[SIC] 268: Incrementally More Excellent

Volume Six, Number Eight

Ben Dietz

Oct 19, 2023

Green Mind.

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Corollary sources this week: Royal Braun / After School / Dealbook / Why Is This Interesting / SF/J / Context Collapse / Snaxshot / Weak Signals and Other Trends/ Kottke / Micromobility Report / Network Notes / Ben-Evans / Morning Brew / The New Statesman / Today in Tabs

Hi all.

The morning (NY time) sends of the last few weeks have been well received, but they’ve been send without much of a preamble, so I’ll start with a few recos this week.

It’s a big day for me; Culture Club Show is recording a new episode in front of a live audience at Ralph Lauren in NYC this afternoon, so getting the dispatch out early. Will post the episode soon as it’s live - but have a listen to last week’s ep on “The Next Media” with Adam Faze, Megan O’Sullivan, Kareem Rahma and Michele Romero if you have a sec.

Today we’ll be talking to Lord March of Goodwood Estate, restauranteur Scarr Pimentel and [SIC] Talks Alum Michael Williams (from the legendary A Continuous Lean) about the trip Jeff and I took to Goodwood Revival in September, and how it informed the new Ralph Lauren Originals collection.

CCS’s partnership with Ralph Lauren has got retail on my brain, and aside from checking out the great new Polo Originals gear (I’ve been wearing this sweater regularly since I came back from England, for instance), a couple things have caught my attention.

First up: next week Rurban by Roots Studio will turn overstock textiles from NOAH, 3.1 Phillip Lim, and Triple Five Soul into 1-of-1 jackets and sweaters with artists from China and India. It’s 6-8p next Thursday at NOAH in Nolita. RSVP by October 24.

Then in November, go do some early holiday shopping for the men in your life at [SIC] homie Clayton Chambers’ Sprezza pop-up shop on 11/11 (Here’s the RSVP for that one).

On the subject of links: I signed up for a24’s membership thing AAA24 last year because I’m fascinated with how the studio operates in material culture beyond theaters, and because $5 a month is good value for what you get. This weekend they offered members a unique referral link that gets you a free month of AAA24 (and then if you sign on as a member after the first trial month, I get a free month in return). No limit to how many +1s I can refer, so feel free to share the link too.

Speaking of A24: the trailer for Jonathan Glazer’s Zone of Interest hits reeeeally different this week, given the war in Israel. I read the book (by the late, great Martin Amis) last year and while the trailer gives nothing away, I have a feeling this one is gonna be gnarly (in a gnarly way).

Ok - enough of me; on to the links. Thanks to Celeste Blewitt, Matt Navarro, Piers Fawkes, Molly Raskin, Iolanda Carvalho, James Friedman, Rob Hubbert, Matthew Davis and David Bloom for contributions, and great to see everybody at Breakfast Club yesterday (and every Weds). Everybody reading this is invited to participate in both of those - so don’t be shy.

Ben

======[SIC] 271: Merely Medium Fun======

The Macro Narrative

Social is dead. Get over it / Om Malik
Or maybe it’s that We’re Nearing Opinion Overload / Pulling Weeds
Either Way… Don't Expect the Same Raise you Got Last Year / Bloomberg
So logically, American workers savor quicker commutes than before COVID / Axios
Related: A simple guide to 15-minute cities / Dezeen
Notable I guess, given that 41% of French population is in favour of a proposal to limit everyone to 4 flights in their entire life / CSA.EU
From Molly: How neurodivergence became a subculture / Dazed
OCD corollary, from Celeste: Did Celebrity Ruin David Beckham? / New Statesman
Oh and also, What Happened to San Francisco, Really? It depends on which tech bro, city official, billionaire investor, grassroots activist, or Michelin-starred restaurateur you ask / The New Yorker
Elsewhere in ‘Trouble in ‘Utopia.’ Tickets for Travis Scott’s Circus Maximus Tour Are Reselling for as Low as $7 USD / Hypebeast
Corollary, and more important: How to fix the internet / MIT Technology Review
To wit: “Deepfake Porn Is Out of Control” / Wired
Also OOC? How Far Does $1 From 1999 Go Today? / Per Thirty Six
Ergo: Gen Z is tightening it’s belt, with 73% modifying lifestyles due to inflation/ Bank of America
Hence?! China’s unemployed find a new job title: 'full-time child' / LA Times
While infamous F.T.C. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon has decided to stop DJing because it was creating a distraction for the Wall Street firm / FT
Also leaving the club: Is Gen Z falling out of love with Ecstasy? / The FACE
Corollary to that: A former Tesla director is giving Harvard $16 million to study psychedelics in society and culture / Quartz
Related: The latest college campus freebies? Naloxone and Fentanyl Test Strips / NPR
But is college only less important to white men?/ FastCo
Apropos, from Molly: Who is the It Boy? We all know who the It Girl is. Their male counterpart is harder to define / i-D
Or is it? From Matt: JB Pritzker: The Billionaire Hotel Heir—and Progressive Hero? / The New Yorker

