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[SIC] 311: Inverted Pyramism
Vol. 7, No. 1. Open in a browser for preferred viewing.
[sic] is the best of the best!!! - Casey Lewis (After School)
The [SIC] digest of developments is published free on Thursdays to 4840 subscribers as of this issue.
Paid Subscriptions are available. Paying subscribers get a [SIC] Day dispatch every Mon, Tues, Weds, Fri, and the [SIC] Sundays mini-digest. Many paying supporters expense their subscriptions as research for their work in marketing, advertising, entertainment and tech. New volume, who dis?
Thanks for bearing with my flagellations these past few weeks, all. As promised, this is the first edition of [SIC] Volume Seven, and as is traditional, some change is afoot. To wit:
Per annual tradition, sections have been renamed and reworked.
The text interview series “Five Questions For” has returned.
from In Bed With Social helped me bring it back with style and depth.[SIC] Day now lives as a sub-page here, and will go fully back behind the paywall beginning tomorrow, exclusive to paid subscribers, who’ll receive a dispatch every day but Saturday. (so if you’ve been surfing for free, consider ponying up).
[SIC] Talks continues on YT and on Spotify, with the aim of weekly episodes. If there are folks you want to hear me chat with send suggestions.
I’m launching a subscriber forum, via Substack’s Chat feature. Say hi.
There’s new *lower* pricing for paid. $8 month / $80 a year. And there’s a 25% sale on yearly subs (and 50% off groups) for the next week. Come on, it’ll be nice!
and lastly: I did another purge. I let close to 1700 non-active subs go this afternoon - with the hope of understanding better what YOU - the engaged audience - wants. In Vol. Seven I am going to link less and analyze more - with the goal of growing [SIC] exponentially this year, both in footprint and in influence, so getting your thoughts on what’s valuable (and what’s not) is crucial. Don’t hesitate to lmk.
So - here we go. Lots of refinements to come, now that I’ve gotten the big stuff out of the way. Thanks to Marie Dolle, Foster Kamer, Drew Millard, Shelley Wright, Sydney Allen-Ash, Piers Fawkes, Jennifer Kashdan, Iolanda Carvalho and Celeste Blewitt for contributions - which you can read as they were sent (the [sic] in [SIC]) below. And if you know anybody who’d get value out of what we’re doing here, pass it along. I’d be grateful. Here’s a button:
Onward and upward.
Ben
Five Questions For: Marie Dollé (In Bed With Social)
I first discovered Marie through her appearance in Matt Klein’s 3_Trends Interview series (hers immediately preceded my own) and I have been a follower and fan of her output ever since.
Marie spent a decade at a media research institute and is now fully immersed in the dynamic world of startups. In her spare time, she dives into quirky rabbit holes and documents her discoveries on her Substack In Bed With Social.
1. What are your favorite sources of daily information? Do they overlap with sources of inspiration for your work?
I connect with Josh Wolf’s quote: "I’m a voracious reader, vacuuming up all I can find, especially from rare or undiscovered sources. The people I read obsessively did the same."
For me, it’s about voices, not media. I recently came across a stat on LinkedIn showing a 66% rise in hires for editors-in-chief, likely a response to the flood of content we're about to face with (de)generative AI. As the noise intensifies, we’ll need ever more distinct voices to cut through and offer fresh, meaningful perspectives.
I seek people who are unconventional and obsessed with curiosity. A few examples include: Daniella Loftus for virtual fashion, Rina Raphael for wellness, Mike Lee for food,Thomas Klaffke for sustainability and reshaping our future or Chris Danton, for her top-notch "generalist" curation and analysis.
2. What’s one place that you’ve been recently that’s worth mentioning?
In the heart of Marseille, France, "La Pharmakeia" is a bookstore designed like a pharmacy, prescribing books instead of medicines. Its concept is that the right book can aid personal growth and healing. Whether facing heartbreak, stress, or relationship issues, La Pharmakeia offers a curated selection across genres, from literature to poetry, all with therapeutic potential. Believing that books reflect our inner selves, the store connects readers with stories that resonate with their life journey.
I truly believe that humanity’s essence is found in our books and stories. Books have the power to linger, even after they’re closed. Bookstores, in turn, are transforming into more than retail spaces—they are becoming havens that address our shared human challenges, from loneliness to connection.
3. It’s an average Thursday afternoon. Where do we find you, and what’s keeping you busy?
The typical answer would be: at work. I help startups at France’s public investment bank connect with investors. But honestly, my mind is always off chasing some rabbit hole. All the time. As Anaïs Nin said so perfectly, "If I hadn’t created my own world, I would have died in someone else’s."
