[SIC] 193: Gotcha Opin

Volume 4, Number 37

May 19, 2022

But you CAN pay, if you want to. Go right ahead. I’m into it. Monthly or yearly, or founding support.

Starting this week, paying subscribers will get an additional newsletter on Sundays (more on that below). And founding supporters get invited to a series of dinners at my house (first one is this Saturday).

Feel free to share, too

Hi all,

I am often asked how I have time to put the newsletter together. Truthfully, digesting and compiling the stories is a natural function of my daily consumptions. The thing that takes more time than I’d like is the editing down (yes, there’s a lot I leave out).

Last Friday I had a brainwave: if I send TWO emails a week, I’ll have to edit less! And I can offer something to those generous subscribers who pay for this, even tho they don’t have to. So, I’m starting that on Sunday. Paid subscribers, let me know what you think (including if it’s too much).

More updates: after last week’s comment about how it’d driven a bunch of subscribers to me, despite my not knowing of it, La Mutante’s author Noémie wrote me back, which was lovely. According to her:

“My newsletter is about fictional stories of possible/probable futures. And I wrote a piece on all the publications that inspire me on this journey of spotting trends and transforming them into stories - including yours!”

You should check it out, suffice to say. NB: it’s written in French, so bring a translator.

Also last week: Substack featured [SIC] homie Sam Valenti and his Herb Sundays newsletter and playlist (both highly recommended). Sam has been a friend for years, and the feature prompted me to invite him to do a talk with me today.

Founder of the record label and art-forward creative force Ghostly International, Sam’s got a ton of stuff going on, like his Ghostly-related Music NFT to offer as a project with Matthew Dear. Behold. There’s also stuff like this spontaneous product collaboration with the designer Noah Baker. And Ghostly International and Secretly just formed All Flowers Group as Pitchfork reports. It’s gonna be fun conversation.

It’s happening today at 4p ET on my IG @dietznutz (and in my grid on-demand thereafter). As always, my reco is to ‘watch’ on desktop, so you can click around as we talk.

Also, the trailer to the Karim Rahma vehicle “Out of Order” at Tribeca Film Fest is downtown star-studded. Leave it to Beckles to play the foil, btw. / IG

======[SIC] 193: Gotcha Opin======

Reality, presented with no comment.

The World

Is this another tech bubble bursting? And should you, a normal person, care? / Vox
And are we post-platform? / Dirt
This thread to learn some of the second-order consequences of the Luna / Terra death spiral / Twitter via Zima Red
It's a VUCA world, we're just living in it. In this piece, Samantha Marin defines “VUCA” in the context of DAOs: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity / Quorum Newsletter via Forefront
All of Those Quitters? They're at Work. / NYT
Why don’t computers work?A neat theory to explain the productivity puzzle 2 /FT
From Celeste Blewitt: 'It's Time To Realise That AI Will Never Think Like A Human- And That's OK' / BBC

Trends

Welcome to the era of unapologetic bad taste / Time
So much for short king summer. Men are getting height increasing surgery to better compete in the dating market / Buzzfeed
What TikTok’s obsession with nepotism babies says about class / The FACE via After School
Teens are going straight to TikTok for all of their college questions / The Future Party
Worldwide, the median age is 31. But that’s on track to only get higher, and the replacement rate has a lot to do with that. 🎧 / Quartz
How Gen Z is hooked on Cryptocurrency and NFTs 🤑. For Generation Z, it is the volatility — and the decentralised nature — of digital assets such as cryptocurrency and NFTs which appeals. / BBC via Probably Nothing
Many adults under 35 are throwing financial caution to the wind. The World’s a Mess. So They’ve Stopped Saving for Tomorrow / NYT via Public Announcement
Why Doesn’t anyone remember Gen X? / Linkedin
New York City’s Nightlife Isn’t Dead. It’s Just Trying Not to be Found / Airmail
New York has never been as cool as it was in the 80's. John Lurie breaks it down / Mel Magazine via Ruby Dispatch
When You're a City Person, You're A City Person... Forever / Esquire UK via Public Announcement
The city is, objectively, getting louder /City Journal via Dirt
The Dimes Square timeline neglects to mention Bacaro, thankfully / Curbed via After School

Style

Brandy Melville is a fountainhead for libertarian fashion / Mel via After School /
Appropriately, then: Brandy Melville Size Discrimination Is a Big No-No in China / Jing Daily
From Celeste Blewitt: “Great dive into the world of thrifting, or 'op-shops' here and the knowledge of vintage and second hand that is now known, with the generational shift from thrifting to Ebay / Depop/ Instagram/ Etsy and all the rest”: Even Thrift Stores Aren't Immune From Rising Prices' /WSJ

