[SIC] 191: Passport to an Uncomfortable Room

Volume 4, Number 36

May 05, 2022

But you CAN pay, if you want to. Go right ahead. I’m into it. Monthly or yearly, or founding support (which includes a dinner at my house in May, if you’re in / can get to NYC). Other benefits that’d persuade you? Suggest ‘em. I’m open.

Feel free to share, too

Hi all,

Exciting news (for me anyway); my schedule has freed up a bit and I’m getting back on track with the [SIC] Talks series of companion conversations to this newsletter. Today’s guest is the writer, stylist, shop owner and generally fascinating. Eugene Rabkin, whose piece this week for HighSnobiety, “New York street style is back — enjoy it while it lasts,” is getting people in their feels. Eugene and I first met last year on an episode of Culture Club in dialogue with [SIC] Talks alum Recho Omondi, and I’ve been wanting to talk to him ever since.

It being the first episode in a while, we’re doing it at a special time - 3p ET / 9p CET. It’s all happening live on my IG at @dietznutz. Swing by while we’re live, or catch it in my grid thereafter. The archive of past episodes is over too (and as reminder, watching on desktop allows you to surf around while you listen - recommended).

Also recommended: a bunch of great suggestions this week from esteemed contributors. Thanks David, James, Celeste, Iolanda and Gordon for ideas this week.

And now… the links.

A favorite design from the now defunct @sw8shop

======[SIC] 191: Passport to an Uncomfortable Room ======

The World

Energy’s future is both cleaner and dirtier / Marginal Revolution
Cities Build Better Biologists: They naturally train critical thinkers and observational experts who are the future of ecology / Scientific American
Also future: Generation Carbon: A Carbon Almanac for Kids / Seth Godin
How the media “wraparound” effect cements people’s beliefs / Nieman Lab
Corollary: What Your Younger Employees Are Really Thinking / NYT
One thought: It’s OK to be quiet in meetings. Some of the smartest people rarely speak in work gatherings but everyone listens when they do / FT via Public Announcement
Also effecting meeting dynamics: the future of work is remote-ish / Protocol
Who went to BLM protests? Kinda wild: "Finally, we provide novel evidence of overlap: attending a Black Lives Matter protest increases the likelihood of attending a protest calling for fewer public health restrictions." / NBER via Marginal Revolution

Trends

Is the Big Tech crash already over? / FT
Smart guys Alex Danco and Packy McCormick explain What tokengated commerce is (+ why it matters) in a collaborative co-post/ Dancoland x Not Boring
Corollary: Li Jin on the creator economy in 2022. Beyond all the hype and nonsense, lots of people are trying to build interesting things in web3 / Li’s Newsletter via Ben-Evans
From James Friedman: “This thread is bananas. The implications of really advanced ML are pretty melon-twisting. All that aside, the renaissance artworks about wifi are hilarious.” / Twitter
Decentralised partying: is Telegram nightlife’s new rave flyer? / The FACE
Coachella Vibes: A Serious Investigation / The Culture Journalist via Music Redef
The hot (and very strange) new plastic-surgery trend / Airmail
Namecore is the trend that unifies all trends / The FACE

Style

Turns out the best way to be fly is to actually wear your jawns / Blackbird Spyplane
[SIC] homies Franchise magazine have a shoe coming out with Pro Keds / WWD
From David Bloom: “Interesting idea all the way around, with recyclable materials in three modules that can be put together and taken apart. [Nike ISPA’s Link Axis Sneakers Are Designed to be Disassembled and Recycled] Cool Hunting
Related: Nike’s design chief John Hoke on the Slowdown pod / Time Sensitive

The Arts

Nick Cave: ‘Art has always been my saviour’ / The Art Newspaper
Cooper Hewitt Design Museum’s New Director: "I See Design As A Great Equalizer" / Fast Company via Jing Culture & Commerce
The “Witch” Who Shot Andy Warhol’s Marilyns / Hyperallergic
From Celeste Blewitt: “This piece really makes the Chelsea Hotel come to life. Patti Smith's descriptions in 'Just Kids' always drew such strong nostalgic imagery, so to read that it has been brought back to life as a hotel is interesting.” [How The Historic Hotel Chelsea Has Kept Its New York Cool' ]/ WSJ
The transcript from Barry Ritzholtz’s interview with Michael Lewis, discussing 30 years since Liar’s Poker 30 Years Later/ Ritzholtz
John Waters answers 52 of life’s most pressing questions / Airmail
A bizarre 2008 children’s album called “Alien Rap” has been making rounds in “so-bad-it’s-good” culture / Tedium via Music Redef

Entertainment + IP

Fuck Fame: Charli XCX, A-ha And Destructive Fandom / The Quietus via Motive Unknown
Snap, Live Nation Ink Deal for Snapchat AR Experiences at Concerts and Festivals / Variety
Now there’s Tinder for DJs / via The Cadence
Behind the scenes at Netflix - reminder that ultimately business is totally personal. / Hollywood Reporter
Related: “Nothing like this has ever been done at Netflix”: the puzzle-piece process behind the interactive series Battle Kitty / It’s Nice That
Seth Rogen and Aziz Ansari reading an iconic Seinfeld script / Far Out via Elevator

