[SIC] 208: Bombastic Quiet

Volume 4, Number 52

You don’t have to support [SIC] with a paid subscription.  But you CAN pay, if you want to. Go right ahead. I’m into it. Monthly or yearly, or founding support. Paid subscribers get an additional [SIC] Sundays newsletter each week.And founding supporters get invited to a dinner at my house in NYC with special guests. Next one’s in September.

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Hi all.

Supposedly this is the slowest news period of the year, so I was excited to find a conversation I had with [SIC] homie Troy Young featured in today’s “World Building” edition of Troy’s excellent newsletter People vs. Algorithms (highly recommended if you don’t already subscribe. It’s free). Gives you something to read over the long weekend, haha.

Troy and I talked “middle-out” brands (as I call them), and which I think of as being characterized by their organic, evolutionary and holistic development of a brand universe for themselves as a way to both engage fans and convert customers. It’s a way of working and growing that feels very appropriate given our increasingly fandom-informed way of interacting with favorite brand, but also a way of working that might actually be fun and interesting. Hence my curiosity. Have a look and let me know what you think in the comments here or via DM @dietznutz. And like I said, take a sec and subscribe to Troy’s newsletter.

Speaking of subscriptions - [SIC]’s weekly digest is free for all, but if you want to spend some business expense-able cash to chip in for my martini money, Substack turned on a new group subscriptions feature where you and your team/department/vertical/line of business/agency can get a discount of 20% if you purchase four or more subscriptions as a group. Don’t bother asking procurement; just click here to set up your group subscription:

Subscriber or not, I’m much obliged that you’re here - particularly everybody who’s joined the [SIC"] mailing list this week. And as always I’m grateful to this weeks contributors Tyler, Iolanda, Celeste, Ben, Erik and Piers for the suggestions. They’re more than welcome from everybody. Keep them coming.

Ok, on to the links. Back next Thurs with a new look & feel to kick off [SIC] Volume 5.

Ben

Greenpoint scene.

======[SIC] 208: Bombastic Quiet======

The World

• From Iolanda Carvalho: Another version of "an entire city in one building", this one in Denmark / Dezeen

• Gen Z, Millenials speak out on reluctance to be parents / WaPo via After School

• Which might be a concern since the avg life expectancy in the U.S. dropped last year to 76 years, down from 79 in 2019, the biggest decline in a century / NYT

• Related: [SIC] Talks alum Thobey Campion’s “Save As: DNA 🧬 Part 2” / Exo

• A post-dollar world is coming. The currency may look strong but its weaknesses are mounting / FT

• Hence: $20 is the new $15. Searches for $20-an-hour jobs on employment site Indeed have surpassed those for $15-an-hour roles / Axios

• Fifty-five percent of U.S adults said they made changes to the way they eat and drink in June in response to rising inflation / Morning Consult

• If every country adopted the biking habits of the Netherlands, global carbon emissions would fall by nearly 700 million metric tons per year / Euronews via Reasons to Be Cheerful

• Zombie ice from Greenland will raise sea level 10”. “This ice has been consigned to the ocean, regardless of what climate scenario we take now.” /  AP News via Public Announcement

• Hot and dry weather means exotic fruits are thriving in the UK / Quartz

• And U.S. Cropland Values Hit Record Highs/ AgWe via Ritzholtz

• Also high? Are drug dealers raising their prices due to inflation? / The FACE

• Recognizing that many public holidays are pegged to Western and Christian traditions, more companies are taking an inclusive approach to days off / Reasons to Be Cheerful

• More less retrograde: Back to the Future: On Eric Adams’s New York / The Brooklyn Rail

• Satellite companies say they're on the precipice of blanketing the planet with mobile phone service / Axios

• While in contrast: the Censorship Machine Erasing China’s Feminist Movement / The New Yorker

Trends

• From Piers Fawkes: The rise of Niche Culture and how it defines a generation / Decode

• So of course there’s now a Dimes Square Reality Show/ The Cut via After School

• But Gen Z is surprisingly absent from the millennial-dominated creator economy. The average creator is 40 years old, and Gen Z only represents 14% of all creators / Fortune via After School

• One for the home team? Gen X invented quiet quitting / LAT via After School

• And now? We’re back at it with Rewirement. Key Quote: ”I’m not retiring, I'm rewiring. My future's unfolding still, and I don't really want to put the guardrails on it." / Wunderman Thompson

• As [SIC] Talks alum Paul Munford reflects on the abrupt death of The Wing: the big question was: 'But what’s happening to the furniture?' Speaks volumes about the death of the girlboss era.” / Insider

