[SIC] 329: Smokin’ Jumboes

Vol. 7, No. 19. No [SIC] Talks, no frills. But still more links than you can click - so pay attention to the ones that help in LA first. And open in a Browser for improved experience.

Jan 16, 2025

"I'M SO HAPPY I PAY FOR THESE!” - Ochuko Akpovbo (As Seen On)

This [SIC] digest of developments was sent free on 1/16/25 to 6225 subscribers.

Paid subscribers also get "[SIC] Day" M/Tu/W/F & the [SIC] Sundays mini-digest. It's $8 a month, or $80 a year. Many expense subscriptions as research in marketing, advertising, entertainment + tech. You can too.

[SIC] is made possible by its paid subscribers. Thanks for your support.

Thanks to Iolanda Carvalho, Molly Raskin, Piers Fawkes, Celeste Blewitt, Daniela Zebede and Matt Navarro for links. Contributions welcome!

Hi all.

Greetings from frigid FiDi, where I’m posted up on the 27th floor of the WSA building (a fascinating microcosm of contemporary culture business if ever there was one). Hope you’re keeping yourselves well, all things considered.

Welcome to the 200+ new folks who’ve joined as [SIC] subscriber list via Caitlin Dewey’s Your Favorite Newsletters Favorite Newsletters post - which I’m still working through myself (there’s SO MUCH rad stuff there) - check it out if you haven’t already, please.

The new influx means the recipient list for this Thursday dispatch has grown by ~30% in the 18 weeks since the start of Vol. 7 - driven almost entirely by recommendations from current subscribers. Which is to say, I’d love it if you’d take a second share [SIC] with any of the smart, inquisitive people you know. They’ll appreciate it, I bet. I will too.

Share [SIC]

Speaking of sharing - my thoughts and well wishes remain with friends and folks in LA, so let’s start with some resources (and some context) that will help people recover and rebuild.

For LA. Sending love and support to our friends in Los Angeles / Sunday Bunch
Spreadsheet for the LA music workers who need support / Google Sheets
A list of verified GoFundMe pages to help people get back on their feet / GoFundMe
Buy an Artwork to Support Victims of LA Fires. Artists and galleries are stepping up to help meet the massive demand for recovery aid / Hyperallergic
From Molly: Social media platforms are not built for this. There’s plenty of content about the wildfires in Los Angeles on TikTok, Instagram, and X. Is it actually useful? / The Verge
The Love in the Air Is Thicker Than the Smoke’. On the streets of L.A., Michelin-starred chefs are cooking for firefighters, boutiques are giving away clothes and a sprawling city is coming together / Reasons to Be Cheerful
LA boasts the world's most important legacy of 20th-century architecture / Dezeen
Architectural variety in Los Angeles (and help)... / Snake
Letter from L.A. An architect who lost his Malibu masterpiece in the 2018 Woolsey Fire wants Los Angeles to rebuild, but in a radically new way / Air Mail
Los Angeles mayor issues executive order for "residents to rapidly rebuild" / Dezeen

No [SIC] Talks this week because of scheduling complications around the situation in LA, but I’ve got a couple of great ones lined up for the coming weeks, so in case you need a refresher on past shows, here’s the show:

Any feedback, leave it in the comments! And now… the links.

Ben

[SIC] 329: Smokin’ Jumboes

People Are People

The secret and remarkable life of a legendary hacker who received a rare presidential pardon / Semafor
Also remarkable: A father of modern AI wants to reinvent biology / Crazy Stupid Tech
On the topic of reinvention: Sean Thielen-Esparza and the analog revival. Sean Thielen is bringing back the Sony Minidisc, but why? / World of Eso
Elsewhere on bring-backs? The hipster grifter peaked too soon. [disclosure: I worked with Kari at VICE- Ed] / The Atlantic
Apropos of crime: Jellycat burglars: Meet the people surfing the soft toy crime wave. Jellycats became an internet obsession during the early days of the pandemic, and now they’re being stolen in droves / Dazed
Elsewhere: Strummer Calling. A weird first name leads to the encounter of a lifetime / CREEM
How to draw a female figure. Figure drawing is a fundamental skill for artists, but one of the hardest to truly master. In this article, the artist explains his personal process for drawing the female form and offers some advice.
How to draw a male figure / Creative Bloq
Corollary: Catching Up with a Guy Who Had His Legs Surgically Lengthened by Three Inches / Heavies

