[SIC] 188: Italian Medallion

Volume 4, Number 32

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

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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

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