The Arts

A full-issue Tribute to Lance De Los Reyes BKA “RAMBO” / Brooklyn Rail
“Privatize the Mandem” is a blueprint to fighting inner city gentrification/ The FACE
101 Things to Learn in Art School (PDF) / Dropbox via Strat Scraps
Prada slide conceptualist Carsten Holler on How Long Gone is no brutal listen (sorry, had to) / Spotify
Bruce LaBruce on Porn and Revolution / Frieze
'Buying art is like meeting a new friend': advisor Elizabeth Von Habsburg on her very personal approach to collecting / The Art Newspaper
The Whys And Why Nots Of Art NFT Collecting / Jing Culture & Commerce
How NFTs helped Murakami see the art industry anew 🌷/ Artnet
David Zwirner doubles down on competition with auction houses, launching online consignments portal / The Art Newspaper
A basic universal basic income for artists? US cities are trying it /FT

Entertainment + IP

Is current comedy favoring the right wing? / Politico via Marginal Revolution
Comedians Wonder: Can People Still Take a Joke? / NYT
Hollywood braces for new age of austerity after streaming splurge / FT
How Japanese Anime Became the World's Most Bankable Genre / THR
Chainsmokers to Give Away NFTs That Include Streaming Music Royalties / Pymnts via This Week in Web3
Labels Are Still Pushing for 360 Deals — But the Terms Are Better / Billboard via The Cadence
DJ legend Jeff Mills unaccountably squatting in an all-white room and producing a live techno masterclass on a single Roland TR-909? Reach for the lasers! / YouTube via Music Ally
Style god Spanky Long’s “Out There” on Thrasher is a really cool, spontaneous portrait of an artist. And what a head of hair…. / Thrasher
pglang call me! Kendrick Lamar’s future as a entrepreneur/WSJ
Kendrick’s next move at Block is a deal with Jack Dorsey/ Quartz
This Daniele Baldelli playlist is great. It’s 777 songs Baldelli apparently played at Cosmic Disco / Spotify via SFJ (via Love Injection’s Barbie Bertisch)
Songs with ‘Go!’ Parts / Public Announcement

Platforms & Influencers

Gen Z breaks down their go-to apps / Future Party
The Never-Ending Quest to Uncover (and Ruin) the Next It App / Vanity Fair
Netflix is testing live streaming / The Future Party
Liu Genghong Is the Face of China’s Hottest Trend, Workout Livesteams / Jing Daily
“Followers Are a Valuable Currency. Who Should Own Them?” / WaPo via Dealbook
TikTok is rolling out a new button for users to credit who inspired their content / Future Party
How Twitter lost the celebs / WaPo
Google is remaking search and maps for the TikTok generation / via After School
The Future of Search Is Boutique / a16z via Weak Signals and Trends

Marketing & Advertising

As Meta Stumbles, Major Advertisers Are Finding Other Platforms Do the Job Just as Well / Adweek
Forget the metaverse, gaming is the real advertising opportunity / The Drum
Rugvertising: Spotify is bringing tapestries back into fashion on behalf of indie-rock group Florence + the Machine with a tribute to lead singer Florence Welch. / the Drum
Tres Cruces beer turns gaffe to gold / Contagious
“Mark’s Brain” Is a New Short Film That Captures Gonz's Creative Spirit (In conjunction with Shopify)/ Youtube via Public Announcement

Metaverse & Web3

From Iolanda Carvalho: “Agree! "When new technology is discovered, its purpose tends to be misunderstood" [Crypto is a new culture that can’t be ignored] / Warc
Also from Iolanda: “You probably have this [a16z’s “State of Crypto” report] already, but sending it for redundancy... --- "the inclusion of extra components which are not strictly necessary to functioning, in case of failure in other components" 😉. On top of all, looks amazing…”/ A16Z
Proofs of attendance are Web3’s new status symbol /Vogue Business
Can we create a moral metaverse? / The Guardian
Yuga Labs have killed Web 3 / Wired via This Week in Web3
Why Build in Web3 / Harvard Business Review
What if your subscription was an NFT in the blockchain? Rent out your subscription (Netflix, Spotify, etc) through web3. Optimize subscription revenue while maximizing user flexibility. Web3 is the way/ Nigel Lee via This Week in Web3
Roblox's CEO reportedly spoke about the ability to wrap Roblox digital items in an NFT and take them off-platform / Twitter via Zima Red

