[SIC] Weekly

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[SIC] 188: Italian Medallion
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[SIC] 188: Italian Medallion

Volume 4, Number 32

Apr 15
3
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[SIC] 188: Italian Medallion
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Hi all,

I’m late sending (again), so straight into it. First, start by cuing up David Blue’s Music for spring mix, which he describes as “Not neon Sun ice / elf hat / Bulls jacket + jeans + rear entry boot nostalgia.  Like spring conditions, a little bit of everything.” Perfect accompaniment for your perusal this week. Thanks Blue! And separately, thanks to Rob, David, Kevin, Celeste, Dan and Bill for contributions this week. I’m grateful.

I won’t dally, otherwise. One of these weeks I’ll get back to interviewing people, promise. On my list: Joseph Patel, Eugene Rabkin, Rachel Tashjian, Marc Schiller, Hillary Pecis, and Kevin Tachman among others, in case you know them to mention it. Your suggestions welcome, too. [SIC] Talks archive is over here, meantime.

Now, the links.

“… Rusty, calling in from Maine…” / Charles Ray at the Whitney Biennial

=====[SIC] 188: Italian Medallion=====

The World

  • S&P thinks Russia is on the verge of a historic default / AP via Daily Upside

  • TikTok’s ban in Russia isn’t really working / Morning Brew

  • Or is it? TikTok created an alternate universe just for Russia / WaPo

  • From Rob Hubbert: “What’s the viability of democracy is the “post-babel era”?” Why the past 10 years of American life have been uniquely stupid / The Atlantic

  • How do you pronounce Shein? Pinduoduo? A resource for anglophones. / Rest of World via Ben-Evans

  • Useful, because the ideas market likes ‘verbal authenticity’ / Sage Pub via Marginal Revolution

  • Likely because 'Algospeak' is changing our language in real time  / WaPo via The Trend Report

  • Such is the significance of TikTok comments to the zeitgeist, that there’s even a Twitter account dedicated to curating the best. / Twitter via High Tea

  • Bitcoin struggles to find its star power in Miami. The utopian vision of cryptocurrency fights with the celebrity-filled panels at the annual conference./ Fast Company

  • Corollary: a16z's Chris Dixon on the next evolution of the internet.  / The Verge via 1440

  • Hey guys, should we get rid of the scientific paper?  / The Guardian via Future Perfect

  • After all, a four-year degree is becoming less important as a job requirement / NYT via Marginal Revolution

Trends

  • A New Way to Measure Creativity / WSJ

  • Graphic design trends of 2022, from Y2K to anti-design / Creative Bloq

  • Gen Z spends half its waking hours on screen time. It’s good and bad news for Hollywood. Key Quote: “Video has essentially become a friend to Gen Z.” /  LA Times via After School

  • Simultaneously, many Millennials are making the biggest purchase of their lives without ever seeing it in person. / Future Party

  • No wonder then that more and more women just don’t want children. “Kids are expensive and sticky”/ Insider via After School

  • More Millenial: what famous memes looked like 10 years ago (ie a 10 year old meme compilation video) / YouTube via Elevator

  • While Gen Xtellectual Tyler Cowen ponders what happens when your bot is better than you /Marginal Revolution

  • More rhetorical: Why are people with no social media so damn hot? / Dazed

  • And why American Teens are So Sad / The Atlantic via After School

Style

  • The typically unhinged new issue of Buffalo Zine dropped online. / Publitas

  • Corollary: the metaverse is now influencing real-life looks / Vogue Business

  • Hence, Marni is the latest brand to create its own virtual world / Vogue Business

  • But can The Metaverse Transform Fashion Business Models? / Business of Fashion

  • Seems to be a ‘yes’. Exclusive Discord "cook groups" are helping sneakerheads “cop the best drops” and increasingly dictating the realities of the multi-billion dollar streetwear resale market /  PSFK

  • Which gives rise to Fashion’s New Approach to Setting Prices. Artificial intelligence is replacing intuition when it comes to determining what shoppers will pay / BoF

  • Related, then: the death of streetwear is a class issue /IG

  • Also related: why brands are launching their own resale platforms / Thingtesting

  • Unrelated: Name Dropping — Four Videographers On Putting Skaters’ Names in Videos / Quartersnacks

  • But related to that: [SIC] Talks Alum Bill Strobeck’s Violet skateboards promo / YouTube

  • Apropos of nothing, from Kevin Johanessen: “You should start doing some commerce links within SIC. A mix of retail and vintage. Get you some affiliate commerce.” / Grailed

The Arts

  • From Celeste Blewitt: 'After Being Found In Dumpster, Paintings By 'Largely Forgotten' Artist Get New York Gallery Show'  / Art News

  • Speaking of getting his due: Did Yves Klein sell the very first NFT? / Smithsonian via Marginal Revolution

  • More transmedia: The Video Game That Is Also An Art Museum / The Verge

  • OG skate art vandal Neckface on Angela and Z pod / IG

  • Surprised at this one: Barbara Kruger x Hyundai (tied to her retrospective in LA, but still) / Mediapost

Entertainment + IP

  • What is a metalabel? Reviving the Dischord Records model for the Discord era /The Culture Journalist via Music Redef

  • Corollary: five predictions about music streaming's future / Music X via Music Redef

  • One future’s in the past: Pop Music’s Nostalgia Obsession / The Atlantic via Public Announcement

