[SIC] 234: Neutral Tools

Volume 5, Number 26

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Corollary sources this week (all worth your review): Morning Brew / Marginal Revolution / Scope of Work / Forefront / Motive Unknown / Public Announcement / After School / Marginal Revolution / Why Is This Interesting / Nice News / Politico / Semafor / Politico / Kottke

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Hi all.

Earlier than normal, shorter than normal, because this week I’m on an extended road trip visiting colleges with my 16 year old. Setting aside the personal head trip inherent in that situation, it means my eyes have been on the road moreso on the links.

Still, plenty here to digest, including contributions from Iolanda, Celeste, Isaac and Marcella. And speaking of contributions - s/o to [SIC] homies David and Ebenezer from (the very tasty) Visitor Beer, who heard I was undertaking my twice-annual vegan/straight-edge month in Feb, and sent along a couple sixers. To paraphrase the most interesting man in the world, I don’t always drink NA beer, but when I do …

Anyway, hi from Philly. The week’s links below.

A Monumental First

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Zeitgest / Gestalt

• Do Fans Actually Want To Monetize? TLDR: Maybe not / Garbage Day

• TikTok's "Corecore" Is Where Men Scream Their Anguish. The new trend is less about Dada and more about today's global crisis of masculinity /Hyperallergic

• Roald Dahl books rewritten to remove controversial language. Augustus Gloop is now described as ‘enormous’ rather than ‘fat’/ The Telegraph

• But critics reject changes to Roald Dahl books as censorship / AP

• Because FRFR, Roald Dahl Can Never Be Made Nice, Rewriting his novels is about corporate safetyism, not social justice / The Atlantic

• From Iolanda Carvalho: “From IPSOS - “ We’re entering a ‘new world disorder.’ We can no longer afford to focus on the big issue at hand, because there are many interrelated issues at play. The biggest concern: an economic crisis that is sharpening an economic divide and raising questions around the role of business. The major challenges facing people give businesses and institutions a clear mandate to offer plans and solutions, which will differ from market to market.” / Ipsos

• IE, When strippers tell you we’re in a recession, believe them / The FACE

• Roe is gone. Feminism is trending down. The Me Too backlash is here. / Vox

• Also not stopping: After Testing Four-Day Week, Companies Say They Don’t Want to Stop” / WSJ

• Corollary: they Lost Their Jobs, Then Went Viral on TikTok / NYT

• A reaction to the reality that we are living in the corporate age of documentary? / Vulture

• A New Drug Switched Off My Appetite. What’s Left? Welcome to the post-hunger age / Wired

• While ‘Hipster-phobia’ Trends On Chinese Social Media / Jing Daily

• And from Isaac Dietz: Nike embraces DERELICTE / Nike

World Order

• We asked hot air balloon pilots what’s going on with all the spy balloons / The FACE

• Also gas-related: At 27% of total emissions, the transportation sector is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the US / EPA

• Saudi Arabia unveils giant cube-shaped supertall skyscraper for downtown Riyadh/ Dezeen

• A Google Street View replica shows the devastating impact of war in Ukraine / The Drum

• Can Psychedelics Heal Ukrainians’ Trauma? / The New Yorker

• The Supreme Court hears two cases that could ruin the internet /Vox

• More potential ruination: Inside the New Right’s Next Frontier: The American West / Vanity Fair

The Speculative Future

• Will AI be a dud for venture capitalists? / Twitter

• Related: from Iolanda Carvalho: The 2023 MAD (ML/AI/Data) Landscape is the definitive market map of companies and products in machine learning, artificial intelligence and data / FirstMark

• This Is “Silicon Sampling” .Can AI simulate research participants to generate consumer insights? / Addition

• Hence: from retail to transport: how AI is changing every corner of the economy / The Guardian

• S/o [SIC] homie Noah Brier: AI and fake brand collabs—how ChatGPT, DALL-E and Midjourney are used to create unusual mashups. Creators are obsessed with using AI image generators to design the wildest brand combos / Ad Age

• AI, WTF Do You Know About Pain? / Hyperallergic

• Actually, the banality of ChatGPT is more eerie than any A.I. movie / NYT

• Also eerie? No one knows how ChatGPT mastered languages other than English / Twitter

• Tho AI is taking music lessons. They’re not going great. / WaPo

• How 10 industries are experimenting with ChatGPT / Quartz

• IE: Love in the Time of Replika. Why crypto and AI are perfect bedfellows, actually / Not Boring

• Metaverse real estate is still expecting a boom despite market conditions / NYT

• What Web3 Can Learn From Archive of Our Own / Wired

• Ie?!:  Rentable NFTs. Rentable NFTs enable someone to use someone else’s NFT for a fixed period of time / Durbin.eth

Pop Cultures

• Cultural Capital Is The Key To Louis Vuitton’s Luxury Lead By naming Pharrell Williams as its new menswear creative director, LV is clearly positioning itself as a cultural entity rather than just a luxury brand /Jing Daily

• Related: The Ivy Park Problem / Trapital

• YouTube made Emma Chamberlain a star. Now she’s leaving it behind/ NYT

• Corollary: Inside the NBA’s Great Generation War / GQ

• London Fashion Week: Celebrity buzz and a thrifty next gen / Vogue Business

• Including: Moncler’s blockbuster Genius event during London Fashion Week featured an artwork created in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz / Vogue Business

• From Celeste Blewitt: Another AI/ ChatGPT conversation … Also, the hierarchy of fashion weeks. 'LFW Briefing: How ChatGPT And AI Are Appearing On The Catwalk' / Glossy

