[SIC] 244: Briskly Institutional

Volume 5, Number 36

May 04, 2023

======[SIC] 244: Briskly Institutional======

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. And do please pass along to people you like (or people you need to be smarter).

Corollary sources this week (all worth your review, and all easily discoverable): Gossamer / Marginal Revolution / Politico / Mack Books / 1440 / Article / Ben-Evans / Metaproof / Palm Report / Ben’s Bite / The Future Party / Elevator

Hi all,

Sending out a little ahead of usual schedule; I’m en route to total hip replacement surgery (a good thing!) and didn’t want to delay. Uncertain as to whether or not I write the next one of these on pain meds, haha.

[SIC]’s been on a new subscriber tear of late; at the current trajectory we’ll have more than three times as many readers by end of the year as there are now - trending to over 10k - which is really exciting and tremendously flattering. Almost all of that growth comes from current subscribers recommending [SIC] to colleagues and friends, so if you’ve ever passed an edition along, thank you. I’m grateful.

I’m also grateful as always to the friends who sent contributions this week: Jeff, Will, Jim, Martucci, Josh, and my stalwarts Iolanda and Celeste - thanks very much. I appreciate ideas from everyone, so if you’ve got something for me, send it!

Ok, now the links. Back next week, same but bionic.

Ben

IYKYK: Culture Club is returning. Mark your cal for May 9th, 3p ET. And follow: @cultureclubfyi

Zeitgest / Gestalt

This is a very smart reading IMO: 10,000 Gecs as 2023 Culture / Culture: An Owner’s Manual
Related, from Jeff Carvalho: “Doom Regulators is the new band from Tim and Jesse of Operation Ivy” / YT
More sound of right now: Drake's AI clone is here — and Drake might not be able to stop him / The Verge
So… You Are Grimes Now: Inside Music’s Weird AI Future / Rolling Stone
Related: Musician Holly Herndon released Holly+, an AI version of herself /Holly.plus
Elsewhere in simulacra: The rise of Candace Owens / WNYC
Corollary: Meet ChatGPT’s Right-Wing Alter Ego / Wired
Elsewhere, Nine Million People Have Watched The Full 'Super Mario Bros. Movie' Illegally Posted On Twitter / Forbes
'Diet Coke breaks on TikTok are Gen Zs and Millennials insisting on work-life balance / Insider
Uber’s annual “Lost & Found Index” include fake blood, a Danny DeVito Christmas ornament and a slushy machine / Business Insider
And yet stretch limos aren’t cool anymore? / NYT
Feeling seen over here: Cardigans Are Becoming a Male Status Symbol / The Guardian
Also status conscious: The Photographer Who Captured England’s Last Hurrah / The New Yorker
Meanwhile More Than Half of Gen Z and Millennial Drinkers Are Interested in TikTok's 'Damp Drinking' Trend / Morning Consult
Also damp: What are "bare minimum Mondays?" / Axios
Another Kind of Time. An Interview with Jenny O’Dell / Emergence
From Jim Babb: I wanted to share our little AI experiment with you - PersonaGPT - It's a free way to turn a persona into a living thing. Thought you might get a kick out of it” / personagpt.ai
Related, from Eric Martucci: “I’m starting an AI religion. Join my flock and get a founders card lol” / Chirper
From Celeste Blewitt: “Great piece on Google maps, navigation systems, the round and round in circles moments that happens. When reading this, I laughed, this exact moment happened last week, Google maps sent me on a direction that would remove two minutes from my trip.......little did I know it was a gravel road for 6km, middle of nowhere winding deeper and deeper into mountain ranges. Made it!' [Humanity Has Built AI In Its Own Image, Heaven Help Us'] / FT
Corollary to that: Cyberspace Was Never a Place / Frieze
The chronically online third culture is redefining Asian America. Sheer exposure to a mass online community has created an undaunted, self-sufficient generation of Asian American young people / NBCNews
More related listening, from Will Cady: “my podcast on subcultures with Dr. Marcus Collins” / Spotify

