[SIC] 231: A Distinct Lack of Couth

Volume 5, Number 23

Feb 02, 2023

Meantime, enjoy. Feel free to share, too. Here’s a button:

Corollary sources this week (all worth your review): Future of Transportation/ Declarative Statements / 1440 / Ben’s Bites / Morning Consult / Scope of Work/ After School/ Nieman Lab / Public Announcement/ Today in Tabs / The Daily Upside / Simon Owens / Roca News / The Art of Noticing / Quartz / Motive Unknown

Hi all,

I read this week someplace that the speed of technological progress has warped our sense of the temporal. To wit: Chat GPT is less than four months old, which seems crazy, given how much its been discussed, here and elsewhere. Wild.

One upshot of this trend is … more trends. We’re obsessed / overwhelmed with them. To that end, reading through my sometime-collaborator and [SIC] Talks alum Matt Klein’s Meta Trend Report was interesting. Matt’s assertion is that essentially none of the myriad (and multiplying) trend reports out there are formally substantive at all - so he read them all and distilled what’s real and what’s not. I admire the effort hugely and encourage you to check it out. Thanks for pushing the culture boulder uphill, Matt.

Thanks also to Moose, Eric, Ricky, Celeste, Iolanda, David, Jason and my mom for contributions this week - keep them coming, please.

Speaking of contributions, special shout out to some favored former colleagues. Per [SIC] homie and Breakfast Club OG Dan Bradley: “I think I teased this the last time I saw you but Jon [Weidman] and I are launching a production + creative shop. It's called Duplex Deli and you can check out the reel and even see weird head shots of Jon and myself if you search hard enough.”

My take: if you’re looking for top tier moving media production and creative resources, give ‘em a shout.

Speaking of former colleagues on to new highs, this from Zach Sokol: “[Cash Only] is throwing a Valentine's Day-themed market x party with Dirty Magazine on 2/11. There will be two dozen vendors -- a mix of legacy weed brands, sex / sexual wellness brands, and arts/culture/zine/jewelry makers. Also DJs, on-site consumption, and a peep show with some wild performers. People need to RSVP (free) in order to get the address of the party.”

Sounds fun, Zach! Readers - lmk if you’ll make it and maybe we’ll meet there.

Oh and also for those in / convenient to NYC; I’m going to host a special edition of our weekly Breakfast Club next Thursday (Feb 9) at Le Crocodile in Williamsburg, starting at 8:30a ET. Everyone’s welcome, and everyone pays their own way - so if you’ve ever wanted to eat eggs Royale and talk [SIC] with me, come hang. RSVP by replying to this note.

Ben

Andrew WK’s first record returns randomly to my orbit roughly once a year, and never fails to please. So dumb, so fun.

======[SIC] 231: A Distinct Lack of Couth======

Zeitgest / Gestalt

Garbage Day’s readership weighs in on what’s Hyped or Slumped / Part and Sum OS
Speaking of hyped: is #corecore radical art of gibberish shitposts? Per [SIC] Talks alum Casey Lewis: “A fascinating explainer that will absolutely make you feel 150 years old” / No Bells
In reply, Today in Tabs is “begging anyone interested in [#corecore] to read anything at all about Dada” / MoMA
Meanwhile, the ‘Gen Z shake’ is the new ‘Millennial pause’ / Embedded
And “de-influencing” is TikTok’s response to overconsumption and inauthenticy / Glossy
More trends: Day One Agency’s “Predictionary” is this week’s reference du jour / Cloudfront
Why to we find stuff cringe? The psychological investigation the world has been waiting fora / The FACE
Is tipping getting out of control? /AP
Also out of control: there’s an “Ozempic face": a telltale lewk of sagging skin and hollow cheeks on those using the popular weight loss drug / Business Insider
Also sagging: when Americans Lost Faith in the News / The New Yorker
Corollary, from Moose Huerta: “There’s a quote in there that “the internet could use less shit talkers.” Could be a good link for you": [Eric Swisher of Chromeball Incident on the Beyond Boards pod] / Apple
Meet the teenager leading the smartphone liberation movement / NYT
In Lagos, Nigeria, the cool kids have found one another at a thrift market / NYT