• Venture Capital Isn’t the Problem—It’s Venture Capitalists / The Information

• Related: It’s Not Just You — Blank Street Coffee Is Suddenly Inescapable / NYT

• Enter through the Shroom Shop / Rave New World

• “I’m not saying the internet ruined boobs. But it does seem like, in real life, they’re being de-platformed.” Worn Out: Cleaving. / Spike Art Magazine

• Air-Conditioned Clothing Becomes the Latest Way to Beat the Heat / Bloomberg via Ben-Evans

• From Iolanda Carvalho: “From Ipsos --- "How we define and experience reality is constantly evolving as technologies to shape and use it become more powerful. This What the Future: Reality issue explores what will that mean for society, brands and business in the coming decades."   And the report: [What the future: reality] / Ipsos

• Online creators are de facto therapists for millions. Faced with explosive demand and few safeguards, creators of mental health content are defining their own ethics / WaPo via Public Announcement

• The Big Backlash / The Face

• This is not a blip / Music Industry Blog via Motive Unknown

• TayLo goes inside ‘crypto Woodstock’ where technologists plot a utopian future for another FWB Fest piece / WaPo

• Another view of the Friends with Benefits fest, focused on the artwork commissioned for the event that was displayed in physical form, but is also available as NFTs. How Web3 is changing the art world / i-D via Web3 Newsletter

• Wet Putty" whips are everywhere. What’s behind it? ... a BBSP investigation / Blackbird Spyplane

• Bompas & Parr Editions’ latest lurid publication, ‘A Love Letter to Cupholders’, has officially launched / Bompas & Parr

• Japandi Is Scandinavian Decor's Cooler, Japanese-Inspired Cousin / VICE

Style

• Wide-leg and longer-rise trousers—khakis, jeans, even Cary Grant-ish suit pants—are selling out in the early fall shopping season.Wide-Leg Khaki Pants Are Back. For Real This Time / WSJ via Public Announcement

• Why Tote Bags Are Back in Fashion – and Likely to Stay That Way / BoF

• From Ben Pruess: Feels like skateboarding is getting nostalgic [Donny Barley: Out There] / YT

• From Erik Lavoie: Is this another example? [Swerve TV Sports’ Reese Forbes doc] IG

• Meet Fashion Roadman, fashion critic for a new generation / Vogue Business

• After Admitting To Mistakes In China, Can Adidas Make A Comeback? / Jing Daily

• Casa Magazines Is the Last of Its Kind. A Manhattan hole-in-the-wall that attracts a famous clientele is one of New York City’s last remaining magazine shops. It’s a place that exists out of time / Esquire via Public Announcement

• Gucci’s newest campaign traverses Stanley Kubrick’s most enduring scenes / It’s Nice That

• How Tenniscore Came to Signify a New Era of Luxury Athleisure / Vogue

• The brands giving tennis apparel and equipment a modern makeover / Thingtesting

• But fans Are Markedly Less Interested in Women's Tennis Without Serena Williams/ Morning Consult

• Nike's RTFKT announces physical and digital assets for your Avatars. The styles differ depending on the DNA of your NFT, and the designs are looking super sick /@RTFKT via The Drop

• Euphoria costume designer Heidi Bivens on the iconic y2K sneakers you need/ Nylon

• Michael Kors Unveils Pre-Loved, a New Resale Marketplace / Retail Dive

• Praying, fashion's preeminent Christiancore brand, has cast its irreverent eye on adidas — specifically, the footwear giant's Supernova Cushion 7, a running shoe first introduced in the early 2000s / Prayingg via Highsnob via After School

• Lil Nas X Has Been Named YSL Beauty’s Newest Brand Ambassador / Them

• Against the odds: How Blondie shattered the conventions of punk and pop / NPR via Motive Unknown

The Arts

• Behind every Trader Joe’s sign is a working artist who painted it A very interesting story about the fine artists who make pieces to pop around aisles of Trader Joe’s / via The Trend Report

• Footballs, blood and gore: Mattia Guarnera-MacCarthy paints the gruesome side of sport / It’s Nice That

• From Ben Pruess: “You were talking about doppelgängers last night and it made me think of this.  A photographer finds total strangers who look like they could be twins” / Insider

• From Celeste Blewitt: “An interesting discussion around society and the history of tattoos, while also bringing in NFTs, the art world and how tattoos define cultures, ideas and concepts” [Will Tattoos Finally Be Accepted As Art?] /BBC

