[SIC] 298: Jacuzzi Vacancy

Volume Six, Number Thirty Eighty, Round Two 🤦‍♂️

Ben Dietz

May 24, 2024

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Contributors this week: Piers Fawkes, Celeste Blewitt, Iolanda Carvalho, Molly Raskin, Ian Michna, David Bloom, David Blue, and Andrea Hernandez.

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Hi from Montreal,

I’m at the C2 Montreal conference, which is a little like SXSW Interactive or the WSJ’s “Future of Everything” event, but for a (mostly) Canadian cohort. Smart people, interesting provocations, cool installations, that kind of thing. It’s my second time here and I have to say, might have to make it an annual pilgrimage. Montreal is a great vibe, and the strong American dollar is a boon.

No [SIC] Talks this week because i’m on the road, but i’ll be back next week with a conversation with Sara Fischer from Axios, and I’ll make an appearance on Day One FM sometime next week too - talking [SIC], superformats and NYC then vs. now, among many other things. Will put something out when it drops. Speaking of that Superformat Piece, My theory got cited in Internet 2025: The Future Isn’t Far Out , which was cool - with my name attached this time.

In lieu of me talking to you this week, a couple pods I dug: Krishnacore figurehead and all-around fascinating dude Ray of Today was on How Long Gone yesterday. Great ep. And [SIC] homie David Marx was on Throwing Fits during a brief NYC stopover. Also great.

Speaking of [SIC] homies: Sam Valenti’s lifelong endeavor got spotlighted in Ghostly at 25: Key moments from the label’s first quarter century over at The Fader. Recommended.

Also recommended, from Ian from Jenkem : “If you’re round this Sunday! 35mm disposable camera photo show / party. 21+. Free booze. Maybe some food. One potential stunt. Bring a friend. 5-8pm.” Sadly I am not round on Sunday, but you should go if you’re in NYC over the long weekend. Invite here.

And now, the links.

[SIC] 298: Jacuzzi Vacancy

The Macro Narrative

Group chats rule the world / Twitter
Especially in?: America's freelance capitals: Metro areas with the highest estimated freelancer earnings/ Axios
Apropos: How Florida and Texas became the Wall Street of the south / Quartz
Corollary: Crypto Never Dies / Monologue
Also not yet dead: Robert Kennedy Jr. said he had invested $24,000 in shares of GameStop to show support for meme-stock traders / CNBC
Just in time for Harps to be headed to the emoji dictionary / Unicode
Related: Eight in 10 Americans have been stumped by emoji use / Axios
RFK Jr has also pointedly decided to associate himself with Russell Brand. That is a political mistake / The New Statesman
Elsewhere in politics: Argentine cultural workers feel the pain of president Milei’s cuts / The Art Newspaper
Hundreds gathered in the center of Montreal to push for increased government funding for arts and culture / Hyperallergic
Unrelated: Ready to explore a new high? Kanna is a Legal Plant Medicine You Can Snort / Rave New World
While a major study found that weed use among teenagers was lower in states where the drug was legal/ NYT
Related: there is a Zyn shortage in several states / Bloomberg
And Hims & Hers is offering injections that mimic Ozempic for 20% the cost / Semafor
Andrea’s take on that one: Brozempic, just in time for summer, is only $199 / Snaxshot
Speaking of Bro-manteaus, from Molly: ‘Bromakase’ Is the New Steakhouse / NYT
So… Meet the HIFIs: Their Obsession With Luxury Will Tank Them / Business Insider
Hence? The workday lunch is losing its appeal. Consumers are saving that cash for the weekend / Quartz
Corollary: Hamptonites Are Losing It Over the Congestion Pricing Program / Vanity Fair
Also just in time for summer: Tote Shorts are great/ Good Threads by Mandai
Less great? The Black Lives Matter era is over. It taught us the limits of diversity for diversity’s sake. What survives is a movement that’s achieving real change / The Guardian
Genre is Dying (and that's a good thing) / Youtube
From Molly: Looking to the Past for Early Meanings of Nostalgia /NYT
In defense of breasts: A review of Sarah Thornton’s “Tits Up,” a book about how boobs are put to work / The New Yorker
From Molly: I Know Where You Were Last Night / Bustle
Apropos of where I was last night, from Piers: “Altho i like panels for the snapshot of diverse thought….but conferences don’t invest enough time in excellent moderators - that’s a biggy” [The Panel Discussion Edition] / WITI

