[SIC] 156: Thee Days

3 years high and rising.

Hi all,

Forgive the late send today - New York caught a bit of a bad one from Tropical Storm Ida and there was quite a bit of literal mopping up to do today. Still, family and I got lucky- no major damage. I hope that everybody reading is ok as well. Let me know if there’s something I can help with, please.

Anyway. This is the last newsletter of the third year of [SIC] - so look out next week for some new stuff, to start year four. And if you’ve got ideas or contributions for upcoming editions, I’m here for it. Thanks to a whole gang of folks who contributed this week, including last week’s [SIC] Talks guest Sam Bompas, and long lost buddy Matisse, not to mention Ben, Isaac, David, Noah, Iolanda, Capper and Jacob. Love you all for that. And everybody else, I’d be grateful if you’d take a second to share your favorite stuff from [SIC] with a favorite friend or colleague. Here’s a button:

No [SIC] Talk this week or next (I’m off to a wedding), but on Sept 16th I’ll be joined by the artist Ryan McGinness, whose work I’ve admired since his first book Flatness is God, and his solo show at the original ALIFE shop. Ryan’s a cerebral guy and a sharp wit, and I’m stoked to talk to him. Mark your calendar 9/16 at 4p ET; Ryan will be in Amsterdam around his upcoming show, so it’ll be a jet-laggy fun one. In the meantime, some other near-and-far links to favorite [SIC] Talks, to tide you over.  Check out my recent conversations with the indelible Greenpointer Ari Wengroff, Paris-based Joy Howard, Madrid-ian Avery Booker, and South Carolina-based Paul Munford. Plus another 30+ more. Go have a look @dietznutz.

Image this week is from @mrniland, the genius Australian chef. In a world where aquaculture rules, go see that guy, all I’ll say.

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The State of Work 

• From Ben Pruess: Fintech startups are targeting influencers trying to launch their own brands (Modern Retail) 

• Then again, there’s Only Fans and the myth of owning your own hustle. (Vanity Fair)

• So, Why Do We Work Too Much? (The New Yorker) 

• And via Garbage Day: “What If People Don’t Want 'A Career?’” (Galaxy Brain)

• This is why your hourly workers aren't coming back (Fast Company)

• Because? A focus on "higher purpose" is now a vital factor in recruiting and retention. (Axios)

• Related, via Axios: Edelman Trust Barometer special report, "The Belief-Driven Employee"

• Corollary: video game developers are struggling to fix "crunch culture." (Axios)

• But does it follow that we get The Metaverse Workforce? (Wunderman Thompson) 

• Related: Wunderman Thompson parent WPP is creating a digital campus in computer game Minecraft featuring replicas of its offices around the world (Dezeen)

• Meanwhile, from David Bloom: Interesting online tie-up between Roblox and Vans creating not just a storefront but a virtual skatepark. (Forbes)

• Rishad Tobaccowala with a useful post on how to build a deck (and reasons maybe not to). (Substack)

The State of Brands:

• Sales team stand up! Spotify makes songs about CMOs to court new biz.  (AdAge)

• Related, here’s a target list. Guess the US state from its biggest brand logo. (Creative Bloq)  

• Corollary: Are Brands Really Turning Into Blands? We can measure whether today's trademarks and logos all look alike. But criticism of sameness has always dominated the discourse. (Marker)

• Meanwhile, via After School - Kendall Jenner links up with FWRD as creative director

• Of course, literally everyone’s a creative director, including not-real guy Jerry Smith from Rick & Morty(The Drum)

The State of the Art:

• How Long is Now? (Brooklyn Rail)

• Which brings to mind the [SIC] Classic:  032c’s seminal 2018 text the Big Flat Now. Required (re-)reading. 

