[SIC] 257: Cruiser Soze

Ben Dietz

Aug 03, 2023

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).

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Corollary sources this week (all worth your review, and all easily discoverable):Morning Consult / Deal Book / After School / Quartz / The New Statesman / The Future Party / Public Announcement / Nieman Lab / Metaproof / Om Malik / The Art of Noticing / 1440 / Semafor / Recommended Reads/ Garbage Day / Simon Owens / Politico / SF/J / Roca News / Palm Report / Brendan’s Communication Miscellany / wonder Tools / Dirt

Oh also when I’m not newslettering I’m @dietznutz everywhere (IG / X / In / Threads)

The goal of [SIC] is to be a digest of the developments I think are notable each week. It’s pattern recognition, basically, and I tend not to think of any one item as more objectively important than any other. Sometime a piece will grab me, though. Marie Dolle’s Streaming the Zeitgeist: Unraveling Societal Trends in Upcoming Netflix Releases was one example this week. Especially apropos of the WGA/SAG strikes, the idea that Netflix’s algo and overseas production can synthesize and manifest a pop culture future is pretty interesting.

Trends aren’t just it, though. Frequent contributor and [SIC] homie Piers Fawkes wrote this week" “I don’t know if this [Tranq’s devastating toll on Philadelphia] is really your newsletter’s thing. I do think thatwe all need to be tracking what’s going on out there because it’s tripping up our cities. I like the commentary about the honest conversation we need to have with these groups…”

Well, Piers - it IS this newsletter’s thing, especially since Philly holds a special place in my heart, and as the father of teenagers, these increasingly wild drug stories are deeply concerning. It’s enough to really freak you out until you rewatch the teen classic Heathers and remember how wild our own pre-911, pre-Columnbine young world was, just in a different way. See photos below. Recommended viewing, if you haven’t seen recently.

Anyway, thanks for that, Piers. And thanks Molly, Iolanda, Celeste and Isaac for your contributions, too. Greatly appreciated. And that goes for all of you reading too. Thanks.

Ben

Heathers

======[SIC] 257: Cruiser Soze======

Zeitgest / Gestalt

Mocktails and sober bars: the Gen Z-fueled decline of alcohol / Axios
Business Meals Are Back With a Vengeance, and Everyone Feels Awkward / WSJ
Also awkward: Gen Z’ers are worried they’re getting old and out of touch because they don’t understand Gen Alpha’s memes / Insider
Oh and Gen Z has developed “Phone Phobia” (a fear of phone calls)/ CBS News
And yet somehow Millennials and Gen Z are behind the sex party boom / Metro UK
Maybe it’s the “Date-me docs”? Some people are instead trading long self-descriptions, instead of dating profiles/ NYT
So, welcome to the whoring twenties: are we having more reckless sex? / The FACE
#humancore isn't just another trend. Move over, coastal grandmothers: TikTok finally unlocked true authenticity/ Embedded
Apropos: How a humble bag became a humble brag. Our Tote Bags, Ourselves / The Walrus
Related, from Piers Fawkes: Anya Hindmarch, Tesco and Morrisons, have launched this summer's ‘it’ tote bag - and it's selling for over £1000 on eBay / Woman and Home
Corollary?! “Affordable” clothes are wack / Blackbird Spyplaned
And yet Shein claims record profit results in the first half of 2023 / WWD
And Travis Scott’s latest Nikes fly off digital shelves and continue to sell out instantly / Highsnobiety
Like a damn Dan Flashes or something / Vulture
Because? Anticipation IS Culture / Hip City
On the subject of limited flashes: Meet the Latest Dining Aesthetic: Darkroom-Core. / NYT
Sooo….. How did the hyperrealism trend take over fashion? / Vogue Business
Also hyperreal: while across the pond, from Piers Fawkes: No longer bog standard: how loo roll became a UK status symbol / The Guardian
More status: "Coach McNugget Art World" / HypeArt
MrBeast is suing his food distribution partner for his burgers / Bloomberg
We’re in the Era of the ‘Top Gun’ C.E.O. / NYT
You probably say 'like' too much. This is how it's hurting your career / Fast Company