The Tiktokaclypse

Advertisers may still be standing by TikTok for now, but its execs are eyeing the door as the app’s U.S. future grows increasingly precarious / Digiday
Related: 'I need those home runs': TikTok viral brands plan a future without the For You Page / Digiday
And from Molly: What Happened When An Extremely Offline Person Tried TikTok / The Atlantic
As you’ve likely heard, ‘Red Note,’ A Chinese App, Is Dominating Downloads Thanks to TikTok Users. Self-described “TikTok refugees” are turning to Xiaohongshu, also known as Little Red Book / NYT
Meanwhile Substack is positioning itself as Ellis Island for TikTokers / Feed Me
Corollary to that: Beehiiv is the latest platform to try to lure independent journalists with perks / Nieman Lab
Because?! Decades of ‘Free’ News Has Publishers Scrambling to Find Revenue / A Media Operator
Hence: What Publishers Can Learn From Dave Portnoy / A Media Operator
Corollary: How I Raised $50M from Tyler Denk, the founder of Beehiiv / Big Desk Energy
The Contrarian is a new outlet countering the “authoritarian threat,” and it’s publishing on…Substack / CNN

Marketating

There’s a new PSFK Future of Retail report There’s a mini version you can download / Linkedin
Related, from Iolanda: CES'ing [12 Takes on what CES Meant for the Year Ahead]/ IBB Online
And: what might await us 😉 [ 2025 Will be ther Year of Brutal Brand Honesty / Shots
On that note: Leaked: Jaguar's designers weren't happy with rebrand / Creative Bloq
While Walmart is rebranding for the first time in 20 years to become a more digital-focused retailer / Fast Company
How Walmart’s latest brand refresh reinforces bigger digital ambitions / Retail Dive
Brands are seeing an influx of traffic from ChatGPT and Google Gemini / Digiday
Mytheresa has risen to the top of the digital luxury pyramid. Meet the ultra-wealthy clients who made that happen / Vogue Business
‘Luxury no longer means quality’: Consumers weigh in on the slowdown / Vogue Business
Lululemon and other retailers reported higher-than-expected Q4 sales yesterday, as shoppers spent more on clothes, shoes, and accessories during the holiday season / CNBC
Tho Burlington is literally downsizing its stores to 20% of their usual size to keep up with changing trends in retail / WSJ
Hence? Why designers need China partnerships. From influencer partnerships on Xiaohongshu to limited-edition capsule collections with niche retailers, testing out the China market is done best through partnerships / Jing Daily
2024 laid the groundwork for brand studios. Will it start to pay off in 2025? Entertainment production companies are working with marketers to prepare their content studios / Digiday
Meantime, Who’s paying for fake five-star reviews of The Ritz? / London Centric
Industry clutches pearls after WPP returns to office four days a week / Digiday
Also newly IRL: NBC launched an immersive SNL experience at Rockefeller Center that will give people a sense of what the whirlwind production for an episode is like / Deadline

Moving Pictures

People are laughing out loud more in movie theaters and it’s illuminating generational divides. [disclosure: I lol’ed during The Substance, a lot - Ed] / NYT
While The Brutalist is reigniting a debate over… brutalism / Semafor
Related: a24 fomented a conversation between Queer star Jason Schwartzman and his old friend, star of The Brutalist, Adrien Brody / Spotify
And Director Halina Reijn of Babygirl in conversation with fellow Director Spike Jonze / Spotify
Cinema corollary: From Celeste: A Kitten On Heat With A Racy Physique: The Mystery Of The Cat Screech Used In Hundreds of Movies / The Guardian
And: “Great piece on the world of celebrity biopic, there's so many that arrive on the streamers these days, so perhaps a chimpanzee is the best way to differentiate Better Man from the multitude of musician biopics out there” No One Cares That The Chimpanzee Is Singing. / The Atlantic
More avatars?!: How Disaster Girls Are Cashing in on The Digital Economy We’re witnessing a cultural phenomenon where young women capitalize on projecting lifestyles often associated with traditional gender roles — from tradwives to NPC cosplayers — to monetize their image / Bloomberg
Just how many ads are there on ad-supported streaming apps, really? / Sherwood
From iolanda: Still on "best of 2024" mood... [Top 100 Ads of 2024] / Slate App

The Arts

From Daniela: “We are excited to present a talk by curator Larry-Ossei Mensah [on the workd of Esther Malanghu] at Ross + Kramer Gallery with the American Federation of Arts on January 17th” / CART Dept.
Further afield: Dispatch from Berlin. Out with Punk and in with Prada. Recent shake-ups in the museum sector offer reason for excitement and concern / Frieze
Corollary: How Budgets Shape Exhibitions. Hans Ulrich Obrist's collection Think Like Clouds highlighted the logistical evolution of the curator’s role / Frieze
Ergo? They hired Banksy for £50 then painted over his mural / BBC

The Yout.