World Order

The world is not ready for the long grind to come. Demographic changes and deglobalisation will keep inflation higher than policymakers were used to pre-pandemic/ FT
Hence: ~1.3M French people marched to protest retirement reform / The Guardian
Tho in contrast: The kids are alright after all. It was feared the pandemic would harm young people’s job prospects but so far that doesn’t appear to be true / FT
In fact, will Gen Z be the first generation not to experience imposter syndrome? / Fast Company
Did the Covid housing boom induce the Great Resignation? / Marginal Revolution
New Yorkers Never Came ‘Flooding Back. Why Did Rents Go Up So Much? Getting to the bottom of a COVID-era real estate mystery / Curbed
Is TikTok the Secret to Finding an Apartment? From renters to agents, the social platform has become a valuable resource / Architectural Digest
Elsewhere in agents: The IRS is investigating OnlyFans / Future Party
The five-star office. Can in-office hospitality bring workers back to their desks? / Wunderman Thompson
Speaking about coming back: Peter Zeihan on China's Competitive Edge: Solar Exports / YouTube
While we’re at it, Zeihan and his Subaru says AI: NBD (sky net take-over wise, anyway) / YouTube

The Speculative Future

A list of unclassified DARPA projects for 2023 / Darpa.mil
From Jason Leavy: “Only have a single link to share. However, will clutch at the quality over quantity argument as it's a great long-form piece .. [why VR/AR gets further away as it gets closer]” / Matthew Ball
While from Iolanda Carvalho: “AI battles... “ Google may use Deepmind's Sparrow as ChatGPT competitor / The Decoder
Whispers of A.I.’s Modular Future. ChatGPT is in the spotlight, but it’s Whisper—OpenAI’s open-source speech-transcription program—that shows us where machine learning is going / The New Yorker
[SIC] homie Ed Cotton posits that AI Reveals the Dark Soul of the Facebook Brand / LinkedIn
Tho, on the bright side? ChatGPT raises new potential for NFTs / Midia Research
OpenAI has hired an army of contractors to make basic coding obsolete / Semafor
From David Bloom: If you’re wondering how Hollywood’s talent agents and managers are looking at AI, here’s one example of why they may be excited…Now, some of their biggest stars can have careers stretched by decades / The Hollywood Reporter
Another from David: “Squid Game meets BTS meets the Metaverse…in Korea….DEFINITELY where we’re heading….. “ Will the Metaverse Be Entertaining? Ask South Korea / NYT
And from Iolanda: 11 Tech Trends to Watch in 2023. Key quoute: “In a noisy media landscape fueled by hype and speculation, it can be tough to know where true value is being created … 11 Tech Trends To Watch Closely in 2023, helps narrow down some areas of focus" / Visual Capitalist

Pop Cultures

adidas’s new Gen Z, fashion-forward line is its biggest launch in 50 years / Vogue Business
Don’t tell my kids, but ‘The skinny jean is not going anywhere’ / Retail Dive
Related (ha): From my mom Ginger Dunlap-Dietz: Who gets to be abstract? A legendary show of Black artists gets a second look in “revisiting 5+1” / Art News
More revisitation: Paul Smith to co-curate exhibition on Picasso/ The Art Newspaper
Did Air Pollution Inspire Impressionism? / Hyperallergic
The Biggest Shitshow Ever, Literally. Oh Shit! retraces the historical arc of feces from ancient Rome to the sewage challenges and potential innovations of the 21st century / Hyperallergic
Corollary: Plunging arts exports, cancelled fairs and increased regulation: how Brexit is endangering the UK art market three years on / The Art Newspaper
Cracking the Code of Creative Growth. How two beloved institutions showcase and support artists working outside of the mainstream art world/ Hyperallergic
How artists like Tracey Emin are driving philanthropy in the art world / The Art Newspaper
Brits can now get a master’s degree in podcasting. The City University of London is the country’s first dedicated program for this medium / Quartz
Did Spotify kill the album box set? /
Related: are bands dead? How solo stars took over the charts / The Guardian
Not this one: On the Bus with Pavement: Tour Diary / Paris Review
Also, How Spotify turned dance music into dance muzak / 5Mag
Hence: the Hottest Song at the Club? 'The White Lotus' Dance Remix / NYT
He Designs Sneakers With Dua Lipa and Writes Songs With The Weeknd. Billy Walsh may be the ultimate multi-hyphenate. His sneakers have won awards. So have his hit songs with Post Malone / NYT
Arden Jones Wants to Pay Off Your Parking Tickets by Selling NFTs. The Atlantic Records artist dropped his hit song “Parallel Parking” as an NFT and will use the funds to pay off others’ parking tickets / Decrypt
Speaking of ‘car songs’: The Shards Playlist. Every song mentioned or hinted at in Bret Easton Ellis’ 2023 novel “The Shards” In the order of appearance / Spotify