World Order

Gen Z doesn’t love the US like Boomers do / USA Today
Hence: How America Fractured Into Four Parts / The Atlantic
‘This belongs in the Smithsonian’: Inside the meme video operation that swallowed Ron DeSantis’ campaign / Semafor
Correlazione: the "attenzione pickpocket" lady featured in the NY Times is associated with a conservative anti-Roma party and her pickpocket monitoring might just be "a campaign of racist harassment against the Roma community" / Dazed
Oh and: Jan 6 Defendants Imagine ‘Having Trump in Prison With Them’ / New York Sun
Corollary?! How Bronze Age Pervert Charmed the Far Right / The Atlantic
Elsewhere, Most Brits reckon Brexit has failed / Politico
So why Are People Afraid of Direct Democracy? / The Lindy Newsletter
And Can Joe Biden convince Americans the economy is actually good? / Vox
Elsewhere, From Celeste Blewitt: Airlines Could Ditch Flights To Australia To Meet Future Emissions Targets / The Guardian
Counterpoint, from Iolanda Carvalho: This one I love very much! [The most accessible cities in Europe] Conde Nast Traveler
Remote work is the reason why Wall Street was wrong about a recession / Fortune
Or, from Molly Raskin, is it just The death of hobbies? / Business Insider
Extreme heat has cost the U.S. economy billions in lost productivity as it has made it harder for people like delivery drivers to do their jobs / NYT
Unilever execs say temps are driving people past the ice cream “sweet spot” that leads to melting / CNN
New space art project aims to put thousands of works onto the surface of the moon / The Art Newspaper
Back on Earth: The first nuclear reactor to get turned on in the US in decades is supplying electricity to Georgia, Florida, and Alabama as of Monday / AP News
More first: Scientists genetically engineered sexually reproducing animals to produce “virgin births” for the first time / Nature
While as the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) rises, there's been an increase in the number of unused embryos — and in embryo donor rates / Axios
Hence: Shifts in technology and cultural standards are changing the way young people can shape their future families / Wunderman Thompson

The Speculative Future

The hot new thing is conversational AI search / Nature
And Meta prepares chatbots with personas to try to retain users / FT
How AI could boost the resale market / Glossy
So… Should an AI bot making $1mn really be the next Turing test? / FT
Virtual influencers: Will they surpass human influencers in impact? / Free Press Journal

Pop Cultures

The Hollywood dream job is dead. Did it ever really exist? / Fortune
IE: His Hollywood star was finally rising. Now he cleans apartments.” / WaPo
While Striking Writers on Edge Waiting for Hollywood Studios to “Clean House” / Vanity Fair
The result? From Celeste Blewitt: The Strike's Side Effect: A Cash Hoard For Studios' /Hollywood Reporter
And The Emmys are the latest strike casualty / Hollywood Reporter
Related: What Barbenheimer teaches us about the pointlessness of rivalry. From film to politics to life, we spend too much time focused on others / FT
Just What is Greta Gerwig trying to tell us? / Vulture
Meantime: Greta Thunberg used a viral Barbie trend to protest a new oil and gas field / Teen Vogue
Turning the Male Gaze Inside Out: Lisa Yuskavage’s raunchy, virtuosic, mysterious images / The New Yorker
More Yuskavage: a mini-doc on the painter / YouTube
Related? A Case For Dressing Like The Boys Of The Sandlot / Byline
Also long ago, from Celeste Blewitt: 'Cocaine! Threesomes! Comic Book Addictions! Its 20 Years Of The OC' / The Guardian
More Cocaine, courtesy of youngest JoBro, Franklin / Spotify
Corollary, whatever Happened to Cool Britannia? / NYT
2023 Groucho Club: The Soho Future 100 is Soho House and Disney’s “definitive portfolio of all the most exciting young artists and visionaries” / Soho House
How Oakley Infiltrated the Fashion World / HighSnob
The next generation of designers will need to account for a crisis of sexuality and should aim for asexual design language says French designer Phillippe Starck / Dezeen
From Piers Fawkes: London’s Design Museum will trace the design journey of skateboarding with a show opening in October / Design Boom
A good breakdown of how regional Mexican music went viral / Pitchfork
Turnstile: The Heart of Hardcore / Hypebeast
A Twitch user named “DerpyIsFishing” is making AI clones of top streamers and letting them loose on the platform / Tubefilter
Corollary: the official trailer for A24’s “Dicks: The Musical,” a comedy extravaganza / A24
Company behind 'immersive' Van Gogh exhibitions files for bankruptcy / The Art Newspaper
Artist Jeffrey Gibson to Represent US at Venice Biennale Gibson is the first Native artist to have a solo exhibition at the US pavilion / Hyperallergic
‘A punchline for a certain kind of millennial-ness’: why TV dramas treat podcasters as a joke / The Guardian
Not a joke: [SIC} Talks Alum Sam Valenti on the Not a Diving Podcast / IG
Taylor Swift reportedly gave out $100K “end of the tour” bonuses each to 50+ truckers who transported her equipment during the Eras Tour’s US leg / Billboard
When they die, who gets the comic books? / NYT
A first look at The Streets’ film noir clubland thriller / The FACE
Paraphrasing Marcella Farman-Dietz by way of Rob Walker: I really like David Shrigley’s work / Shrig
Superfans & Superlisteners. “Super Listeners” make up 2% of artists’ monthly listeners on Spotify, but account for over 18% of monthly streams / Music Business Worldwide
27% of indie artists have used AI music tools / TuneCore
From Piers Fawkes: Chat & Solve with Sherlock adds AI to it so at the end of each chapter the reader can scan a QR code and talk to Sherlock about the latest developments in the story/ Chat & Solve