How are Young People Feeling About Dating in 2025?/ Dazed
Related: Scent-based Dating: Can I Sniff Out the Love of My Life? / Dazed
AI pals, paperclip love: What China’s Gen Z wants. A new survey reveals how China’s Gen Z is balancing their digital lives with a desire for authentic offline connections / Jing Daily
From Matt: “newsletter shit: Have you ever heard of these guys? Wasn’t sure if this crossed into your skater world…” Before Indie Sleaze, Before Nu-Metal Mania, There Was Buddyhead / VICE
So? i think you should start a band / The Unskippables
Elijah sits down with DJ AG, the Tottenham local who's passing the mic to established and lesser known MCs across London on his livestreams / The FACE
Melancholy corollary: XLR8R Closed Up Shop, and Nobody Really Noticed. Once one of electronic music's most vital media outlets, the publication quietly paused its editorial operations last month / First Floor
Kate Lindsay from Embedded is the new co-host of ICYMI, Slate’s internet culture podcast / Slate
And Delia Cai is the new managing ed of Magasin / Magasin

America At Large

DIY America #3: Nashville, TN: Gunk digs into the indie scene in Nashville / Gunk
Bad Bunny is doing a residency in Puerto Rico for his new album… and the first nine shows are exclusive to residents of the island / Variety
Buffalo tops the country's most lucrative housing markets / Zillow
So… Maybe It Was Never About the Factory Jobs / The Atlantic
On that note: Ghost jobs — positions employers have no intention of filling — are plaguing employment platforms and making job searches even harder. between 18% and 22% of job postings last year never got filled / WSJ
Sitting vs. Standing Jobs. The US workforce can be divided into “sitters” (like programmers and lawyers) and “standers” (like servers and construction workers). Alvin Chang’s newest project looks at what we can learn from this labor split / The Pudding

Computer Visions

The Australian Open is showing (almost) live coverage with a twist: everything onscreen is an animated rendering of the actual matches / YT
Move over, ChatGPT, SkinGPT is on the way. What the virtual try-on tool will mean for the skincare industry / Fashionista
What the agentic AI era means for ad agencies, with Omnicom’s Jonathan Nelson / Digiday
So.. How much should AI “agents” be allowed to do? / Wired
Corollary: Chick-fil-A’s Lemon-Squeezing Robots Are Saving 10,000 Hours of Work. The company is outsourcing a tedious job that caused countless injured fingers to an automated factory / Bloomberg

Mind Control

The Preposterous History of Propaganda Art. Propagandopolis, a globe-spanning selection of visual persuasions from the early 20th century to now, is a travelogue to disinformation’s past / Hyperallergic
Aproos: New Collection of MKULTRA Documents Just Dropped. The recently released collection of documents further exposes the scope and magnitude of MKULTRA's mind control experiments / National Security Archive
Also a psy-op? The Woke Couch. The infiltration of identity politics into psychotherapy threatens the integrity of the field, as social justice–driven therapy prioritizes activism over individual healing / American Enterprise Institute
A critical look at the neuromeme dominating the psychedelic renaissance / Doubleblind
Corollary: Scientists are dosing fish with ayahuasca in the name of science. But will it actually help us better understand this transformative psychedelic brew? / Doubleblind
Are You Smarter Than Someone 100 Years Ago? / The Lindy Newsletter
Hence? From Molly: The Case for Brain Rot / The Atlantic

Edibles /Potables

Does coffee actually give you more energy? / 1440
Important to know, since Cocoa and coffee finished 2024 as the world’s fastest-gaining commodities for the second year in a row / Reuters
Anheuser-Busch will raise keg prices by $5 to all Manhattan bars, which could result in a 13 percent increase in pint costs passed down to consumers / NYPost
Corollary: My All-Nighter in a Vanishing World: the 24-Hour Diner / NYT
Elsewhere: The delights of Hong Kong’s iconic ‘tea restaurants / FT
From Molly: Fairytale in the Supermarket. Erewhon and the new spirit of capitalism / The Baffler
But?! ‘Gut Health’ Has a Fatal Flaw / The Atlantic
Speaking of? Drinking just one alcoholic beverage a day could raise health risks, according to a federal analysis / NYT
So… Should I Take a Break From Alcohol? A liver expert explains how alcohol impacts your health and offers tips to cut back or abstain / Apple Podcasts
Related: A focus on self-transformation is leading young people to drink less, The Atlantic argued. From the rise of Dry January to “sober bars” catering to Gen-Z, the pullback in drinking is hurting liquor makers, leading distilleries to slash jobs and shelve expansion plans / Semafor
And: Not Just Sober-Curious, but Neo-Temperate. How sobriety went from a radical social movement to a tool of self-optimization / The Atlantic
But! Be Skeptical of 'Beneficially Coercive' New Rules for Booze A New York Times essay helps illustrate why the surgeon general's new report on alcohol and cancer leaves out crucial context and nuance / Reason
Apropos: The government may be coming to pour out your THC-infused cocktail / Bloomberg

