[SIC] 181: A Perfect Mimicking

Vol 4, Number 25

Hi from the freezing desert, all.

Short intro this week. I’m traveling, so no [SIC] Talks today, and “5 Questions For” will return next time. The links, as usual, proliferate. Thanks as always to Diana, Celeste, Rob, David and Iolanda for contributions this week.

Given the weight and implications of developments in Ukraine (and my lack of expertise in that realm), I’ll save commentary, but do encourage you to read up on the situation. A few places to start:

Peter Zeihan’s analysis (including two videos from this morning) have helped me contextualize the “why’s” of whats happening. / YouTube

Has Putin chosen a “forever war” against the modern international order? / The Atlantic via Dealbook

Related, from Diana Hong-Elsey: “Not sure if you included this last week in SIC, but it’s a pretty great read on understanding what’s happening with Russia [and Ukraine] and politics in our world on a macro scale / NYT

Marilyn in Palm Springs

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Trends

• Americans are paying less attention to the news. Knight Foundation via 1440

• The old habits of news consumption died with the internet. What’s replacing them? / Nieman Lab

• Everything Gen Alpha has already ruined according to the New Yorker / Via After School

• Thanks to remote work, many in Gen-Z will never work in an office. Will it matter? / WSJ via After School

• Irrespective, Zoomers are getting antsy at work. Nearly two-thirds of job seekers born late 90s into the early 2010s have switched industries or are considering doing so / LinkedIn via Charter

• Case in point? Why People Leave Their Jobs in Social Media via Trend Report

• Meanwhile, Antsy executives have a message for their employees: Plans to return in-person are real this time. Say Hello Again to the Office / NYT

• Sorry, Bosses: Workers Are Just Not That Into You. American workers are going back to bars, movies, sports arenas and weddings—everywhere but their offices./ WSJ

• Because?! I'm a creator. You're a creator. We're all creators! / Vox

• But Is everything viral an industry plant? Why we can’t believe anything online now. / Embedded

• From Celeste Blewitt: “Charlie Warzel discussing culture and subcultures of now and the future, but also the growth of the metaverse and all associated.” ‘I Found The Tech Angle On The Vibe Shift' / The Atlantic

• Gen-Z is much more likely to identify as LGBTQ+ - and they’re not easily fooled by “rainbow capitalism” / Fastco via After School

• The Future 100: 2022 vocabulary. A glossary of the terms that will define 2022 . Wunderman Thompson

• Corollary: 2PM’s 47-page eCommerce Trends deck / 2PM

• Related: Online Shopping Is Reshaping Real-World Cities / Wired

• Cannabis has become big business in some US states, but a push for federal decriminalization has stalled. / WSJ

• Miami street gangs have given up on drugs. Online identity theft is much more lucrative. / Quartz

• Tanya Selvaratnam’s tweet thread about her experience getting spoofed (in which a fraudster created a new gmail and phone number in her name / Twitter

• Are we all ready for a trend piece on sex parties? How about if it’s written by someone who has clearly never been to one? / Salon via Lorem Ipsum

Style

• [SIC] Talks alum Ana Andjelic coins the term “Corteiz Goods” to describe transactions that exchange a more expensive, better-known good with lower cultural currency for a cheaper, lesser-known one with higher cultural currency / The Sociology of Business

• To that end: Is the “Democratization of Fashion” fraudulent cornball shit? / Blackbird Spyplane

• Corollary: A widely-noticed deep dive on Carhartt and the implications of workwear / NYT via WITI

• Not Corteiz, but an Oral History of the Nike Cortez / NPR via Blazer

• Fashion Is Betting on the American South / BoF

• What are Gen Z investors wearing? / Vogue Business

• Chloe’s new tool to measure fashion’s social impact / BoF

• The murky business of fashions cash cow: the logoed t-shirt from [SIC] homie Eugene Rabkin / Highsnobiety via Instagram