Food & Drink

How some big grocery chains help ensure that food deserts stay barren / The Counter via Weak Signals and Trends
Public libraries are stocking seeds that members can “check out” to plant in their yards, gardens and pots. / Civil Eats via Reasons to Be Cheerful
Inside the cheese caves of Crown Heights / Brookyn Mag 🧀

Miscellany

How I started to see trees as ‘smart’ First, I took an acid trip. Then I asked scientists about the power of altered states / New Yorker
Life in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch / Design Boom via 1440
She pioneered the sale of breast milk, then lost everything. /Twitter

Things to Do

Meet me at Fish Friday at Acme in Greenpoint at 8a for a special send-off / IG
Then see me at Adult Braces at The Drift / IG
See How Long Gone live at Tribeca Film Festival / TFF
Visit the Deep Water Literary Festival in Narrowsburg NY, June 17-19th / Deep Water Festival

======[SIC] 193: Gotcha Opin======

Same day, different toad.

======Off Cuts======

These are links that didn't make the newsletter. Rather than discarding them, here they are, in no particular order.

The most ground-breaking invention in history? The Lindy Letter’s Paul Skallas makes the case for air-conditioning / Revue
Air-Conditioning Should Be a Human Right in the Climate Crisis / Scientific American
Surviving a day of doom at a Florida Prepper Convention / Tampa Bay Times
Why you need to be aware of big influential NFT accounts. Big Platform Big Scam? / Twitter via Probably Nothing
Physical retail is back. And this time it’s sustainable / Vogue Business
Zegna joins Nike linking CEO bonuses to climate targets / Vogue Business
This is cool: Printed Matter’s got a bunch of zines available for free download / Printed Matter
Why take binoculars on your next museum visit? You might solve an art history mystery / The Art Newspaper
The green bubble, Charli?! Charli XCX Roblox Live Concert to Promote Samsung’s Latest Phones/ Digital Music News via Beats & Bytes
Shots fired! Orson Welles on Woody Allen/ Twitter via The Lindy Letter
Belle and Sebastian Sing of Middle Age / The New Yorker via Music Redef
This seems like a bad idea: Apple will let your subscription apps charge you more money without asking / The Verge
HalloApp is the dream of an ad-free social network. Now it needs to scale. Stop me if you've heard this one before: An app that promises to be the anti-Facebook is focusing on real connections instead of ads and brands. Of course, this has been tried before. / Protocol
Gap sets up shop in Roblox to boost teen inclusion, self-expression / Retail Dive
Robinhood is launching a crypto wallet, so they made an animated movie about it / YouTube
And if you click on this link I’ll be closer to the front of the line for it. It’s for research! / Robinhood
Leave the Sweatshirt at Home. Dining Dress Codes Are Back. / NYT
But no one wants to work in restaurants anymore / Quartz
A bicycle (helmet) built from shrooms/ Dezeen
Not everyone can picture things / WSJ
Brothers Macklovitch spring 2022 DJ Set / Soundcloud
IYKYK: a 7-minute documentary about the Lo Lifes here / Dazed via Blackbird Spyplane
Another Reco from big Spyplane: Ben Jones’s “Stone Quackers” series from 2014 / Hulu
Pass the peas: The Danny Brown show is a thing now. / IG
What Sprite's viral TikTok challenge could teach other brands. Ie: STFU and enjoy it? / AdAge
Doja Cat Is the Average Marketer's Worst Nightmare. That's Why Taco Bell Hired Her / Adweek
Small Talk Isn’t Nearly as Useless as We Think / Mel
Super riches bring supersized issues. Meet the counsellors who treat the 0.01 per cent / FT
A fast-growing security industry is protecting the rich from online harassment / FT
Americans are stepping off the hamster wheel and redefining what success looks like / Fortune via After School
Jon Wexler: From Kicks to Cards How Wex went from constructing Yeezy with Kanye to creating the future of cards through culture at zerocool. Few people in any industry can be recognized by one name, let alone three letters. / Boardroom via Beats & Bytes
Hashtag United: How a YouTube Streaming Channel Turned Into a Real Soccer Team / WSJ
Mastercard will let you pay with your hand… / Daily Upside
When the CIA rebrands: a review / Tone of Voice
Q&A with Cathy Hackl, AKA 'The Godmother of the Metaverse' / The Drum
Napster Enters The Web3 Chat: What Y2K Music Brands Could Bring To Web3 / The Cadence
Millenials Disrupting the Funeral / Curbed via The Trend Report
For future growth, Reebok is looking to its past / Retail Dive
Case in point, sort of: Reebok recreates Eames Elephant as trainer / Dezeen