• These are the songs that went off at Notting Hill Carnival / The Face

• How Songs Make the Pollen Spotify playlist — And Why It Matters / Unbias

• In the spirit of the good AND the bad of stealing, The Unskippables made OFF-PURPLE, a playlist of the good AND the terrible Prince steals from the eighties to today / Spotify

• And Tyler points us to a one-song playlist that the label from Soulwax, Deewee does, that updates every day / Dailee Deewee

Entertainment + IP

• Not content to make films, basketball shorts and dog leashes, middle-out brands flagbearer A24 just released Florida!, your new 547-page, hyper-local guide to the most far-out state in America / A24

• Venture into the metaverse on Venice Immersive Island. At the Venice International Film Festival festivalgoers can step into the metaverse. They can play games, or "world hop" with a tour guide, dress up in costume with background dancers, or even help Coco Chanel develop her Chanel No. 5 perfume. / AP via Morning Consult

• NBC may drop an hour of its primetime schedule / WSJ via Future Party

• The music streaming service Deezer is testing a meditation app / TechCrunch

• Related? “Hand me the aux” Gregorian chant Eiffel 65 is good / Twitter via The Trend Report

• Manchester United is off to a shaky start this season, both on and off the pitch, but that’s only bolstered a bidding war between Amazon and Netflix for a docuseries on the club/ Front Office Sports

• From Celeste Blewitt: A great 30 minute listen on the evolution of Hollywood films, the Marvel/ DC marketing machines, IP and film rights … all intertwined within the Hollywood machine … 'Has Hollywood Run Out Of Ideas?' / Stories Of Our Times Podcast

• Not yet? Jordan Peele Says There May Be More ‘Nope’ Stories to Come /NYT

• “Im Not Norm” YouTube channel is Comprehensive Norm MacDonald compilation video channel. Brandon Wardell says: “Probably watch 1-2 of these per day.” / YouTube via Perfectly Imperfect

• Dan Ozzi on 25 years and counting of being a Minor Threat fan/ Reply Alt

• An interview with CLIP, hip-hop's hottest alt-girl / The FACE

Platforms & Influencers

• Spotify's Max Cutler, the VP of "talk," expects video and podcasts to blend much more / WSJ via Protocol

• Real Work is personal assistant service for creators started by the OnlyFans star Amouranth / via Publish Press

• 🚨 How Twitter’s child porn problem ruined its plans for an OnlyFans competitor / Platformer

• From Tyler McCauley: “Feels ripe for a [SIC] weekly, just showing all the levers being scammed at once - fake plays, fake writeups, fake pages - just for that IG blue check???” [Real Money, Fake Musicians: Inside a Million-Dollar Instagram Verification Scheme] / ProPublica

• Meanwhile; Censored: the exhibitions that Instagram doesn’t want you to see / The Art Newspaper

• How the Head of Facebook Plans to Compete With TikTok and Win Back Gen Z / The Verge via Morning Consult

• Netflix is using its 25th anniversary to stoke the nostalgia Gen Z loves / Quartz via Morning Consult

Marketing & Advertising

• [SIC] Talks alum Ana Andjelic goes deep on Web3 strategies for brands / Sociology of Business

• The Secrets to a Successful NFT Drop / BoF

• How Bored Ape Yacht Club is building a metaverse out of its brand identity / Ad Age

• The "R3al Metaverse" show stars Alexis Ohanian's Ape and others like Doodles and Bored Ape / Decrypt via Inside Cryptocurrency

• Zero10 and Crosby Studios are bringing the metaverse into our world. The two companies are partnering on the first physical metaverse fashion store where users can try on all the clothes via Zero10’s AR tech / Input via Future Party

• Kate Spade has opened its first virtual store: a New York townhouse where visitors can get early access to the brand’s newest bags / Vogue Business

• In contrast: why Airbnb is putting boomers in ads—and staying out of the metaverse / Ad Age

• Hard Mtn Dew seeks fan to marry a can of the hard seltzer in Las Vegas  / Ad Age 

• Gamers spend money on many things outside of gaming. How Gamers Spend Their Money and Why It Matters / TwoFiveSix

• Why musicians are partnering with gaming companies to produce original songs and content / Digiday

• From Ben Pruess: Peloton’s Pivot / Fitt Insider

• List of characters from American Advertising. What happened to mascots? can we bring that back? / Wikipedia via Strat Scraps

• Wendy's logo divides customers by going grey/Creative Bloq

Media Business

• No, the Green Bay Packers are not a realistic business model for your local newspaper / Nieman Lab