Generationations

From Piers : “I guess i’m sharing because of my surprise about Wallpaper featuring an old folks home” [Appleby Blue Almshouse: a blueprint for 21st-century housing] / Wallpaper
Elsewhere: “Gen Z doesn’t know how to write emails” / Insider
Hence? From Molly: The Rise Of The Lowercase Boys / Bustle

Platformations

From James: “For [sic]”: What will become of Bandcamp and the superb Bandcamp Daily editorial platform / Vulture
Elsewhere, TikTok helped revive the marketing jingle. But Modern versions of brand anthems are “singles, not jingles” / Marketing Brew
Related, from Iolanda: TikTok moves into OOH and cinema, rolling out its content across billboards, cinemas and other out-of-home screens in its global "Out of Phone" solution /The Media Leader
So Is there any sacred media ground that TikTok won't capture? / The Drum
Case in point: Tiktok Scores Sizable Disney Deal Including a Content Hub and Publisher Partnership in honor of Disney’s 100th anniversary/ Tech Crunch
BUT! News will not find you on TikTok / Nieman Lab
Because?! Influencers and CEOs take their brands to LinkedIn / FT
And top creators are moving their audiences to new platforms using link-in-bio tool Linktree / Insider
So, then, like, What happens to Snap? / The Verge
Elsewhere, X will start charging $1 a year to new users in New Zealand and the Philippines as part of its “Not A Bot” program / The Verge
While Instagram head says Threads’ blocking of “covid” and related terms is temporary, to lift in “weeks or months” / TechCrunch

Stylistics

From Piers: “I have mixed feelings about this. i’d love for all my pics of me to look better without having to be a full time insta stylists” [None of Your Photos Are Real] / Wired
Actually for real tho: Now you can wear your favorite Spotify artist: The streaming service is launching a personalized in-app Merch Hub. Check it out / TechCrunch
Your Sweaters Are Garbage. The quality of knitwear has cratered / The Atlantic
Corollary?! After being the subject of a viral article detailing his apparent inability to sell clothes, Kerby Jean-Raymond is resurfacing with a Pyer Moss x Canada Goose collection/ Jing Daily
Separately: Fashion geography is girl math for people who skipped London and Milan / Magasin
How to Demask the seven fallacies of AI Art / Spike Art
Also de-masking? What Is Otto 958, the Art World’s Favorite Fashion Brand? / GQ
From Piers: “It’s a little bit fan-person in style but lengthy enough to give a real perspective of the competition they and Hoka have brought to adidas and Nike.” [How innovation is driving On’s meteoric rise] / Retail Dive
From Iolanda: “Wow, shoes AND skating! This one is totally for you! 😉” [The
DC Shoes Edition] / Why Is This Interesting
Elsewhere at the TF: Mobb Deep sued by hardcore band Sick of It All over their Supreme collaboration / The Fader
Uganda president wants to ban secondhand clothes imported from the West / AP News
Speaking of second hands: An Oral History of The Cock, NYC’s Sexiest Sloppiest Gay Bar / Interview

Culturations

TikTok’s “Oyster Girl” Gets the Meme Treatment / Hyperallergic
While Werner Herzog Defends His “Ecstatic” Approach to the Truth / The New Yorker Radio Hour
Meanwhile, Lumia Nocito Says You Can Be Everything At Once / Byline
They’re also everywhere: An Artist’s Ode to Worms / Hyperallergic
Henry Taylor’s ‘B Side’ Is Full of Grade-A Paintings / NYT
Corollary: What would Mark Rothko make of the world today? / The Art Newspaper
Unrelated: the Secret Women’s Club That Rocked the Porn World / Daily Beast
And from Piers: The fascinating history of handheld video games / Fast Company
Music has become a ‘just-in-time’ economy / Music Business Worldwide
So, from Piers: What Happens When an Artist’s Technology Becomes Obsolete?/ NYT
Meet 5K Records — the driving force behind a new blend of African and western music styles / FT
The Leica Picture of the Year is a hilarious optical illusion / Creative Bloq
The Magnum Print Sale is on this week, ending Sunday / Magnum Photos
Justine Kurland on the Girl Picture Problem. The artist confronts the ethical considerations made when photographing teenagers / Frieze
Apropos from Rob: Great chance to own a Justine Kurland print! / IG
Related: Five Emerging Photographers to Watch. Frieze contributors and editors nominate a photographer whose work excites and intrigues them / Frieze
From Piers: You can now skate at the Design Museum's newly-installed pop-up ramp by Jonathan Olivares / Wallpaper
[SIC] Talks alum William Strobeck’s skate company Violet and Cafe Mogador have a collab coming / IG

