[SIC] 232: Interpropriate Humor

Volume 5, Number 24

Feb 10, 2023

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

Corollary sources this week (all worth your review):After School / Scope of Work / Herb Sundays / Milk Road / Built With AI / Semafor / Context Collapse / The Trend Report / Nieman Lab / Quartz / Dirt / The Unskippables / Jing Daily / Micromobility Report / Ben-Evans / Morning Consult / Elevator / Ben’s Bites / Brendan’s Communications Miscellany / Public Announcement

Hi all.

Contributions are my favorite. Case in point: three good ones this week from the anonymous “B”, about which he wrote:

1) “This is a good, if not succinct piece on what most folks (narcissists excepted) are probably complaining about a lot right now [Influencer Creep. Self-documenting and self-branding are becoming basic to all forms of work] / Real Life

2) Which is itself an update and expansion on this read from a long-time back now. The central idea that if we get rid of god we then need to take responsibility for our own design is an interesting one: [The Obligation to Self-Design] / E-Flux

3) But this piece, from this week, points out that maybe all that influencer creep doesn't really make you more successful at your core competency [ The Diminishing Returns of Celebrity and Star Power] / Trapital

So, a thoroughly modern round-trip as we're still confused.”

Along those lines, this one, courtesy of the mononymous Murphy, resonated too: Are parties work? ( from Kneeling Bus.

And Speaking of Murphy - his excellent Blood & Champagne newsletter is active again, and recommended if you’re an architecture / design fan.

Thanks guys. Keep the submissions coming. And thanks Liz, Celeste, Geoff, Ed, Benji, Iolanda, Heidi and Marina for yours - all in the digest below.

On to the links.

Ben

Found this on the street. Figured it’d work this week.

======[SIC] 232: Interpropriate Humor======

Zeitgest / Gestalt

Spike Art invited Seven critics to muse on beauty and here’s a preview / Spike Art Mag
Is the new Burberry logo the start of an exciting trend? / Creative Bloq
Meta Needs Teenagers To Save The Metaverse / The Daily Upside
TikTok is crushing YouTube in annual study of kids' and teens' app usage / TechCrunch
YouTube Gave Me Everything. Then I Grew Up / NYT
The informal creative economy: a new class of cultural disruptors / Decode
What the YouTube strike means for Big Tech's return to office plans / Quartz
Theres already a gender gap in whos leading the metaverse / The Next Web
Marie Kondo is messy now—and it's actually expanding her brand / FastCo
Shamelessness is the final moat / The Rebooting
Men are struggling. Do they deserve special help? / WNYC
Related? Why aren’t movies sexy anymore? / Time
The dark and twisted return of preppy clothes / Harpers Bazaar
Comedians Are Finding Lucrative Side Hustles — No Joke — as Babysitters / Bloomberg
Also: Why everyone is into psychoanalysis right now: The community has been psychoanalysis pilled. / Dirt
Hence: a luxury rehab center is adding services to help treat crypto trading addiction. The treatment costs upwards of $75,000 / BBC
Meanwhile, $69M crypto art star Beeple is opening a studio in Charleston / Beeple.xyz
How Gen Z and the Great Resignation created a wave of overinflated job titles / Insider
This Is What Gen Z Actually Wants From Their Jobs Right Now / Glamour
Google Calendar, but it shows the cost of the meeting / Twitter
But from Celeste Blewitt: Can Gen Z Make Friends In The Pandemic Era? / BBC
For instance? Aaron Rodgers will contemplate his football future at a “darkness retreat,” during which he will sit in a small house and meditate/NYT
But good god this is a bridge too far: WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD™. A new “project” off the Morgan L stop in Brooklyn combines the “serendipity of a college campus, the co-creation of Burning Man, the agency of Silicon Valley, the vigor of a Midwestern high school track coach, and the culture of New York City.” / Curbed
Hence: How the young spend their money - “They are woke, broke and complicated. Businesses should take note” /The Economist
From Liz Mantel: “Philosophy” / IG

