[SIC] 178: Appendages Unlimited

Vol 4, Number 22

Feb 03, 2022

But you CAN pay, if you want to. It helps. Monthly or yearly, or founding support (which includes a 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.

Oh hello there.

Tons of fascinating stories below, so I won’t dally, except to draw your attention to a couple things.

First, “5 Questions For” seems to want to take a bi-weekly frequency, judging by the cadence of responses I’m getting back to my inquiries, so it’ll return next week and every other week thereafter. BTW I’m happy to hear suggestions on people I should ask questions of, so give a shout with any favorites.

Happily, [SIC] Talks will fill the gap, returning today with special guest @benpruess, who’ll be beaming in from the actual Alps. Ben’s an old friend and a very smart dude, as well as my longtime counterpart in pandemic discourse Mad_at_Marketing, so it’s gonna be a fun one (and maybe a precursor to the return of MAMM?!). It’s happening at 4p ET on IG Live @dietznutz, or thereafter on my grid.

Last thing: thanks to Celeste, Erik, Will, James, Iolanda, Ben and Wendy for contributions this week; more, more, more please, everybody. And thanks to Zach for the offer of editing help in reply to last week’s note; anybody want to intern for me?

x B

Micromobility Today / California Dreaming / The Temecula Report

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Trends

Start here: Matt Klein’s Meta Trends post leads to the report itself / Substack, Medium
The Great Resignation has morphed into the Great Sabbatical / Fast Company via Motive Unknown
Music taste has become the latest weapon in our online dating war / The Guardian via Music Redef

Correlated? Research found when people listen to happy beats, the market is more likely to outperform. Suddenly DJ D-Sol makes actual sense/ Quartz
BTW, “We finally have jetpacks and no one cares” Kottke via Strat Scraps
Related? What is dystopiacore? Screenshot via After School
Vehicle Buyers Don't Whine About Going Online, and Traditional Retailers Should Take Note / Morning Consult
Related: a case for a 'dumb car'. TechCrunch via Future of Transportation
Also dumb, but genius: Marginalia “an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of”/ Marginalia via Garbage Day
No, Rents Are Not Up 40% / Ritzholtz

Style

Unfamiliar with Chinese streetwear labels like Randomevent, Sankuanz, and Roaring Wild? You probably haven’t scrolled through YOHO! or Nowre. Jing spoke to them about China’s streetwear trend. / Jing Collabs & Drops
How Luxury Brands Are Manufacturing Scarcity in the Digital Economy / HBR
Related: Inside the secret world of luxury authentication / Vogue Business
Clothing brands are rolling out repairs programs with the goal of circularity / Glossy via Thingtesting
Related: Jonah Spyplane is only rocking one fit for Feb / Blackbird Spyplane
Corollary: Suits and ties are passé. Are collared shirts next? / FT via Dealbook
And the lingerie market is really heating up / WWD via Thingtesting
Ergo: the art of the Skikini / The FACE

The Arts

Waiting for the “Drop”: Crypto-art and Speed In crypto, as in war, stasis is death. You will miss the drop. / Hyperallergic
While back IRL, meet the humans of [SIC] Homie Daniel Arnold’s New York / New Yorker via Public Announcement
And the “SEX WEASELS in Renaissance art” / Twitter via The Trend Report
Related? Artist Sophie Calle became a Maid to Spy on the Guests / Hyperallergic
Fave artist Tauba Auerbach’s Architecture of Connectivity / Frieze
Past it at 40? Artists fight ‘culture of ageism’ in the art world / The Art Newspaper
In contrast, from Celeste Blewitt: “If you haven't read this [In Praise of Australian Aboriginal Art - the Oldest Surviving Culture In The World’] already, it's fabulous. Breathtaking art, steeped in history, culture and storytelling. Great to see such a strong international focus, the artists receiving credit and recognition globally and linking it with someone of the calibre of Steve Martin as an art collector.’ (Financial Times)

Entertainment + IP

From Erik Lavoie: “Shout out to Adam Shore for putting this [The Smile Live Stream] together. I’ve watched it 3 times in 2 days. Has actually given me hope that Live Streaming could be a legit alternative to live performances and maybe just maybe the Metaverse could appeal to me if it was populated with great live experiences like this. #RIPVLES” / The Guardian
Apropos of Mr. Shore: The Changing World of A&R / Billboard via Music Redef
Drake is now the subject of a college course at a Toronto university. NYT via Backseat Freestyle
Meanwhile Spotify is in bed with Joe Rogan because streaming music is too damn cheap. / Protocol
So maybe Spotify-Like Protests Are the Future of Online Protests? / GEN via Music Redef
Only "Fucking Bangers" Will Do. From "Yellowjackets" to "Euphoria" and "Atlanta," meet the music supervisor crafting the sound of our favorite television shows. Vanity Fair
Speaking of bangers: Pain, Porn, and a Wannabe Clown: An Oral History of JackAss Hollywood Reporter via Elevator
How Poly Styrene Broke the Mold / NYT via Music Redef
Skeptical about this one. “Goodbye hyperpop: the rise and fall of the internet’s most hated ‘genre’” Dazed Digital via Music Redef

