[SIC] 237: Found Harmonium

Volume 5, Number 29

The [SIC] newsletter on Thursdays is free, and will be forever, unless I change my mind. Unlikely.

But you CAN pay, if you want. 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 home in NYC with special guests.

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

Corollary sources this week (all worth your review, and all easily discoverable: After School / Robinhood Snacks/ Scope of Work / Elevator / Ben’s Bites / Micromobility Report / Marginal Revolution / Dirt / The Rebooting / Public Announcement/ Built with AI / Music Redef / Quartz / Reasons To Be Cheerful / The Drop / The Unskippables / Brendan’s Communications Miscellany / Morning Brew / Blazer

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Hi all,

I am not much on Twitter, so I nearly missed it when Daisy Alioto (co-founder of the very interesting media brand, Dirt) tweeted a very flattering endorsement of this newsletter, which made my weekend. Maybe coincidentally, Daisy’s Dirt co-founder Kyle Chayka launched a podcast-cum-newsletter around the same time that illustrated one of my points about multi-modal content in the Culture Journalist episode that (I assume) Daisy heard about [SIC] through.

I should stress I don’t know Daisy or Kyle at all but they strike me as very bright and both Dirt and Kyle’s newsletter are very, very good. I do, however, really appreciate the love - so if you feel like sharing [SIC], please do. Friends, colleagues, family, whomever. Here for it.

Speaking of friends, the way [SIC] homie Jonah Weiner scooped himself with the big Spyplane Steven Yuen interview, before expands the picture with the WSJ Mag Steven Yuen profile. Jonah and Erin also kind of repeated the practice this week on BBSP, first proclaiming a ‘new holy decree’ that Biker jackets are not cool , and then immediately following with a “Slapping leather jacket report.” Respect the technique.

More friend/trends: Trend God is an artificial intelligence project created and trained by [SIC] Talk alum Piers Fawkes, Founder of PSFK and a sharp character. And from friend and Lisbon correspondent Iolanda Carvalho: this!!! [The Future Today Trend Report]

Thanks for the contributions, you two. And thanks Celeste, Matt, Jason, Jon, David for yours, too!

Ben

======[SIC] 237: Found Harmonium======

Zeitgest / Gestalt

• What Conversation Can Do for Us .Our culture is dominated by efforts to score points and win arguments. But do we really talk anymore? / The New Yorker

• Ergo: How Please Stopped Being Polite / The Atlantic

• Adjacent, from Celeste Blewitt: 'How A TV Soccer Host Sparked BBC's Biggest Crisis In Years' / The Hollywood Reporter

• Oh also you guys?! Millennials are hitting middle age. How are they feeling? / NYT

• Fortunately? TikTok is changing what it means to be old / Wired

• A bunch of simps: The most popular Gen Z slang terms is the something New York, New Jersey, Washington, Oklahoma, Virginia and New Hampshire agree upon. No Cap! (that’s Indiana) / Mental Floss

• Corollary: Gen Z can let avatars go on dates for them now / The Future Party

• Tho don’t mention Dating app data that will hurt your feelings :( / Decode

• Related: People think Gen Z is Sex Negative but the Truth is More Complicated / Buzzfeed

• IE: Gen-Z is shacking up at record rates / Bloomberg

• Also since you asked, Gen Z isn't 'quiet quitting'—they're grappling with a lack of interpersonal connection / Fast Campany

• But they still don’t believe they need a college degree to succeed / Fortune

• What TikTok’s confessional GRWM videos say about our culture of oversharing / Dazed

• Speaking of oversharing? Which Stores Are Scanning Your Face? No One Knows / NYT

• Also in stores? “Premiumization”: The corporate world’s new favorite buzzword, which is essentially a euphemism for higher consumer prices / NYT 

• Meanwhile in acronyms, SVB collapse overshadows AI at SXSW / AdAge

• But since the FDIC sorted that all out: ChatGPT, MDMA and a more subdued web3. Here are SXSW 2023's 3 biggest trends so far / The Drum

• And since knowing how to count is good: TikTok is adding a third feed just for science and math videos / The Verge

• And what it means to be tall? Trendspotting with Tall Neil of "shoppy shop" fame / Embedded

• From Iolanda Carvalho: Need this ignoring skill 😉. Critical thinking is great, but in a world full of information we need to learn 'critical ignoring' / WEF

• Speaking of ignoring… what Happened to Baseball? Fighting Refinement Culture / The Lindy Newsletter

World Order

• The Biden administration has threatened to ban TikTok unless its Chinese owner ByteDance sells off the app / NPR

• How a social network falls apart / The Verge

• Corollary: "It was all numbers, no narrative" - Lulu Cheng Meservey, EVP Corporate Affairs and CCO at Activision Blizzard, argues that SVB's financial collapse "was largely driven by a communication collapse." She explains how their messaging "went off the rails, in 4 big ways." A compelling thread / Twitter