World Order

TikTok: how the west has turned on gen Z's favourite app / The Guardian
The People Onscreen Are Fake. The Disinformation Is Real / NYT
The Last of Us Is Right: Climate Is Making Fungi Dangerous / Gizmodo
Amazon Is Now a 'Para-State' Governing Global Commerce /Motherboard
Deep Mind State: ChatGPT's creators can't figure out why it won't talk about Trump/ Semafor
While Chinese giant Baidu to release their own ChatGPT / The Register
A new global standard for classifying crypto assets? / Coin Telegraph
What adland's silence on Tyre Nichols reveals about the industry / The Drum
The Astonishing Transformation of Austin / The New Yorker
At least Oz is staying weird? Australia will recognize MDMA and psilocybin as medicine / The Future Party

The Speculative Futures

ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web / The New Yorker
But generative AI is The Next Consumer Platform?! / a16z
The original startup behind Stable Diffusion has released an AI model that can transform existing videos into new ones by applying styles from a text prompt or reference image / Technology Review
Decentralizing healthcare. Healthcare DAOs are poised to disrupt the industry / Wunderman Thompson
From Geoff Renaud: A+ Read Storing Value in Digital Objects / Collaboration Currency
Web3 could seize on the decades-old software-as-a-service business model (C OINTELEGRAPH)
Recently discovered and oft cited, the Ben’s Bite newsletter dude just launched a free AI job board / Ben’s Bites
Scientists Working on Third Arm You Control Using Your Brain / Futurism
MIT study finds huge carbon cost to self-driving cars / Dezeen
The creation of a hyper-flexible, multi-state material is widening the possibilities of developing shape-shifting robots

Pop Cultures

[SIC] homies Chris Black and Jason Stewart don’t allow the vibes to be off / The FACE
While their friend Bret Easton Ellis trolls NYC / Vanity Fair
Big Spyplane Got That Sick Bark / IG
While Longform Podcast got the man for #521: Jonah Weiner / Long Form Pod
Mikael Kennedy Is Just a Rug Dealer / The Melt
HYBE America a cquires Quality Control, home to Lil Baby, Migos and City Girls / variety
The Talks Talks to John Malkovich / The Talks
Actors Say They're Being Asked to Sign Away Their Voice to AI / Motherboard
And the Winner Is … AI Art? /Hyperallergic
Cool brands disrupting ‘uncool’ categories are the next hot thing / TikTok
How mid-tier brands like Hoka and Salomon are changing the sneaker resale game / Modern Retail
Nobody left behind: Why fashion should strive for a ‘just transition’ / Vogue Business
Why is fashion still ignoring microfibres? / Vogue Business
China’s ‘Healthy Appetite’ For Well-being And Sportswear Means More Luxury Opportunities / Jing Daily
But midsize models are rarely cast in glossy brand campaigns. Why not? /NYT
Damien Hirst created and sold more than £8m-worth of art to benefit the NHS in 2020 / The Art Newspaper
In a big country: Paramount Reveals Plan to Remake Showtime in the Image of 'Yellowstone' / WSJ
From Celeste Blewitt: “another Kate Bush moment, although reading this it appears that perhaps Shania Twain is drawing in many generations of fans. A great read on what may be traditional popstars.” [How Country Pop Superstar Shania Twain Became A Gen-Z Icon] / BBC
Americans — and Gen Zers Especially — Want to See the Controversial Michael Jackson Biopic / Morning Consult
Corollary, also from Celeste: 'We're Going Through A Big Revolution: How AI Is De-Aging Stars On Screen' / The Guardian
More de-aging: No Wave gets a New Wave, courtesy of the Pompidou in Paris / BK Mag
The return of Hysteric Glamour / Ssense
Sydney Sweeney Made You Look / Cosmopolitan
And The 'Family Guy' Revival Is Upon Us / VICE
Corollary? from Ed Cotton: “The Power of Brilliant Design. New Penguin edition of Orwell's 1984 designed by David Pearson / LinkedIn
A great interview with Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch / Last Donut of the Night
Nissan's Kicks 327 looks like a giant drivable trainer / Dezeen
Giant Spoon picks the Super Bowl to test ChatGPT's marketing chops / Digiday

