[SIC] 286: Honoured Among Foxes

Volume Six, Number Twenty Six

This time: Remembering some friends, no longer with us. No [SIC] Talks this week, just the [SIC] Weekly digest of pertinent developments, compiled by Ben Dietz and published free on Thursdays to 5368 subscribers who’ve opted in. [SIC] is a one-person operation that grows exclusively by via word-of-mouth. Pass it along to people you like. Here’s a button:

Paid subscriptions are also available. 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. Many paying supporters expense their subscriptions as research for their work in marketing, advertising, entertainment and tech.

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Corollary sources this week include:The Future Party / Dealbook / The Kicks You Wear / After School / The Medium / PSFK / Culture: An Owner’s Manual / Garbage Day / American Enterprise Institute / Dirt / Daily Upside / A Media Operator / Retail Dive / Politico / Marginal Revolution / Dealbook / Ben’s Bites / Library Street Collective /  The Art of Noticing / Brendan’s Communication Miscellany / 1440

Contributors this week include Mark Fleming, Celeste Blewitt, Iolanda Carvalho, Piers Fawkes, Molly Raskin, Sam Bompas, Nimrod Kamer, Corinna Freedman and W. David Marx

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[SIC] 286: Honoured Among Foxes

Excuse the late send, and hope Leap Day treated you kindly. More on that in a second.

Tumultuous week. I spent sixteen years at VICE (from 2004-2020), so there were a LOT of calls, links, texts about that whole meltdown. And my last gig before embarking on my current life as a consultant/advisor/board member guy was as Chief Strategy Officer at NTWRK, the liveshopping app that acquired and subsumed Complex. Lot of calls about that, too.

In reverse order, my takes: the new Complex complex is the right idea. Ad supported media brands today have to have a means to connect advertisers to “the bottom of the funnel” - ie the point of transaction in order to compete and differentiate their value. Trusted, editorially-driven media can validate and endorse ideas, products and services with an effect on consumers that no other vehicle short of word-of-mouth can offer. And live commerce could be a burgeoning space to transact, create and be entertained, if you judge by the boom of a few years back in China - so there’s some potential upside there, done right.

As for VICE (yes, I’ll type it all caps til I die); today (Leap Day) marks 8 years since the launch of VICELAND, the TV network that was either the apex or the apotheosis (or, I’d argue both). Picking Leap Day as the moment to launch the network was actually my idea, so to mark the occasion I’ll say this, in light of news that VICE will go forward largely as a production company: the business was built (post 2002) as a flywheel. IE: stories come from editorial brains, get surrounded by advertisers, get formatted and packaged for expansion onto new platforms, get syndicated and find new audiences, who invite the editorial brains into their worlds to create new stories. Meanwhile, insights from the editorial audiences spark advertising ideas that help brands communicate more effectively in the language of those audiences - generating a valuable services business. Existing Intellectual Property can be dimensionalized into new properties, and any/every element can be brought to life IRL, expressed as physical items, or reserved for paid subscription-only membership. When it runs well, this model can really run well - and hence did, for years. There’s a reason Walt’s diagram is so famous. But to try and continue without the street level source of the ideas (ie, editorial)? That’s a Sisyphean task.

One guy that understood that reality left us, recently - and given VICE’s situation his loss feels symbolic - so I want to celebrate him as the bright star he was. Nakuj Vittal passed away a few weeks ago, far too young and far too suddenly, and said plainly, it’s not fair. He joined us at 24 as finance manager, just as the company really started to explode. By 30, he was our digital CFO - and in my experience one of the few in the late-period leadership who could FEEL the need for balance in the flywheel, and the huge danger in forgetting the WHY we there. He was a doer, and a believer in doers. If you were trying to make things work, he had your back. And if his outlook had been more widely held, we’d be talking about some other media story this week, I suspect. Delivering the sad news to a list serve of former colleagues I wrote, “we knew him as such a youthful, vibrant presence, a caring confidante and a true believer in the community of people and ideas we worked together in. 'Kuj was possessed of true potential and [a] positive mindset - and he knew the best was yet to come for all of us. It’s in that spirit I hope we can remember him.” I certainly will. Rest in Peace, my friend.