Generationations

It’s been harder for people with fresh diplomas to get jobs this spring, as entry-level hiring is projected to fall by 5.8% in 2024 / Bloomberg
And Zillennials are Quitting Jobs That Aren’t Eco-Friendly /Fortune
Harbinger of the Rise of the English Major? Blackrock CEO wants Liberal Arts Analysts that Have Nothing to Do with Finance or Technoloy / Fortune
So … From Molly: What Do Students at Elite Colleges Really Want? / NYT
“‘I Don’t Want to Save Penn’: Alumni Break Over University’s Future” / Bloomberg
Related: Stupidity: A Reading List You get smarter by studying foolishness—so here's how [Ted Gioia would] teach a 12-week course on stupidity / An Honest Broker

Platformations

From Molly: When TikTok therapy is more lucrative than seeing clients / Vox
Also from Molly: Gen Z is Doing Therapy Differently. Is It Working? / Highsnobiety
While from Iolanda: “Any revision of Google’s search engine is consequential. [Google is about to Changle the Whole Internet] / NYMag
Related, also from Iolanda: "But with Google making significant changes to its search experience… publishers are on edge over whether their search traffic (and thus the “main converter” of subscriptions) can no longer be relied on”/ The Media Leader

Stylistics

The Secretive World of Auctioning the Clothes of Aristocrats and Stars / Back Row
Related: ‘Rare, vintage, Y2K’: Online thrifters are flipping fast fashion. How long can it last? / Vogue Business
How Scandi ‘twinfluencers’ launched a €2.5 million It-brand / Vogue Business
Welcome to The Age of the Cult Designer / Show Notes
But Have sample sales turned ‘vicious’? / Vogue Business
Also animalistic: Diplo’s Jamaican jungle paradise is about as wild as you might imagine… / YT
And Speaking of wild: Hodinkee Built a $100 Million Watch Empire. Then the Market Tanked. / WSJ
While Coi Leray Partners With Foot Locker For “Start With Sneakers” Adidas Campaign / Vibe
Rimowa celebrates sturdiness / The Drum
And collabs with ALD / Aime Leon Dore
Also travel centric? The EVA Sandal is the Shoe of the Summer / Fast Company

Culturations

Minimalism may be out and surrealism is in / NYT
While from Molly: Tennis Explains Everything / The Atlantic
From David Blue: “Subject Matter Experts Mix. Music for lower tempo gatherings / activities / Soundcloud
In contrast, from Molly: Charli XCX: The Anatomy Of A (3-D) Female Pop Star / Rolling Stone
More ‘modernity’: The Night That Sotheby’s Was Crypto-Punked / NYT
From Celeste: “A true tale of money and power.”.[Gina Rinehart Tried To Hide Her Portrait. It Went Global Instead] / The Guardian
Speaking of “It Girls,” from Molly: Design Popularized by Internet ‘It’ Girls Gets a Pop-up / NYT
But when it comes to sculpture, Brancusi Makes the Modern World Look Stale / The Art World
Another blast from the past: The Engrossing Darkness of The Crow / The Atlantic
Marvel announced that, moving forward, its movies and shows would no longer be connected in a way that required you to watch everything/ The Future Party
HVW8 Gallery’s City of Quartz 2' Examines the Shifting Zeitgeist of Los Angeles/ Hypebeast
Ramdane Touhami on Why He Will Never Slow Down / Time Sensitive
From Molly: The Siblings Who Changed How We Party/NYT
Elsewhere in reformed partiers: Perfectly Imperfect: DANNY BROWN / Perfectly Imperfect
Unrelated but also cool: Primavera has named a stage after Steve Albini / Stereogum
And there are Residencies, grants, open calls, and jobs for artists, writers, and art workers, from The Bennett Prize, Ucross, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, & more / Hyperallergic

Technopolis

AI is eating the Web / Axios
Or, said differently: It’s zombifying the internet / The Guardian
Apropos: OpenAI Just Gave Away the Entire Game. The Scarlett Johansson debacle is a microcosm of AI’s raw deal/The Atlantic
But AI Music Platforms Don’t Really Get What They Are Yet / Garbage Day
Hence? Faux ScarJo and the Descent of the A.I. Vultures/ The New Yorker
But The Future of AI Voice Assistants Will Be Weird. It’s far more interesting than a reference to Her / The Atlantic
For Instance? The first Neuralink user says he’s “constantly multitasking.” / Wired
And Gen AI outperformed humans on theory-of-mind tests / Semafor
Yet, yet: Google’s AI search is telling car drivers to consider changing their blinker fluid / Quartz
And the maker of the deeply unloved “AI Pin” is seeking a buyer / The Verge
So… Does AI have a gross margin problem? / Mostly Metrics
We’ll soon see: Microsoft announced new products and features, including laptops with built-in AI hardware / Quartz
But, From Celeste: Can Artificial Intelligence make The PC Cool Again? / NYT

