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[SIC] 324: Combination Evacuation
Volume 7, No. 14. [SIC] Talks with Michael Miraflor, the Trend God cometh, Luna Luna weddings & 100+ links for your mental brain. Open in browser for heightened experience. Y'all ah, Y'all ah.
The [SIC] digest of developments is published free on Thursdays to 5666 subscribers.Paid subscribers also get the [SIC] Day dispatch on M/Tu/W/F & the [SIC] Sundays minidigest. It's $8 a month, or $80 a year. Many expense their subscriptions as research for work in marketing, advertising, entertainment and tech. You can too. [SIC] is a made possible by its paid subscribers. Your support is greatly appreciated. Hi all,
Entering the second quarter of Vol. 7, up about 1000 subscribers / ~22% since the format switch. Which suggests things are working, but TBH it’s feeling a little flat to me still. So expect changes next week. And if you’ve got suggestions for me, that’d be gold. Send ema directly or better yet say what you’re thinking in the comments.
Speaking of 1000 subs, Michael Miraflor of Third City (which reached that milestone after a mere four editions) joins me for [SIC] Talks this week.
I’ve known Michael for close to two decades - he’s one of those voracious consumers of and thinkers about media and culture that always seems to pop up in my field of view at ‘the right moment’, so I was stoked he could hang for an hour. Michael’s a great Twitter follow, by way of which he got credit for coining the term 'chaos packaging,' to describe the aesthetics taking over store shelves in the last few years. I meant to ask about that and forgot- but the conversation is a great one in spite of me. Thanks, MJM.
Thanks as well to Gordon Hull, Ben Young, Ben Pruess, Celeste Blewitt, Iolanda Carvalho, Randy Irwin and Elaine Santiago for contributions this week. They’re welcome from everybody - so if you got ‘em, send em.
And now…
[SIC] Talks #89: Michael MIraflor [ Listen on Spotify]
Subjects included: PSFK relaunches Trend God, free Trend Portal, free Reports, The Shopping Method That Isn’t Going Anywhere “Some brands are returning to the print catalog in order to sell things on their terms.” Arena Mag and Mountain Gazette, the business dating apps Time Left, and The Breakfast, the HNGRY.TV Report on Time Left, The Taste Economy, Worth Media’s Techonomy Summit, Not A Consultancy, and Luna Luna
Other Conversations
Deadline chats with filmmaker Robert Eggers and the cast of the upcoming Nosferatu about creating the new vampire tale / Deadline
Parleying with Patrick Parrish. Insights on his journey, inspirations, and the unexpected lessons learned through fatherhood / Blood & Champagne
Corollary: Forbes interviews Chris Davis, Brand President and Chief Marketing Officer at New Balance, about leading a revival of the brand / Forbes
Fits and Starts
A Portrait of the Artist as an Amazon Reviewer. “Between 2003 and 2019, Kevin Killian published almost twenty-four hundred reviews on the site. Can they be considered literature?” / The New Yorker
Corollary: Is the Article Doomed as Video and AI Rise? / A Media Operator
Unsurprisingly, then: Oxford University Press’s word of the year is “brain rot,” / NYT
Corollary to that: Perfectly Imperfect MEL 4EVER introduces NEXT year’s words: Crunted, Becca and Eenkgow / PI
Apropos of brainrot…The Grinch has knee surgery tomorrow / User Mag
And Young people are going on Roblox dates within the game / IG
Related to that: The New Business of Breakups. After getting dumped (by text), a writer investigates the feverish boom in heartbreak apps, breakup coaches, and get-over-him getaways/ The New Yorker
Where are all the young singles? On Facebook Dating, apparently / Axios
Speaking of the young: 30 Under 30 Music Edition: What The Future Sounds Like, And Who Makes It Happen / Forbes
Casey’s got Gen Z’s favorites on Spotify/ After School
Meantime, Gen-Z sets its sights on reinventing the record player / Surface
Related: Vintage Digicams Aren’t Just a Fad. They’re an Artistic Statement. In a time when AI-powered imaging software tweaks and smooths every digital photo to appear perfect, some photographers are embracing the quirky flaws of vintage digital cameras / Wired