• The Face Is Not a Fashion Magazine, Says New Creative Director / BoF

• Same, same: BuzzFeed launches branded airport stores/ Axios via Nieman Lab

• Related: a second wave of merchant media? Advertisers go back to school with new retail media options / The Trade Desk via Ben-Evans

Metaverse & Web3

• Ethereum’s co-creator Vitalik Buterin sat down with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in a wide-ranging conversation about the blockchain, the importance of decentralization, and how crypto will shape the future of technology/ YouTube

• What does sustainability in the metaverse look like? / Wunderman Thompson

• Crypto and climate change: can web3 help get us to net zero? / FT

• From Iolanda Carvalho: "Why should anyone care about the metaverse? Expert Matthew Ball explains what it is, what it isn’t, and why it matters" / YT

• Another from Iolanda: The "Long List of Crypto (LLC) which aims to be the 'Web3 Yellow Pages' and catalogues list of projects (esp early stage) in every category Now 1,500+ projects captured and still growing" / Google Docs

• And Forefront DAO published An Exploration of Internet-Native Organizations / Forefront

• Critics Think the Metaverse Looks Bad. What Do Brands Pouring Money Into It Say? / WSJ

• OpenSea: Trading volume at the NFT marketplace reportedly fell 99% in 90 days/ Business 2 Community

• Crypto.com backed out of a $100.6 million sponsorship deal for the UEFA Champions League this summer, according / SportBusiness via Front Office Sports

• So Is there a future for NFTs, or is it another pandemic-fueled boom gone bust? / The Globe and Mail via Nieman Lab

• Signs point to yes, generally: Meta is now allowing users to post NFTs on Facebook and Instagram/ TechCrunch via Inside Cryptocurrency

• Dirt partners with Early Majority on a badge for offline adventures.(also, Terry Nguyen, Dirt’s senior staff writer, digs into Are.na’s appeal / Dirt

• NFT Music Streaming Player Launched By YellowHeart Web3 Platform. The new player will combine a Spotify-like streaming experience with the power of Web3 tools. In addition to streaming, for example, fans can also unlock free concert tickets, custom vinyl records and merchandise directly from their NFTs / Billboard via Motive Unknown

Food & Drink

• A visit to the world’s first crypto bar called Jungla in LA / Dirt

• This McDonald’s-themed metaverse restaurant serves food NFTs—but was built without the chain’s permission / Ad Age

• Meanwhile, Paramount, the studio behind "Coming to America” is suing over a pop-up “McDowells,” the burger joint in the movie that was a parody of McDonald's / Forbes

• Consumers' Sensitivity to 'Shrinkflation' Is Leading Them to Switch Food & Beverage Brands / Morning Consult

• Panera Bread tests artificial intelligence technology in drive-thru lanes / Business Wire

• Is ‘Jiro Dreams of Sushi’ responsible solely responsible for the American omakase craze? / Eater via Lean Luxe

• How to carve a banana dolphin / Vacation

Miscellany

• In this short animation from TED-Ed, animator Avi Ofer and University of British Columbia student Camille Defrenne explain how the interaction and architecture of root systems relate to forest dynamics, CO2 sequestration, and climate change/ TED-ED via The Carbon Almanac

• Also holistic: a new autonomous camper vehicle generates water from the air / TrendOne

• And also unexpected, from Ben Pruess: Yo these are 🔥- penguin crocs 🐧 👟 / CNN

• More animal enablement: The ongoing fight for octopus rights / NYT

• Oh, your Emotional support alligator. That old chestnut. / WaPo

Things to Do

• On Sept 6th at 1P ET, Jing Daily X Équité are hosting a free  “Creating luxury in the Metaverse Webinar” lead by Daniel Langer / Zoom

• Tonight in LA - go see Aaron Rose films @One Trick Pony! / IG

• Hyperallergic’s Los Angeles Art Guide for September 2022 / Hyperallergic

• And its Fall 2022 New York Art Guide / Hyperallergic

• The Steve Keene 30-Year Retrospective Art Book Launch Sept 13 - Oct 14 in NYC? Official opening event is Sept 22 / Event Brite

• Sunday 9/4: Ruby Hibiscus’s Ratatouille Screening in Amagansett

• Movie tickets will be $3 nationally at Regal, AMC, more theaters Saturday for National Cinema Day.

Book of the Week

David Wojnarowicz’s “Close to The Knives.” Classic NYC discovery; a neighbor left it out on the sidewalk along with some Ikea club chairs and a disassembled table. I left the furniture but grabbed the paperback. Been a wild ride so far.

======[SIC] 208: Bombastic Quiet======