[SIC] 325: Loneliness Killing Service

Vol. 7, No. 15. [SIC] Talks with James Denman, 5 Questions For Michael Sykes, Dancing Van Dykes, Troy Stories and All the Links. Open in a browser for best results.

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HI All,

At the risk of coming across as a man of a certain age, I’ll cop to getting misty to Dick Van Dyke dancing this week, especially since it led right into America Needs to Radically Rethink What It Means to Be Old in The Atlantic. Portentous.

Of course there’s plenty of radical rethinking happening right now. The truism goes something like this: nothing stays the same but change. Feeling that RN.

Apropos: I remarked that Kyle and Nate’s “New Rules of Media” post from Tuesday is ‘mindblowingly valuable if you have the skill/audacity/access/experience to read it holistically.’ Which is right, but even if you don’t you should still read it.

From there, level up with the what OG supercontributor Iolanda Carvalho called an “Absolutely must read” with Nieman Lab’s annual [Predictions for Journalism 2025] package. Then listen in the illuminatory Troy Story episode of “The Grill Room” pod featuring [SIC] homie Troy Young. And…boom. You’re all caught up to the idea that we’re never (really) catching up again. Enjoy the ride.

One thing that’s helped my ability to process the increasing rate of change of late has been getting together in rooms with smart people. Among the best of those moments in the last couple year have happened at BRXND events - the AI Marketing confabs put on by [SIC] Talks Alum Noah Brier (and discussed in [SIC] Talks #74).

The two NYC editions have both flexed my head - highly provocative but also highly encouraging. As it happens BRXND LA is coming up in Feb (2/6 @ NeueHouse Hollywood) - so if you’re on the Left Coast, Noah made a a discount code for Friends of [SIC]. Recommended. Especially since you can expense it (just like a [SIC] paid subscription, hint hint)

Speaking of [SIC] Talks - today’s episode is a fun dive into fashion and luxury brand strategy with James Denman, who’s been a Linkedin crush of mine (weird thing to type, but true) for a while. YT embed is down in the [SIC] Talks section below along with links to the stuff we talked about, and the Spotify link is right here.

Great chat. James’s takes on what high-end brands are doing (and not doing) are smart, well-informed and candid. And serve as a bit of a holiday marketing recaps for the upper crust.

Speaking of wrap ups, this week’s Best Everything for 2024 💫 from 5 Questions For guest Michael Sykes is case in point what I like about Mike’s newsletter is the total lack of gatekeeping. This dude loves sneakers and doesn’t particularly care if they’re the hype-est thing at the moment, which grants him some perspective on the business as a whole.

Let’s start there. And don’t forget - if you see something, share something.

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Five Questions For Michael Sykes

Michael Sykes is the creator of the Kicks You Wear newsletter, where he writes about sneaker culture, the footwear industry and all of its wonderful intersections. When he's not writing about sneakers or sports for USA Today he's probably watching basketball or NBA 2K.

1. What are your favorite sources of daily information? Do they overlap with sources of inspiration for your work?

Honestly? My inbox. I depend on many newsletters for daily information. Some with links of things that I should be reading (like [SIC]!). Others, with info on my favorite sports and news — Tom Ziller's Good Morning It's Basketball is one of my favorites there. Some are just vibey with daily updates from people on the internet that I think are pretty cool like Josh Gondelman's That's Marvelous!

They do inspire me in a couple of ways. As a writer, I’m always trying to pick up new things to add to my formula that might make it better. I always look for something new to throw into the Kicks You Wear.

But, beyond that, it’s just really cool to see the creativity and ingenuity that comes from people on the internet every single day. I love that.

2. What’s one place that you’ve been recently that’s worth mentioning?

There’s this Formula 1 bar and arcade in D.C. that I visited recently with a few homies. I had an absolute blast.

It’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s a bar but also an F1 simulation experience. You get placed in a legitimate F1 driver simulator and race against your homies and the CPU on F1 tracks.

It turns out that I actually might be Lewis Hamilton. At least when the settings are on rookie, anyway. Oh, and Charles Leclerc is my biggest hater. He flipped my car TWICE. Hate that guy. Sorry if he's reading this.

3. It’s an average Thursday afternoon. Where do we find you, and what’s keeping you busy? Don’t just say “work”.

I’m out going for a run if I’m not working. I picked up running as a hobby last year.

There’s no big, overarching reason why. But I have found that it allows me to clear space in my head and focus a bit. I’ll put on a podcast and go around the neighborhood for a few miles. It’s been a fantastic stress reliever for me. On Thursdays, especially, which are pretty stressful work days on my end.