4. Who do you admire? And what for?
I admire people who are unapologetically weird, who embrace their differences. The real value lies in having a unique perspective—thinking something no one else has about something everyone has already seen.
Currently, I’m obsessed with Christian Bobin, a French author with an incredible talent for vividly capturing and expressing emotions, making even the simplest feelings feel profound and alive.
Here is one excerpt i translated from French ; "If I made a mistake, it wasn’t in talking too much about love, but in speaking about it too vaguely. I believe that intelligence is always looking for something to love, with the aim of becoming to oneself like a starry sky. Life is a celebration of its own disappearance: snow is like thousands of words of love we receive that will melt away, roses are like little burning words that will extinguish, and whoever manages to decipher them must be astoundingly precise if they want to be believed, if they want to show others what they have seen."
5. What can [SIC] readers help you with?
Inspire. Keep us in awe. Challenge the ordinary. And if anything I’ve said resonates with you, feel free to reach out and /or subscribe to my newsletter: In Bed With Social.
[SIC] 310: Inverted Pyramism
Fits and Starts
Experiments prepare to test whether consciousness arises from quantum weirdness / Scientific American
Operation Match: America’s first computer dating service / Dirt
Single folks in Spain are apparently ditching dating apps in favour of a new trend: heading to supermarkets / Euronews
Instagram is introducing public comments to Stories… but they’ll also disappear after 24 hours / Tubefilter
How Telegram played itself. Pavel Durov’s arrest was inevitable / Platformer
Streaming media's body count / Lowpass
Here’s the Pitch Deck for ‘Active Listening’ Ad Targeting / 404 Media
The Last Social Network “Venmo has become the best way to see what the people you know are up to.” / The Atlantic
"Who TF Did I Marry?" saga gets TV adaptation / Variety
Hawk Tuah Girl, launched a podcast called Talk Tuah / YT
Hawk Tuah Girl Feels Like The End Of Something / Garbage Day
Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art / The New Yorker
TLDR
A Kamala Harris win and a Democratic sweep would give the biggest boost to the economy, per Goldman Sachs/ Quartz
Artists including Carrie Mae Weems and Shepard Fairey are joining large-scale campaigns to encourage voter turnout / Hyperallergic
Nikki Haley joined PR Giant Edelman / Context Collapse
A new platform called COY Creator promises to give creators full ownership of their data and content distribution / Tubefilter
Teenagers are making real money by arguing about Trump versus Harris on TikTok / Rest of World
Why TikTok’s ‘Cucumber Guy’ Is Attracting Beauty and Hair Care Sponsors
America’s New Climate Delusion / The Atlantic
Zeihan asks Will Climate Change be the Death of Wheat / YouTube
Deglobalization's Impact on Global Food Exports / YT
”In other words, in 2025 there will be no radical innovations or changes to the food trends in 2024 or 2023. But there will be shifts, synergies and interconnected effects.” / KtchnRebels
Except maybe … Cows Eating Seaweed / WSJ
“Awesome initiative on bringing carbon taxes to the cattle industry” Reuters
Mapping price differences across US Taco Bells.
The biggest winner of the U.S. Open is a $10 million cocktail. Honey Deuce sales are expected to surpass the prize money for this year’s winners.
[SIC] Talks #82: Foster Kamer
Foster Kamer is Editor-in-Chief of Futurism as well as an Editor-at-Large at Found, a contributing writer to the NYT, [SIC] homies Racquet Magazine and many others, and publisher and author of Fostertalk, a favorite source of mine that just wrapped an epic ‘Summer Fridays’ run. His What’s the deal with the Dare? profile of tomorrow’s biggest music mind got the people going last week - and Embedded (typically) beat me to the punch with an illuminating My Internet: Foster Kamer. in which Foster calls Substack nu-Tumblr with a “take money” button. I’m gonna work on that.
We talked, among other things about: 8Ball’s recent Bidirectional Nostalgia: Our revivalist decade explained dispatch and its relation to Dan Ozzi’s Indie Sleaze vs. Emo Nite: A Tale of Two Nostalgias from this week. Foster didn’t call out 8Ball’s former colleague (and [SIC] Talks alum Emily Segal) for her new group’s Nemesis Guide to Being Early *Summer ‘24 Edition* - but for my money they’re related.