Platforms & Influencers

Sidetalk’s 2nd annual snowball fight looked mental / IG
TikTok parent company ByteDance debuted its first metaverse social app, Party Island / Jing Daily
From Will Cutrone: Why TikTok gets too much credit for making products go viral / AdAge
While Twitch is seeing its gambling category gain momentum / Future Party
Apple will now let you add seeeekrit apps to its App Store / The Verge via Nieman Lab
Paramount+ has confirmed “Players,” a League of Legends mockumentary / Upcomer
What’s next for Roblox brand partnerships in the metaverse? As virtual worlds take shape, brands are asking what more they can do with the platform. / AdAge
Speaking of building: Monocle cornered starchitect Bjarke Ingels for a chat about his new modular housing company / Monocle

Marketing & Advertising

No, really. What’s the role of an ad agency in the metaverse? / The Drum
iPhones may soon become contactless payment terminals. The rumored upcoming feature will instead turn the iPhone into a payment terminal, letting users accept payments with the tap of a credit card or another iPhone / Reuters via Retail Innovation Week
Beans Can Film Festival aims to get people to submit their own films about beans via their social channels / Digiday
Coachella launched an NFT marketplace yesterday that was built by crypto exchange FTX / Coachella via Future Party
The Lunar New Year's most successful collaborations / Jing Daily

Media Business

From Iolanda Carvalho: “If you expected digital to return to “business as usual” in 2022, you may want to reset those expectations,” [per the 300-page(!!) analysis downloadable here]/ We Are Social
Forget scale. Smaller numbers need to be normalized / The Rebooting
What Does ‘Trust in Media’ Even Mean? ponders Gawker’s original EIC. / GEN
Corollary: TayLo bounced to WaPo / Vanity Fair

Purple Chaise All in My Brain

Metaverse & Web3

Our Decentralized Selves: Creating in a Post-Identity Future / Zine.Zora via Forefront
But now My Family Is Trapped in the Metaverse. Virtual reality isn’t great, but it’s a lot better than dealing with everything else out there. / Wired
Related: Meta will create immersive experiences through the Quest 2 headset, which becomes the official headset of Overtime as part of the deal. The first experience will be “Dunk Shows,” where fans can see live dunk attempts. / SportsProMedia via FOS
Meanwhile, Meta is apparently dogfooding the metaverse. / NYT
Yes, “This NFT on OpenSea Will Steal Your IP Address” VICE via Garbage Day
And OpenSea has a massive fraud problem. More than 80% of NFTs made with its free minting tool are fake or plagiarized. / Quartz
But also, “We All Need to Stop Only Seeing the Dark Side of Crypto” Wired via Garbage Day
BTW, who will own the creator economy? A web2 vs. web3 showdown. Justine Moore.ETH via Forefront
Metaverse real estate sales top $500 million, and are projected to double this year / CNBC
Hence - do you live in the Bay Area, New York or Chicago? Then there’s a good chance that your house has recently been purchased by a stranger. A digital version of your house, anyway. @ceeebeee1111, hit me up! / Upland via Protocol
Corollary: How is the metaverse changing physical retail? / Wunderman Thompson
Well for one, Pinterest's head of engineering Jeremy King said AR helps shoppers find products they’d otherwise pass off / Protocol
From Ben Duhl: “Someone sent me this: [BFF.xyz]. Listening to Livestream now. Helping their audience set up a wallet. It's pretty cool. [[SIC] Talks Alum] Ariel Wengroff is speaking. Ledger snapped her up as their EIC.” / BFF.xyz
Mapping the celebrity NFT complex Read Max via Public Announcement
Andy Warhol, Clay Christensen, and Vitalik Buterin walk into a bar - Tim O'Reilly on NFTs. / O’Reilly via Ben-Evans

Food & Drink

What Is Mexican Food? A Nevada Court Has the Tricky Job of Deciding / WSJ
Mr Beast launched Feastables, a snack brand that will launch a sweet treat called the MrBeast Bar. / Food Business News
Why Ikea Is Suddenly 3D-Printing Meatballs . Ikea will serve the 3D-printed meatballs to select job applicants as part of its "Taste the Future" recruitment campaign / Adweek
These online grocery brands are built around cutting down on food waste / Thingtesting

Miscellany

From James Friedman: “In a world gone web3 crazy, this story feels especially wild. There was no template for this kind of stuff [The Search for Suzy Thunders]” / The Verge
Speaking of early web stuff: The Sex Tape That Created the Internet / Airmail
The one guy who painted all the ski hill maps / Instagram via Adsum
Vocal analysis indicates Roy Orbison was a MACHINE Straight into vibrato, on pitchYouTube via Public Announcement
From Wendy Dembo: “Women 32% more likely to die after operation by male surgeon, study reveals. And Female patients found to have 15% more chance of a bad outcome than if procedure was performed by a woman

Things to Do

It’s (covid-impaired) Carnival season, and DJ Private Ryan’s back with his annual Soca Starter 2022 mix. Get hyped! / Soundcloud
And then come back down with [SIC] homie Dave One’s Herb Sundays mixtape / Spotify

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