📸: Gerhard Stochl

In Nakuj’s memory our former colleague Shyam Panchal is doing the NYC Runs Brooklyn Half Marathon on April 28th, raising funds to donate to The Animal Haven, a no-kill animal shelter in CT, supporting pets in need local to Wilton CT, one of the places Nakuj grew up, and where he was memorialized last weekend. There’s a donation link HERE - any donations welcome. Side note: if anyone wants to join and run too, let me know and I’ll connect you to Shyam.

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No [SIC] Talks this week, but if you missed my conversation with Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick of The Trend Report, do yourself a favor: his Sunday post “Cities of the Future” is a barnburner and everyone should read it (not just for the recapitulation of our chat. [SIC] Talks is back next week with Emily Sundberg of Feed Me, with author and early-aughts clubbing buddy Tricia Romano talking about The Freaks Came Out to Write (her history of The Village Voice) after that, and A Media Operator’s Jacob Donnelly on the horizon (maybe even Big Spyplane in the offing, too).

Other stuff to do: The *book launch of Diplomatic Dining a new hardback volume from Bompas & Parr Editions, hosted at The Whisky Exchange on Tuesday 5th March. Also on March 5th, in Milan - fave painter Todd James’s opening at Galleria Patricia Armocida. And Todd’s got a piece in the Free Arts NY benefit Auction that I like, too. Back to London: Internet grail book seller IDEA opened IRL. Elsewhere in London, there’s Nimrod Kamer’s meandering Chiltern Street social guide. Conversely: How to write concisely - “The need to write more clear and more concise, is becoming more urgent.” Having no ability to do that, I’ll just recommend The WITI Recommends Edition. Another rec: DJ Private Ryan’s post-Carnival-Relief mix “In We DNA”, is my last Carnival mix link for the year, but it’s fun. And sweeter, if more dated: this Doo Woo Classics playlist. I am a sucker for this stuff. Throwing Fits x 3Sixteen’s The Only Jeans That Matter are cool, too.

Ok, now the links.

The Macro Narrative

• How the Media Industry Keeps Losing the Future / NYT

• From Corinna: Calling all SNL writers to the VICE town hall / TikTok

• Also from Corinna: “Excellent meme work here” Shane Smith and the Final Collapse of VICE News / Hollywood Reporter

• Vice’s cunning, irreverent journalism is dead — and executives with bloated paychecks helped kill it / The Guardian

• There will never be another magazine like Vice / The New Republic

• From W. David: “I found the notorious New York Press interview after spelunking on the Wayback Machine” [ Vice Rising: Why Corporate Media Is Sniffing the Butt Of the Magazine World ] / Archive.org

• Corollary: The Best of VICE Records. Basically, if it was cokey or kooky, VICE Records was all over it / Nersey

• Elsewhere: “Are we entering an age of post-music?” the collective Y7 asks in their long format piece that looks at the origins and purposes of the blistering soundcheck scenes in India / 032C

• And Is the new Dune 2 poster supposed to look like a meme? / Creative Bloq

• Because? Tomorrow, We Will All Be Memes / Salieri Redemption

• IE: Young people on TikTok are using the phrase "no borax, no glue" to express feelings of longing / TikTok

• While Creators are using the ‘when your card declines at therapy’ trend as a way to trauma-dump on TikTok / TikTok

• Speaking of: Plenty of People Could Quit Therapy Right Now / The Atlantic

• Also quitting: Renegade Women: Meet the Female Pick Up Artists Who Are Kissing Dating Apps Goodbye /  The Independent

• Corollary: Why angry ‘anti-fans’ turn on the influencers they once loved / Guardian

• IE: r/wallstreetbets really wants to short the Reddit stock when it goes public / The Verge

