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[SIC] 296: Life Device
Volume Six, Number Thirty Six
This time: [SIC] Talks with Aaron Stern, plus the [SIC] Weekly digest of pertinent developments, compiled and published free on Thursdays to 5811 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.
You can pay, too. 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.
Corollary Sources this week: The Daily Upside / After School / The Trend Report / Quartz / Found NY / Politico / Today in Tabs / 1440 / Exec Sum / The Future Party / Roca News / Thrillist / Brendans Communication Miscellany / Feed Me / Cultique / Today in Tabs
Contributors this week : Kate Lee, Foster Kamer, Iolanda Carvalho, Ben Pruess, Celeste Blewitt, David Bloom, JP Lespinasse, Kevin Johannesen, Piers Fawkes and Chris Vidal. Contributions are invited from everyone. If you got ‘em, send ‘em.
Hi all,
Part of the value of doing this weekly digest for me is that it helps me stretch my capabilities. Case in point, today’s [SIC] Talks ep with photographer, curator newsletterer and all-around polymath Aaron Stern, which I recorded this morning at 10a and have managed to turn around for 3p airtime. Feeling capable today haha.
We talk about it a bunch but Aaron organized the Hard Copy photo show at WSA in New York, up now and free to the public at 160 Water Street. Marcella and I went to the opening last Friday and it was impressive. Amazing crowd (shout out to Julian Williams, Jason Thome, Arjan Singh, and Bill Strobeck among other friends), great photographers and a cool format - everything’s print on large-scale Xerox machines. I’m going back this weekend - without the dog this time. It’s up through end of May.
Apropos of my chat with Aaron: The Early Majority’s Don't Capture This Moment makes the case *against* photographing your wanderings.
Also apropos of our chat: Ryan Broderick’s appearance on the Creator Spotlight pod mentioned our [SIC] Talks conversation and the idea of “superformat” - which I’m workshopping into a trademark value of mine. Francis Zierer had some fun with it in the accompanying newsletter post and made a diagram to illustrate:
It’s not everything I mean by the term, nor would I have claimed Superformats will save media, as is asserted in the On_Discourse article based on my conversation with them. But I do think it’s valuable, so I’m glad to see it proliferating. HMU if you want some advice on defining, developing or finding a partner for whatever your Superformat is, btw. That’s my gig when I’m not here.
Also mentioned in Ryan’s conversation - a subscription hack I hadn’t considered - asking readers to through [SIC] into your company Slack channel with a little ‘check this out’ type endorsement. Do me a favor and try it out.
Oh and the sale’s still on for 20% off subs here.
Corollary to superformat: Lauren Sherman broke down the Met Gala on How Long Gone but the recording broke, so they published the transcript as a google doc instead. Just waiting for Thobey Campion and the Lore Machine gang to render this as an AI-generated comic strip. Would be amazing.
Apropos of that: I spent yesteday at Noah Brier’s AI x Brands conference, BRXND, which was really cool. Tim Hwang’s talk on how to to talk (to AI) was illuminatory and counterintuitive (essentially, the more emotional incentive you offer, the better the machines will perform), but longtime [SIC] subscriber Jenny Nicholson’s talk was the consensus favorite. (@Jenny, you should do something with that HLG transcript too!)
Related: another longtimer, Iolanda Carvalho sent a piece about why Gen AI is like a toddler, with the note, “Mention AI and the philosophical and ethical debates soon follow. These are important discussions to have, but sometimes they obscure the practical capabilities of the technology — especially when it comes to creative work.”
Another tip from an old friend at the conference (no AI), was from my college buddy JP Lespinasse, who texted me his latest mix [DJ Take 5 does Amapiano], which was playing as I compiled this edition. That, and Heart of the Congos, my favorite reggae record ever.
Elsewhere, Kevin Johannesen wrote : “I’m biased obviously, but... GYMNASIUM is on a roll, creating its own wind and breathing new life into the creator category. Both in creating TV-style formats on IG / TT and as launch partner for Substack Creator Studio. Smart takes from SIC faves Casey Lewis and Emily Sundberg.”
To that end - fingers crossed but I think Adam Faze is going to join me on [SIC] Talks sometime soon. Big week for Adam (and s/o my new buddy Austin Tedesco btw)
Speaking of: Adam’s buddy (and mine) Kareem Rahma worked with me to make this video for Noreen Seabrook that dropped today. Too much fun. Marko and his team at NS are amazing, and honestly you should look into getting a rug made yourself.
Last thing: [SIC] homie Chris Vidal’s shop Upper West Skates is marking two years in business with an Anniversary Picnic and Best Trick Contest on June 1st at the Andy Kessler memorial skatepark on the UW. Will be a blast. Check it out and support your local skate shop!
