[SIC] 300: Unimpeachable Bangers

Volume Six, Number 40

Jun 06, 2024

Mea Culpa: I hit publish by accident and an incomplete version went to paid folks only. Apologies if you got this twice. FWIW I made a bunch of improvements. Use this one.

This time: The [SIC] Weekly digest of pertinent developments, compiled and published free on Thursdays to 6011 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.

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Also if you’re in NYC (or a breakfast person), Breakfast Clubbing is a [SIC] sister newsletter tracking the free, open-to-everyone breakfast events I started, now happening around the world. Everyone’s invited, especially you.

Corollary Sources this week: Dealbook / Future of Transportation / 1440 / The Future Party / The Kicks You Wear /Feed Me / Garbage Day / Line Sheet / International Intrigue / Hubspot Trends / Who Do You Know / Deez Links / Kottke / Morning Brew / Semafor / Elevator / Ben’s Bites / Public Announcement / Beats and Bytes / Nieman Lab / The Art of Noticing / Brendans Communication Miscellany / Politico /Thingtesting

Thanks to all the contributors this week: Piers Fawkes, Michael Fasciano, Jim Bodine, Celeste Blewitt, Iolanda Carvalho, Paul Richardson-Owen, Kevin Johannesen and Molly Raskin

Contributions are invited from everyone. Send ‘em any time.

No [SIC] Talks since there was so much to listen to last week, but since Introducing video to Substack Chat , i recorded this guy in the Substack chat. I talked about the quick hits in the next block - lmk what you think of this. Maybe I make it a regular.

From PRO: “House music to read newsletters to…..” [Dixon 1’s “Temporary Secretary” mix]. Apropos: Blackbird Spyplane says “songs are too short these days,” and claims you'll feel better if you listen to longer ones, a sentiment that album of the week, Wire’s “Pink Flag” violently disagrees with. DIY Corollary: Why I started a Gaelic metalcore band. And: what makes a zine a zine. Related: Neal gets self-reflective in 300 Issues In: Starting The Next Chapter Of Context Collapse (and includes a [SIC] shout), while Dirt asked F&F what their ‘price’ is in Dirt Sells Out. Elsewhere: [SIC] Homie Maia Ruth Lee’s Art of Movement and Memory. Related: The Lindy Letter goes typically deep comparing thick and thin cultures. Corollary: Lithuania is apparently the best lace in the world to be young because - ‘You Can Do Anything Here!. And… Shane’s back in front of the Camera in search of .. the truth?

I got a lot of great feedback on my Day One FM appearance. And if you haven’t listened to [SIC] Talks 78: Sara Fischer, you are missing a trick.

New Culture Club Show “Half Hour” also just went up, meandering around a bunch of stories covered herein to arrive at the axiom “If it sounds good, keep going…”

So I hope it sounds good (ish, anyway). These are a fun to do. Hope you’ll subscribe sometime, too.

OK - now that you’ve got your background sounds set, this week’s links, and some old photos I dug up from 2012.

