[SIC] 281: Doubtful Sound

Volume Six, Number Twenty-One

This Week: [SIC] Talks with Daisy Alioto and the [SIC] Weekly digest of pertinent developments, compiled by Ben Dietz published free on Thursdays to over 5000 subscribers who’ve opted in. Pass it along to people you like. Here’s a button:

[SIC] is a one-person operation that grows via word-of-mouth. Paid subscriptions are also available. Many paying supporters expense their subscriptions as research for their work in marketing, advertising, entertainment and tech. Paying subscribers get an additional [SIC] Day microdigest of 10 links every Mon, Tues, Weds, Fri, and the [SIC] Sundays dispatch. And founding supporters get invited to dinner parties at my home in NYC, with special guests.

Corollary sources this week: Semafor / Ben’s Bites / Feed Me / Champion Weekly/ Public Announcement / Garbage Day / Understanding TikTok / The Kicks You Wear / Today in Tabs / 1440 / Morning Brew / Elevator / After School /Daily Upside / Ben-Evans / Roca News / Network Notes / The Unskippables / Hubspot Trends / International Intrigue / Dirt

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Hi all,

Straight to it this week, since there’s a lot. Thanks to Celestę Blewitt, Iolanda Carvalho, Molly Raskin, Piers Fawker, and Matt from The Technorati for submissions this week. I’ve also gotten a lot of great feedback on my [SIC] Talks, which is edifying - so please let me know what you think.

My guest this week is Daisy Alioto, CEO of Dirt - one of my favorite publishers right now and one of a handful of companies I cite all the time as part of a cadre of ‘next-gen’ media companies. It was really fun conversation, and I loved a whole bunch of stuff Daisy said; “Generational Terrorist” and “Venture Capitalist as Curator” being two terms I’ve already repurposed. Have a look / listen:

Daisy also appeared on Long Reads this week, so have a listen to that too. Here’s more on her family history that we talked about. There's also this piece which gets more into venture stuff from her perspective. Particularly, she wrote me, this bit: "Music has eras, and every investment thesis today is a response to ZIRP, just as punk was once a response to mainstream rock. Venture capital was the invisible curator of millennial consumption. It gave us shifts in distribution that begat shifts in culture. But the way VCs talk about their own culture is overwhelmingly stale."

Anyway, subscribe to Dirt. And to Prune, the design newsletter brand they’ve acquired and is also great. Next week’s chat is with Ryan Broderick of Garbage Day.

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[SIC] 281: Doubtful Sound

Recommended: The Trend Report is Going Pro with a paid tier. I subscribed. The GAP Playlists Edition of WITI got me in a music mood. Apropos: Sam Valenti’s The (Truly) Greatest Hits Edition On best-ofs, Bob Marley and the death of canon. “Day by Day” is new Morgan Guerin music featuring Zaccheus Paul and Cisco Swank.

Lefsetz Crank Dat: The Death of Pitchfork. Ezra Klein wrote about the disappearing role of curation and criticism with the loss of Pitchfork – and the other waves of media layoffs. Related: Recession or Right-Sizing Coachella's 2024 lineup could indicate where fests are headed. But like, Coachella? More like Slow-chella. Hence? Vulfpeck posted a video presentation from its bandleader (of sorts), outlining his proposal for Apple Music to take back a good share of the market by switching to a fan-centric model that also splits revenues 90/10 with creators. Corollary, from Piers: The Return of Royalties.

A few more music recs and some ‘to-do’s: How about  Mr. Magic’s Disco Showcase circa October 1981. (Sad corollary to that): Beat Connection’s Five Mixes: Silent Servant marks the passing of the techno DJ, whose work I wasn’t previously aware of, but I’m glad to know. This mix is a good place to start if you’re not a techno person.  As previous stated, I’m not a cat person. But Angelenos? LA’s Cat Art Show Is Back Fur More. Closer to home: Brooklyn Book Bodega,is a book giveaway that will take over the Brooklyn Navy Yard on February 3. Meet me this weekend at the concepts x triple five soul workshop with [SIC] Talks Alum Camella Ehlke. Skate gaze fans: enter the Blue Park Obstacle Design Contest.

