[SIC] 173: Hits at The Wrist

Volume 4, Number 17

Jan 01, 2022

But you CAN pay, if you want to. It helps. Monthly or yearly, or founding support (which includes post-Omicron dinner at my house, if you’re in / can get to NYC). I’m open to offering other benefits, if you’ve got ideas.

Feel free to share, too.

Ironically, given that this week’s title is a watch joke, I’m a full day late with the newsletter. Thanks for bearing with me. Holiday travel and all….

That said, I sent a newsletter on the last day of 2020 too - so maybe this’ll be a new tradition. And since Brian Morrissey says owning the weekend is a strategy for 2022 and Casey Lewis wrote there was nothing new but lists this week, I’m doing something a little different in hopes of giving you plenty to pursue this weekend (with only a few lists). Thanks to Iolanda, Kevin, Piers, Nick, Amantha and Celeste for the help this week.

Longtime readers will recall the way I organized links originally, which was purely associative. For this week I’m picking that back up. LMK what you think. Hope you find equally useful as any other week. And maybe even moreso, with 2022 looming.

Finally before we dive in: thanks again to all of you for reading, sharing, contributing and supporting [SIC] Weekly. It’s such a pleasure to have you here. Here’s hoping ‘22 treats us all to plenty of (but not too much) stimulation, discovery, good vibes and fun.

See you next Thursday, promise. And Happy New Year in the meantime.

xo Ben

Photo by Jerry Hsu @internetfamous. Pro tip: Buy Jerry’s book “The Beautiful Flower Is the World” immediately.

=====[SIC] 173: Hits at the Wrist=====

Discovery of the week: The Pine Walk Collection. This is truly a rabbit hole. DJ Sets from Fire Island Pines & New York City recorded from 1981-1999. These tapes were found in a recently purchased house on Pine Walk. There are well over 200 tapes in total and they are being carefully digitized and remastered and offered to stream for free here on Mixcloud witn permission from all of the living DJs. Mixcloud via Public Announcement
Speaking of history: An oral history of The Sopranos / Airmail
Unrelated: An oral history of the evolution of in-game advertising / Digiday
Also on the gaming tip: How Discord, Born From an Obscure Game, Became a Social Hub for Young People / NYT
Related, via Web3: Landscape Mapping of DAOs by Coinbase via Declarative Statements
And related to that: an explanation of the $SOS Token Drop on Twitter here. Key quote from [SIC] homie Katelyn Donnelly: “The takeaway for me: It will be intolerable for the crypto community to accept a company or organization that doesn't adequately reward its early users and community members. As it should be. This will be the most profound shift in web3”/ Twitter via Declarative Statements
To that end exactly: Non-Fungible Films, a production and entertainment company bridging Web 3.0 collections and mainstream media, announced an “Ape casting call” for an upcoming animated series coming 2022. Ape owners (Bored Ape and Mutant Apes alike) will be able to submit their apes to be cast in this series, and monetize in a unique way through the animated film! / Twitter via The Drop
Also so that end: how NFTs became a $40bn market in 2021 A breakout year in which buyers spent almost as much on digital collectibles as traditional art / FT
What’s Inside Seattle’s First (And Only) NFT Museum / Jing Culture & Commerce
But wait, have price and value in the art market parted ways for good? The Art Newspaper via 2PM
Oh, good: Facebook (‘Meta’) filed a patent to analyse the images we interact with in order to understand the brands / products we love, and in turn update taste profiles of each user. USPTO via Patent Drop
While Amazon wants to take their voice interface to the next level by understanding a user’s sentiment when they speak to Alexa. / USPTO via Patent Drop
Also like dancing about architecture? Watching economics on TikTok / Marginal Revolution

Back to Web3 with a hot take:

Facebook’s metaverse is its best PR campaign ever / Quartz
No way, says Scott Galloway, who predicts the Zuckerverse is a debacle as part of his 2022 prediction / Prof Galloway
And publishers are getting audiences to adopt the blockchain. Publishers are anticipating that the blockchain will be a big part of their 2022 strategy, but getting audiences to invest their time and money into these innovations is still an uphill battle. / Digiday
Tho, the VC legend Fred Wilson addresses ‘Why Web 3?‘, and you should read it too / Fred Wilson via Howard Lindzon
Elsewhere in smart people: two of my favorite seers/analysts, Brian Morrissey and Rishad Tobaccowala get together on Brian’s The Rebooting podcast and you should listen to it / Substack
Back to Web3 (again): Inside Cryptocurrency explains layer 2 solutions (worth reading if you’re at all interested in NFTs/ Crypto/ Metaverse) / Inside Cryptocurrency
Corollary: WTF is .xyz?: Have you noticed the sudden uptick in “.xyz” domains in the wild? Wondering why? / TechCrunch

Also related, from Iolanda Carvalho:

“Visuals & trends for the grand finale 😉 (if there is one, of course). And a super hiper mega ultra happy 2022!!!!!”
The Companies that Defined 2021 / Visual Capitalist
A Visual Guide to Profile Picture NFTs / Visual Capitalist
In 2030, the local mall is your networked reality / Ericsson
And the .pdf! / Ericsson

Since we’re in the friend section:

From Kevin Johanessen: “Really well done, a good watch when you have 15min”: Surviving the horror of residential schools with skateboarding / The New Yorker
Corollary, from Piers Fawkes: “newsletter fodder”. My reply: Woah. Duane Pitre’s skateboarding introduced me and millions more to Dinosaur Jr, abstract filmmaking and Ohio as a state of mind. Now he’s into ….tones. / NYT
While from Celeste Blewitt: “So apt for the times, Tik Tok is the place for purchasing. Great piece about the level of use, the purchasing power and how people are growing their content and consumer base within the platform. "That Fun TIk Tok Video? It's Actually An Ad" / NYT

And I can’t forget Mega-cool couple Nick Weidenfeld’s & Amantha Walden’s annual “Fives, Tens and Twenties” list, which yielded these “TOP FIVE THINGS THAT GLIMPSE THE VIRTUAL FUTURE” (caps theirs)

1. THE VIRTUAL UNDERGROUND: AN INTRODUCTION TO VRCHATS RAVE SCENE/ Youtube
2. POST MALONE’S POKEMON GO CONCERT / Youtube
3. OK, WHO IS CODEMIKO / Youtube
4. THE METAHUMAN PROJECT / Youtube
5. HOW KOREAN STREAMER OPENED UP HER OWN CONVENIENT STORE / Youtube
Also, Nick & Amantha’s Top 20 songs of the year / Spotify

Kyle Chayka’s new steez

Since we’re in list mode:

Vox compiled a list of charities that focus on climate change it says are “the most high-impact, cost-effective and evidence-based organizations.” / Vox via NYT
While Quartersnacks readers voted on the 20 best full-length skate videos and video parts of 2021 / Quartersnacks
The 50 best memes of the year, explained / Inside Hook via 1440
For the sixth year running, Amardeep and [SIC] Talks alum Chris Black list their Top 20 songs of 2021. / Done To Death Projects
The Year in Holy Spyplane Wisdom / Blackbird Spyplane
Blackbird Spyplane’s 11 SLAPPINGEST SONGS WE LISTENED TO (RELEASED IN 2021) as an Apple Music playlist here. / Apple Music
Sade Night maestro and [SIC] Homie And John McSwain’s best of 21 (visual list) / Instagram
Jeff Weiss’s top 100 rap songs of the year / Passion Weiss
Kyle Chayka’s got an update on his book-in-progress, “Filterworld,” and a roundup of his writings this year, many of which I’ve linked to previously. / Substack
Finally and in closing: Mules of the year from Muleboyz and Hartcopy / Instagram

Changing gears:

Hamsters drink like fishes. The rodents have a surprising tolerance for alcohol, which they’ll choose over water every time. / Quartz
Elsewhere in animal tranquilizers: Ketamine Therapy is going mainstream / The New Yorker
Corollary for NYE: To party or not to party? / Rave New World
Maybe safer to stay in and ponder the agony, ecstasy and hedonism of NYC’S EARLY DRAG SCENE / The FACE
Speaking of sobering: shoppers: the return of a $50 item is expected to cost merchants an average of $33 this season, up 59% from 2020, returns processor Optoro tells Axios
And three in 10 online purchases are returned / CBRE Supply Chain.
Worse yet, the more someone shops online rather than in stores, the less inflation the individual has faced." Austan Goolsbee on the missing inflation data / NYT via Marginal Revolution

RIP Wayne Thiebaud

Ephemerally connected:

McKinsey's review of 2021 in charts / McKinsey via 1440
Tyler the Creator might change his name to.. his NAME / Hypebeast
Because, because: 'You want to be the brand': As games become a driver of fandom and media consumption, individual creators wield the most influence. It’s more important than ever for brands and marketers to understand why and how people play the games they do. / Digiday
Elsewhere in renaming: 199 streets in New York City were renamed (or co-named) this year / Gothamist via NYT
Not on these streets: Tesla is spreading its footprint in electric motorsports as a new sponsor of Formula SAE teams / Front Office Sports
2.11 million vinyl albums were sold in the US last week, making it the top sales week for the format since at least 1991. / Pitchfork
Ergo: Mick Jagger, Financial Planner Extraordinaire / WSJ via Ritzholtz
Fave artist Genesis Belanger’s tribute to Wayne Thiebaud gets it right.
Which brings us to, in roundabout tribute to the master of food painting: Restaurant trend predictions include avocado coffee , gourmet egg sandwiches, Whoppers made with Halloumi cheese instead of meat and saltwater cocktails / Technomic via Axios