[SIC] 300: Unimpeachable Bangers

The Macro Narrative

Hooray? The US Economy May Finally Be Slowing / Daily Upside
Soo… Brands Prepare for 'The Great Exhaustion' of 2026. How companies will target us at our most worn out / Back Row
Hence? From Piers, "We dream the future”: In the brain at rest,neurons rehearse future experience / Rice News
Dreamworthy: Trial of a combined mRNA vaccine and cancer immunotherapy treatment significantly improved odds of survival for patients with melanoma / Semafor
Tho a new Food and Drug Administration report questions the safety of using MDMA — also known as ecstasy — to treat PTSD / Axios
And A federal advisory panel voted not to recommend MDMA for treatment of PTSD / NBC News
But? How MDMA Could Be Legal Soon / WNYC
Corollary to ecstasy: World happiness levels, mapped / Big Think
Not happy: Viral ‘All Eyes on Rafah’ Image Came From Facebook Group to Make ‘AI Industry Prosper’ / 404 Media
And to boot Two artists are claiming credit / NPR
Corollary: Authorities in Trinidad arrested Canadian YouTuber ‘Chris Must List’ on sedition charges after interviewing local gang members / BBC
Shades of? “It’s Like a Cult”: Breaking Free from the Far Right / The Walrus
Actually, from Piers: “There’s no conspiracy, it’s just your aunt - and an algorithm that loves her click click click clicks” [Scientists Find That a Tiny Proportion of People Spread Almost All the Fake News, and They Turn Out to Be Exactly Who You’d Expect] / Futurism
Soooo What Comes After Neoliberalism? / Project Syndicate
Is it this? Bizarre X-rated poster campaign aims to turn on UK voters / Creative Blo
Apropos, from Piers: “Enjoy now, sign of the future” [Extend success of UK sugar tax to cakes, biscuits and chocolate, experts urge]/ The Guardian
But can we survive deculturation? - reviewing Olivier Roy’s *The Crisis of Culture* / Marginal Revolution
Because? Culture is an Ecosystem: A Manifesto Towards a New Cultural Criticism (2) / Culture: An Owner’s Manual
From Jim “Enjoyed the Superformat piece. It was coincident to just having listened to this [Nellie Bowles on How the Revolution Went Mainstream] on “The Good Fight” / Persuasion
Related? Rather than dismissing boys as privileged, progressives should sympathize with issues they face, like isolation / NYT
For instance, from Piers: “Gothamist did the stats against the meme. they say there are 30 men in NYC who fit that bill. and i kinda think thats not impossible. that said, why do i even know the meme?” [If You’re Looking for “A Man in Finance” the Odds are Stacked Against You] / Gothamist
Also, men, what is stopping you from using the birth control gel? / NBC News
And from Molly: Why Is Everyone on Steroids Now? / GQ
Related: The Scary Skinny on Counterfeit Ozempic / Vanity Fair
Hence? The American lunch break is dying. The rise of hybrid work and increasing food prices are keeping US workers out of food shops at lunchtime / Semafor
Even tho 2024 will be the U.S. restaurant industry's biggest year ever in sales / Axios
Because? Companies Are “Getting Smarter About Raising Their Prices” / Bloomberg Odd Lots Pod
BTW: Did You Pay For That? What’s Driving the Massive Rise in Shoplifting / The Guardian
Paying, but attention: Can Mastery-Based Learning Replace Seat Time? / American Enterprise Institute
Either way, It’s Time to Take Phones Away from Students. The spike in teen mental distress and disruptive behaviour will require extreme steps / The Walrus
Also ,most Americans are now willing to take steps to help address climate change, a new survey finds / Axios
Which is good because nearly half of journalists covering climate crisis globally received threats for their work / The Guardian
Private equity has come for bowling / The Lever
Cars always win / The Atlantic
New York Governor Hochul Slams the Brakes on Congestion Pricing / NYT
So they gotta make money somehow…. From Piers: “I thought the shark jumped the drop a while ago … [NYC launches monthly 'drops,' putting commemorative street signs on sale] / Gothamist
Corollary: Virginia Beach 1990s “no cursing” signs to be auctioned off /The Hill
And: The Black Market for Taco Bell Art / SF Gate

Generationations

Heads up, fellow kids: Gen Z, millennials are ‘weak link’ as AI fuels new cyberattack workplace threats / Digiday
Elsewhere: how Amex Became Gen Z’s Favorite Credit Card / Business Insider
Tho… eBay said it would stop accepting American Express / AP
Also, who Let the Fizz Out? Bubble-Free Booze Is On The Rise Per Casey Lewis: Bubbles are unappealing to young people / Vinepair
From virality to retail reality: Can global Gen Z brands crack China? /JIng Daily