Media Happenings

Google announced its own conversational AI product, Bard / CNBC
And Google now wants to answer your questions without links and with AI. Where does that leave publishers? /Nieman Lab
As in… where Will Traffic Come From Now? / Garbage Day
Corollary: A good analysis of ‘addressable media’ / The Drum
“Meet People Where They are”: Legacy Media Wants a Piece of that Gen Z TikTok Mojo/ Vanity Fair
So… Terrible online advertising isn’t going anywhere / Twitter
How Ladbible grew to become the biggest news publisher on Tiktok / Press Gazette
And The New York Times gained more than one million digital-only subscribers in 2022 / NYT
Chinese spy balloon scrutiny and Texas crackdown ‘a wake-up call’ for marketers on TikTok /The Drum
Corollary: ESPN is devoting an entire day to the Celtics / KTAL

Market-ations

[SIC] homie Stefano Rosso On The Power Of Gaming And Demystifying The Metaverse / Jing Daily
How did Barnes & Noble come back from the dead? By decentralizing its book selection process and giving more power to the local store managers. /Ted Goia
Jack Harlow to Metro Boomin: new Super Bowl ad stars are born. Will Gen Z find it cringe? / The Drum
Tech giants rush to put chatbot to work / Axios
How Meta, Google and Snap are embracing generative AI in advertising and beyond / AdAge
Samsung is teaming up with Google & Qualcomm to build new metaverse hardware devices / Bitcoin.com
Elon Musk says Twitter is 'trending to breakeven'/ CNBC
Twitter, TikTok vie for ad dollars, offer incentives as they seek to own second screen for Super Bowl / Digiday
Games industry forced to focus on hit titles in response to weak sales / FT
While layoffs at 100 Thieves underscore esports' creator-executive leadership problems / Digiday
And yet Gamers Are More Valuable Than Companies Think / Morning Consult
Corollary: What Creepy Video Game Sounds Do to Your Brain / Wired
Breef raises $16M to match brands with marketing agencies / TechCrunch
While To rescue Vans, VF aims to replicate success at The North Face / Retail Dive

Superficial Interest

A new Little Tokyo grows in Greenpoint and Japanophiles and other cultural explorers, are flocking to the area / NYT
Ride On! A new weekly video series highlight stories from the world of small electric vehicles /YT
A great video of the last fake flower factory in NYC, where hand dyed materials are crafted into unique blooms with die presses / YT
The New Generation of Hydropower Dams Let Fish Swim Straight Through / Reasons to Be Cheerful
Careful which ones we let through, though: a fish controlling a video camera accidentally committed credit card fraud / CNBC
Kate Bush and Cocteau Twins did the music for psychedelic fruitopia ads in the 90s / Twitter

Food / Drink

Chocolate can be sweet for the environment / The Carbon Almanac
The top-rated restaurant in Montreal was a fake listing. Le Nouveau Duluth is nonexistent / CBC
Not fake: Pete Davidson got people to eat breakfast at Taco Bell / CNN
From Benji Ruth: This one is for you! St.John vs Drake’s / IG
From Iolanda Carvalho: “Some more evidence that you picked the right month to go vegan. This poached egg has a perfectly runny yolk—and it’s vegan
Yo Egg’s vegan egg is launching at L.A. restaurants this week” / FastCo
Useful Diversions
Listen: Kompakt alumn and affiliate Superpitcher, makes killer reggae mixes / I Only Listen To Reggae

Do:

NYC - tomorrow (Feb 10th) meet me at the Friends From New York Party at Deluxe Fluxx / Friends From New York
Philly: Saturday, go to fave artist Stephen ESPO Powers Free Live Print at the TLA / Mail Chimp
LA, next Weds: From Marina Garcia-Vasquez: “I am curating booth 17 at Spring/Break Art Fair in Los Angeles Feb 15th-19th, featuring artists Lee Smith and Pablo Power in a show titled Connoisseurs of Street. Tickets for the fair are here. / Eventbrite

This too.