on White Lotus. Tho TBH I wouldn’t say “bad”. I’d just say again… not good.

• Via Gossamer: “An Oral History of Adam Sandler, Pickup Basketball Legend” (Mel)

On the Palate: 

• Man City is is trying out edible biscuit-like cups. (Quartz) 

• While Crabs Attack Brooklyn (New Yorker)  

• And via Axios Futures:  Cell-based non-meat chicken brand Upside Foods will be served in San Francisco chef Dominique Crenn's Atelier Crenn restaurant, Upside announced.

• No cheeky Nandos: Morning Brew on the UKs supply chain blues 

• [SIC] Talks alum Andrea Hernandez very helpfully recaps Snaxshot’s greatest hits (so far) to commemorate a year in the ‘sletter biz. 

Creative Types: 

• Peter Saville invented the modern British high street. And now, textiles. (FT)

• Monocle’s got words with Paul Smith (on his new MINI design). 

• [SIC] Homie Brian Deran on making art in the desert (Departures)

• New York nightlife’s next big thing is on Roosevelt Island (Airmail)

Printspiration: 

• Big fan of the late great Glenn O’Brien but hadn’t heard of his book of essays on advertising "Like Art" before last week’s edition of Perfectly Imperfect. I’ve ordered it and you should too.

• SlamXHype founder and [SIC] Homie Adam Bryce’s new project Island Island is more than just a magazine. 

• From Erik Foss: "New book alert (for you to support)” (Kickstarter)

• Via After School: Naomi Osaka guest editsRacquet. 

• While via Backseat Freestyle: MC Serch pens a tribute to KMD in a local Far Rock newspaper. (Rockawave)

Weird Science: 

• Human hair can be a tool for measuring the toxicity of a city, according to London-based architects Deborah Lopez and Hadin Charbel, who have also created a textile made from hair. (Dezeen) 

• How scientists would stop an asteroid before it collided with Earth (NYT)

Porfolio Diversification: 

• Furniture retailer IKEA is branching out to become a renewable energy supplier with its Strömma subscription service, which is set to bring wind and solar power to Swedish households from September. (Dezeen)

• Via Dealbook: Vox Media is acquiring Punch, a drinking culture website, as it weighs a SPAC merger or I.P.O. (WSJ)

• Women have been joining the gig economy in big numbers. There are lots of reasons why, but flexibility tops the list (Axios) 

The Absurdity of the Modern Condition: 

• Why care about Peppa Pig or Pepe the Frog? [SIC] homie Matt Klein recaps the Meme in the Moment festival (Zine) 

• Meanwhile, football teams are leading the way on COVID-19 vaccination rates. (Axios) 

• “The Scunthorpe Problem” (WITI) 

• Maybe they can fix it? “China’s New Breed of Hackers Blends Espionage and Entrepreneurship” (NYT)

• Via Dealbook, The “Great Resignation” isn’t letting up. (CNBC)

• Via Elevator: The Curse of Cool. (Valet Mag)

• But can you skate it? Via Lean Luxe: The tyranny of concrete (FT) 

The Absurdity of Modern Transportation:

• Your Next Lyft Ride Could Be in the Wienermobile (Food & Wine)

• Via Future of Transportation: Bird's new ebike is to VanMoof what Vanilla Ice was to Queen. 

• Related: here’s a DIY ebike conversion (Spectrum.ieee)

• The world’s shipping chaos is pushing mega-retailers to make new investments: their own cargo ships. (Axios) 

• Via Morning Brew: Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping company, is placing a $1.4 billion order for eight new ships that run on carbon-neutral fuel.

Mad At Marketing: 

• The AI adman. Marketing and advertising companies are increasingly using AI models to track trends and generate slogans.(Axios)

• Bilibili is the new beauty battleground for Chinese Gen Z (Jing Daily) 

• Roger Federer's Biggest Legacy? It Might Be His Billion-Dollar Brand  (NYT)

• 'Chief' Titles Proliferate, Elbowing CMOs in C-Suite (Ad Age)

• Taco Bell Has a New 'Culture Agency' - but What Does It Do? (Ad Age)

• Via Afterschool: Nordstrom debuts young adult ambassador for kids 14 to 22, to get “mentorship experiences in retail, fashion, digital styling, [and] content creation,” while Nordstrom will get a whole lotta free content from emerging influencers. Sounds like a win. (Marketing Dive)

• Speaking of influencers: Salehe Bembury *almost* made me like what Crocs is doing. Almost. (Hypebeast)