Media Happenings

Meta announced that as of yesterday, Canadian users will no longer be allowed to access news sites through its platforms / Reuters
According to a new Reuters report, about half of Threads’ gargantuan 100 million signups to Threads have gone dark / Reuters
So With activity declining, is a Threads strategy actually worth it? / Media Minds
VICE’s SVP of global news and entertainment, and Motherboard’s editor-in-chief and executive editor are leaving, a day after $350 Million Sale to Fortress Capital/ The Wrap
Swedish daily Aftonbladet says people spend more time reading articles with AI-generated summaries /Press Gazette
Hollywood’s Pain Is YouTube’s Advertising Gain / The Information
How ESPN Went From Disney’s Financial Engine to Its Problem / NYT
Uber’s ad network continues to grow / Marketing Brew
Related: [SIC] Homie Lou Paskalis picks out ROI sweet spots / The Drum
Because? The rest of the ad industry is playing a loser’s game / Contagious
So Where Does Fashion Media Go From Here? Not just the mastheads are changing: The career path of a fashion editor looks totally different than a decade ago / Fashionista
Twitter Blue subscribers can now hide their blue checks / The Verge
Whatever your feelings are on Dave Portnoy, you have to admit that he’s incredibly good at building passionate audiences around everything he does / Slate

Market-ations

Gen Z is pushing back on things like pitching. Adjusting work culture and recruitment practices may help agencies court young talent,/ Marketing Brew
Corollary: from Iolanda Carvalho: “"Disenfranchised from politics, people increasingly feel they are citizens of brands, able to affect change by proxy, whilst getting something for it too" The era of post-purpose brands / WARC
IE: Hermès bucked the trend of sluggish sales in the Americas in the 2nd quarter, with overall sales up 28% / Vogue Business
From Piers Fawkes: In conversation with Saucony global president Rob Griffith / Numero
How sports memorabilia became a billion-dollar business / Robb Report
Also in the tres commas club: Crocs hit a record billion dollars in revenue last quarter, emphasizing the clog’s unlikely fashion ascent / Hypebeast
Birkenstock Owner Plans September IPO at $8 Billion Value / BoF
Luxury brands like Prada and Burberry are stepping into the sports arena / Modern Retail
While contemporaries like Moncler and Valentino are using AI to create campaigns. How can luxury integrate artificial intelligence without diluting brand prestige? / Jing Daily
And LVMH wants to conquer the metaverse / Jing Daily
Related, from Iolanda Carvalho: Microsoft Teams is adding AI-powered virtual makeup filters from Maybelline / Yahoo
How Ralph Lauren's 'phygital' boot sale in Fortnite shows benefits — and limits — of virtual commerce / Digiday
While Why Puma is investing in Web3 despite the skepticism of crypto winter / Digiday
Because of How Fashion NFTs Fizzled / BoF
Mattel seeks a chief Uno player and the salary starts at £3,500 a week / BBC
Who needs the Mattel Cinematic Universe? Mattel does / Quartz
S/o [SIC] homie Jim Mollica and team: Bose no longer wants to be a product-first brand and is rooting itself in culture instead / The Drum
Related: that Cool New Bookstore? It’s a Barnes & Noble. / WSJ
Barnes & Noble is reinventing itself, but not its e-readers / The Verge
Because? Book publishing didn’t used to be better / Notes from a Small Press
While Nike plans ‘network’ of boutique fitness studios / Retail Dive
Speaking of footear: can circular design change the industry's course? / Futurevvorld
McDonald's new spinoff CosMc's sounds like a branding dream / Creative Bloq
Corollary: The Mac Tonight Edition / Why Is This Interesting
Yes, this Taco Bell ad says what you think it does / The Drum
Luxury Grocer Erewhon gets a digital makeover / Fortune
Victoria’s Secret to stream fashion show special on Prime Video. A shoppable collection will accompany “The Victoria’s Secret World Tour,” which the company says is part documentary / Retail Dive

Superficial Interest

The first episode of the ABC “psychedelic sketch show” from 1969, Turn-On, is now on YouTube, as is the second. Neither will be up for long / YT
From Isaac Dietz: “I refuse to sit” Worryingly Ugly Chairs / LiveAuctioneers
Also worrying? Detroit is betting on disc golf / Axios
Our solar system doesn’t really make sense without a ninth planet. That’s why scientists keep looking for one / Science Alert
Also born of an unsolved mystery: [SIC] homie Noah Brier’s The 2x2 Edition / Why is This Interesting
More arcane lore: The Zany History of Mini Golf / Mental Floss

Food / Drink

How to eat well in Sri Lanka / Marginal Revolution
Closer to home: A Big Fat Blob of Boring. Can we cool it with all the burrata balls? / Grub Street
Apropos: Enter the Chicken Burger / The Melt
Fave drink Michelada Is Poised to Overthrow the Bloody Mary / The Takeout
Falling Fruit is a tool available for the contemporary forager. It’s an interactive map showing you food and edible plants growing in public spaces and neighborhoods around the world / Falling Fruit
Apropos: new avocado variety just dropped. It’s called the Luna / Axios