Instead we talked about the AP News reports that solo dining reservations in the US are up 29% over the last two years (and the corollary disappearance of salt and pepper from restaurant tables. And we brought it all home with a reaction to [SIC} homie Drew Millard’s contribution:
“Heyo! I have written a Media Events post that I believe will be of interest to your readers, it’s about why it was a mistake to make internet writing free”
Foster had a lot to say on that one - you should definitely both read Drew’s post and listen to our discussion. YT Link embedded above, or Spotify here:
Other Conversations
The Talks Talks to Nilufer Yanya / The Talks
Robert Altman: America’s Rebel Director / YT
Harmony Korine on the current and Future states of Film / Variety
The art of film posters, Venice Film Festival and ‘Playground’ magazine / Monocle Pod
Style
The Power of a Cool Jacket / The Lindy Newsletter
Yinka Ilori’s collab with The North Face / Dezeen
The art Heejae Kang has bought and why / The Arts Newspaper
Katherine Berhardt’s Pink Panther Paintings / Google Image
Per Tyler, A$AP Rocky’s ““Taylor Swif” is a totally fine track with a mildly regrettable chorus, but the video is a surreal stunner a la Michel Gondry or CANADA” / YT
Whats’App Ricky / NME
Four days with Phish, America's greatest jam band for 40 years and counting / GQ
Clare Waight Keller, formerly of Givenchy, is now Uniqlo’s creative director / Vogue Business
The chrysanthemum is back in high fashion / NYT
Anta's Pop Mart sneakers have been a consistent success among Gen Z / Jing Daily
The Marketplace
American Express is using Olivia Rodrigo concerts and F1 to attract Gen Z in Europe / Fortune
Why Sabrina Carpenter has suddenly become so popular / The New Statesman
Why holding companies are taking a 'platform' approach to pitch more cohesively / Digiday
Dr Pepper just overtook Pepsi / The Drum
Liquid Death’s Casket Cooler Keeps Drinks Cold ‘For an Eternity’
Gorton’s Seafood, famous for its fish sticks, is getting into fashion with a Gen Z favorite: bucket hats / Fast Company
Kid Cudi debuts a funnel cake mix with General Mills / YouTube
Sunk cost at OpenSea Cryptocurrency values may be back up, but NFT still down bad/ The Verge
The Crooked Business of E-Sports / YouTube
New Jersey is trying to persuade the N.B.A.’s Philadelphia 76ers to move to Camden as development for a new downtown arena has stalled / Bloomberg
Creating an Artistic Buzz, One Real Estate Development at a Time / NYT
Medias
Media needs to go back to school / The Drum
Hence: The Dow Jones Leadership Institute will provide C-suite executives with executive education / Axios
a new nonpartisan LGTBQ-focused outlet called Uncloseted Media launched / Axios
i-D relaunched / i-D.co
The Salt Lake Tribune, profitable and growing, seeks to rid itself of that “necessary evil” — the paywall / Nieman Lab
Sustenance
Rita Sodi on Food as a Reflection of Home / The Slowdown Pod
Currywurst turned 75 / Semafor
100 easy dinners you can make without making yourself cry.
How to brew beer in space / The Manual
The future of American wine might just be in Virginia / Quartz
Friends Section
Raw Milk (The Post) / Super Health
Julia Harrison flip flops in the mosh / Gunk
Emily Sundberg started a column recapping Industry with The Rishi Episode / GQ
And reports on Recho Omondi’s The Cutting Room Floor, being back / Patreon
Chris and Jason from How Long Gone offer their recent favorites in The Material Review’s new “Stakeholders” section / The Material Review
Getting Rec’d
ICP Photobook Fest tickets are only $5. I’m going Saturday.
And Mack Books is popping up at the Judd Foundation this weekend.
More below from Gerhard, but I’m also going Saturday to see - Skate Video Essentials: The Legacy of Mike Ternasky at the Museum of The Moving Image
Get ready to see these Keen Jaspers fucking everywhere.
I would also buy these Birkenstock Tokios and these Paraboot Chonks (ideally in brown) if I needed any more shoes. Which I absolutely do not.
Other things I don’t need: Jackets, sweaters, shirts or Tees. But “born out of West London to uphold the tradition of genre-less British design,” TDRs launch collection has some very tasty bits.
Playlisting
Oasis’s ‘Whatever’. NME editor Tommy Udo wrote, "'Whatever' is only the best single of 1994, only the best Oasis single of 1994, because I feel reasonably confident that they'll do one better every time. Basically it pisses over everything else. A song to die for, with a descending scale and a f—ing string section: from 'Love Me Do' to 'All You Need Is Love' in under a year. The fact that it sounds like any number of other songs is a mark of the confidence that Oasis have in their songwriting: amateurs borrow, pros steal and look you straight in the eye, unashamed."[11] / Wikipedia
The Bug Club has a new album. It’s tight and great. Best Looking Strangers in the Cemetary. Remind me of the archness of Art Brut, who’ve weirdly popped up a bunch this week, but Bug Club is a bit more honest in its self deprecation. And the songs are just fun. Smartrock forever!