Ok now, the links.
Ben
[SIC] 296: Life Device
The Macro Narrative
The defensive arrogance of TL;DR / Seth Godin
This year’s Pulitzer Prizes were a coming-out party for online media — and a marker of local newspapers’ decline / Nieman Lab
Notable, as deepfakes took over the Met Gala / TechCrunch
Ergo: The Most Dystopian Memes of the 2024 Met Gala / Hyperallergic
Elsewhere: Most College Students Shrug at Nationwide Protests / Axios
Speaking of shrugs: Is the corporate DEI panic finally over? The diversity, equity and inclusion push has quietly rolled on despite political backlash / FT
Was the 401(K) a Mistake? / NYT Mag
Corporate america knows we’re miserable. is a toilet bomb the answer? / WSJ
Or is it more ketamine: Is it the next fix for workplace depression? / FT
Related: Chris Pan, the speaker at Ohio State University’s commencement ceremony on Sunday, told the crowd that he used the psychedelic drug ayahuasca to draft his speech. He also had everyone stand up, sing, and stretch to “What’s Going On?” by 4 Non Blondes / NBC4I
Speaking of substances: Ozempic or Bust America has been trying to address the obesity epidemic for four decades now. So far, each new “solution” has failed to live up to its early promise / The Atlantic
‘We’ve had a soft landing,’ Apollo CEO says of the economy / QZ
And the great American innovation engine is firing again / FT
But Gen Z is leaning hard on credit cards / WSJ
Because? Americans are spending $500 a year on tips — reluctantly / Quartz
Young Adults Are Purchasing Homes in These US Cities / The Hill
Related? Why have home burials come back from the dead? / FT
Apropos of that: Inside the Uplifting World of Death Cafes / Huck Mag
From PIers: “Slightly random but fun for aging ravers who still want to dance outside [UK public invited to dance for worms to help assess soil health]” / The Guardian
More UK-ness: An English council provoked a rebellion by removing apostrophes from street signs / Semafor
While France is trying to shed its unfriendly rep for the Olympics / Semafor
Also shedding: Boy Scouts will change its name to Scouting America / NYT
While in Japan: too scared to quit? An agency will do that for you / FT
Corollary: Peter Zeihan on Why Japan Needs a US Alliance / YouTube
Elsewhere: Neom, Saudi Arabia’s planned futuristic mega-development, is hitting some bumps on its road to completion / CNBC
IE? Saudi Arabia authorised "lethal force" for Neom land clearance reports BBC / Dezeen
Related: Air Force plans fleet of 1,000 AI-enabled unmanned warplanes / AP
While Microsoft created a totally offline generative AI model for U.S. intelligence / Bloomberg
Generationations
“Gen Global” is a term coined by Fast Company for the new generation of young workers who grew up with social media connecting them to anyone, anywhere, at all times / The Future Party
Hence: At Disney World, Adult Visitors Increasingly Mix Remote Work and Play / NBC News
Gen AI v gen Z: do androids meme of electric sheep? / The Drum
From doomscrolling to sex: being a boy in 2024 / The Guardian
The Nudes Internet. The slow sexualization of everything online / The Atlantic
Conversely? US birthrates fall to a 40 year low / Zeihan
How to keep young people safe online. Other countries are closely watching Britain’s attempts to take a lead / FT
Are smartphones driving teenagers to depression? It’s complicated / NYT
Is It Wrong to Tell Kids to Apologize? / The Atlantic
Or to teach them to drink? As nonalcoholic cocktails become a staple on American menus, some children have begun to partake / NYT
How Hozier became Gen Z’s “forest daddy” / Glamour
Platformations
From Celeste: “Loved this piece, looking back to the beginnings of our gmail email addresses, the trials and tribulations in the inboxes, the chain emails…”[How Gmail Became Our Diary] / NY Mag
Corollary: How TikTok is Wiring Gen Z’s Money Brain /Wired
But A TikTok Ban Won’t Fix Social Media ….it is far too late to contain the habits that it has unleashed / The New Yorker
Meantime, Substack pivots to YouTube / Substack
Related, from Kate: Patreon Should Buy Substack to Save Creators. The solution to the problem of social media is to build something better/ Napkin Math
From Iolanda: Having built its marketing strategy around brand building since 2021, Airbnb is moving into new categories in a bid to become a hub for experiences, not just overnight stays / Marketing Week
Meanwhile, LinkedIn is the Twitter/X rival no one is talking about/ TechCrunch
Stylistics
Pleasure Lists to Boost Creativity / Pleasure Lists
IE: The humble skateboard’s effect on the Design industry / Monocle on Design