Going outside and running always breaks up the monotony and allows me to think a bit clearer.

4. Who do you admire? And what for?

I must say, this has been an incredible year for Kendrick Lamar.

I’ve always been a fan of his, but this year has been special. Winning the rap beef was one thing. He publicly embarrassed and dismantled arguably the biggest hip-hop artist of all time, which is a feat on its own.

But I’m also inspired by his “me against the world” approach to all of this. Part of it is a schtick, I’m sure. Kendrick has always been the guy who rails against the industry. But, man. Seeing the guy carrying the torch for his hometown in this way through these last few months has been incredible.

It’s inspired me to think of ways I could do things for the people around me.

5. What can [SIC] readers help you with?

Overconsumption is the name of the game for everyone these days. We all have way too much of things we don’t need. And there are so many people out there who are in need. Especially during this holiday season.

So [SIC] readers could do me a solid by going out and finding a local charity to donate to. It could be clothes, food, shoes, time. Whatever. Just find someone to give something to during this time of giving. That would make my day.

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SIC] 325: Loneliness Killing Service

s/o

Iolanda Carvalho

for the intro to Pessoa. Not an easy read but everyone sentence holds something notable.

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Fits and Starts

• The Heteronym Edition. On fake authors, Fernando Pessoa, and the (many) voices inside us/ Why Is This Interesting

• Corollary: It was The Year Creators Took Over / The New Yorker

• Or maybe? The year the memes took over reality – and marketing followed. Subcultures aren’t niche anymore — they’re the culture. And for marketers, that changes everything / Digiday

• Hence: The Meme Glorification of Luigi Mangione. Gen-Z’s shared generational status with the suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin and frustrations with the US healthcare system have led to an outpouring of sardonic reactions / Hyperallergic

• Objectifying the Accused. What happens when violent crimes are overshadowed by appearances?/ NYT

• Life imitates art: Apparently a Law & Order Episode Predicted the Killing… 🤦‍♂️/ Vanity Fair

• [SIC] homie Nick Catchdubs had my fave Luigi-take (and some good songs as always) with his Number One With A Bullet / Catchdini

• Unsurprisingly, Luigi Mangione merch is surging / GQ

• The New Consumer’s new consumer trends report / New Consumer

• Such as? Death by a thousand substacks” / Beehiiv’s CEO gets active. If you’re not the breadwinner, you’re the yeast? / Beehiiv

• Speaking of leaders on the edge: The C.E.O.s Are Tripping. Can Psychedelics Help the C-Suite? A growing cottage industry is dedicated to the theory that mind-altering drugs can improve business leadership / NYT

• Meantime: Ketamine Therapy is Getting Groovier. [A] quest to find genuinely good music in the inexorably commercial stream of psychedelic healing / Rave New World

• Also altered: Inside the Four-Day Workweek Experiment/ NYT

• Ozempic Killed Diet and Exercise. Doctors might be slow to admit it, but Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs are making dieting and exercise obsolete / The Atlantic

• So like… Are Assassinations coming back? / The Lindy Newsletter

• The State of Design, In Four Parts. This past week saw Pentagram use AI, Jaguar reveal its “car,” Pantone drop a gloopy color, and Spotify Wrapped crashing out. Somehow, it captures what mainstream design is now: soulless / The Fox is Black

• A designer has 'fixed' the controversial new Jaguar logo. The new Jaguar logo is a late contender for the most controversial brand identity of 2024. One graphic designer has shown how he would 'fix' it in a TikTok video that's received more views and likes than any of Jaguar's own posts / Creative Bloq

• The Year in Review: art market slump squeezes biggest players and Frieze for sale / The Art Newspaper

• Trump ‘bump’ or Trump ‘slump’? What [art] dealers expect from the next four years / The Art Newspaper

• 15 Ways to Be the Most Interesting Person At a Party / Mr. Porter

• Tip: tell ‘em about The highest-paid female athletes / Sportico

• Or maybe? The Myth of Bananaland, if you’re twisted/ Worldhistory-substack

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TLDR

• Not real but real interesting: Nike Signs Michael Saylor (Microstrategy) to a Bitcoin 'Just Do It' Campaign / Howard Lindzon

• The Triad of Capital How the three forms of capital operationalize and legitimize one another / 8Ball

• Apropos: US equities now make up 70% of the MSCI World Index, which tracks the largest companies around the world, more than double the 30% level seen in the 1980s / Charles Stanley

• So… Is the ‘world’s factory’ losing its edge? UBS predicts a challenging outlook for China’s economy through 2026 / Jing Daily