• And if time is flat, what if your house could make you live forever? from Sam Bompas: Here’s the article (NYT) 

The State of the World:

• Also apropos of my chat with Sam, from Matisse Mittelman: “here is Oz’s HumanLibraryaus.org”

• Via Elevator: The difference between clams, mussels, oysters, and scallops. (Greatist)

• France’s ‘Peevolution’ Is Irrigating Farms With Liquid Gold (Reasons To Be Cheerful)

The State of Trends:

• Unbranded anonymity is the new luxury, again (Vogue).

• Related: “Core” of the week: Uniqlo is SallyRooneycore(Dirt)

• Everyone wants in on men’s beauty (Vogue Business) 

• And forget gender-natural. Chinese Men Want Women’s Clothes (Jing Daily) 

• Olivia Rodrigo’s “Brutal” Music Video Is an Ode to Y2K Beauty (Vogue) 

• Corollary: Spotify listening trends are eerily correlated with the market's highs and lows (Fast Company) 

• How TikTok and Shein are taking over the world. (Jing Daily) 

• Or maybe the world is becoming more French?! (The New Statesman)  

The State of Internet:

• Via After School: Instagram just published the fall edition of its “zine.” (it’s a PDF but a zine in spirit)

• The rise of TextTok (Embedded)

• Via Howard Lindzon: “Here is A16Z’s excellent piece titled ‘Social Strikes Back‘“

• Via Marginal Revolution: [Maximizing your slut impact]. “The rhetoric here is not entirely safe for work, but the piece is about the behavioral economics of the cam sector.  Startlingly good.”

• Holly Herndon on vocal deep fakes and launching her digital twin Holly+ (Dazed)

The State of NFTs: 

• Via Future Party: The Anthony Hopkins vehicle Zero Contact will be the first feature film to premiere and be purchasable as a NFT. (Script Mag)

• Via Deal Book: Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, on the payment giant dabbling in NFTs and other projects in the blockchain industry. Key Quote: “The competitive advantage crypto has that most people haven’t understood yet is that we just have more fun.”

• From Isaac Dietz: “I think this positioning is total shit, and should be to congratulate the owner and launch of F’ing ‘Weird Whales’ concept to obvs crushing success young man.” (Futurism)

• Related: Via Howard Lindzon: how to approach the generative art boom (Bankless)

The State of Sounds:

• Via Music Redef: GQ posits the 11 greatest Lee Scratch Perry (RIP) records.  

• While “Heart of the Congos” (featured on the list) is the definitive album for me (Spotify)

• And Sasha Frere-Jones goes deep into history for a deep history of Lee “Scratch” Perry that’ll bring you up to speed, despite being 20+ years old. (Substack)

• Elsewhere, [SIC] Talks alum Chris Black is selecter for a jangle-centric Drakes Radio #10 (Drakes)

• While [SIC] homie and Franchise mag boss Justin Montag takes the wheel on the Nike Lab Tokyo playlist: (Spotify)

• Jesse Pearson got the legendary Ian MacKaye to talk historically on the Apology Pod (Spotify)

• Unrelated: via Motive Unknown: Amazon is quietly building its live audio business (Axios)

The State of Eating & Drinking: 

• Via Marginal Revolution: Margaritaville Times Square markets in everything (Eater)

• What happens to a national cuisine when the nation technically no longer exists. (Vittles)

• Via 1440: The world's first 3-D printed Wagyu beef.

• From Noah Bernard: “Thought you might find this interesting [Bruce Friedrich on the Meatless Moonshot]” (Rich Roll Pod) 

• Related, via Future Perfect: Startup says mushrooms will take fake meat closer to real thing (Bloomberg)

The State of Media:

• How Politico kicked off the editorial newsletter renaissance (Simon Owens)

• Related, also via Simon Owens: "[Politico] recognized early on something airlines have known for a long time: It’s a lot easier to make a lot of money from a few of your customers than a little from everyone." [Nieman Lab]

• To wit: Politico and the allure of the prosumer (Rebooting)

• A novel approach? Via Nieman: Rather than rely on an algorithm, Flipboard lets readers see what they’ve actually asked for. (FastCo) 

• Via Ben Evans: ads on streaming TV are now 45% of TV ad views in the USA. (Advanced Television)

The State of Film: 

• Via Franchise:  “Black Film Archive” an evolving resource dedicated to making historically and culturally significant films made from 1915 to 1979 about Black people accessible through a streaming guide with cultural context.