• The Chinese Brand About to Beat Adidas (Jiang Daily)

• Related: 💵 The advertising invasion (of sports jerseys) (Axios) 

• Horror movie Candyman is using voice-activated AR to engage audiences (The Drum) 

• How Twitch is trying to stay brand-friendly (Digiday) 

• While TikTok now has its own SiriusXM radio station. (Input) 

• Not mad at this, via 1440: Airbnb to offer free temporary housing for 20,000 Afghan refugees (Techcrunch)

• Nor this, via Marginal Revolution: “one of the best and most important essays of the year.” How Nike ads have evolved the ongoing feminization of American society. (House of Strauss)

• Via After School: Ralph Lauren enters the metaverse (WWD) 

Metaversing Madly: 

• Via Howard Lindzon : Matthew Balls recent essay titled ‘Compute & The Metaverse‘. A must read.

• While from Iolanda Carvalho: Cool as always... [Matthew Ball on Netflix and Video Games] 

• Via Future Party: Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, is allowing game developers to self-publish their creations in the Epic Games Store.

Tiffany Trumps All: 

• Via Vogue Business: Tiffany & Co's recent campaign targets younger, diverse audience (The Guardian)

• Jay-Z and Beyonce’s Basquiat controversy illustrates the complexity of Black wealth

• Elsewhere, Tiffany creative chief (and [SIC] Talks alum and my Culture Club Show partner) Ruba Abu-Nimah reminds us of the “greatest ad ever”(Instagram)

Fashioning and Luxuriating: 

• “Luxury’s Gray Market Is Emerging From the Shadows” (NYT)

• Streetwear’s Secret History according to Slam Jam’s Luca Benini (032c) 

The Inevitable TikTok Section:  

• Yeesh. Hatescape: An In-Depth Analysis of Extremism and Hate Speech on TikTok (Institute for Strategic Dialogue)

• On a lighter note, via After School: Inside the rise of the TikTok foragers. (i-D)

• Via Marcus Bosch: 🎶 The new type of music blogger. Meet TikTok's Spotify influencers (Mashable) 

• Via Dealbook: TikTok is adding in-app shopping for the first time in a pilot partnership with the e-commerce platform Shopify. (NYT)

• And via Marcus Bosch: TikTok launched an attack on YouTube’s longer-form video territory with new 5 minute video upload limit (and is testing a 10-minute limit too) (Twitter)

And The Obligatory NFT Section:

• Garbage Day gets into the NFT game. 

• And Dirt goes in for round 2: Buy the Holo NFT

• Related, from Ricky Engelberg: "Very interesting read!” [The Hundreds gives the kids an avenue to earn back]

• While Bobby Hundreds expounds on the same. (Twitter) 

• Budweiser purchased beer.eth and an NFT from the Tom Sachs Rocket Factory NFT collection.(Coindesk)

• Visa bought a Cryptopunk (on the cheap). (Hypebeast)

Advice Column: 

• Three words you shouldn't say in job interviews (Axios) 

• Obvi. Viewers Still Want LeVar Burton to Win 'Jeopardy!' Host Gig  (Morning Consult)

• Listening: 

• Central Division’s got a passel of SIC Friends on their anniversary pod, namely Chris Black and Matt Hranek. 

• The FACE’s guide to contemporary African Musical genres

• Via Future Party: A startup called Boomy wants to take the production out of music production by using AI. Musicians simply click “Create Song,” select their beat presets, toggle the mix and composition, and add lyrics (presumably). Completed songs can then be directly uploaded to over 40 streaming services.

Because Listening Party #3: 

• Via Music Redef: Ima fix “Donda” (The Ringer) 

• Via Garbage Day: Ye is now offering a Donda “Stem Player” for $200 which will let you completely remix the songs from the album.

Things You Can Buy: 

• Via Lean Luxe: 1stDibs has a good roundup of several up-and-coming young antiques dealers

• Also via Lean Luxe: ‘Forget clothes and watches.’ Beds are now the true epitome of luxury (Highsnobiety)

Things to Do this Week: 

• Via Gossamer, Singer, producer, and DJ Yaeji will be performing at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Bandshell (free with RSVP) tomorrow, August 27.

• There’s a New Issue of Love Injection and you should get it. (Instagram)

• Underwear brand Parade is turning Dimes Square into a garden this weekend, so there’s that. (Morning Brew)

• Or, get into actual nature while checking out Upstate Art Weekend in the Hudson Valley. 

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