• Best of How To: The Infrastructure of Community. Physical spaces can either encourage or discourage relationships. But people also have to be willing to slow down and connect / The Atlantic

• Does Your New House Come With an Instagram? It May Cost You. Homes that sell with included social media accounts can be lucrative for parties on both sides of sale / Architectural Digest

• Smartphones don’t suck. People do. Smartphones have come to operate a bit like dummies for adults: a temporary distraction from our hunger, for connection, meaning and purpose. They don’t suck, we do. / The New Statesman

• Corollary: The Beautiful Infinity of Tetris. A new documentary-game includes an interactive timeline, interviews, and of course, playable versions of the game / Hyperallergic

• Unrelated: fave author Ottessa Moshfegh’s XL Love/ Hate list / Dream Baby Press

• And Perfectly Imperfect: The RIZZLER / PI

• Rizz man, It Wasn’t You. It Was Your Parents. “Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents,” a self-help book published in 2015, is surging in popularity among millennials and Gen Z / NYT

• The Best Gossip Spreads in Invisible Ink. Invisible ink, an iMessage feature that blurs your messages, debuted in 2016, but it has recently emerged as a popular way to share sensitive information / Bustle

• Lesbian pulp fiction thrived in the 1950s and ’60s. It offers a portal to early queer expression / NYT

• Britain will ban puberty blockers, a gender transition treatment, for anyone under 18, except in clinical trials / NYT

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[SIC] Talks #90: James Denman (Spotify)

Follow along with the convo with these:

• Botega Venetta ‘Bottega for Bottegas’ / Wallpaper

• Chanel Metiers D’Art Show / YT

• Bruno Cuccinelli “The Holiday Ball” / YT

• Saint Laurent x Nadia Lee Cohen / YT

• Gucci “Gift” / YT

• (Corollary to those): Guy Mariano BTS “The Work” / YT

• The Divided Generation / Cross Current

• Oscar Wars: Dishing on the history of Hollywood with The New Yorker’s Michael Schulman / YT

• Erotic Vagrancy: an epic hymn to a ‘joyously vulgar’ pair/ The Guardian

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Other Conversations

• PIN 📌 THAT 🧷 TREND 🎯 A chat with Pinterest's global trends and insights lead on predicting trends(and the trend of trend reports).

• Flamingo Estate’s Richard Christiansen on Bridging Horticulture and Popular Culture / The Slowdown

• A brush with… Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset — podcast / The Art Newspaper

• Francis Zierer and [SIC] Talks Alum Daisy Alioto interviewed Lauryn Menard for Tasteland. Lauryn is the CEO and co-founder of Gob, a compostable, plastic-free, mycelium-based earplug company / Dirt

• While Jeff and I talked Miami Art Week, Fatboy Slim, Luna Luna, Jaguar, Rob Pruitt’s chrome gas station, Timberland Wheat boots and a bunch of other stuff:

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Style

• A guide to 2024's internet slang / Mashable

• Related? The boom boom aesthetic. An old look for a new age / 8Ball

• Brand Analysis: D is for Don’t Die / Nemesis

• The Confident Anxiety of Rashid Johnson. Rashid Johnson, who is preparing for a major mid-career show at the Guggenheim, explores depths of masculine vulnerability that few of his contemporaries have touched / The New Yorker

• Tyler Mitchell's 'Wish This Was Real' Lands in Helsinki. Visualizing Black leisure as a radiant form of resistance/ Hypebeast

• Troy Lamarr Chew II Depicts Social Invisibility. The artist’s transparent portraits reveal the larger forces of culture and society that define and marginalize his Brown and Black subjects / Hyperallergic

• The Quest to Make Shopping Fun Again. Shopping today often feels more like mindless scrolling than buying something because it makes you feel special. One writer discovers the beauty of a more personal, customized experience / Harpers Bazaar

• Fun: Noah x Donna Summer collab / NoahNY

• Apropos: Every brand is looking to cash in on the collaboration trend, but the over-saturation is forcing companies to rethink their strategy. Come correct, or don’t come at all / BoF

• Related: Dezeen collaborates with content creators to celebrate the Victorinox Swiss Army Knife / Dezeen

• And related to that: Swiss watch rivals rise in China / Jing Daily

• More: The Chinese Watch Edition. On horological branding, national pride, and underdogs / Why Is This Interesting

• How quiet luxury changed dupe culture. Is it Uniqlo or The Row? In 2024, the humble mall brand surged as luxury prices increased, marking a shift in what constitutes a dupe / Vogue Business