Platformations

Intriguing: Post Social Media “A cultural anthropologist weighs in on the evolutionary reasons humans can’t thrive on social media.” / SETI Institute
Case in point? Line, a messaging “super app,” is fraying diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea / Bloomberg
While Zoom founder Eric Yuan talks about how the company envisions a world where people’s AI “digital twins” will take video meetings for them / Decoder
And X will now allow NSFW content as long as it is clearly marked / TechCrunch
Meantime, Instagram is testing ads you can’t skip. Users predictably hate them / Mashable
While Meta revamped Facebook’s feed to fend off TikTok and win back younger users/ Bloomberg
More on that: Facebook unveiled a plan to win over Gen Z, which makes up a minority of its users by focusing on its usefulness / Business Insider
From Kevin: Treat TikTok Like TV. An interview with Adam Faze / Link In Bio
[SIC] Talks alum Ryan Broderick goes Inside Medium’s decade-long journey to find its own identity / Fast Company

Stylistics

A Full Oral History of Normcore / Interview
Normcore Was Always A Misunderstood Fantasy / SSense
Corollary? Why colour is the new luxury logo / The Nod Mag
Craig Green on scaring himself and plotting his runway return / Vogue Business
Elsewhere: an icon’s unlikely ride.Jock Sutherland was once voted the world’s best surfer. Then he dropped out to build a radically different life/ The New Yorker
Also unlikely? a theory on the cultural-décor importance of non-chair / For-Scale
From Piers: “Ok. i will read any NYT story that uses the term ‘trouser’ but it’s a piece of cultural research presented as pop advice. Here’s the killer quote: “There is a bigger issue at work. And that has to do with history, self-image, social standards of beauty, consumer psychology and the sheer ridiculousness of the current state of sizing.” [Is Pants Sizing Sexist?] / NYT
What Happens When It’s Too Hot to Make Fashion? / BoF
What Jenna Lyons sold / NYT
Speaking of resale: Outdoor Voices Finds New Owner After Reports of Near-Bankruptcy / BoF
And Hanesbrands agreed to sell Champion to Authentic Brands Group / CNBC
Balenciaga pushes meme fashion limits.Netizens aren’t on board with Balenciaga’s quest for ugly fashion / Jing Daily
Corollary: The dark side of jelly shoes / Vogue Business
Why a jacket is the making of a man / FT
ACL’s Father’s Day Gift Guide / A Continuous Lean
Corollary: The flat lay is back / Glossy
Thingtesting calls Scrub Daddy x Dunkin...’the collab of the year’ / IG
APC x Katie Holmes / APC
While Y3’s Yohji Yamamoto is designing the Japanese national football team kits / Hypebeast
And Belgium is working with … Tintin? / Creative Bloq
Apropos of old cartoons: 11 Old-timey Curse Words That Make You Sound Like Yosemite Sam / Cracked
Couldn’t be me: Being A Skate Nerd Ruined My Life / Monster Children

Culturations

Perfectly Imperfect: Lauren Oyler / Perfectly Imperfect
Embedded: Conner O'Malley / Embedded
Bloomberg goes deep into the existential crisis at Pixar / Bloomberg
Will The Art World’s ‘Age Of Average’ Cost Us? / Art Industry Insights
‘Investment galleries’ that pitch art as a safe haven gain ground in the UK / The Art Newspaper
The Ugly, Essential Books Edition / WITI
From Zach: Wrote this for Airmail! [ Valley of the Books ] For your weekly [SIC] consideration! / Airmail
Just up the road: Seeking Out Diversity at Greenpoint Open Studios / Hyperallergic
After-Hours: People Who Work Here is a show of art by David Zwirner employees / Zwirner
Corollary somehow: The Delicate Art of Turning Your Parents Into Content / The New Yorker
Related to that, from Molly: The Last Inappropriate Man on Television / Vulture
Apropos: Can Industry Succeed Succession? / Vulture
And: The Most Consequential TV Show in History. A new book about The Apprentice reveals how the 45th president was shaped by tawdry reality-TV culture / The Atlantic
Jenny Holzer Has the Last Word. In the exhibition “Light Line,” the best work is made of phrases on an L.E.D. spiral, which add up to a single epic poem that is a gift to art history / The New Yorker
From Celeste: “I witnessed something similar at The Met last week … for the costume exhibition.......the exhibition was tiny and visitors are spat out into a mini Loewe store front, great partnership, branding and marketing.How many giant Loewe candles would be sold post exhibition?!!?” [At Museums, A Revolution Gains Momentum ]/ NYT
Printed Matter: Spring Benefit Auction 2024 / Artsy
From Piers: This legendary DC Comics style guide was nearly lost for years—now you can buy it / Fast Company
Muted and Minimalist: The Designs Of Eddie Mandell. The designer multi-hyphenate known for work with SZA, A24, Ethel Cain, and Model/Actriz / Monster Children
From Piers “I think the drive and reasoning behind this experiential designer is jnspiring - esp in our world where everything demands to be ‘on trend’" [My mum only recently started to understand what I do" says Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian] / Dezeen
From Celeste: The New Semantics Of Money / Town & Country
Five defining teen movies of the 1980s / NYT
From Celeste: Please, Stop Taking Astrology Advice From TikTok / Elle UK
From Piers: The Wedding Singer Takes a Celebrity Turn / NYT
An entire three-hour set DJ’d “by” Dr. Johnny Fever from WKRP In Cincinnati / Awphooey