• Indie Sleaze is already being repackaged as dirtbag glamour / NYT

• Related non-fashion: Matthew Perpetua’s indie sleaze playlist / Spotify via Dirt

The Arts

• Jeff Carvalho and I talked to Rory Trifon, the president of the Richard Berstein Foundation, OG Interview Magazine editor Joan Agajanian Quinn and Warhol Museum curator Jessica Beck about Andy Warhol’s favorite artist / Clubhouse

• A brush with... Ai Weiwei. An in-depth interview with the artist on his cultural experiences and greatest influences, from Duchamp to ancient Chinese ceramics—and why Romanticism is not for him. / The Art Newspaper

• You’re Wrong About Juergen Teller / The Observer via Public Announcement

• How a Book Is Made. Following Marlon James’s “Moon Witch, Spider King” through the printing process / NYT via Public Announcement

• The ways Marlon James spends Sundays / NYT

• The Apology Podcast’s Jesse Pearson talks to Naomi Fry / Spotify

• From David Bloom: The US Copyright Office has once again denied an effort to copyright a work of art that was created by AI / Copyright.gov

• From Celeste Blewitt: 'What Is Physical Art When You Grew Up On The Internet? Four CGI Artists Weigh In' / Vogue

Entertainment + IP

• “How Do You Know My Name?” Simon Rex and Angus McCloud rep the Yay area on the A24 Podcast  / Spotify

• Samutaro gives us the in-depth on Gaspar Noe's opening credits for “Enter the Void”  Via Ruby Dispatch.

• The Row’s monthly playlists / Spotify via Perfectly Imperfect x Dirt

• While Aesop premiers Radiomatique Mixtapes meant to nourish and refresh, with each broadcast corresponding fragrances / Worldwide FM via PSFK

• Kelefa Sanneh is on the Monocle Pod discussing the evolution of what is arguably America’s most significant cultural export: Hip Hop. / Spotify

• Incredibly interesting explainer video on how J. Dilla, the iconic late hip hop producer made one of his iconic albums, Donuts / Youtube via WITI

• Daft Punk streamed footage from a 1997 concert in which the duo performed without their signature helmets to Twitch, for 2/2/22. / Dot Esports

• How TikTok Creators are Redefining 'Success' in the Music Industry A data-driven look inside the music careers of TikTok-native creators. / Appetite For Distraction via Music Redef

• Protest Music Hasn't Disappeared--It's Everywhere (Except the Music Business) / Culture Notes Of An Honest Broker via Music Redef

• ‘Making music is about making assets for social media’ / The Guardian via Motive Unknown

• Vince Staples Makes Magic / 032c

• Bear in mind he OWNs his own label, as well. [SIC] homie Steve Aoki says he makes more from NFTs than music royalties / Fortune

• Dweller Festival Is Forging the Future of Black Electronic Music / Pitchfork via Public Announcement

Platforms & Influencers

• Is Firefox OK? Mozilla’s privacy-heavy browser is flatlining. What it does next is crucial for the future of the web. / Wired

• Related? OnlyFans accused of conspiring to blacklist rivals / BBC News

• And Instagram quietly limits 'daily time limit' option / TechCrunch

• The guy who creates the Planet Money economics videos on TikTok / NYT via Marginal Revolution

• While The Andy Warhol Museum’s TikTok Is Run For — And By — Teens / Jing Culture

• Corollary: “OK, I like it, Picasso” takes off on TikTok. An encounter between a pedestrian and art students produced a series of viral hits. / Hyperallergic

• Labor in ya ears: LinkedIn debuts its own podcast network / TechCrunch

• While Snapchat will start matching you with live concerts / Engadget via RIW

• The American Girl Cafe has become an unlikely party spot for influencers / NYT via RIW

• Wild. An Epstein B.F.F. Turned Russia’s Top Feminist . As a model in New York, Kira Dikhtyar was close friends with Jeffrey Epstein. Then she launched Russia's version of #MeToo. / NYT