Got the Look

In 2003 the postmodernist philosopher and Marxist cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek wrote copy for Abercrombie & Fitch’s Back to School Catalog. The whole thing is pretty astounding (and NSFW) / Monoskop
Also up from the archives: The History of the L.L. Bean Duck Boot / Footwear News
While, in the now: Decoding 2025: Grailed insiders dish on 2025—style hot takes, trends to watch and the grails they’re adding to their rotation / Grailed
Corollary: What’s in a name? The terrific, trashy rise of personalised fashion / The Guardian
More customization: How NFL Merch Is Getting the Designer Treatment / Robb Report
Street / menswear brands to watch in the new year / Street Night Live
And [SIC] homie Clayton’s version: The menswear brands we're watching in 2025 / Sprezza
Related: 19 More Fashion Predictions for 2025 / Back Row
ASAP Rocky, a Burberry scarf and the ‘road back to authenticity’. CEO Joshua Schulman’s turnaround plan focuses on the outerwear and scarf categories — and it might be working / Retail Dive
Meantime, Pitti Immagine shows that the fashion industry might finally be growing out of its obsession with youth / Monocle
But, like, What’s fashion’s next big idea? / Vogue Business
While we figure that out: there's a new craze for baggy sweatpants jeans / NYPost
While Loro Piana designs are suddenly everywhere, through red carpet dressing / Vogue
Related: Fashion Has an Over-Gifting Problem. Flooding the feed with the "It" bag du jour is a tired strategy, and can turn discerning shoppers off / The New Garde
More oversaturation: Film merch floods Chinese streetwear /Jing Daily
Back to the max, from Celeste: Forget Quiet Luxury, Chaotic Customisation Is The Trend You Need To Know About in 2025' / Vogue UK
But?! Has maximalism finally had its moment? How 'understated' may be 2025's buzzword / Creative Bloq
Hence: The Return of the Non-Smart Watch / BoF
Five graphic trends to keep in your sights in 2025 / It’s Nice That
Apropos: How Can Synthetic Images Render Blackness? / Aperture
More visuals: Winners of The Pudding Cup, 2024: their favorite data visualization passion projects / The Pudding Cup

Reading Materials

Ecstatic Documents. Notice, already, how opportunistic the creators of ecstatic documents are. Moments of ecstatic media tend to happen to those predisposed to them / Are.na
After a 50-year break, Archigram – the infamous group of pioneering architectural theorists – has reformed and published a new issue of its eponymous publication / Design Week
Inside Earth's most based members-only club: The Public Library / Blackbird Spyplane
Related: The New York Public Library Shop / Shop.NYPL
My Babies Are Richer Than Yours: On The Lie Of the Online Tradwife / Literary Hub
In “We Tried to Tell Y’All,” Meredith Clark chronicles the heyday of Black Twitter / NYT
US sales of physical books rose in 2024 after three years of decline / Semafor
Bibliotherapy: Can Reading Help Treat Your Depression? / Dazed
Cory Doctorow just launched a Kickstarter campaign for his next novel, Picks and Shovels / Kickstarter

Enders

Are we banning phones in the club in 2025? This recent clip, featuring respected DJ and industry commentator Elijah says that there’s an epidemic of phone cameras in the club, that it's killing the vibe and stopping people from dancing freely / IG
Very ‘free’: Willy Chavarria’s DSM Pop-up is X-Rated / IG
Apropos of that: Porn Is Inevitable. The Supreme Court is about to decide if requiring age verifications on explicit sites is unconstitutional. But whatever happens, porn will survive / The Free Press
Kinda corollary? Chasing a vibe pic From Kazakhstan to South Korea on the fractured internet / One Thing
Speaking of Chasing: A McKinsey report investigating the economic impact of declines in birth rates found that the UK, Germany, Japan and the US would all have to see productivity rise at double the pace seen over the past decade to maintain the same growth in living standards witnessed since the 1990s / FT
More macro, from Celeste:An excellent insight into the world of criminology and the current prison systems & issues in the UK. [Criminologist Yvonne Jewkes: Confinement Comes In Many Guises] / FT

[SIC] 329: Smokin’ Jumboes

Corollary Sources This Week: Doubleblind / The Daily Upside / Public Announcement / The Supersonic / User Mag / Jimmy / The Future Party / The Art of Noticing / The Material Review / Embedded / Feed Me/ The New Statesman / Sociology of Business

[SIC] 329: Smokin’ Jumboes

Vol. 7, No. 19. No [SIC] Talks, no frills. But still more links than you can click - so pay attention to the ones that help in LA first. And open in a Browser for improved experience.

Discussion about this post