[SIC] 165: Super Sheeky Meeky

Vol 4, Number 10

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Hi all,

Maybe you’ve heard a little / a lot / more than enough about this week’s NFT NYC confab; for those in the Web3 world it’s Super Bowl level stuff. I’ve been out every night this week at parties, at the event itself, and just generally in the City taking it in, and I have to say as dumb as some of the NFT craze is, the passion and sense of possibility around this is WILD (and good use cases are starting to pile up). Really worth paying attention to. Lots of links in support below, to that end.

No [SIC] Talks this week, but as always the full coterie is available in my grid @dietznutz, and I’ll be back next week with a special guest. Speaking of, if you’ve got any suggestions for people I should have on, I’d love to hear them. Feel free to nominate yourself, if you’re up for it.

Speaking of suggestions, I’d be remiss not to send shouts to Celeste, James, Diana and Isaac for their contributions this week. You all rule. And everybody else: don’t hesitate. The readership of [SIC] is mindblowingly well-connected to the zeitgeist, so I want to hear from you, always. WAGMI, as they say in the Discord.

Ben

=====SIC 165:  Super Sheeky Meeky======

Pleasures x Bitski for NFT NYC.

Trends Trending

• Everything is semi-permanent these days. (Zine)

• Hence, via Forefront: DAOs: Absorbing the Internet. DAOs are eating the world, but not everyone knows it yet. (The Generalist)

• “The biggest opportunity for physical goods is virtual goods." (Wunderman Thompson)

• Corollary, why brands are so interested in "dropping" new products.(Thingtesting)

• Speaking of dropping, via After School: NOBODY WANTS TO GO TO COLLEGE ANYMORE. Skyrocketing debt and post-pandemic revaluation of one’s life goals means that university admissions are tanking. (i-D)

• Simultaneously, the Great Resignation has begun; the WeTransfer Ideas Report shows that 45 per cent of creatives are thinking of leaving their jobs (It’s Nice That)

• Interesting, then, this contrarian take via Music Redef: There is No "Creator Economy” (Penny Fractions)

• Either way the Great Resignation has employers sweating. One writer says it’s time to escalate the pressure. (The Guardian)

• Hence, why the Big Quit is a leader's moment for a fresh start (Fast Company)

• And how Zoom's CMO is thinking about the future of work (Digiday)

• Via Nieman: TayLo asks, what even is internet culture reporting anyway? “Do we really need the word ‘internet’ or ‘digital’ in front of things in the year 2021?” (Mirror)

• “Are we doomed? It depends how hard we fight” The environmentalist Bill McKibben does this week’s New Statesman Q&A.

• Therefore: “Hot” new job for 2021? "Chief heat officer." (Axios)

• Why the so-called “energy crisis” is both a threat and an opportunity. (New Statesman)

• Via Morning Brew: More than 450 major financial firms have signed on to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, which abbreviates to the much jollier GFANZ. (AP

• Noted predictor Rishad Tobaccawala’s ten forecasts for the next decade (Substack)

• While noted prognosticator Bob Lefsetz on the music business in the next decade (Lefsetz Letter)

Styles Styling

• We’re all living in a post-genre fashion future (Highsnobiety)

• Speaking of, the future of Ralph Lauren's iconic polo, and retail in general, may be coloring your own clothes in the store (CNBC)’

• A-COLD-WALL’s Samuel Ross summarize his attitudes towards fashion society, semiotics, architecture, and Black Marxism with 032c.  

• Corollary: five more themes for the 'Luxe Decade’ (Jing Daily)

• Via After School:  “Indie sleaze” is the next 2000s fashion era making a comeback. nylon

• Via Public Announcement: Why Gen Z is plugging in wired headphones and tuning out AirPods (Mashable)

• From Celeste Blewitt: 'In Fair Verona, Where the Greatest Shirt of All Time Was Made 25 Years Ago’. The Opening Ceremony Hawaiian shirt, an iconic piece worn by Leonardo DiCaprio, now the 90's and 00's fashion is having another resurgence [as MTV style booms on TikTok] (Esquire)

• Via Declarative Statements: Humanistic Capitalism, an essay by cashmere drip god Brunello Cucinelli.

• Makeup goes after men (Axios)

• From Celeste Blewitt: "Best investment piece for a winter boot- perhaps it also relates to your conversation with Matt Hranek on custom and bespoke. It's an interesting commentary on RM Williams and if it translates globally and whether there are customers other than Australians or celebrity types in the New York store." (AFR)

Arts Arting 

• The Pictures Generation: how post-Pop artists have responded to a world saturated with images (Christies)

• Corollary, tia Blood and Champagne: A stealth artist has been replicating the ’80s street art of Richard Hambleton throughout Manhattan (NYT)

• Ruby Dispatch points to the work of  photographer Martin Parr.  (MagNet)

• A Transgenerational and Intercultural Look at Abstract Painting (Hyperallergic)

• What Makes an Art and Fashion Collaboration Successful? (Hypebeast)

Entertainment + IP’ing 

• Via Music Redef: Did Richard Wagner invent black metal?  (VAN Magazine)

• When Adele needs a million copies of ’30', everybody else’s vinyl gets delayed (Variety)

• Via Future Party:  Tribeca Enterprises and Fortnite-creator Epic Games have struck up a virtual-production partnership to introduce filmmakers to the possibilities of Epic’s Unreal Engine platform — its powerful CG game engine. (Deadline)

• Why Sesame Street Is More Vital Than Ever (WSJ) 

• Adobe and news orgs are working on a new tool that could identify a photo’s origin — and combat misinformation (Nieman Lab)

• The FACE names October’s best DJ mixes. 

