[SIC] 222: Weird Travels Fast

Volume 5, Number 14

Zeitgest / Gestalt

• Sam Bankman-Fried: “I’ve had a bad month.” / NYT

• Corollary: I’m a diagnosed sociopath / Dirt

• Speaking of: Merriam-Webster named “gaslighting” its word of the year. Searches for the social media-favorite term spiked 1,740% this year

• Related, somehow: “Buy now pay later is appealing to Gen Z - and dangerous / Slate

• Cyber Monday spend reaches $11.3B with a surge in BNPL usage / Retail Dive

• Looming recession? Some Silicon Valley executives say bring it on / Fast Company

• While Larry Fink, the C.E.O. of BlackRock, said FTX will force a rethink in the V.C. world / NYT

• A “shrinkflation” investigator exposes sneaky price increases.  NYT)

• Facing surge in homeless students, teachers in Queens open a store offering free items. In Queens, teachers launched "Cubs Boutique" — a free store where parents and kids can find everything from clothing and food to household items / Gothamist

• Can’t afford to buy a house? Maybe try a houseboat / Bloomberg Wealth

• Or, Airbnb your rental apartment? / Daily Upside

• How to win in the NYC affordable apartment lottery / WNYC

• Either way, The decade-long housing boom in the US is over/ Bloomberg Wealth

• More over: EVERYONE’S OVER INSTAGRAM /  The Atlantic

• Twitter has grown under Elon Musk — mainly in the U.S., data shows / NBC

• How Gen Z and Millennials get information on essential topics / API

• Why TikTok Users Love Sped-Up Songs / Culture Notes

• And How the JPEG Changed Everything. ‘Every two minutes, people upload more images to the internet than existed in total just 150 years ago’ / Frieze

World Order

• Jamming out the white suburban Gen-X vote. One of Democrats' Biggest Draws This Year has been Dave Matthews / NYMag

• the US House yesterday passed a resolution that would force rail worker unions to accept a tentative agreement with management and make any strikes illegal / NYT

• Implications of Impending US Rail Strikes, according to Peter Zeihan / YouTube

• A Broken Twitter Means Broken Disaster Response / Gizmodo

• Why the World Cup adds to, rather than eases, all that ails Twitter / Digiday

• Decoding the signs and symbols of the US-Iran World Cup game / Quartz

• The Secret Life of Videocassettes in Iran. Iranians forged an informal underground video distribution network when their government banned all home technology in 1983 / MIT Press Reader

The Speculative Future

• Mark Zuckerberg says the metaverse is 'not the majority of what we're doing’/ Insider

• So… What are all those "chief metaverse officers" actually doing? /  Axios

• It's winter in the world of NFTs. Can direct-to-consumer brands keep their Web3 communities warm? / Thingtesting

• Robots that kill might be coming to the world’s tech capital. San Francisco supervisors voted 8–3 on Tuesday to allow the city’s police department to use remote-controlled robots to deliver potentially lethal force / Morning Brew

• Elon Musk hopes to test a brain implant in humans next year / NYT

• OpenAI trained a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests / OpenAI

• Meta's new AI is skilled at a ruthless, power-seeking game. The model is adept at forethought, negotiation and trickery. One expert called it 'super scary.' / WaPo

• AI Is Coming for the Thought Leaders / The Atlantic

• “Everyone whose job touches on writing, images, video, or music” will see major industry changes very soon, tweets Wharton professor Ethan Mollick / Twitter

• 'The Job Is Going to Die': Songwriters Say More Change Is Needed to Survive in the Music Industry / Rolling Stone

• 'Artists are about to go on strike': YouTube's Lyor Cohen on his plans to save the music industry / GQ

• Warner Records’ Web3 Label Sold 5,555 NFTs in 7 Minutes. Now It Wants to Share IP Rights With Fans / Billboard

• How NFTs and 3D Printing Are Changing Restitution. The age of digital reproduction is forever altering Euro-American collections / Frieze

Pop Cultures

• Why YouTube's focus on competing with streamers may have hurt the platform as brands focus on TikTok / Digiday

• E-sports has exploded in popularity. Profits, so far, haven’t / NYT

• Disney’s animated movies keep bombing. Strange World registered one of the worst opening weekends for Disney in the modern era / Variety

• Artists Discuss How Psychedelics Influence Their Work / Hyperallergic

• Shannon Abloh: She is ready to talk, a year after the death of her husband, Virgil / NYT