Marketing & Advertising

• Inside Facebook’s $10 Billion Breakup With Advertisers / WSJ via Motive Unknown

• S/o to [SIC] homie Ruba Abu-Nimah: How Tiffany is adapting to cultural changes / The Drum

• ‘It’s just not practical’: Why early subscription box pioneers have moved beyond the model / Modern Retail

• Should more retailers be on Roblox? / Retail Dive

• Instead of running a traditional brand campaign Vans has commissioned artists to create individual projects, which it will host throughout 2022. / The Drum

Media Business

• Recalling an era where Richard Avedon and Bill Cunningham shot for underground independents, Chicago’s Art Institute goes inside the world of alternative magazines spanning the 70s to the 90s. / Airmail via Public Announcement

• The New Yorker released its first-ever digital-only issue / New Yorker

• Greenroom (Spotify’s Clubhouse competitor) has inked a deal with Complex to bring an exclusive slate of live audio programming / Hollywood Reporter

• Playboy has pivoted away from editorial and is attempting to become a tech/ecommerce platform / The Information via Simon Owens

• In a bid for new reader revenue, Quartz launches a membership for Africa / Nieman Lab

• Condé Nast will produce exclusive content for its GQ and Vogue TikTok channels (and in print), with a joint sales effort by the two companies to develop more opportunities for advertisers on the platform. / Digiday

• Every publisher should have a games strategy / Simon Owens

Metaverse & Web3

• Want to work in web3? Here is what you need to do first / Cabin via The Drop

• Related: An NFT Bubble Is Taking Over the Gig Economy. Two-thirds of freelancers on Fiverr say they're servicing the NFT industry. But is it sustainable? / Wired

• Ergo: from Diana Hong:  “This is bananas” The Elaborate Con that Tricked Dozens into Working for a Fake Design Agency” / BBC

• Web3 Developers Have Found a Functioning Metaverse. It's 'Minecraft'. / Motherboard

• From Iolanda Carvalho: So looking forward to watch my Bernardo Silva [of Manchester City] - second best player in the world!!! - playing in the metaverse! And wondering how long building a stadium in the Metaverse takes vs. IRL... / Cointelegraph

• FTX Gaming is the crypto exchange’s new unit focused on integrating blockchain technology and NFTs into video games / Block Crypto via The Drop

• Probably Nxthing is a daily roll-up of NFT headlines / via Future Party

• Crypt TV (the horror TV studio backed by Blumhouse and Eli Roth) has partnered with Metaversal on a collection of 10,000 NFTs Dubbed “Monster Fight Club” / Variety

• From Rob Hubbert: Sure I won’t be the only person to have sent you this… but just in case. [Tom Sachs] being his usual dope self [with ‘the world’s first Web3 store’] / IG

Food & Drink

• The Eco-Friendlier Future of the Disposable Spork / Reasons to be Cheerful

•  [SIC] homie Raina Kumra talks Spicewell, her new Ayurvedic seasonings company / LinkedIn

• Notwithstanding the omission of Just Eggs, your supermarket’s egg aisle has some of the hottest branding in the store. / Fast Company via PSFK

Miscellany

• Inside the massive warehouse iwhere researchers are studying what sound electric scooters should make to alert pedestrians of their presence Fast Company via Micromobility Newsletter

• Electric motorcycle company Cake takes on Poachers / Dezeen

• Medieval chainmail is BACK! And it's being used in... architecture... / Colossal via Ruby Dispatch

• DreamMachine installation gives visitors 'stroboscopically induced visual hallucinations' Dezeen via PSFK

• And recording of end-of-life brain activity reveals dreamlike state via 1440

• That time the Mediterranean Sea mostly dried up for over 600,000 years (but took less than 2 years to completely refill) / Kottke

Things to Do

• Check out Mark Gonzales’s “Ready to Articulate” show at HVYW8

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