  • Related: As festival season returns in full for the first time since the pandemic started, promoters and artists see that the way forward may be to look backward. [SIC] homie Eric Ducker is … Still Into You / Ringer via Music Redef

  • Hence, Questlove’s (and [SIC] homie Joseph Patel’s) “Summer of Soul” has inspired the creation of the Harlem Festival of Culture next year in the same park that hosted the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival  / Billboard via Music Redef

  • The Legendary art pranksters and chart toppers of The KLF are the subject of a brand new documentary called Who Killed The KLF / Twitter

  • While their conceptual opposite Ed Sheeran films his songwriting sessions to avoid legal headaches /Deadline via The Future Party

  • Because fake artists are what happens when fandom dies / Musicindustryblog

Platforms & Influencers

  • Gen Z : From Consumer to Creator Webinar - a special PSFK webinar / YouTube

  • Case in point: A 15-year-old Twitch streamer celebrates wins with raves in his room. Like, serious raves / NME via Morning Brew

  • Speaking of serious: YouTube’s got a  softcore porn problem / Medium

  • Don’t worry tho! Susan Wojcicki said YouTube’s NFT push will help smaller creators like the ones in that article, monetize /Protocol

  • Elsewhere in problems: “Journalism’s Twitter Problem Is the Journalists” / Intelligencer via Garbage Day

  • Sensing an opportunity, Snapchat is partnering with more than 40 newsrooms on a new automated product/ Nieman Lab

  • Tho apparently TikTok: has surpassed Snapchat "as teens' favorite," and Facebook And Twitter "barely register," according to the latest Piper Sandler Taking Stock With Teens survey / Mediapost

  • And Amazon said ‘fuck it’ and has begun selling investment-grade bonds / Bloomberg

Marketing & Advertising

  • Breast-pump brand Willow is countering unwanted “bad advice” heaped on new moms in a campaign fronted by [SIC] homie Iliza Shlesinger / Mediapost

  • While Liquid Death and porn star Cherie DeVille say ‘Don’t fuck the planet’ / The Drum

  • In preparation for awards season, Ogilvy will no longer work with influencers who edit their bodies or faces for ads / The Drum

  • While R/GA is offering pro bono creative and marketing services to BIPOC-owned startups / The Drum

  • What brands can learn from VaynerSports' botched NFT sale / Ad Age

  • Elsewhere in brands: Fluid design is having a moment. Hence, why it's a bad idea for startups to make their branding distinctive / Fast Company

  • And speaking of startups, [SIC] homies Ryan Babenzien and Arjan Singh from fave skincare startup Jolie on the “Read Receipts” pod / Spotify

  • Internet advertising increased by 35% year-over-year, the highest year-over-year jump in 15 years / Daily Upside

  • But a lot of it was on Amazon, Walmart, etc. How Advertising Agencies are changing to deal with the rise of Retail Media. / AdExchanger

Media Business

  • The Rebooting’s Brian Morrissey did a Twitter Space with A Media Operator/Morning Brew’s Jacob Donnelly on Friday. Check it out. / Twitter

  • In a vulnerable media economy, journalists are demanding ownership of their work/ Poynter via Nieman Lab

  • And Quartz is dropping its paywall / Nieman Lab

  • Another plus:FIFA is launching a free, ad-supported service called FIFA+ /  THR

  • Contrasts a big minus: investment and projections for CNN+ are expected to be cut dramatically, in response to a low adoption rate / Axios

Metaverse & Web3

  • Web3 is yet to take off despite the hype So far, it’s hard to discern mainstream uses for this technology / FT

  • The growing, lightly controversial industry teaching kids crypto. /  Vox via After School

  • From Dan Bradley: “A little intro/manifesto from Titles, a web3 product based around the future of social creation. I'm also an advisor on the project, so I'm biased.” / Mirror.xyz

  • From Bill Amstutz: Here is another blockchain thing for you: The Creator Economy Expo (CEX) is offering Never-Ending Tickets. NETs are a set of 100 "forever tickets" for CEX. / Mint.CEX

  • In the Metaverse, Live Concerts Hold More Appeal Than Live Sports and Shopping / Morning Consult

  • Hey look, it’s rugs commemorating various crypto rugpulls. / Rugpull Rugs via Garbage Day

Food & Drink

  • The science behind Doritos / Twitter via Ruby Dispatch

  • Long live the greasy spoon / FT

  • A 23-ounce can of AriZona iced tea remains 99 cents, the same price as when it first hit shelves three decades ago. Founder Don Vultaggio is committed to 99 cents: “Consumers don’t need another price increase from a guy like me.” / Morning Brew

Miscellany

  • Mushrooms can communicate with each other using up to 50 "mushroom words. / via Ruby Dispatch

  • While ‘Bozo’ Is the Absolute Best Insult in English / Mel Magazine

  • The Mysterious Man Who Built (and Then Lost) Little Tokyo / NYT

  • Speaking of building, from David Bloom: A virtual micronation spanning the stateless, 3-mile area between Serbia and Croatia is an architectural marvel with 3D designs constructed by the late Zaha Hadid's firm. / Fast Company

Things to Do:

  • The many moods of Steve Powers come to Milano/ IG

  • Lucien Smith is at Public Access / IG

=====[SIC] 188: Italian Medallion=====

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[SIC] 188: Italian Medallion
sicweekly.substack.com
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