• This Sweater Was Grown in a Petri Dish and Knitted by a Robot / Fast Company

• Why all your favourite indie designers are opening stores right now. Collina Strada, Kiko Kostadinov, Telfar and The Elder Statesman are investing in bricks-and-mortar retail, marking a turning point for emerging brands / Vogue Business

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Screen Time

• Not a single UK act in Spotify's Top 10 of 2024. What gives? How UK music is losing a culture battle and what we can do about it / Network Notes

• Meantime, stateside: TikTok creators are already prepping for what looks like an inevitable shutdown of the app in the US / FastCompany

• Corollary: The Death of Mid-Length Video. Where have all the eight-minute videos gone?/ The Etymology Nerd

• Cause, like: Cozy content ate the YouTube Yule log video / Links I Would GChat You

• And WhatsApp ate the world. WhatsApp is already the world’s most widely used messaging app. Meta wants it to be a lot more / Rest of World

• Wild: Kylie Kelce unseated Joe Rogan as the top podcast with her debut episode / Vanity Fair

• Speaking of replacements: OpenAI’s new “thinking” o1 system sometimes secretly carried out its own tasks, even against humans’ explicit instructions / TechCrunch

• Which is good (?!) since … Google today announced its first AI agent that can take control of a user's browser and perform tasks like navigating websites and filling out forms / TechCrunch

• And Reddit is testing a conversational AI search tool after the platform has become one of the most popular places for AI companies to scrape data / TechCrunch

• Pentagram's controversial new website could change the AI art debate. Pentagram partner Paula Scher has stood by the consultancy's controversial decision to use Midjourney in its design of a new website for Performance.gov / Creative Bloq

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The Marketplace

• World’s best brands 2024 - TIME and Statista have named consumers' favorite brands of the year, starting with the US, India and Brazil / TIME

• The biggest shake-up in the advertising agency landscape in decades is upon us as Omnicom announces the acquisition of IPG / The Drum

• Masterstroke or massive mistake? Sorrell on rationale behind Omnicom takeover of IPG / the Drum

• Omnicom's acquisition of IPG could usher in a new, inevitable M&A wave / Digiday

• GM is suspending funding for Cruise, citing increased competition and high costs of sustaining the investment. The automaker will instead focus its AV efforts on developing driver-assist systems for personal vehicles / CNBC

• How the Amex CMO turned Credit Cards into Gen Z’s Passport to Culture / Fast Company

• Ergo? Why Is the Coolest Job in Tech Might Actually Be in a Bank / WSJ

• LA Times is working on a “bias meter” that would give readers context of any bias in articles and potentially give people a version of the article from an opposite perspective / Hollywood Reporter

• Meantime Sale of ‘The Observer’ to Tortoise Media approved, despite strike by journalists / Monocle

• Corollary: A judge rejected the sale of Infowars to the satirical newspaper The Onion / NYT

• Corollary: Hershey rejected Mondelez’s takeover offer / Reuters

• And Liquid Death Is All About Adult Diapers Now / Muse By Clio

• How the secondhand clothes marketplace Vinted went from near collapse into a $5 billion platform / WSJ

• Can Vans Recapture Its Cool? Vans is making headway in winning back customers with unconventional new products, though overall sales are still sliding / BoF

• Speaking of cool: A24 is remaking its popular annual membership to include tickets to every single new A24 movie on opening weekend / Fast Company

• While Semafor is doing a whole program at Davos and you’re invited / Semafor

• Artificial intelligence is driving a new “green revolution” in India. Advances in developing crop varieties and fertilizers drove the country’s first leap forward in the 1960s, staving off famine and making India self-sufficient for food / Semafor

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Sustenance

• Cyprus, Communion and Divine Inspiration.The story of Commandaria, a holy dessert wine and the diaspora who drink it / SLOP

• American Spirits with a glass of green juice? Chic, rich, health freaks are taking up smoking cigarettes / Airmail

• The case for free sparkling water in restaurants / Eater

• Can Keith McNally recreate the magic of Minetta Tavern in DC? / WaPo

• Related: WSJ chats with Toast CEO Aman Narang about how the restaurant industry is making a record comeback / WSJ

• And: The world's 1,000 best restaurants / La Liste

• Meantime, One of Japan’s great sushi masters is working quietly in Manhattan / NYT

• A-Z goes back further than we think. An archaeological discovery in Syria may force a revision of the alphabet’s origin story / FT

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Friends Section

• From Joy Howard: Back Market’s Collaboration With Sustainable Artist, Gab Bois Just Gave Y2K Tech New Life / The Zoe Report

• And an interview with artist Gab Bois about the project / Back Market

• Ted Barrow’s new season of “This Old Ledge,” dedicated to Los Angeles, premieres tomorrow / IG