• From Matt @TheTechnorati: SVB Couldn’t Ignore Its Losses, But the Fed Can. Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, BTFP exploits, claims trading, bond trading, USDC and the effect of Money Stuff vacations on volatility / Bloomberg

• Another from Matt: Is This Bitcoin Price Run Bringing Hyperbitcoinization? / Bitcoin Magazine

• From Jason Leavy: “(yet another) great newsletter which i think your subscribers will get a lot of value from [Implications, by Scott Belsky]”/ Implications

• The rise of the platform economy. Every company should have a strategy to help it grow outside its home market, both geographically and across product lines / FT

• Corollary then: Peter Zeihan on Trusting the Numbers in a Deglobalized World / Youtube

The Speculative Future

• OpenAI just released GPT-4. GPT-4 is multimodal and it can accept image inputs as well as text, which means it can understand images like it can text(!)/ OpenAI

• But actually The Bing AI bot has been secretly running GPT-4 all along / The Verge

• Microsoft is set to host a “Future of Work With AI” event today / Engadget

• But for the rest of us, Ryan Broderick’s the “can my parents use this thing right now” test will do the trick. This is a very good post./ Garbage Day

• Meanwhile Midjourney v5 is released to level up your AI art skills / Twitter

• Also good? Thanks to a combination of LLaMA model leaks and some legend compressing the models into a manageable size for personal computers, chatbot development is now accessible to everyone with a laptop / Github

• Related: check out this post for how to run these models on your Mac / Simon Williston

• Since you asked: Machine learning as a tool for hypothesis generation / NBER

• Hence: both teachers and students find use for ChatGPT / The Future Party

• So Is it time for the creator economy to subscribe to AI? / Decode

• Cos If you’re not using ChatGPT for your writing, you’re probably making a mistake / Vox

• Related, from Iolanda Carvalho: Trend du jour... [That Ikea x Patagonia collab? Generative AI made it happen] / Fast Company

Pop Cultures

• It’s way in my brain: The Sleng Teng Edition / Why Is This Interesting

• Related: Composers Find Transcendence, and Inspiration, at the Club / NYT

• Apropos of that: on repeat throughout the creation of this edition: Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Which I legit think might be making me smarter. Or less dumb, anyway / Spotify

• From David Bloom: “I suspect this won’t be the last time we see an interesting fashion designer remake an established museum, but it’s interesting what’s being done here with the Picasso museum in Paris by Paul Smith…..”[Musée Picasso Paris Gives Carte Blanche to Reinstall Its Permanent Collection]/ Art News

• Elsewhere in takeovers: the city of Glendale in Arizona will change its name to Taylor Swift on Friday and Saturday, in honor of the U.S. singer launching her Eras Tour in its City Farm Stadium this week / American Songwriter

• Related, and surprising no one: The Taylor Swift Fandom Is White, Suburban and Leans Democratic / Morning Consult

• 2023 Music Marketing Strategies: A&R and Discovering Artists. 5 music professionals working in A&R answer "How do you see artist development continuing to evolve in 2023?

• While Central Cee takes Americans on a tour of British rap / The New Yorker

• While Former Assistants Accuse Tom Sachs of Running a Scary, "Cult-Like" Studio / Hypebeast

• And Arabic Music Is on the Brink of a Global Breakthrough / Pitchfork

• Quiet New York and muted shows dampen fashion month’s social buzz / Vogue Business

• In colorful contrast: Here’s What Good [men’s)]Style Looks Like Now / Valet

• From Celeste Blewitt: Great piece on the Versace brand, Donatella's vision and the focus of Hollywood. The timing of the most recent show in comparison to European Fashion Weeks is an insight into the brand also. [‘Donatella Versace: The Blonde Takes LA’] /  Business Of Fashion

• More taking: Party Like It’s 2023: China’s Rave Culture Sets A New Trend. Newfound post-lockdown freedoms in China are propelling the popularity of clubbing and raves, putting clubwear on the fashion map / Jing Daily

• Meanwhile Sample sales are trending on TikTok. Is it a brand opportunity? / Vogue Business

• Related: The top breakout TikTok stars of each year since 2019 show how the app has evolved over time / Insider

• Also Tok’ing: With Sped-Up Songs Taking Over, Artists Feel the Need for Speed. Labels are leaning into uptempo remixes as a way of driving streams and bringing "new life to tracks."/ Billboard

• While Metallica Sells So Much Vinyl It Just Bought Its Own Pressing Plant / Billboard

• Silenced samples: How copyright laws infringe on hip hop / WNYC

• Why The Artist Visa Hike Is A 'Lose-Lose' Proposition. The Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service are proposing to more than triple the fees for the most common types of visas used by touring acts / Pollstar

• Corollary: musical transplant Uffie on Refilling Your Well, Projections During Dinner Parties, Raves, and more / Perfectly Imperfect