• Coolest “device” to bring to the 100Gecs show? One that doesn’t record. (Twitter)

• Via Music Redef: The Zoomer Embrace of Drum ’n’ Bass (Pitchfork)

Platforming & Influencing

• Via Future Party: Patreon is exploring new ways to get creators paid. Patreon is testing the waters on the idea of allowing creators to mint social token NFTs on its platform. 

• Via Simon Owens: The line between the influencer industry and OnlyFans sex work is becoming increasingly thin. [Vox]

• Pornhub is getting kicked off Roku (Protocol)

• Via Simon Owens: Anchor no longer distributes an RSS feed to all podcast players by default, meaning you need to opt in. That means that Spotify is amassing thousands of exclusive shows from new Anchor users who don't opt in to RSS feeds. [Sounds Profitable]

• Pinterest hops on the live shopping trend with Pinterest TV (The Verge)

• App me yr lunch money, NERD! Cash App is now open to teens. (TechCrunch)

• Match Group: the parent company of Tinder, Match and Hinge, announced plans for a dating metaverse. (Yahoo Finance)

• The point of Alexa is not to talk to Alexa?! Amazon wants to hone its digital voice assistant so that you can talk more with real humans, apparently. (Quartz)

Marketing & Advertising:

• From James Friedman: "Some smart skepticism of purpose led brands” (Nick Asbury)

• Your next TV could be a $1 AR App (Protocol)

• Is the smartphone lock screen the key to reaching the most casual news consumers? (Nieman Lab)

• Shopify’s resident genius Alex Danco on the Panic With Friends pod (Spotify)

Media Business:

• How do you coherently present a lot of content online? Archive site designers explain. (It’s Nice That)

• NYT Opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury on why she's tapping artists as part of a paid newsletter strategy (Digiday)

•  How 10 fringe publishers fuel 69% of digital climate change denial (Center for Countering Digital Hate)

Metaversing & Web3’ing:

• [SIC] Homie Katelyn Donnelly’s Recommended web3 reading complied here. (Declarative Statements)

• Via Katelyn’s Declarative Statements newsletter:  A16Z’s web3 policy proposal is here. 

• And A16Z on why they invested in [SIC] homies Friends With Benefits, a gated web3 community, here.

• 'Divine Anarchy’s "Asset Bender”'s NFT Keynote from the Global Bitcoin Festival  is short and worth listening to. (Vimeo)

• From Diana Hong: “this thread that compares real estate and NFTs is pretty phenomenal. (Twitter)

• Via The Drop: Rolling Stone had an epic article about Bored Ape Yacht Club that should get everyone in the NFT space excited.

• Live Nation Is Launching NFT Ticket Stubs (Hypebeast)

• John Carmack, a key architect of Facebook's metaverse, is pretty bearish on its prospects (Fortune)

• Interesting; FT contributor writes “Cryptocurrencies will be as useless in the metaverse as they are now. Both ideas are about making a few people rich, not about building a decentralised paradise where everyone prospers".” (FT)

• Study shows most Americans don’t care about the metaverse (The Drum)

• A dozen' big cities are designing or considering 'digital twins.  New York City, Las Vegas and Phoenix have all recently committed to building virtual models of their downtown districts, hoping to develop new strategies to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency. (StateScoop)

• Wharton is accepting Crypto (Hypebeast) 

• From Isaac Dietz: "The treasury report on Stablecoins" (US Treasury) 

• Via Retail Innovation Week: Subspace is launching a parallel, real-time internet service for gaming and the metaverse (Venture Beat)

• Via Retail Innovation Week: Soul Machines, a pioneer in bringing hard neuroscience to the art of creating digital humans, is making digital humanoid avatars for customer service (The Verge)

Eating & Drinking:

• Via The Trend Report:  The wild story of a man who spends only $150 a Year to Eat  by getting free meals through his Six Flags membership. (Mel)

• Fish Farmers struggle with Sustainability (FT) 

• Angling for a Merry 'Fishmas' Despite Global Shipping Delays (NYT) 

• Supply chain solution needed? Just call the Dabbawalas  Key Quote: "This is arguably one of the world’s most interesting examples of a highly decentralized workforce, with decision-making pushed down to the tactical level. Success is scored on a single metric: did the customer have their lunch delivered on time?"(WITI) 

Miscellanying: 

• Via 1440: Tracing the history of one of the internet's oldest images. (Pudding)

• How bout this New Word for Hot, Non-Nude Photos: Lewds (Mel)

• From Isaac Dietz: "With respect to my last article re: autoburgerbots, here’s the six axis pizza gear” (LinkedIn) 

• Via WITI: [SIC] Talks alum Michael Williams on WAGONS! (ACL News)

• Via Future of Transportation: Austria's 'Klimaticket' is a universal ticket for $3.50 / day that offers seamless travel across all modes of public transit. 

• The best bird in New Zealand is a bat, apparently (NYT)

• The Early Majority leans out with an all-skate edition (Substack)

• Now that Halloween’s out of the way, Snow Peak’s got 5x classic Japanese Horror films to check out. 

• Photos from Bike Kill including the double-decker jousts (BK Mag) 

To Doing: 

• [SIC] homie Joe Falcone’s Almeda Club in Rockaway has got an Oyster event on Saturday (Instagram)

• Check out Highsnob x Moncler's “House of Genius” pop-up in DUMBO 

• Proximity Alert in LA curated by SIC homie Jesse Pearson (Instagram)