• Elsewhere in London: David Bowie’s vast archive donated to V&A Museum / FT

• Lo-go: how menswear got plain and simple. If the latest menswear shows are anything to go by, logos are on their way out. The hypebeast has grown up, and wants quiet functionality instead / The FACE

• Fred Perry and Raf Simons present their final collaboration after 15 years, drawing inspiration from youth culture and clothes from raves, clubs, and gigs. / Complex

• Monster Children talks to Ed Templeton about his new book ‘Wires Crossed’ / IG

• 'Cocaine Bear' is here to strike a blow to staid Hollywood /The Associated Press

• The Los Angeles Art World Is Having Its Gilded Age Moment / Vanity Fair

• Frieze LA secures city’s status as an art market destination / FT

• Tho… LA’s Hottest New Gallery Is in a Cemetery/ Hyperallergic

• Corollary: Is an influx of Latin American collectors turning Madrid into the art world’s next Miami? / The Art Newspaper

• A Day With the NY Sanitation Department’s Resident Artist / Hyperallergic

• Three Ways of Enjoying Music (and the Reverse Snobbery of Ultra-Poptimism) / Culture an Owner’s Manual

• Gucci and Kering launch circularity hub in sustainable manufacturing push / Vogue Business

• Another from Celeste: “Great read, Schiaparelli is a constant in the surrealism discussion, but it is certainly weaving into other aspects, the conversation on the current stresses in the world.” [‘The Second Coming Of Surrealism Is Here’] /Elle UK

• Also wildly woven: textile artist Alicja Kozlowska crafts surprisingly detailed textile sculptures of everyday supermarket items / Kottke

Media Happenings

• Spotify launched a new AI feature called DJ to give users the experience of having their own private radio host at all times / TechCrunch

• While TikTok launches a revamped creator fund called the 'Creativity Program' in beta / TechCrunch

• Does AI Put Evergreen Content at Risk? / A Media Operator

• ChatGPT’s arrival accelerates lifestyle publishers’ move away from SEO-driven content / Digiday

• Hence how BuzzFeed is navigating AI-generated content with advertisers / The Drum

• Most people usually can't tell how much an image has been retouched. But it seems AI can help us with that / Creative Bloq

• Tho this Science fiction mag was swamped by AI-penned stories. Faced with a deluge of short stories produced by ChatGPT, a respected science fiction magazine has closed the door on new submissions / Axios

• And Overtime launches boxing vertical citing youth demand / AdWeek

• Meta introduced a subscription service for Instagram and Facebook that will allow users to purchase blue badges that mark them as verified / The Verge

• What a podcasting industry slowdown means for advertisers / Marketing Dive

• The venture capitalist Marc Andreessen launched a Substack / Substack

• And Why We All Need Subtitles Now / Kottke

Market-ations

• How agencies are testing live shopping and seeing potential in accelerating conversions /Digiday

• Tho after removing the shopping tab, Instagram comes crawling back / Embedded

• What adidas' fallout with Yeezy means for celeb partnerships / The Drum

• Hence: Synthetic influencers: boom or bust? / Future Party

• TikTok really is becoming Gen Z’s Google (and more on how Gen Z gets its news / Morning Consult

• But advertisers remain committed to Google as TikTok and AI-powered Bing try to become search competitors / Digiday

• Wendy's 'Where’s the Beef?' is back (again). Will Gen Z care?  / The Drum

• Porsche and FaZe Clan's new partnership looks to put the luxury sports car brand in the driver seat with young consumers/ Marketing Dive

• ChatGPT, soon brought to you by, uh… Coca-Cola / Consumer Goods

• Amazon Music strikes playlist partnership with generative AI music company Endel to produce a sleep playlist using its extensive research into the neuroscience of sleep / Music Business Worldwide

• Inside Meta’s Push to Solve the Noisy Office / WSJ

• Microsoft also has built the quietest room on earth / JPost

• When it comes to celebrity beauty brands, ‘authenticity’ sells / FT

• Tho, Brands, please stop saying 'sustainability is in our DNA' / Eco-business

• Related: If purpose is our only purpose, Cannes Lions has no purpose / PRWeek

Superficial Interest

• World Wide Walls is a tool that makes web pages public canvases for everyone to draw on / OIO

• Corollary: the Roman Empire Visualized in Infographics / Hyperallergic

• Abu Dhabi: The Hottest Cycling City on Earth in more ways than one / Nice News

• From Iolanda Carvalho: For every cat person... 😉 [Cat GPT is] an amazing "catbot"! / Cat GPT

• Flaco to remain free. Central Park Zoo gives up on capturing escaped owl for now / Gothamist

• Palau’s Jellyfish Lake, where visitors from around the world can swim with beautiful (and harmless) golden jellyfish / Nice News

• From Isaac Dietz: “This is cool, nearly 500 furnitures” / Sight Unseen

Food / Drink

• What Will the World Look Like, and Taste Like, Post-Alcohol? / Esquire

• Corollary from Celeste Blewitt: “The same meal every day, a short piece, but the sentiment is strong.” [The Surprising Delights Of Monotonous Meals] / The New Statesman

• Yes, Lab-Grown Meat Is Vegan / Wired

• Corollary, from Marcella Farman-Dietz: 89 Vegan Recipes That We Just Love for Dinner / Bon Appetit

• McDonald’s and Beyond Meat are releasing their first-ever plant-based McNuggets in Germany, made from peas, corn, wheat and tempura breading /  Vegconomist

Useful Diversions

• Listen: The Avalanches Big Tent set from 2006 over on SoundCloud. Is this a contender for "greatest DJ set of all time"? Maybe! / Soundcloud

  

  A Reflection on Broad Street

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