World Order

Social media is a threat to the world’s banks / Foreign Policy
A push by some states to impose age restrictions on sites like TikTok and Pornhub could alter how adults experience the internet, too / NYT
ChatGPT means Kenyans who used to make money writing college essays for Americans (cheating as a service) are losing out / RestOfWorld
Elsewhere in replacements: Can tidal power replace diesel? / The Carbon Almanac
Meantime, sales of diesel are down and American motorists are starting to hold back spending. Slowing demand for fuel adds to fears of looming US recession / FT
And yet Las Vegas saw tourism rise to pre-Covid levels in March, partly thanks to a boost from Taylor Swift/ Bloomberg
Meanwhile a 5,000-mile-wide patch of seaweed known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is making landfall / CBSNews
Also wild: Bhutan is setting up a massive fund for clean crypto mining in the Himalayas / Bloomberg
Back at home: nonprofit grocery stores are popping up in food deserts nationwide — but some are struggling to keep their doors open / Axios
And a very tiny, futuristic car manufactured in Bolivia wants to compete with Tesla / WSJ

The Speculative Future

An Art Professor Says A.I. Is the Future. It's the Students Who Need Convincing / NYT
Related: A TV showrunner predicts the advent of instant, AI-generated movies / Wired
IE, from Josh Gardiner: “Saw this … and my head just exploded [Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combinations]” / Private Island
Sooo.. How Do We Ensure an A.I. Future That Allows for Human Thriving?” / NYT
At least AI Isn't Going to Reinvent the Alphabet Anytime Soon / Wired
Tho the ChatGPT Code Interpreter is an insanely efficient data analyst / One Useful Thing
Video games are becoming increasingly personalized with details of your life / Slate
Zaha Hadid Associates is now developing "most" projects using AI-generated images/ Dezeen

Pop Cultures

A round-up of Met Gala memes that made the best of this year's meh theme / Hyperallergic
Also wild and of the moment: Eva Longoria directed a movie about Flamin' Hot Cheetos / Fast Company
Related: Hungry art student eats Maurizio Cattelan’s banana work (again)/ The Art Newspaper
Puck’s Lauren Sherman on [SIC] Talks Alum Eugene Rabkin’s Style Zeitgeist pod / Apple
Also notable: Eugene’s open letter to FIDM for taking sponsorship from Shein 🗡️🗡️🗡️/ IG
Who, not coincidentally, is Trying Charm to Counter Scrutiny / NYT
Here’s the issue, really: Gen Z and Millennials struggle to buy sustainable fashion due to the rising cost of living. / Untold Insights
Also under the microscope: Where Does Frank Ocean Go From Here? / Billboard
Elsewhere: Pharrell Williams curates digital wearables for NFT project Doodles / Vogue Business
Backlash against AI supermodels triggers wider fears in fashion workforce / NBCNews
Corollary: you might have heard that Hollywood writers are on strike / NYT
A Writers Strike is Inevitable. But Why? / Bloomberg
Related; What Made Studios Balk and Writers Walk / Variety
Also, Why Are TV Writers So Miserable? / The New Yorker
Not miserable at all, tho: The Strange Brotherhood of Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux / Esquire
More bros (in a good way): Hodinkee’s Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on the Masters in Business pod/ Ritzholtz
New York, London, Los Angeles, Dubai, Linz ... Which city has the best digital art? / The Art Newspaper
Maybe all of them? James Gunn Created 600 Unique Versions of 'Guardians of the Galaxy 3' For Various Types of Cinemas / Hollywood Reporter
The Unstoppable Rise of the Naked Wedding Dress / Vogue
How Modern Sneakers Are Getting A Femme Revamp / Jing Daily
Meantime the kids say Onitsuka Tiger’s Mexico 66 is the new adidas Samba/ Highsnob
While for dads like yours truly: The 10 Best Vegan and Sustainable Running Shoes / Futurevvorld