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The Macro Narrative

• Quiet Luxury trend is out and ‘Loud Budgeting’ is in. Going viral on Tiktok, this movement is reshaping consumer behavior / Jing Daily

• America is Wealthy But it Doesn't Feel Like It / The Lindy Newsletter

• Tho, Americans Are Starting to Feel Better About the Economy / The New Yorker

• Related, from Piers: Why Americans Are Feeling Better About the Economy / NYT

• For Instance? Why Rich People Don’t Cover Their Windows / The Atlantic

• Related? Ivy League ‘Elites’ apparently Believe Americans Are Too Free, Support Rationing Gas, Meat To Fight Climate Change / The New York Sun

• Meantime, a powerful mix of high inflation, cheap wine and an "aisle of shame" have made Aldi the country's fastest-growing grocery chain / Axios

• Tho: People have less cash, but it doesn't need to be bad news for brands / The Drum

• FDR’s New Deal transformed the economy. Could Biden do the same? / Marketplace

• Apropos: A Bunch of Trolling Gen-Z Voters is Buying Up GOP Domains / Wired

• Like? The Movement to ‘Make America Rake Again’ / Reasons to Be Cheerful

• Reliable comedy: Donald Trump shared a botched AI 'photo' of himself / Creative Bloq

• Somehow connected? The Shit-Kickers of Madison Avenue / The New Yorker

• Still, Americans Can’t Decide What It Means to Grow Up / The Atlantic

• Prompting the question: Do you have vibe personality disorder 🫵 ? / The Trend Report

• Corollary: Grant McCracken on  Multiplicity & the Future of Culture / That Business of Meaning Pod

• Hence? The power of TikTok Edits / YT

• And The Cult of Cute / Service95

• Apropos: For Gen Z, Anime is Bigger Than the NFL/ Polygon

• And related: The NCAA’s Existential Question: Can You Pay Players and Still Call Them Amateurs? / Front Office Sports

• Also paid? The Stanley cup / Mormon influencer connection / Links I Would G-Chat You If We Were Friends

• Elsewhere (truly), from Matt: When America First Dropped Acid. Well before the hippies arrived, LSD and other hallucinogens were poised to enter the American mainstream/ The New Yorker

• Corollary: The Great Escapism / In Bed With Social

• So… from Piers: Is this the year of meong?  / The Guardian

• And is the New Casual Hookup AI? / Highsnobiety

• Either way, goodbye to the era of the professional spouse / FT

• More goodbyes: Japan is helping America’s youth leave home / FT

• Speaking of leaving: Artists Drop Out of CalArts MFA Show After Venue Bans Pro-Palestine Language / Hyperallergic

• Ergo? The world is better seen from Dubai than from Davos / FT

• From Celeste: Davos 2024: Can - And Should - Leaders Aim To Regulate AI Directly?' / BBC

• Meanwhile Beijing is reportedly weighing a ~$278B intervention into China’s stock market /Bloomberg

Generationations

• From Celeste: How Does Age Affect Creativity?' / FT

• The bottle and the blues: how different generations respond to stress. Younger workers will open up about mental health issues — but older colleagues still turn to alcohol / FT

• So, then, from Molly: Why Does Gen Z Believe It’s ‘Aging Like Milk’? / NYT

• And apropos: Is body retinol the fountain of youth? / Feed Me

• More youth: Honey badgers and iPad kids: Experts weigh in on Gen Alpha / Jing Daily

• Meantime, teen employment in the US is at its highest since 2009, with 37% of 16- to 19-year-olds holding a job (or searching for one) in 2023 / WaPo

• From Piers: Baby boomers are hoarding houses and leaving a laundry list of big fixes for younger buyers / Quartz