Also fun: The Fox Is Black’s new downloadable OÍR mix that per its author “travels between hyperpop, guaracha, garage, and then more hyperpop”
Less hyper: The Eggland Pilot — another Conner O’Malley bugout, this time in the form of an Adult Swim fever dream starring CGI boomers from Cole Kush
Wisdoms of the Crowd
From Shelley: “Our friends at Byline are the curatorial partner for Ace Brooklyn's Artist In Residence program for 2024/2025. They've selected 3 artists to live in residence at Ace for a month each, and create a new body of which will be exhibited in the gallery space at the hotel. For the 4th slot, they're running an open call, people can apply here. The first artist in residence, Caroline Zimbalist, has her opening next Thursday Sept 12 at Ace Hotel Brooklyn. Open to all via RSVP! / Ace Hotel
From Syd: “For SIC: Vogue Business reporting that Ozempic usage is increasing the amount of larger sized clothing being donated to resale platforms like Postmark and Vestiaire. I think this might be a bit of a dubious conclusion to make, more like correlation than causation, but it is interesting / Vogue Business
From Piers:
‘The new digital flex’: the airport tray trend stirring outrage and delight / The Guardian
Pretty awesome collection. and yes, could all be worn today in BK.Fashion with firepower: retro styles from the US Army lookbook /The Guardian
“i dunno which i love more: McDonalds makes burgers to enjoy while you watch the moon, or the cute ad for them [McDonald’s Japan’s beautiful moon-viewing anime video has cozy twist] / Sora News
From Jen: “Le Pain Quotidien uses AI to create 'digital twin' of chef-founder Alain Coumont” / Restaurant Business
From Gerhard: “With "Recording the Ride - The Rise of Street Style Skate Videos" opening at the Museum of the Moving Image right here in NYC this coming Saturday, I wanted to point you to this article by my good friend and skateboard journalist / historian Mackenzie Eisenhour. He spoke with Jacob Rosenberg (who worked on many of the pivotal videos of that era), Michaela Ternasky-Holland (whose late father Mike Ternaksy founded the seminal skateboard company Plan B and is a focal point of the exhibit) and Barbara Miller (the lead curator at MoMI) about how the show came together.”
From Iolanda:
Conscious recoupling ah ah ah [ Why Media and Creative are Getting Back Together] / IBB Online
The strawberry problem 😉[Why AI Can’t Spell Strawberry] / TechCrunch
And finally, from Celeste:
The Beef Is Settled: The Club Taking Grudge Fights Off The Street (FT)
“This reminded me of a doco 'Catching Lighting' I watched on a long flight, hard-core fighting, with the intention of leaving the grudge in the ring, throw in some serious injuries and traumatic life stories, the fighting is the way out in some senses, a community to gather. This piece was a tough read on so many levels, but worth reading to understand the complexities of what could be seen as blood sports. Human stories that are trying to find the best way forward.”
What's With The Buzz About Beekeeping / Town & Country
“Honey and beekeeping is certainly all the rage, loved this lighthearted take on the new mark-ups of a supremely natural product, add some eye-catching branding and before you know it you're every kind of honey possible from every local beekeeper. Although this article also raises the key point on the level of affluence and nature. A fun read. fro a sunday with a coffee and a pain au chocolat.”
Where Shorthand Note-taking Refuses To Die / FT
‘As a fan of a Moleskin notebook and a four-pen to write my daily list (I've tried Remarkable, I'm still on the paper train), and I'm yet to be an Olympic Speed-Writing champion, but the history of speed-writing is fascinating, pre-computers, it was the typewriting test and the speed-writing test. Great read.”
PsiQuantum Is Closing In On fault-Tolerance And A Million Qubits / Forbes
““I was in a room listening to Dr Pete Shadbolt speak yesterday and you could hear a pin drop. I have been wrapping my head around quantum computing, Shadbolt yesterday explained it excellently. Many Australians have asked why the Govenrment is investing, But my thought is, it feels very Silicon Valley, taking a chance and being ahead of the game, it's fabulous to see a chance being taken, rather than the watch and wait attitude that can seep through innovation here in Australia sometimes. Why not give it a shot I say, it's a race to the finish line of the big players.”
Inside Bunnings Carpark Rave With Peking Duck / Forbes Australia
“The iconic Bunnings Warehouse (national hardware retailer) is the location for a rave to raise money for local music industry support. truly iconic. Bunnings Warehouse are known for their sunhats, their tv ad jingle and their daily charity fundraising sausage sizzles. Throw in a rave and it's truly Aussie.”
The Dome Is Watching You' /The Atlantic
“This article certainly raised key points of data security, data safety and how our data is used and stored - all at an event venue. Sobering read, but the future is here and it's also about understanding the processes, systems and ideas.”
Corollary Sources this week. All are worth of your attention and support.