Also fad-coded? Squirrels, dogs and pygmy hippos: crypto’s multibillion-dollar ‘memecoin’ boom / FT
TLDR
The Rise of the Anti-Elite Elite / The Atlantic
Trump moderated his views on marijuana, crypto and other habits that appeal to young men. “Vice voters” may now be part of the Republican Party / NYT
What it’s like to cover the South Korean declaration of martial law while “fairly drunk” (er, “completely blasted”)/ The Verge
How the 1980s Engineered the Collapse of the Working Class / The Walrus
Related: American. Dutch photographer and filmmaker Robin de Puy collected audio, film and photographic portraits of people she met along the way, creating a tableau of a cross-section of a divided nation / WePresent
And My Life As a Homeless Man in America. A firsthand account of homelessness in America / Esquire
Living in a college town is one of the most expensive parts of going to college. Some college towns have sky-high rents and elevated costs of living / Quartz
Fans of small cities should check out these locales / Quartz
NYC leads US in converting spaces into self-storage / QNS
But maybe New Yorkers want their libraries to also be bars? / NYT
Either way, New York City housing shortage highlights need for more development / Forbes
Style
The Empire of Light Edition On René Magritte, Jackson Browne, and albums imitating art / Why Is This Interesting
Speaking of art: Fashion is hot during Miami Art Week this year. Last year, luxury fashion and jewellery brands toned down their presence at Miami’s many art fairs. Now, they’re roaring back / Vogue Business
Related: Your Miami Art Week Bingo Card Is Here / Hyperallergic
Hypeart Highlights Spray Paint Techniques at SCOPE Art Show Miami / Hypebeast
A No-Nonsense Guide to Miami Art Week / Hyperallergic
Miami Design District’s Craig Robins on his vision for the city’s art and retail scenes / Monocle Pod
Hilarie Sheets and [SIC] homie José Parla talked about his forthcoming exhibition at the Perez Art Museum Miami / Galerie
Related: Words That Leave a Ragged Edge. Scrawlspace is a deeply inquisitive and well-researched exhibition, the premises are in some instances cliché and a bit contradictory / Hyperallergic
Jerry Saltz cottons to the fact KAWS is not so bad after all / Vulture
Apropos of “commercial artists”: Window of opportunity: the artists who worked in retail display / The Art Newspaper
Elsewhere: Sam Hine offers A London fashion scene temp check / Show Notes
And In a first, a transgender woman won “model of the year.” / NYT
Steamy nights preserved on Polaroids: Outfitted with a Polaroid SX-70 camera, Sharon Smith spent the years between 1980 and 1988 photographing people at storied New York City dance clubs / NYT
‘Queer’ Charts A Man’s Eternal Quest for Human Connection. Luca Guadagnino’s new film re-envisions William S. Burroughs’s 1985 autofictional text on sexuality, desire and alienation / Frieze
Corollary to that: Real English Tea Made Here. An article from 2008 revisited William S. Burroughs’s cut-up method / Frieze
Welcome to Planet Yeat. Yeat has topped the US album chart thanks to the rabid young fanbase of his ecstasy-fuelled mutant rage rap. But is his bizarro persona all an act? THE FACE joins him on a tipsy adventure in Paris to find out / The FACE
The hard-working origins of the 'blue-collar jacket' – and other workwear classics / BBC
Now, May I Interest You in Le Merch? / NYT
What they don’t tell you about buying a vintage watch / Gear Patrol
What Fashion Workers Wear for Long-Haul Travel / The Guardian
Screen Time
ChatGPT will immediately halt if users mention or press it to mention certain names / Semafor
But Can you stop a teen from using TikTok? Australia is about to find out / WaPo
Speaking of finding out … Rtfkt — an early Web3 fashion success story — is folding. The Nike-owned startup became an example of how to build fandom around digital fashion. Now, it might be the canary in the coal mine / Vogue Business
So… Nike and Snapchat created an augmented reality game simulating the old experience of standing in line for sneakers / IG