• Also deep-ish: Getting philosophical about clothing with Lawrence Schlossman from Throwing Fits / Sprezza

• While Willem DaFoe tells 032C, “it’s all about being present,” in an interview about time, Tarkovsky, sacrifice, and cave drawings, and getting in touch with his inner Robinson Crusoe / 032c

• Dick Tracy Green, David Lynch Blue. Jason Diamond talking with Charles Bramesco about his book "Colors of Film" / The Melt

• Matthew Perpetua put together a “Golden Age of Samples” playlist for the legendary Fluxblog celebrating other sample-heavy records available on DSPs /Fluxblog

• How artists’ day jobs shape their craft / Smithsonian

• Mike Leigh’s BBC Films, Ranked / Hyperallergic

• Related from Jon Hurwitz: “This might be good for (SIC) Weekly; I never thought about it when hearing about the recent crisis with cinemas.” [Bad Projection is Running the Movie Theater Experience] / Vulture

• Fresh off of winning the Oscars, a24 is bringing back the 1984 Talking Heads concert film STOP MAKING SENSE (newly remastered in 4K!) back to theaters and there’s a  new promo starring David Byrne now / YouTube

Media Happenings

• What We're Telling Publishers About The AI Content Apocalypse / Scope Creep

• Corollary: BuzzFeed is in a deep hole / The Hollywood Reporter

• While Vice Media's New Co-CEOs Vow to Stay the Course. The two aim to shepherd the company—and its brand equity—through its sale / Adweek

• Apropos of that… Playboy to relaunch magazine as it takes on OnlyFans / New York Post

• Diddy Says "It's Time For BET To Be Black-Owned Again" As Paramount Explores Stake Sale / Deadline

• Substack is bringing its “Chat” feature to the web / Substack

• Instagram will be winding down their support of NFTs / Twitter

• While Netflix is reviewing its ad strategy, considering 'build or buy' pivots away from Microsoft / Digiday

• Sports Illustrated's new esports vertical is proof that mainstream media hasn't given up on competitive gaming / Digiday

• Related: The Future of Music and Gaming / Trapital

• 'Mini gold rush': How ad buyers are handling video podcast inventory. With the recent fervor around video podcasts, buyers discuss the opportunities for brands and how they are organizing investment teams to manage the crossover from audio to video / Digiday

Market-ations

• Beauty brand Maybelline shone a light on misogynist abuse in gaming in a film featuring male gamers playing with their voices altered to sound female / Contagious

• How brands can help build online communities (without ruining things) / Creative Review

• Related: How Levi's is Using K-Pop's TikTok Popularity to Appeal to Gen Z / AdAge

• And Sephora and TikTok team up on new content program for emerging brands in partnership with the marketing agency Digitas, they announced a new initiative, dubbed the Sephora x TikTok Incubator Program / Glossy

• As Gen Z embraces de-influencing on TikTok, marketers and influencers need to be much more transparent and authentic / Digiday

• 18 brands with products designed to last. Brands that believe their products can stand the test of time are offering lifetime warranties or repair schemes / Thingtesting

• Related: Uniqlo is expanding its repair service to stores in the US / Glossy

• Some companies that launched metaverse experiences are struggling to keep users engaged. But businesses like Vans that built compelling spaces are outliving the hype cycle and seeing brand-building benefits / BoF

• Proof of?! Metaverse hype should not get in the way of innovation / The Drum

• But still Who Is Still Inside the Metaverse? / NY Mag

• Sirius XM made a culture trend report / SXM

• While Sonos’ psychedelic new spot helps consumers see and ‘feel sound all around’ / The Drum

Superficial Interest

• Seaweed is becoming a plastic substitute and a form of cattle feed, helping the fight against climate change / NYT

• Which is good because a A 5,000-mile-wide seaweed blob is heading toward Florida. The largest bloom ever recorded was discovered via satellite / The Hill

• ‘Dead’ Electric Car Batteries Find a Second Life Powering Cities / Reasons To Be Cheerful

• 25-story Rubik’s cube: Turning an office building into apartments isn’t easy / NYT

• People hate car-free cities… until they actually live in one / Wired

• 20 mechanical principles combined in a useless Lego machine / YouTube

Food / Drink

• Plant-Based Milk: Who's Drinking It and Why / Morning Consult

• Hershey is sending its first totally vegan chocolate to shelves this year / AP News

• While from David Bloom: Moooove over: How single-celled yeasts are doing the work of 1,500-pound cows. Cowless dairy is here, with the potential to shake up the future of animal dairy and plant-based milks / WaPo

• A Boston greenhouse is growing food all winter long thanks to heat piped up from deep within the earth /  The Christian Science Monitor

• Not food, but corollary: Data center used to heat swimming pool / Twitter

======[SIC] 237: Found Harmonium======