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Getting Rec’d

• Pioneer Works’s 2nd issue of Broadcast - their print mag - is done and apparently delves into “extolling dark matter and dark fungi; Swamp Dogg’s beans and bass-less music in the Caribbean; sex with Neanderthals and how Adderall changed America; Land Back in St. Louis and the Periodic Table; a conversation with Hilton Als, new fiction by Isle McElroy, and other riches.” / Pioneer Works

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Playlist

• Got served this one randomly while compiling: Bran Van 3000’s “Astounded”. Feel like I must have heard this 23 years aog? I don’t remember it… sooo color me impressed, again. / Spotify

• It’s from the album Discosis, while IDK if I ever heard back in the day / Spotify

• Which in a way evokes (echoes / answers?) the Avalanches Since I Left You / Spotify

• The even better version of which was the Gimix mixtape / Soundcloud.

• Which prompted this Cornerstone mixtape promo from January of 2001 after Since I Left You started to bubble / Soundcloud

• Which was preceded by the turntablism showoffery (i presume) DJ Dexter in this 2000 mixtape / Soundcloud

• And showcases the meat of “Frontier Psychiatrist” live on air. Great video btw/ YouTube

• Which brings to mind the original Geoff McFetridge-directed clip, also great - dark tho / YouTube

• And so on futher down the rabbit hole…

• Anyway, speaking of insane pastiche: Only if you play on shuffle. Promise me. The NYT Amplifier’s “Best Music of 2024” / Spotify

• And since it’s the hols, and since we’re on lists: 10 Great Vince Guaraldi Tracks NOT from Charlie Brown TV Shows / The Honest Broker

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Wisdom of the Crowds:

From Gordon Hull:

• : Google says its new quantum chip indicates that multiple universes exist / TechCrunch

• This came as a surprise [The Most Iconic Electronic Sample Flip of All Time] / IG

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From Iolanda Carvalho:

• End of year content from Ipsos - very interesting / Ipsos

• [Brands And Fans: the power of connecting with Communities] “Looking at the success of brands and icons from LEGO to Taylor Swift, four industry experts share how engaging in fan communities could prove an effective alternative to traditional advertising in the coming year."

• And some more "best of" [2024 Ads That Sparked Envy and Admiration] / IBB Online

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From Celeste Blewitt:

• 'The Ruby Red Slippers Judy Garland Wore In The Wizard Of Oz Sold For A Remarkable $28 Million' $28 million, what a price to pay for such an historic pair of shoes, it appears that the red slippers have gone to a new home / Town & Country

• 'They've Amassed Australia's Largest Collection Of Street Art. Now It's Going On Show’

• Street art collectors, who used to collect iconic Australian artists including Joy Hester, Brett Whiteley and Albert Tucker, now the couple, going by the collector name 'Sandrew', have moved onto street art, championing Australian street art. My curiosity got the better of me when I did a quick look-up of the retail space turned gallery - it's next door to our office in one of the most fab Melbourne buildings. Apparently they own the country's largest collection of Banksy / The Guardian AU

• 'The Eras Tour Book Definitely Won't Make The New York Times Bestseller List’. The marketing behemoth that is the Taylor Swift brand, now there's the publishing arm, with that in mind, the publishing entails a Target deal but no New York Times bestseller accolade due to it only being sold in Target. Intriguing / Vanity Fair

• 'Why The Novel Matters: Deborah Levy' This essay was such a joy to read, the descriptions of imagination, fiction, being drawn into a story and the luxury of letting imagination ebb and flow, stopping that moment in time to be drawn into another world. A great reminder of the art of literature and story-telling / The New Statesman

• 'How To Futureproof Your Castle' The chatelaine of Eastnor, Imogen Hervey-Bathurst, daughter of the owner of the Eastnor estate is shaking it up, using a multi-faceted approach that includes events, interiors and allowing LandRover to host driving programs on the land - all in the name of keeping the estate thriving. Entrepreneurial in the name of history and grand estates. Love a manor/estate storyline / FT

• 'The GPT Era Is Already Ending' While AI, ChatGPT and all the rest are top of mind for every publication at this current point in time, sometimes delving back into the discussion on creativity, AI 'slop' and the general AI tumult is always a good reminder of the iterations we have seen and will continue to see for the years ahead, good, bad and never to be seen again iterations included / The Atlantic

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SIC] 325: Loneliness Killing Service

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Corollary Sources this week
1440 / The Future Party / The Daily Upside / Champion Weekly / Feed Me / After School / Public Announcement / Ungerleider Works / Dealbook / Brendan’s Communications Miscellany