• With elections looming worldwide, here’s how to identify and investigate AI audio deepfakes / Nieman Lab

• From Iolanda: Amazing campaign - "War has been contemporary for too long"... I have a thing for WWII history (got it from my father, like so many 🙂), so Capa's pictures are very familiar to me, and I just love this idea! [Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center Pleads for Peace through War Photos from the Last Century] / IBBonline

• Cash is no longer king, so why is so much of it being printed? / Business Insider

• A look at the booming "she"-conomy / Axios

• That's Enough. Balancing Ambition with Discipline and Knowing the Difference Between Goals and Greed / Monologue

• McKinsey advised China’s government on how to dominate high-end tech / FT

• A Wild and Dangerous 2024 Experiment Inside No Labels, the most confounding third-party gambit of the 2024 election / The Atlantic

• From Molly: Could Swifties or Trekkies Decide the Election? / NYT

• Some first-time homeowners are buying their childhood houses / NYT

• Hypebeast is proud to introduce its latest editorial vertical: Hypemaps, a “curation of the best international destinations around the globe” / Hypebeast

Generationations

• New Study Reveals Gen Z Sex Trends. 36% of Gen Zers are having more sex than a year ago, indicating a shift from the previous sex recession / Hypebae

• But in contrast? Gen Z is more likely to call in sick to work thanks to a mental health crisis turbocharged by young women / Fortune

• Some first-time homeowners are buying their childhood houses / NYT

• But? Meet the Family: the internet has created a new nuclear family structure consisting of Daddy, Mother, Babygirl, and the 30-Year-Old Teenage Girl / Bustle

• Corollary? Mr. Beast as talent evaluator / YT

Platformations

• Why I Don't Read Reddit. And why I did read Reddit's IPO filing—here are seven things I learned / Ted Gioia

• Perhaps the most important development for the media marketplace’s shift to retail-first, consumer-first business models was last week's release of Apple’s Sports app /Apple

• While Universal Publishing Joins TikTok Takedown / Lefsetz Letter

• From Celeste: “The trick shot, it reads as an artform and the new way to draw people in on TikTik, 35 hours [for a 10 second clip]”: The Art Of The TikTok Trick Shot / NYT

• Elsewhere: About Half of the Adult TikTok Users in the US have posted a video. Notably, the 35-to-49-year-olds scored highest, with 60% of that cohort posting at least one TikTok / TubeFilter

• Related? Where Everyone’s an influencer and Everything’s For Sale. Flip calls itself “The Shopping Social Network,” but so far ”mostly appears to be Gen Z’s version of Tupperware parties” / The Verge

Stylistics

• From girls to dolls: Surrealism and fantasy are dominating the runways / Vogue Business

• Related: Yes you should dress your age / Blackbird Spyplane

• From Celeste: “Very fun piece referencing the era of the noughties, Saltburn costume design and the influences we are seeing on the catwalks currently” [Saltburn's Tacky Rich-Kid 00s Look Is Taking Over] / BBC

• The 'Mob Wife' Trend Is Fake. But there's a reason it's become the biggest fashion buzz term of 2024 / Back Row

• But, not fake?!: Prepare for Jazz Guy Summer / the Melt

• Milan Fashion Week Finally Gets Weird / Show Notes

• Related? What are ‘horse face skirts’And why are they going viral? / Jing Daily

• Highsnobiety’s flagship store stocks up on brand partnerships / The Future Party

• Has Louis Vuitton men’s become a friends-only affair? / Jing Daily

• Apropos: Virgil Abloh and open-source fashion / Trapital Pod

• The ’90s Style Moments That Changed Menswear for Good / GQ

• Sean Pablo On His Recent Move To EDGLRD  / Monster Children

• What is a skateboard shop? / Simple Magic

• In the summer of 2023, a man in a wheelchair approached Labor skate shop looking to donate a bag of artifacts. You’ll never believe what was in the bag. Bobby Puleo investigates/ YT