From Piers: maybe fodder [Althea Crome’s Miniature Sweaters Test the Limits of Traditional Knitting] / Colossal
While Nike developing AI model as part of design "step change" / Dezeen
Related: How Whoop Survived a Race Against the Apple Watch—And Made Its Wearables a Hit Among Athletes / The Information
[SIC] Homie James Friedman with The DJ Technology Edition. On Grimes, Steve Jobs, and returning to vinyl / WITI
Not wearing socks is a hill Chris Black is willing to die on / Pulling Weeds
From Piers: “Lessons from Yeezy. some lessons." [Adidas plots to swerve Samba slump] / Fashion Network
When “Made in China” Becomes a Poem / Hyperallergic
Hence? How Xiaohongshu made ‘jorts’ a thing / Jing Daily
But Can China save the Swiss watch market? / Jing Daily
And When Will India’s Streetwear Scene Become Big Business? / BoF
Unrelated: Flavor Flav offered to sponsor the U.S. women’s Olympic water polo team / YouTube
Chop Talk Interview with Maurizio Donadi / Hatchet Supply
The Park Hyatt Tokyo Edition On hospitality, nuance, and refreshes includes a surprise encounter with Ryuichi Sakamoto / WITI
Culturations
Steve Albini's Blues. How Chicago's recording engineer influenced everything / The Melt
Related: There are no cheat codes for taste!! / Blackbird Spyplane
But the global hollowing-out of nightlife will radically change culture / Semafor
Corollary: Black Twitter Proves That “American Culture Is Black Culture” / VF
Case in point: Thanks to Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s diss war, hip-hop has officially entered its own binge era / Hypebeast
Kendrick Lamar and Drake took it as far as we demanded / The Fader
IE: The Total Internet Era Of Rap Beef / Garbage Day
Diss tracks reflect a decaying commercial hip-hop industry that’s unable to produce new stars / The Ringer
From PIers: re this week’s rubber neck [Technology Is Transforming Rap Beef|] / WIRED
Corollary: Spotify will make users pay for its lyrics feature / Quartz
London’s THE FACE’s made a guide to the American rap underground / The FACE
While Miranda July “Wrote the First Great Perimenopause Novel / NYT
And from Piers: Brian Eno is the driving force behind new social justice collective called Hard Art / Cherry Flava
From David: Sundance 2024: Generative AI Changes Brian Eno Documentary With Every View / Forbes
Speaking of unique viewing: America Through the Lens of Robert Frank / Frieze
Related: a survey of the work of LaToya Ruby Frazier, who may be America’s foremost social documentary photographer is opening at the Met / NYT
While there’s A New Wave of Appreciation for the Man Who Drew New York. Jason Polan chronicled city life in thousands of sketches before he died at 37 in 2020. What happens to his legacy now? / NYT
Speaking of legacy: Food Records founded by Isaiah Barr, Spencer Murphy, and Lucien Smith, announce their first release “Salty Tears” by The Jazz Passengers / Serving the People
And fave multi-instrumentalist Morgan Guerin’s New Album “Tales of the Facade” is out tomorrow, May 10 / IG
Why It’s So Hard to Make a Great Movie About Tennis / Vanity Fair
Stand-Up Comedy Has Tripled in Size Over the Last Decade. Bert Kreischer, Taylor Tomlinson and Chelsea Handler discuss the boom in stand-up comedy — and Netflix’s role in it / Bloomberg
Not funny, from Piers: Glimpses of a demon-driven genius. Francis Bacon: A Self-Portrait in Words by Michael Peppiatt /The Guardian
More demon time: FKA twigs and Nicolas Cage will star in a horror film about Jesus / The FACE
14 Art Books to Read This Summer / Hyperallergic
From Piers: robert alice’s ‘on NFTs’ is the largest art historical survey of blockchain-based art/ Design Boom
Related?: ArtCenter MFAs Find New Beginnings in Past Technology / Hyperallergic
Technopolis
From David: More Smarts Coming To Meta’s Ray-Ban Smart Glasses Collaboration / Forbes
While OpenAI made a deepfake detector to help spot DALL-E creations / NYT
In Search of New Software Cultures / Product Lost
In defense of the rabbit r1 / TechCrunch
Then again there’s always (from Ben): the Igloo x Iron Maiden cooler-boombox combo / Igloo Coolers
How much are AI assistants changing how coding is taught? / Spectrum.IEEE
Media-tions
From Foster: Meet AdVon, the AI-Powered Content Monster Infecting the Media Industry. Remember that AI company behind Sports Illustrated's fake writers? We did some digging — and it's got tendrils into other surprisingly prominent publications/ Futurism
Ergo? Why nothing works anymore: Chaos in the SERP / The Rebooting
Related? Business Insider’s Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Carlson is stepping down / Semafor