Technopolis

From Molly: Will A.I. Be a Creator or a Destroyer of Worlds? / NYT
Either way, [SIC] homie Joe Marchese Says "Chaos" Coming for Startups, Ads, and Online Business as Generative AI Eats Web / Big Technology
IE? 38% of websites that existed in 2013 are no longer accessible / Pew Research
Particularlay in China / Semafor
But If Google Kills News Media, Who Will Feed the AI Beast? / Vanity Fair
Maybe SF-based startup Fable’s streaming service called Showrunner (filled with animated shows generated by AI), which gives audiences the ability to generate their own shows / The Future Party
Related: How Metro Boomin’s Drake-diss beat, “BBL Drizzy,” sets a precedent for sampling AI-generated music / Billboard
While Caramanica made a Popcast theme on Suno for How A.I. Has Changed Music, and What’s Coming Next / Spotify
And yet: Anthropic’s Chief of Staff: “I am 25. The next three years might be the last few years that I work” / Fortune
ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity all went offline for a few hours on Tuesday, for as-yet-to-be-explained reasons / Yahoo
From Celeste: Christie's Website Hack Shows How Art World Has Become Target For Cybercrime / The Guardian
The art world is increasingly at war over AI / NYT
AI is changing recycling / Semafor
AI Isn’t a Daily Habit Yet For Teens, Young Adults / Axios
AI might not be the most trustworthy coworker / Wired
So we better learn How to Talk to Language Models Will Listen / BrXnd Dispatch
More knowing how to talk: How Walt Mossberg Built Relationships With Jobs, Gates, and Bezos / Big Tech War Stories Pod

Media-tions

Welcome to the Hellhole of Programmatic Advertising / Wired
Hence? Bank as Media: FMNs (Financial media networks) are financial institutions that have built out their own ad networks / Digiday
And so the Ad market braces for M&A surge / Digiday
While Agencies bet on PR with acquisitions and AI investments / Digiday
Politicians want to buy the news /Semafor
While G/O Media sells off Gizmodo / The Daily Beast
And Sean “Diddy” Combs sold his majority stake in Revolt, the media company he founded / CNN
Revolt’s Post-Diddy Owner? Its Own Employees / Hollywood Reporter
Speaking of who’s buying? Bloomberg Media reports 540k subs— up 40k in the past six months, plus a series of “product improvements,” including more deep-dives on Business Week (which moves to a monthly print edition in July) and more weekend coverage aimed at consumers / Press Gazette
What’s in a byline? For Hoodline’s AI-generated local news, everything — and nothing / Nieman Lab
Speaking of Bylines: Accidental Media Mogul (with Gutes Guterman) / The New Garde Podcast
And Hunter Harris and Caroline Chambers have extended their Substack subscribers into monetizable communities / Digiday Pod
When a lifetime Rolling Stone subscription isn’t for life / Slate
From Celeste: TV Viewers Are Getting Old. Do Advertisers Care? / The Town with Matt Belloni Podcast
Max is raising its prices days before ‘House of the Dragon’ season premiere / Quartz
As Regional Sports Networks Struggle, Chicago Bucks the Trend / Front Office Sports
Racing lessons and imported German shepherds: How to sell to the ultra-rich. Luxury magazine Robb Report is turning its annual holiday catalogue into a year-round retail effort / Vogue Business
Corollary, from Celeste: “Smart moves from F1 and the F1 Academy to bring in Charlotte Tilbury and bring together an academy for female F1 drivers” Beauty Mogul Charlotte Tilbury Wants To Give F1 A Makeover / FT