While Walmart has partnered with Roku to make a holiday movie, Jingle Bell Love, that’s shoppable, allowing people to buy products featured in the film / Business Insider
Related: Sugar23 is teaming up with studio Fifth Season to launch a new development, finance, and production venture to make movies and shows with top brands / Deadline
A former Google engineer created a site that demonstrates what info the tech giant is able to glean from a single photo uploaded to its ecosystem. Wild / Wired
Forget Google Maps. For charming chance encounters in a new city, go analogue / Monocle
Corollary: Mindy Seu Traces the Origins of Internet Green. Seu uncovers the evolution of "Internet Green," linking 1990s icons like lime green flip phones and iMac G3s to today’s cultural markers, including Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology / Hyundai Art Lab
The Marketplace
Why consumer trust is broken. Luxury prices are rising, but quality and value aren’t keeping up — and high-net-worth consumers know they’re being taken advantage of / Jing Daily
Louis Vuitton launches new game on Discord, and Guerlain drops new experience in The Sandbox. Is Discord really for luxury brands? / Jing Daily
Influencers: is it time for museums to go all in? / The Art Newspaper
Corollary: Erewhon enters sexual wellness market with Dakota Johnson’s brand, Maude / Hypebae
AND1 is making a comeback, and it’s shifting into college basketball, sponsoring HBCU Wilberforce University / Twitter
Premier League Fans Protest Soaring Ticket Prices Despite Financial Boom / Front Office Sports
The curation conundrum: separating fact from fiction. Ad tech’s obsession with “curation” has sparked plenty of chatter — some informed, some less so / Digiday
The Mania of Highly Profitable Beauty Advent Calendars / Back Row
Humor is the new trend in beauty marketing campaigns / Glossy
Ergo?! Why Jaguar's risky rebrand should be applauded. Yes we're STILL talking about the Jaguar rebrand / Creative Bloq
Sustenance
Hot chocolate: Cocoa market on the brink of big price surge / FT
Swing to savory: PAM x Rough Rice Borscht Seasoning — collab of the year? / IG
Ozempic might make people eat and drink less. Survey respondents said GLP-1 medications reduced their alcohol intake / Quartz
Hence: Restaurant plates are getting tinier / WSJ
And: Japan unveils chilled drinkable mayo / Euronews
Meantime, Alcohol sales in China are increasingly being driven by the young, urban, educated, and female. Cultural taboos against women drinking are falling away, with more than half of “leading alcohol consumers” now female, and almost two thirds under 34 / Semafor
Speaking of taboo: America Stopped Cooking With Tallow for a Reason Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s view on fats is about bucking convention, not promoting health / The Atlantic
Elsewhere: Casio has made a watch that can withstand the heat of a sauna — Silicon Valley’s favorite new meeting spot / Hypebeast
Wellness be damned: Animals, from hamsters all the way up to massive whales, get an average of a billion heartbeats before they die / Kottke
Rare white blackbird spotted by Ozzy the kitten in Dorset garden / BBC
Friends Section
How Long Gone 724 has [SIC] Talks Alum Emily Sundberg / How Long Gone
While Emily hosts a Guest Lecture: with [SIC] Talks alum Kareem Rahma / Feed Me,
More pod: Hitmakers: How Brands Influence Culture brings together [SIC] Talks alum Ana Andjelic and homie Rei Inamoto / Spotify
Elsewhere [SIC] Talks alum Jesse Kirshbaum writes onThe Power Of Being A Music Industry Optimist / Jesse Kirshbaum
Which haas a bit of a contrast in fellow alum Darren Hemming’s Finding hope amid dark, uncertain times / Network Notes
DIY vibes rule in Dan Ozzi’s new “Night Tearers” zine / Zero Cred
Corollary to that: So Easy a 7-year-old Could Do It: [SIC] Talk alum Noah Brier’s borderline psychotic wrestle with AI trying to solve a word search is a must read for AI truthers/ BRXND
Wisdom of the Crowds
From Gordon Hull: a 2fer of links concerning subjects i'm really really excited about, both of which are seeing exciting developments due to the use of AI. NAISAYERS BE DAMNED