Technopolis

Anthropic drafted an AI constitution / The Future Party
And Google DeepMind wants to solve climate change with artificial intelligence / Wired
But it was the The Techno-Optimist Manifesto that was the talk of the walk this week / Marc Andreessen
Meanwhile, OpenAI has quietly changed its publicly stated core values: Out are qualities like being “thoughtful”; in is a focus on artificial general intelligence / Insider
From David Bloom: “Given the legal uncertainties around copyright and AI, this seems like s smart next step from Google’s cloud operation to quell the biggest question around its biggest potential driver of growth and profits.
Google Cloud pledges a ‘shared fate’ in AI, offering legal indemnification for customers / Venture Beat
Corollary: “Play-Doh is a helpful way to think about AI generators” / Creative Good
Hence? ‘Overemployed’ Hustlers Exploit ChatGPT To Take On More Full-Time Jobs /VICE
Meantime, Restaurants Embrace AI / Axios
Because?! From Celeste: [Computers Are Learning to Smell] / The Atlantic

Media-tions

Omnicom Media Group, for the first time, is revealing its retail media-related standard /Digiday
Amazon to TV Ad Newbies: If You Buy Commercials, We’ll Make Them / The Information
Elsewhere: Dude Perfect launched its own streaming service / Future Party
While The Daily Wire, the conservative media brand debuted a new subscription streaming app exclusively for kids /Axios
The Daily Mail is winning Tiktok / Press Gazette
Bloomberg Media Restructures Sales Team to Streamline Events, Integrated Marketing / Adweek
And Puck, the buzzy media startup, is launching its first-ever live conference event this fall / Axios
Meanwhile digital media goes back to basics with email and (yup!) voicemail / CJR
And CREEM goes even further back with the Lester Bangs issue / Creem
Hence? Print is making a comeback as evidenced by Catnip Mag/ Embedded
Which reminds me of Catholic Magazine / Printed Matter

Market / Influence

Ray-Ban’s new Meta sunglasses have “influencer” written all over them / TechCrunch
How Shopify’s partnership with Drake lays the groundwork for future celebrity collaborations / Modern Retail
Related (literally): Drake’s 6-year-old son Adonis released his debut song, “My Man Freestyle.” The song’s music video shows Adonis shooting hoops and giving a pep talk, among other things / Billboard
Speaking of legacy building, from Iolanda: Infographic: 100 Years of Disney: a timeline of selected key events in the history of The Walt Disney Company / Statista
Peloton To Bring Live Sports To Its Fitness Devices / Front Office Sports
Elsewhere, the sale of the English soccer club Everton has stalled as British regulators demand audited financial statements from the potential buyer / NYT
Also not good: Remington reportedly made a deal with Call of Duty maker to market guns to kids / Gizmodo
But Chipotle has no plans to reduce its involvement with the fighting game community, which it views as a relatively uncluttered “white space” / Digiday
From Iolanda: Mark Ritson's take on yet another adland "truth"... Consumers don’t get tired of ads, only marketers do / Marketing Week

Eats, Drinks and Ephemera

CHAIN has launched the first ever fast food festival—from the minds of BJ Novak, Chef Tim Hollingsworth and Nicholas Kraft / Food & Wine
The most food-forward cities in America / Axios
Corollary, fave grocery chain Wegman’s at Astor Place has officially opened—here’s a sneak peek / WNBC
Since I’m vegan this month: Plant-based cheese may be getting more appetizing / Ars Technica
Even if US cheapskates dampen high-end liquor’s party spirit / FT
Coca-Cola x Absolut announce the launch of a “spiked Sprite” which debuts 2024 in Europe including UK, Spain and Netherlands / Reuters
From Piers: I don't think they're doing anything different, as the title says - but I think the era of social commentary helped everyone know about a quality product [Why In-N-Out has barely changed its business for 75 years — not even its fries] / LA Times
The Costco Hotdog Edition / Why Is This Interesting
From Piers: Casual Dining Chains Are Back, Baby. Once shunned by millennials, “uncool” chains are gearing up for a comeback / Eater
This Is TASTE 295: Chris Black / Taste Cooking
The Urban Fruit-Tree Vigilantes Case Brooklyn. The anonymous collective Guerrilla Grafters dodges dog poop and, technically, the cops to introduce plums, pears, and apples to fruitless city trees / The New Yorker

The Natural (?!) World

European Union Court of Justice has declared that ebikes should be classified as bicycles, not motorbikes / Forbes
How Nigeria Turned Men Into Better Fathers / Reasons To Be Cheerful
And finally from Piers: i don’t know what kinda ‘core’ you’d call this New Film Spotlights NYC’s Pigeon-Rearing Subculture / Hyperallergic