Platforms & Influencers

TikTok Influencers are Leading GenZ off a cliff with “buy now pay later” apps / SF Gate via After School
Elsewhere in cliffs… some of the biggest video game streamers in the world are looking for ways to make money while not playing as much / Future Party
"He actually could make it worse." Bill Gates isn't sure Elon Musk is the right person to buy Twitter: / WSJ via Protocol
'I Don't Really Have a Business Plan': How Elon Musk Wings It / NYT
Worth considering, to that end: the social internet thrives on rebirth. If Elon's rule leads to Twitter's demise, it makes room for something new / Wired
Related: Musk Kills Sec. 230 -- By Accident / Media Insider
Corollary: The Myth of the Genius Tech Inventor / NYT
This piece by Balaji Srinivasan argues for Elon Musk to officially bring Twitter to the web3 by gifting all of its users a free “Twittercoin” that would allow “every account worldwide … full control over their username in a crypto wallet, plus a share of Twitter’s new coin.” / Balajis via Dirt
Related from David Bloom: “Trying to think different by incentivizing its users to think different.” [Reddit puts up $1 million for users’ wildest ideas] / Future Party
Facebook will remove podcasts from its site and apps next month. Maybe beating Apple and Spotify isn’t that easy after all. / Bloomberg via Protocol
While Spotify becomes first music streamer to launch on Roblox / TechCrunch via Motive Unknown
But, but: Spotify Shares Now Selling at Less Than the IPO Price 4 Years Ago / Ted Gioia via Motive Unknown
Elsewhere, YouTube is sunsetting its YouTube Go app. Is the era of lightweight app alternatives for low-end phones officially over? / Engadget via Protocol
And a day of reckoning arrives for ultrafast delivery services / Retail Dive
Though CNN+ will never die…. as “moments” will be sold as NFTs / Twitter

Marketing & Advertising

‘It’s word of mouth at scale’: Why brands are setting their sights on UGC / Thingtesting
While Tech firms sell creators as the future of ads / Axios
And TikTok Unveils “Pulse” Contextual Ad Placement Option, Guarantees They Will Be Among Top 4% Of All Videos / Mediapost
The new Vogue Club is an interesting subscription product that revolves around access. For $250 a year, members get early access to Vogue features, the ability to connect directly with Vogue editors and entrée to virtual and in-person events. Vogue via The Rebooting
And A24 is selling “AAA24 memberships” to their zine club / A24
While Ruby Hibiscus has a surprisingly popping merch page with weird books and cool one-offs, along with typical branded merch. / Rubyforfun

Media Business

RIP Good Times for media companies, says Brian Morrissey / The Rebooting
And even the Digital-Advertising Giants Are Coming Back to Earth After Pandemic Boom / WSJ
Digital advertising hung its hat on the ability to do one-to-one targeting, and that’s now changing. No surprise then that analog media could benefit/ Harvard Business Review via The Rebooting
Because after all, digital is not (and never was) An Easy Button It's becoming a cookieless world. So where do we go from here? / Mediapost
Still… streaming ad spend grew 57% in 2021 reaching $15.2B, market to more than double from 2020 to 2022 / TechCrunch via Motive Unknown

Metaverse & Web3

Financial institutions and fintech brands want to demystify the metaconomy. / Wunderman Thompson
To wit: the 4 factors that make NFTs successful 👏 The founder of NFT Now on distinguishing between hits and rugpulls / Probably Nxthing
From Iolanda Carvalho: “Super interesting article” Web3 Gaming Is An Evolution, Not A Revolution / NFX
While Marketers Are Reassessing Their Impact in the Metaverse. CMOs have increasingly become fixated with measurement to determine if they want to experiment with the virtual world. / Adweek
Yuga Labs' Otherdeeds NFT minting led to several technical problems, and as a result, the company is now integrating with Ethereum sidechain Polygon / Inside Cryptocurrency

Food & Drink

The French drink way, way less than they used to / Marginal Revolution
More of less: Burger King is taking recycling one step further with its new reusable packaging / Design Bloq
From Gordon Hull: “This feels SIC worthy lol” Taco Bell Announces Drag Brunch Tour / Food & Wine
Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot will release canned Chicago tap water under the brand name “Chicagwa.” / ABC7 via Today in Tabs
The New York City Crab Boil Boom (S/o [SIC] homie Fifi Bell Clanton of The Crabby Shack) / Hell Gate via Today in Tabs
[SIC] Talks Alum Elva Ramirez asks “Can Kevin Hart Change the Way Americans Drink Tequila? (The Entertainer Is Apparently Banking On It )” Rolling Stone
Call This “Meatless” Rather Than a “Vegan” Hot Dog to Increase Demand by 16% / Vegconomist via PSFK
What Dinner Will Look Like in the Next 100 Years, According to Scientists (and Sci-Fi Authors) / Bon Appetit via Marginal Revolution
While [SIC] Talks alum Andrea Hernandez tweets: “we have heads of innovation, MIT scientists, CEOs, CMOS and celebrities signed up to [Snaxshot]. this is what goes to their inboxes: Can we fizz in your mouth? / Snaxshot

Miscellany

The Tardigrade is a custom-built prototype of a 2-wheeled electric Moon rover, a motorcycle designed to be driven on the Moon. / Kottke
The surprising afterlife of used hotel soap /The Hustle via WITI

Things to Do

Hyperallergic’s must see art shows for May in New York and in Los Angeles / Hyperallergic
[SIC] homie Jon Santos moderates a Q+A with Short Film “Ulu Kupu” directors Tiare Ribeaux and Jody Stilwater / Neuehouse