• From Celeste: “…’DNA travel' mostly leading towards the European arena. Intriguing. [The Fantasy Of Heritage Tourism]/ The Atlantic

• Also fantasy: UK university to beam in hologram lecturers / The Guardian

• Hence? The Higher Ed Mental Health Crisis / NYT Mag

• Related: unsurprisingly, Chatbot usage linked to loneliness / Semafor

Platformations

• Introducing: PI.FYI , the new social recommendation platform from the newsletter Perfectly Imperfect. I’m @dietznutz on there / PI.FYI

• Day One wants you to share with a new “Shared Journals” feature, a private space where to share life updates with up to 30 other people and receive comments and reactions on entries / TechCrunch

• More sharing: searches for Spotify’s Daylist spiked 20,000% after a trend on Instagram/ NBC News

• And TikTok Launches Auto Scrolling. Will It Replace Doomscrolling?/ Forbes

• Social platforms become 'marketing engines'  as creators look for direct deals to earn money / Digiday

• Case in point? Mr. Beast is reportedly closing a $100 million TV show deal with Amazon / Tubefilter

• And BeReal has 23M Daily Active Users and Is Onboarding Brands and Celebs / TechCrunch

• While Rumble is partnering with Barstool / Twitter

• Elsewhere: an analysis commissioned by CNBC shows just how done Meta is with news in general  / CNBC

Stylistics

• New Luxury's New Rules / Highsnobiety

• Like: Skorts Going Mainstream in Menswear / Hypebeast

• So.... per [SIC] Talks Alum Ana Andjelic, It’s… The Age of Functional Maximalism / Highsnobiety

• And Closet sales are the new brands / Sprezza

• Hodinkee’s new season of Watches in the Wild / Hodinkee

• Retail Confessions: Tiffany / Back Row

• More confessions from Nigo: The master of subculture on finding himself at Kenzo / Vogue Business

• Related: ‘The real thing’: Junya Watanabe on making the orthodox exquisite  through collaboration / Vogue Business

• Meantime, Gucci is strategically realigning its brand to attract an older, wealthier clientele / Jing Daily

• Related: The mob wife look is trending. Is it sustainable? / Vogue Business

• ICYMI: The Mob Wife Aesthetic Explained / HighSnobiety

• A’ Paris: Timberland stomped the PFW runways to stage a fashion comeback / Vogue Business

• Canadian craze: The surging popularity of Arc’teryx, Lululemon in China / Jing Daily

• Corollary: Saucony is making consumers say its name (correctly) / Twitter

Culturations

• The hangover after the museum party: institutions in the US are facing a funding crisis / The Art Newspaper

• Redefining Modern Art in the Muslim World / Hyperallergic

• Acre Presents: Bottom Line with [SIC] Talks alum Chris Black / AcreShop

• From Molly: “An affront to "girlhood" thinkpieces everywhere: Barbie fans need to shut up” / Dazed

• How Ryan Gosling, Jacob Elordi, and More Are Redefining the Himbo / Vanity Fair

• And New Cindy Sherman personas pop up in Marc Jacobs ad / The Art Newspaper

• Apropos, Marc muse Sofia Coppola’s Path to Filming Gilded Adolescence / The New Yorker

• Related, from Molly: ‘Skins’: The Show That Walked So ‘Saltburn’ Could Run / VICE

• A Note From the Cleaning Staff to the Residents of Saltburn / McSweeney’s

• Corollary: Dial In to Hell Phone, Bushwick’s Underground Techno Hotspot / Hypebeast

• [The UK Rapper] Dave: Streatham Vale to the World / The FACE

• Hollywood searches for an indie reboot at Sundance / The Future Party

• Maybe it’s on author Emma Cline’s Reading List? / Service95

• Or, The Books That Influence Hans Ulrich Obrist? / Frieze

• Or, maybe in Tom Ford's inescapable coffee-table book: the fashionable tome embraced by Maxxinistas everywhere? / Dirt