Hundreds More Nazca Lines Emerge in Peru’s Desert. With drones and A.I., researchers managed to double the number of mysterious geoglyphs in a matter of months. AND
Talk to Me. Can artificial intelligence allow us to speak to another species? / The New Yorker
From Randy Irwin:
‘grandpa gorp’ [Is The Best Yet To Come for Gorpcore?] / Highsnob
From Ben Pruess:
[The North Face, Skims Partner for Limited-edition Collaboration That Goes From Slopes to Après-ski] / WWD
From Elaine Santiago:
46 of the Coolest Set Photos in Movie History. Candid shots from some of the greatest films ever made / Harpers Bazaar
From Ben Young:
[The influencer lawsuit that could change the industry] / The Verge
From Iolanda Carvalho:
Best of - for inspiration 😉 The best marketing campaigns of 2024: Part 1 and Part 2 / Marketing Week
AI-ads…[Eyeing Ads, OpenAI Launches Creative Hiring Spree] / Mediapost
Going Public [Art, Films & Books Entering The Public Domain In 2025—From Frida Kahlo To Popeye] / Design Taxi
What Will Enter the Public Domain in 2025? An advent countdown for December / Public Domain Review
From Celeste Blewitt:
Bureau Zone: How To Navigate French Workplace Culture. From the ever fabulous Simon Kuper with the upsides and ever present downsides to French corporate culture. Kuper certainly covered off the serious aspects of French workplace culture (MeToo, glass ceilings, diversity and inclusion) while also bringing to light the French focus on vocation and the ever present lunch debate / / FT
Everyone Is Drinking Guinness, We Know Why I remember linking a Guinness article perhaps late last year, so to see this is continuing is interesting - rapid growth as an imported beer and with as the article notes, with Paul Mescal and Sally Rooney flying the Irish cultural flag, alongside Saiorse Ronan and Patrick Radden Keefe's cult following, it's clear to see Guinness will continue to boom / NYT
Protecting Or Restricting? The Effect Of Social Media Bans On The BiG Dreams Of Young Australians An interesting perspective, asking the group that will be affected and how they perceive the ban. This social media ban has been passed and will become law in late 2025 and implementation alongside the opinions and perceptions of the under 16s will be key talking points for the next 12 months / / The Guardian AU
Why Is Vintage Audio Equipment Booming? Harking back to vintage audio equipment that lasted the test of time and was built to be repaired rather than replaced, this article certainly highlights the uptake in vintage, while also highlighting the decline in repair shops / BBC
Rather Be In 151? The Nightclub That Once Played Host To Prince Harry, Tara Palmer-Tompkinson And James Hewitt Is Set To Return. Can a revival of a cult 90s/00s CHelsea club that drew the uber London set out and about really work as a revival? Only time will tell, plus the photos of the era were and still are iconic. While the style trends have gone full circle, it's certainly a different era / Tatler
Inside The Dramatic Race To Restore Notre Dame Cathedral. With Notre Dame being brought back to life, this article certainly brings to light the teams behind the project, the leaders and the tragedies entwined within the restoration. What a project, drawing together France and Paris, to see Notre Dame brought back to historical glory / WSJ
Playlist
Our Art-World Version of Spotify Wrapped “You bought 23 art books and read none.” / Hyperallergic
Spotify Wrapped finally enters its flop era / Creative Bloq
The Best Albums of 2024 / The New Yorker
The Quietus’ 100 Albums of the Year list is now up, and as ever it remains a brilliant treasure trove of great records you may well have missed / The Quietus
Best TV Shows of 2024 / NYT
The 25 Best Films of 2024 An eclectic round-up spanning feature-length investigative documentaries, avant-garde short films, YouTube essays, and even talk shows / Hyperallergic
The Best Podcasts of 2024 / The New Yorker
[SIC] 324: Combination Evacuation
Corollary Sources this week: The Future Party /Feed Me / The New Statesman / User Mag / The Material Review / Blazer / Public Announcement / Catchdini / The Kicks You Wear / Retail Innovation Week / Blood & Champagne / Nieman Lab / Network Notes