• The blind photographer who captured this year’s Paralympians (It’s Nice That)

• Related: The Political Power of Photographic Archives (Frieze)

The State of Waste:

• Fun Facts Learned from a Year of Producing No Garbage. Reflections on a year-long performance piece of throwing nothing away to find out about the state of consumer recycling. (Hyperallergic) 

• Ikea pilots US furniture buyback and resale program as it eyes a nationwide launch. (CNBC) 

The State of the Non-Western World:

• 5 Reasons ‘New Luxury’ Is the ‘New Normal’ in China (Jing Daily)

• Via Jing Daily: China’s Celebrity Culture Is Raucous. The Authorities Want to Change That (NYT) 

• D&G Is Now Irrelevant in China (Jing Daily) 

• Related: How to ‘Future-Proof’ Your Brand in China (Jing Daily)

• Via Declarative Statements: How Bitcoin met the real world in Africa. Deepen your understanding through this real world use case. (Reuters)

• Kenya partnered with TikTok for the wildebeest crossing. Africa is going all out to ramp up international tourism numbers. (Quartz)

• And Soundcloud’s “Scenes” series visits East Africa’s music underground. (YouTube) 

The State of Staying Up: 

• [SIC] Homie Sam Valenti’s Monday Media Diet (WITI)

• Great (long) profile of Kunle Martins and his IRAK crew’s legacy (with a cameo from [SIC] homie Erik Lavoie’s legendary Vice Magazine issue. 

• Also in the shot, from Isaac Dietz: the enigmatic Sucklord, whose new one-off figurines commemorate last week’s best memes, the Milkcrate Challenge, Ivermectin and Donda. (eBay) 

• And elsewhere in IRAK: [SIC] Talks alum Cheryl Dunn’s abandoned building studio (Talkhouse)

The State of My DMs: 

From Iolanda Carvalho: “Just some stuff I got in the mail...

• The language of marketing is so imprecise as to be almost meaningless (Marketing Week) 

• The world’s first 3D-printed parkour playground, a joint project between the private sector, the public sphere, and research ventures was made with recycled concrete! (Yanko Design)

• Gallery Intertwines Real & Virtual Spaces To Exhibit Both NFTs & Traditional Art – (iDea HUNTR)

• Netflix mobile gaming tested in Poland on Android, iOS support due soon (idownload)

• And from Andy Capper: “I see this [all-over print Gorilla Biscuits tee] on you..” (RevHQ)

Oh and Also: 

• Via Money Stuff: The Diapers.com Guy Wants to Build a Utopian Megalopolis

• Salman Rushdie Enters His Substack Period (NYT) 

• Via Garbage Day: There’s apparently a messenger app where you can only say “gm” (Twitter)

The Week’s Things to Do: 

• INTERNS and a bunch of friends are doing a Homecoming at Beverlys on Saturday. There’s no link (very 2021) but it looks cool (google for more.)

• Buy a Chico Stick from Chico Brenes, SF skate style god. (Instagram)

• Then, check out the Entre Tot retrospective survey at Printed Matter of work produced behind the iron curtain, including video and photo graphic performance work, artists’ books, postcards, and typewritten documents, which were often covertly produced. 

• From Jacob Kedzierski: “You might be interested in seeing this film [about Buffalo Hardcore pioneers Beyond] I worked on, it’s having a NYC premiere next month. Check it out.” (Vimeo)

• And get tix now: Via Garbage Day, The Meme in the Moment festival returns on Oct 27th . Highly recommended if you’re in NYC. 

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