Market / Influence

How a quieter Pride could serve as a 'reset' for marketers to be less 'performative' / Digiday
Everton’s Takeover Is Dead. Another U.S. Investor Is Already Interested / Front Office Sports
Not Dead: Ant Edwards and the Wolves were eliminated from the playoffs. The next day Adidas basketball dropped this / IG
Former Lululemon exec to lead Vans / Retail Dive
Demand for “dad sneakers” is up and so are shares in Asics / WSJ
Women have two types of underwear. Cou Cou wants to bridge the gap / Vogue Business
The AI Agency Landscape with David Jones / BrXnd Dispatch
From Michael: “Interesting article to consider for your newsletter. Brave new world of marketing in era of AI.” [How AI will reinvent Marketing]
What happens in a world of infinite labor, infinite content, and mass personalization / Andrew Chen
‘A fine line between humor and flopping’: tech summit’s rap battle is the height of corporate cringe / The Guardian
Canva's cringey rap was actually a massive marketing win / Creative Bloq
The world is "over-branded" says Karim Rashid at Design Doha / Dezeen
From Iolanda: “Brands need to embrace “the weird” and avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to appeal to consumers. A key theme of IAB Engage this year is bringing more “joy” and creativity to digital advertising.”/ The Media Leader
Tricky because, also from Iolanda: Too many marketers lack clarity on what they need to deliver and the definition of success, as well as the all-important ‘why?’ / Marketing Week
Deep dive into the last 18 months of Fisker Automotive / TechCrunch
Lego released a 4,383-piece set of the Notre Dame Cathedral / NYT
From Iolanda: “Game on!” [Netflix to Launch 14 New Video Games] based on hit shows like … Emily in Paris / Variety
Global airlines tap designers for high-fashion rebrands / Monocle
Shein, the online fashion titan, reportedly plans to file to go public in London this week / Sky News
Amazon received approval from the FAA to operate its shipping drones “beyond visual line of sight,” / Fast Company
Public Records puts on exhibition to launch design service in New York /
One of the best design agencies is launching a YouTube channel. OpenPurpose, a design partner for founders, is known for their impeccable design work on X.
IKEA is hiring people to man its virtual meatball stands (in Roblox) for nearly $15 an hour / Quartz
Why the esports industry is embracing Saudi Arabian investment / Digiday
Can Coca-Cola Crack The Charts With Its Ambitious New Music Plan? / Billboard

Eats, Drinks and Ephemera

How ‘Farmfluencers’ Are Making Vietnam’s Rice Fields More Sustainable / Reasons to Be Cheerful
Seaweed might rule the world before AI does / Hubspot Trends
Startups that work with seaweed got generous funding / Phyconomy
Molly Baz got a big check from Big Cereal…she’s the first pregnant woman on a cereal box / Instagram
Buffalo Trace Is the Household Name of Superior Whiskey / Sotheby’s

The Natural (?!) World

The man who reinvented the house cat / The New Yorker
From Piers: ”This is where your twix come from. oh, really - the pleasance makes me long for that moment when you raid the kids’ Halloween stash" [Mars Chocolate Factory In Germany's Viersen Marks 45th Anniversary] / ESM Magazine
Making a road bike at Japan's Panasonic factory / YT
A New York startup hopes to plant a network of high-powered electric curbside "trees" that can recharge electric cars in as little as five minutes / Axios
World-first tooth-regrowing drug will be given to humans in September / New Atlas
Researchers discover fungus capable of breaking down plastic polyethylene, the most common type of plastic pollutant in the world's oceans / NIOZ
Spray sunscreen is convenient. But does it work? / NYT
Erewhon is selling a sunscreen smoothie that tastes like, you guessed it, sunscreen / Fast Company