Media Happenings

Many brands are ‘reluctant buyers’ of ads on retail media networks / Retail Dive
And brands are finally waking up to the fact that programmatic ads are virtually worthless / Digiday
So publishers are investing in their TikTok content, but almost none of them are actually generating any direct revenue from these efforts / Press Gazette
Related: can you build a newsroom on TikTok? / Semafor
Showing no signs of chill, Netflix enters its next phase / The Hustle
While Spotify earned nearly a half billion dollars in ad revenue last quarter, an all-time high, thanks in part to its heavy investments in podcasting / Axios
Paramount will combine Showtime with Paramount+ / Axios
And Bloomberg will rename its streaming channel “Bloomberg Originals” and feature more documentaries and talk shows / WSJ
Roku and Tubi will now feature HBO content / TechCrunch
While across the hall: CNN just suffered its worst ratings week in 9 years / The Wrap
The solution? CNN boss Chris Licht wanted to air the network’s morning editorial meeting live on air. FWIW I love this idea / LATimes
Meanwhile, Snapchat's pitch to advertisers is starting to feel as ephemeral as its content — and its Q4 results prove it / Digiday
To that end, from Eric Korsh: “You probably read this guy already, but I always love his ability to summarize and clearly state the issues. This is so dead-on from our Vice/Mashable days...just a bit sad, if inevitable” … [SIC] Homie Troy Young ruminates on Media's Valuation Quagmire / People Vs. Algorithms
Ergo: Atlas Obscura wants to be profitable before raising funds in a tricky media market / Digiday
And Bustle Digital Group announced this week that it was cutting 8% of its workforce and shutting down Gawker completely / Twitter
Tho Carlos Watson is somehow still at it / Twitter
At least fave graphic design pub It’s Nice That is also still at it: they launched a biweekly design newsletter called “The Index” / It’s Nice That
While Substack enabled pledges (feel free to pledge me haha) that will allow users to submit their credit card information to writers who currently publish their content for free / Axios
And media newsletter dude Simon Owens and friends launched a agency capability / Simon Owens

Market-ations

As inflation struck a three-decade high in Sweden in December, McDonald’s promised to honour old prices that were still visible on billboards in Google Street View / Contagious
While Chipotle is launching a jewelry collection for Valentine's Day / QSR Magazine
Think big: why luxury is betting on giant marketing spectacles /Vogue
Seth Rogen and Airbnb teamed up on a house you can … smoke weed in? / IG
And MSCHF made WD40 cologne / Smellslikewd40
Influencer marketing firms get a seat at the table/ The Future Party
Even tho a mascara-based drama is rippling through the internet as TikToker Mikayla Nogueira was accused of wearing fake eyelashes (and obscuring the sponsored content label) in a mascara review for L’Oreal / Time
From Celeste Blewitt: ‘The Junkification Of Amazon. Why Does It Feels Like The Company Is Making Itself Worse?' / NY Mag

Superficial Interest

Running in London with the world’s oldest cross-country club /FT
The wonders of StreetView. Keep reloading / Google Street View
In a largely unseen system, abandoned bikes are repaired and shipped to people across the US — and around the world — who can use them to travel to school or work. Where Do Abandoned Bicycles Go? In Some Cases, Madagascar / Reasons To Be Cheerful
For More Sustainable Housing, Just Add Mushrooms / Reasons To Be Cheerful
Also shrooming: Scientists studying psilocybin accidentally proved the self is an illusion / Quartz
And a US startup announced it raised $150M in funding to “de-extinct” the dodo bird / Bloomberg

Food / Drink

From Ricky Engelberg: “This article is amazing [The Restless Quest for a Better Frozen Pizza]” / NYT
The secret history of the nacho / Twitter
Cheesecake Factory Knows What You Want / Vox
Elsewhere in millennial nostalgia: Some Chuck E Cheese franchises still use floppy disks to program their animatronics shows/ TikTok
From Celeste Blewitt: “I’ve shared a piece on the Inspired Unemployed and Better Beer previously, but to see what they've created and developed since is of interest given all the drink trends of late, the algorithms are at it again” [‘Comedians Take Better Beer From $0 to $50million In 15 Months’] / AFR
Related: Nonalcoholic Beer Has Entered Its Golden Age / Punchdrink
Tho the bottom of the Manuka Honey market has dropped out / The Motley Fool
Guess I picked the right month to go vegan: compared to alternatives such as oat milk, cow’s milk needs 13 times more water, uses 11 times more land and generates over 3 times more greenhouse gas emissions / The Carbon Almanac
But can we make the masses eat microalgae? / CNN
Related (tho not food, really): Is all fruit leather made equal? / Futurevvorld
Corollary: A blogger in China who cooked and ate great white shark got hit with a $18,500 fine / Bloomberg

Useful Diversions

Go see fave gallery Public Access’s Dave Schubert show opening Feb 9th, a tribute to the late, great photog, who passed recently / IG
Apropos of my being out West during Felix Art Fair et al: Your Concise Los Angeles Art Guide for February 2023 / Hyperallergic

words to live by