Media Happenings

BuzzFeed Sets its Sights on Creators / The Publish Press
My alma mater VICE makes a “long-term commitment” to Twitch/ Press Gazette
But is headed to bankruptcy in the meantime / NYT
Related: Rafat Ali (PaidContent, Skift) on the last decade of failed news startups / Rafat
Elsewhere, Peter Kafka recorded a remarkable episode of Recode’s pod with Ben Smith, Nick Denton, and Jonah Peretti on the topic, too / Spotify
More on that Facebook Made BuzzFeed, Then Killed It / Wired
Related: The News Went Viral. The media bet its future on Facebook. Did it learn from that mistake? / NYMag
Robert Allbritton, the former owner of Politico, is launching a new journalism nonprofit that will pay junior journalists to participate in a two-year journalism education program / Semafor
And The Messenger says it will launch on May 15 with 150 journalists/ Axios
So what’s after the social media era in news? / The Verge
And What Happens When the News Is Gone? / The New Yorker
One possibility, currently underway: Commerce media grows more dominant by the year, forcing media agencies to keep pace with change / Digiday
Related: How live shopping is shaping the future of retail / Digiday
Because? What downturn? In real terms, ad spending is doing just fine / Digiday
There’s also new stuff. IE: Peacock now available in metaverse for streaming / Global Village Space
And Reddit is trying chat rooms again / Verge
Elsewhere, BeReal's latest feature is a curated timeline of high-profile users / Engadget
And Pornhub Blocks All of Utah From Its Site / Motherboard
Corollary: For Bluesky to thrive, it needs sex workers and Black Twitter / TechCrunch
What’s it like on Bluesky right now, anyways? / The Verge
Either way, ‘Black Twitter was the cookout': Marketers hope to find new communities of color on Twitter alternatives / Digiday
Meanwhile for people who miss websites there’s The Stopgap / Nieman

Market-axions

How Smaller Luxury Brands Can Win In Today’s Reality / Jing Daily
One direction: Thom Browne is Now Primarily a Retailer as Store Rollout Continues / WWD
Another one: Is the Middle East the “Next China” For Luxury Brands? / Jing Daily
adidas Targets Basketball, Soccer to Drive Post-Yeezy Rebound / WSJ
The Weather Channel's meteorologists rock Carhartt. / The Drum
Retrosuperfuture Debuts Gaming-ready Eyewear with Razer / WWD
Sotheby’s Wine Head Joins NFT Marketplace: Will Other Luxury Veterans Follow Suit? / Jing Daily
From Iolanda Carvalho: “From Razorfish - "Opportunities and Considerations of Large-Language Models for Marketers" / Razorfish
Bad example: Italy's 'virtual influencer' Venus is 2023's cringiest tourism campaign / Creative Bloq
Also kinda forced? L.L.Bean is going “off the grid” for the entire month of May (for Mental Health Awareness Month)/ Linkedin
Lululemon is one of the most duped brands on TikTok. This weekend, the brand will launch a dupe swap in LA, giving customers branded Align leggings for free in return for dupes / Vogue Business
Another from Iolanda: "Embark on a literary adventure while waiting for customer support." Retailer in Portugal Turns Hold Times Into Storytimes / Muse by Clio
Why Mexican beer dominates US markets: Brazil / WaPo
And Why There May Never Be a Gen-Z Glossier or Warby Parker / BoF

Superficial Interest

Anna Atkins and the algae: how the first photobook was made in the mid-1800s / The Art Newspaper
People are numb to big numbers. Millions, billions, trillions — the human brain isn’t wired to comprehend information on a large scale / FT
From Celeste Blewitt: “ lunar soil is hot property” 'Why Scientists Are Creating Fake Moon Dust' / BBC
But in no simple way does the King own all the swans in Britain / Weird Medieval Guys

Food / Drink

Also in the UK: Price of cheddar, milk and eggs soars. Outpacing inflation, the cost of making a basic cheese salad sandwich rose by more than a third in a year / FT
How barbacoa evolved into barbecue / Texas Monthly
A cool, dry place: the best martinis in Manhattan / FT
Dirt’s Terry Nguyen on Mold Magazine’s Food Futures podcast talk Web3 eats / Spotify

Useful Diversions

Read:

Arcade Game Typography is the first book of its kind, a definitive and beautifully designed survey of 70s, 80s and early 90s arcade game pixel typography / ReadOnly

Do:

May 6: [SIC] homie and English expat Tim Fielding spins the “Right Royal Mash Up” on KC3’s coronation day at Femme Foundation, 245 S. 1st, Williamsburg / Eventbrite
May 11: The Vogue Business Technology Forum with [SIC] homies Nick Adler and Stefano Rosso / Vogue Business
May 5: First Friday by Poster House and Welcome to Chinatown / Posterhouse
10 Art Shows to See in LA This May / Hyperallergic
May 13th: MACK takes over Rizzoli Bookstore for a very special celebration with an array of MACK artist including Alec Soth, Stephen Shore and Justine Kurland / Mack Books
The goslings of Bushwick Inlet