• Gap Inc.’s Richard Dickson’s Rite of Spring and His Playbook for the Portfolio / WWD

• How Our Legacy Became the Biggest Little Fashion Brand in the World / GQ

• Who Is Next? RIMOWA Design Prize Roundtable / 032C

• For now, Puddle Pants Have Been Replaced by Pedal Pushers / WhoWhatWear

• Wear them to Vogue World, coming to Paris this summer / Vogue Business

• Closer to home, coming Friday: Quartersnacks x Converse Cons / Quartersnacks

• While PERKS & MINI X PUMA Takes Mushroom to Another Level / Futurevvorld

• Related: The Original Water Resistant Paper Square Bag / Front Street General

• The casting of celebrities’ children — long common for Hollywood —,seems to be catching on in fashion / NYT

• Curvy Influencers Post a Lost about Body Positivity. But what happens when they use Ozempic?/ NBC News

Culturations

• Redesign Yrself to Suit Yrself, Part One. Lee Lozano's Puerile Purity / Apology

• Surrealism revolutionized culture. This year, exhibitions around the world celebrate the movement’s 100th birthday / NYT

• Lostwave: How the Internet Became Obsessed with Identifying Lost Songs/ Dazed

• This Just Internet did an education video on old memes / YT

• Flop rock: inside the underground floppy disk music scene / The Verge

• In Detroit, a onetime church is reborn as the architectural heart [and skatepark] of a new arts district / Architectural Digest

• From Celeste: “A great read on the momentum of the brand of Fred Again [Inside The Megachurch Of Fred Again]”/ Esquire

• Solace In The Rhythms Of Disco”: Studio 54’s Co-Founder Reflects On The Club’s Legacy / Service95

• What Shane Gillis Proved on 'SNL' / The Atlantic

• Jacqueline Novak and Jenny Slate Are Not Okay  / The New Republic

• Perfectly Imperfect: Will Welch / Perfectly Imperfect

• Out West: The Players Who Keep LA Running / Vanity Fair

• How a Murder Spree Collided With Hollywood’s Punk Revolution / Vanity Fair

• Did I party too much? / unorthodoxblend

• Related: From Celeste: “Influencer Invasion: Saltburn Sets The TikTokkers Loose On Charles Stopford Sackville 's Drayton House” / Tatler

• Related to that: All the Internet’s Boyfriends are Irish / Vox

• And? The Royal Mint releases collectable George Michael coin / Dezeen

• Disney’s first Nigerian animated series is a futuristic take on Lagos and its flaws / Semafor

• James Turrell installs illuminated skylight at New York City school / Dezeen

• Over the course of the past year, artist Rusty Zimmerman has painted 200 portraits of various South Brooklynites — mostly just your average locals, aged 12 to 102 — for free / BKMag

• Lee Fields: Soul Survivor. The legendary soul and funk singer is the subject of a new documentary, 'Lee Fields: Faithful Man,' out this week / BK Magazine Pod

• "Happenstantial Art" captures the beauty and artistry in everyday life / BoingBoing

Technopolis

• Increasingly flooding the market for AI: ChatGPT, but evil / WSJ

• So… Should We Fear the Woke AI? / NYT

• Apparently not: “Google’s AI Isn’t Too Woke. It’s Too Rushed.” / Bloomberg Opinion

• From Iolanda: "Particle.news, which entered into private beta over the weekend, is a new startup offering a personalized, “multi-perspective” news reading experience that not only leverages AI to summarize the news, but also aims to do so in a way that fairly compensates authors and publishers" / TechCrunch

• Meantime, Tumblr getting in bed with AI bigwigs. Automattic is reportedly close to deals with OpenAI and Midjourney / 404 Media

• The commerce exec’s guide to the Apple Vision Pro / The New Consumer

• From David: Apple Revolutionized the Auto Industry (without selling a single car) / The Atlantic

• Corollary, from Celeste: Is Kara Swisher Tearing Down Tech Billionaires - Or Burnishing Their Legends? / The Atlantic