Media-tions

From David Bloom: “It probably doesn’t need to be belabored, but the most-watched streaming video service in the United States, and many other places, is YouTube, not Netflix, or anyone else... It’s the search and discovery engine for music, massively popular programming and much else. The Upfront advertising presentations last week seem almost beside the point from all the legacy networks, Netflix, Amazon and others” / WSJ
Releated, from Celeste: “This is such a multi-layered conversation… wrestling and basketball being the leaders on social media [and] motor sports … with the help of Netflix” [What Will It Take To Get Gen Z Watching Sport?] / FT
Hence: Cannes is very much paying attention to FAST services since data shows that movies and movie channels drive immense viewership/ Deadline
While Microsoft plans to debut the next Call of Duty online / The Future Party
Elsewhere: BuzzFeed has a new activist investor…Vivek Ramaswamy? / The Hollywood Reporter
While to retain and grow subs, The New Yorker is sending newsletters less frequently and giving paid subscribers early access to content/ Digiday
And Vox has some announcements for their 10-year anniversary / Vox
Simultaneously Fashion Magazines Keep Launching Hong Kong Editions / BoF
And Nylon and Complex are bringing back print, but see more opportunity than just pure ad revenue/ Digiday
Ergo: Condé Nast, Forbes, The Atlantic, The Guardian and The Independent on key revenue trends / Digiday
As clicks dry up for news sites, could Apple News be a lifeline? / Semafor
The long, slow death of the newspaper editorial / Nieman Lab
Corollary: Index Archive. the Harper’s Index over time / Harpers

Market / Influence

From Molly: The booming business of eternal youth / Axios
Tho.. from Celeste: The Bridgerton Effect May Be Wearing Off / BBC
Two from Iolanda: The Brand... "Coca-Cola: The future is ‘AI meets human ingenuity’" / Marketing Week
And “This also quite interesting: "Marketers are often taught there are two ways to orient your business: product and market. But creator-backed brands like Prime are finding a third way: audience-orientation" / Marketing Week
Related: [SIC] homie Rei Inamoto on How to Revive a Brand. Every brand has an expiration date. How do they revive? [Part I of II]/ Sociology of Business
Apropos of that: The Evolution of the Beloved Boutique Hotel / Fifty Grande
More evolution: MSCHF just dropped a twisty, Samba-like soccer sneaker / GQ
While Sonos Debuts Much-Anticipated Headphones with Sonos Ace / Digital Music News
And A24 will partner with Mack to bring its iconic books to global retail stores / Variety
Economist Tyler Cowen’s *GOAT* is now a free audiobook / Marginal Revolution
Elsewhere: Jackson Wang, Jay Chou: Is the C-pop opportunity global? / Jing Daily
Why many luxury brands are declining in China / Jing Daily
Counterfeit Goes Cool: Brands Urged to Embrace #Dupe / BoF
Is fashion finally ready to cut overproduction? / Vogue Business
Jeremy Renner runs again in first global Brooks campaign in 25 years / The Drum
Bark Air, a dog-focused airline, to take first flight today / CBS News
This new gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen has the scariest website in the world / It’s Him

Eats, Drinks and Ephemera

Two from Andrea: “It’s so fascinating to see how in food media, the new stuff is truly brand led. Ex.: Blackbird’s show [Take Me To Your Spot] that Gymnasium is producing” / The Supersonic
…And This Brand makes so [much] great video content. Its [Monte’s Sauce] literally a pasta sauce / IG
Here’s a content series idea: Is non-alcoholic beer a good sports drink? / GQ
Nestle is launching a new frozen-food brand marketed toward Ozempic and Wegovy users / CNBC
‘Whole Paycheck’ no more? Whole Foods is ramping up value messaging / Retail Dive
Now Wendy’s has a $3 meal deal / Quartz

The Natural (?!) World

Banishing Rats Turned Tromelin Island Into a Seabird Paradise / Reasons to be Cheerful
While Zoo and aquarium visits influence people to change behaviour and be more sustainable / Biaza
Apropos of that: Thinking of going vegetarian? Read this guide / NYT
Is biodegradable plastic really a thing? Yes, but it isn’t a perfect solution / NYT
Also not perfect: The misleading, wasteful way we measure gas mileage / Vox
Finally: What is pink noise, and can it improve sleep? / AP