• Neil Young Embraces Imperfection, discussing his new album with the theme of climate change, his friendship with Rick Rubin, and recording melodies on his flip phone. / The New Yorker

• I Don't Make Art to Sell; Do I Still Belong in the Art World? / Hyperallergic

• Kareem Rahma’s "Keep the Meter Running" Series The premise is simple: hop in a Taxi and let the driver decide where to go while the meter stays running / Tiktok

• Everything Everywhere All At Once co-director Daniel Kwan wrote two new children's books / A24

• Elsewhere in diversification, Dua Lipa’s (surprisingly good) weekly newsletter Service 95 finally has a website. / Service95

• The Times’s best TV of 2022 list / NYT

• Conversely: The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History / Rolling Stone

Media Happenings

Publishers see a bump in commerce sales during Black Friday weekend despite economic downturn. Publishers’ commerce businesses show positive signs that consumers are still shopping despite the economic downturn / Digiday

Reed Hastings, the C.E.O. of Netflix, said he regretted not launching an advertising-supported tier for the streaming service sooner / NYT

"I did a…a tweet two weeks ago. Something about insulin." Remember the Eli Lilly insulin parody Tweet? The person who did it is actually a news producer and breaks down why this is a big issue / Twitter

New York Times Advertising makes the case for redefining ‘brand safety’ – and argues that advertising alongside negative news can actually benefit brands / The Drum

Is design scared of sex? / It’s Nice That

It’s time for the media to embrace self-service native advertising / Simon Owens

Market-ations

Why Spotify makes Wrapped its annual marketing moment / Digiday

While Foot Locker is showcasing staff members and popular musicians through social media and digital out-of-home to appeal to Gen Z / Digiday

Is Axe Body Spray Cool Again? / Gear Patrol

Watch all of the big holiday ads for 2022 / AdAge

Related: Apple shines light on accessibility features for users with disabilities in high-energy ad / The Drum

The Forbes 30 under 30 / Forbes

Arc’teryx Capitalizes On Coffee and Skiing Fever This Winter Season. Arc'teryx collaborated with coffee roaster and retailer Peet’s Coffee to launch a coffee shop in Beidahu, Jilin Province / Jing Daily

Delta is making it harder to get into its airport lounges after they were flooded by travelers / CNBC

Frontier Airlines shut down its customer hotline. In yet another cost-cutting measure from the budget carrier, Frontier will fully handle communications via digital channels / CNN

R/GA closes New York and San Francisco office spaces amid larger restructure / AdAge

What brands must learn from Balenciaga's bungled crisis / The Drum

Ogilvy launches ‘digital human’ and experience studio . The digital experience lab is the latest investment in virtual influencer tech from agencies.

"I'm a contrarian by nature," outgoing @TIME President @KeithGrossman says, on why he's decided to join crypto payments firm @moonpay amid a market downturn / Twitter

Superficial Interest

A French court ruled that companies cannot fire employees for being “no fun” / Axios

This car, totally powered by a bike / Twitter

How becoming a father can change a man’s brain / The Conversation

Renowned fashion editor G. Bruce Boyer, who wrote the ten commandments on menswear, is auctioning off parts of his personal wardrobe / Ivy Style

Food / Drink

Kelp Farming Is Reviving an Ancient Practice — and a Modern Economy, using regenerative ocean farming to clean up a New York bay and create local jobs / Reasons To Be Cheerful

The ultimate guide to vegan Paris / FT

the French baguette was added to UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage practices / Morning Brew

What’s So Special About Japanese Whiskey / The Frisky

Woman sues Kraft over mac and cheese instructions / Good Morning America

 … and some of the most interesting food lawsuits in history / The Takeout

Useful Diversions

Read: The Studio Museum in Harlem has made some of its rare catalogs and publications available in its Into The Archive section / Studio Museum

Listen:  xmastimeradio.com’s “Xmas For Freaks,” curated station of musical holiday tidings you'd never hear waiting for a mall Santa. The collection was made by Rockridge-based artist Denise Kupferschmidt / Xmastime Radio

Do: Cash Only's Cannabis XXXmas Market is going down on Saturday, December 17th at a private location in the LES. Attendance is free if you RSVP / Cash Only

Your Concise New York Art Guide for December 2022 / Hyperallergic