Two from Iolanda: Amazon Ads will offer advertisers “shoppable carousel” TV advertising opportunities where viewers can shop multiple product variations via remote control / Mediapost
And “For small and medium-sized enterprises in particular — which make up the majority of Meta’s business — the new features will offer the ability to generate new creative ideas within Meta’s platform without needing to seek third-party assistance" [Meta launches enhanced gen-AI features for advertisers] / The Media Leader
Meanwhile: Disney’s Bumpy Streaming Shift: ESPN+ Subscribers Drop Again / Front Office Sports
A wave of American investors transformed the English soccer experience, and upset fans / NYT Magazine
Dazed Media has expanded its membership offering with the launch of Dazed Space, a 4,000-square-foot venue in central London for its Dazed Club, which is currently priced at about $50 a year / Dazed
Market / Influence
Issa Rae partnered with Tubi on a “fan-fueled studio” called Stubios / Future Party
Related: The return of Bud.TV? AB InBev refreshes its Hollywood aspirations with Superconnector Studios / The Future Party
VSCO, the popular photo-editing app, is launching a marketplace dubbed “VSCO Hub” to connect photographers and brands/ TechCrunch
From Celeste: “Loved this digest of gaming, Epic games and gaming distribution. The streaming giants and gaming industry are creating a whole new world. Battle Royale, micro transactions, intriguing” [Fortnite: Turning A Meteoric Rise Into Sustained Growth] / HBR Strategy Podcast
But Gamers Are Not Who Brands Think They Are / Campaigns Asia
Related: Former esports execs are forming a talent and content company to simplify the digital entertainment business / Digiday
Corollary to that: Is it time to change the agency holdco model? / Digiday
From Ben: “This is Rad” [Candace Parker appointed President at adidas Women’s Basketball] / Linkedin
Another from Ben: “This is sad- another part of our youth ✌🏼” [Sam Ash is Closing Every Location] / Fast Company
Dystopian Apple iPad Pro ad appalls creatives (and even celebrities) / Creative Bloq
Corollary: Puma's latest campaign is a lesson for brands using AI / Jing Daily Web3
Instacart and Uber are teaming up to fight DoorDash / WSJ
Puig's radical new logo bucks the trend in fashion branding / Creative Bloq
Where the Canadian Army's new logo design is … something else / Creative Bloq
Roots’ Race to Make Hoodies and Sweatpants Sexy. The [Canadian] legacy brand has hired fashion provocateur Joey Gollish to breathe life back into it. Will Gen Z even notice? / The Walrus
Meantime, Tim Hortons Is Brewing an Idea of Canada That No Longer Exists / The Walrus
Apropos?! How Coffee Became a Joke. The crisis at Starbucks is a sign of our un-serious times / The Honest Broker
Also unserious? Vegan cheese beat dairy in a competition / Free Pizza
From Celeste: “This interview was the modern day thought bubble of 'is it a tech company or a hospitality company?'' [Can Chipotle Founder Steve Ells Strike Fast-Casual Gold Again?] / On With Kara Swisher
Eats, Drinks and Ephemera
Years of high inflation have started to dent restaurant chains’ profits, hitting fast-food companies particularly hard / Semafor
Hence? The push to subsidize kebabs in Germany / Sky News
Panera is discontinuing its Charged Sips caffeinated drinks after a series of lawsuits / Bloomberg
Philadelphia is now home to a 24-hour cheese vending machine/ Food and Wine
From Celeste: The Surprising (And Delicious) Return Of Onion Dip / Town & Country
Speaking of surprising and delicious: With a trillion cicadas about to emerge in the United States, insect chefs are ready to ferment, sautée, and stuff them / NYT
Hence: Burst of Billions of Cicadas Will Rewire Our Ecosystems for Years / Vox
Unrelated: Food products that came out the year you were born / Taste of Home
The Natural (?!) World
A record-breaking 30% of the world’s electricity was produced by renewables last year as wind and solar power got more popular / CNN
Corollary, from Piers: if not the planet, do it for the art [Something amazing happened when an L.A. neighborhood covered its roads in solar reflective paint] / Fast Company
Less encouraging: Malaysia will give Orangutans as gifts to nations that buy its palm oil / Semafor
Apropos: A-list animal trainer as he prepares a Great Dane for his film début / The New Yorker
The Grand Master of Slime / The New Yorker
In the early days of online slime content, Jamie Lauren Keiles described the nearly pornographic pleasures of the genre / The New Yorker
[SIC] 296: Life Device
Thanks so much for having me, Ben