• The NFT industry is trying to mount a comeback / Bloomberg

Media-tions

• Why dead sites like Gawker and The Messenger go blank — and why it doesn’t have to be this way/ Slate

• Something Went Terribly Wrong With Online Ads / The Atlantic

• And yet! Investment is (slowly) trickling back into ad tech / Digiday

• So… Media companies are pushing podcasts at SXSW 'Trojan-horse style’/ Digiday

• The Financial Times has launched a new venture arm to invest in high-growth media and tech companies / Axios

• While San Francisco Chronicle tries an AI chatbot — er, Chowbot — for food recs / Nieman Lab

• Also funny: Online comedy's very important person. Vic Michaelis is a face of Dropout's social media success / Embedded

Market / Influence

• Amazon’s Big Secret. Nearly 30 years after the company was founded, we still don’t really know where its profits come from / The Atlantic

• From Iolanda: “Content still King 😉” [John Lewis is the latest retailer to launch its own dedicated in-house content agency] / Marketing Beat

• Hence? Best Buy Should Buy CNET / A Media Operator

• Elsewhere in Florida: “The ‘Disney adult’ industrial complex” / The New Statesman

• Ninja is launching a beverage brand — a cashew milk called “Nutcase” / Tubefilter

• Also crazy: Just Don’t Do It: Stop pitching Nike ads to charities / The Drum

• The Malin: A Co-Working Space with Hotel-Like Aesthetics / Dezeen

• TRIBE: A Hotel with Co-Working-Like Aesthetics / Hospitality Net

• Expedia is cutting 1,500 jobs, citing a slowdown in travel / CNN Business

• Shutting down startups is big business / TechCrunch

• A motorcycle shop owner in Florida who bought all of Cake’s remaining US inventory of both motorcycles and spare parts / TechCrunch

• Does alcohol + rap music = an investment case? Getting to the bottom of Bernstein’s rap drinks analysis / FT

• The Only Prescription Is More Cowbell. Music Makes Advertising More Creative—and There’s Data to Prove It / Advertising Week

Eats, Drinks and Ephemera

• Young People Are Drinking Less Alcohol, But Do We Know Why? / IFL Science

• “Rescuing” natural wine. How Garage Gal makes and markets natty rosé / One Thing

• Dining Out Is about to Look a Lot Different / Business Insider

• Swedish Candy's TikTok Fame Drives American Demand / Eater

• 30 chefs on the challenges of running a restaurant today/ NYT

• Related: A Minnesota state lawmaker wants to ban "service fees" and other surcharges at restaurants and hotels/  Axios Twin Cities

• Breakfast for dinner: Kellogg’s CEO says eat cereal for dinner to save money / CNN

• Speaking of cereal: Is oat milk unhealthy? That’s the wrong question / The Verge

• The Internet Is Searching for Coffee Now More Than At Any Other Point In History—Why? / GQ

• From Piers: “I just think it’s always interesting to watch how insta-natives launch websites. what they think is important ui/ux/content [Books About Food: Hit Instagram account launches new website that will be the 'IMDb of cookbooks' ]/ Design Boom

The Natural (?!) World

• What a Major Solar Storm Could Do to Our Planet / The New Yorker

• Degrading air quality is a growing concern in the U.S./ Quartz

• While Mexico City is running out of water / CNN

• These Are Some of the Earliest Pet Photographs / Hyperallergic

• Was the Catman real? The Fence goes in search of a Scottish suburban legend / The Fence

• At Ben Talks NYC, A Journey from Ocean Depths to Outer Space / Omnia / UPenn

• From Molly:  The Wellness Madness. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Buzz Bissinger is sick of wellness. What he wants is more badness, malice, and depravity / Airmail

• In the meantime? You Can Now Extend Your DMT Trip... "This is where ancient practices and modern technology come together" / Doubleblind

Thanks Larry and @nomorerulers for the new inspiration today.

[SIC] 286: Honoured Among Foxes