• Or, almost definitely in ‘Behind Right, Down + Circle: a book about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater [by] Cole Nowicki  / Monster Children

• But probably not from the epic oral history of Disney Channel Original Movies / Morning Brew

• Or: Smash Your TV and Have Adventures: An Oral History of ‘Wonder Showzen’ / The Ringer

Technopolis

• An app company in Kazakhstan just had the biggest IPO since Birkenstock / Quartz

• So Where next for the Magnificent Seven? AI could be a game-changer for many of the tech giants / FT

• “We need fusion,”  Open AI CEO Sam Altman told Bloomberg / Bloomberg

• He’s also looking at using some of the billions he’s raising to build actual semiconductor fabrication plants / Reuters

• Hence: The Techno-Industrial Revolution / Not Boring

• Related: How to Do Greentech Well / Zeihan

• Not done well: TikTok can generate AI songs, but it probably shouldn’t / The Verge

• Also a no-no, from Piers: “This is interesting, using ai to fill the scene props and still getting caught.” AI-Generated Poster Confirmed in "True Detective" / Futurism

• Related to that: Put your ability to suss out AI-generated faces to the test / NYT

• Irrespective, AI is coming for architecture. Architects are using DALL-E and other AI tools more in their complex processes / FT

• Humanoid robots will begin working in BMW manufacturing plants / Axios

Media-tions

• “Did Condé Nast Even Read Pitchfork / Slate

• From ‘Celeste: Greed Killed Sports Illustrated' / Intelligencer

• Is [the] Sports Illustrated Fiasco a Weird Game of Chicken? / A Media Operator

• Gen Z’s News Habits Will Upend the Media Landscape

• The Los Angeles Times, losing money, is laying off more than 20 percent of its journalists / NYT

• Why the U.S. media industry is in meltdown  / The Ringer

• While Condé Nast’s CRO is laying claim to a ‘Creative Career’ / The Drum

• Also “creative?” Netflix struck a 10-year deal with WWE to air "Monday Night Raw" / Axios

Market / Influence

• 2024’s Brand Yearbook is out, charting Brands x Gen Z / The Brand Yearbook

• From Iolanda: [The Future 100: 2024] [Key Quote]: “A profound and enriching 2024 awaits, ushering in the great deceleration for people and businesses after years of rapid acceleration. Community and connection at scale promotes the rise of shared experiences and people are demanding all spectrum of emotions to be engaged." / VML

• Not engaging, from Iolanda:  The Tremendous Yet Troubled State of Gaming in 2024 / Matthew Ball

• How the world's most ambitious esports league shrank to nothing: An oral history of the Overwatch League / Digiday

• Elsewhere: MCM has teamed up with the virtual destination Caliverse to introduce a new retail format to its consumers / Jing Daily

• Creator and Influencer Trends Brand Marketers Need To Know About Right Now

• Like? Shein’s marketplace is littered with gray-market products from top brands like Hoka / Modern Retail

• How CEOs Grade Their CMOs / AdAge

• From Piers: more on the end of craft beer - and breweries Oregon’s craft breweries face continued challenges / The Drinks Business

• Disused Parisian bank becomes basketball court in Nike Jordan film / The Drum

Eats, Drinks and Ephemera

• Fast Food is getting BIGGER / Axios

• Hence? The post-pandemic Restaurant Boom / Axios

• Related: The year in menus / NYT

• Who would’ve thought that mixing chicken soup with gin was a good idea /Very Good Drinks

• Probably, like, the forgotten genius who changed British food / The Guardian

• Corollary: apparently France has wine terrorists / France3

• Also? Gummy Vitamins Are Just Candy / The Atlantic

The Natural (?!) World

• A Florida guitarist played rock music while undergoing brain surgery / WVSN Miami

• Get Hip: walking with your face buried in a smartphone affects your mood — and your stride / NYT

• Finally, Bigfoot Might Bears / Ars Technica

T-shirt.

[SIC] 281: Doubtful Sound