[SIC] 330: Hasta Luego

Vol. 7, No. 20. In loving memory of Ginger Dunlap-Dietz. [SIC] Talks postponed, power's out, down bad, but posting through it. Open in a browser for a more intense sunset.

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Hi all.

Forgive the late send. Power’s out. High winds means fire risk is over the odds. We’ve been warned it could be a couple of days. I’m tethered and on supplemental battery power. Writing you from the desert again. Unplanned this time; my mom died.

It was sudden. She called two weeks ago to say she’d been diagnosed with liver cancer and things didn’t look good, but she didn’t have a real outlook yet. Bottom line: The end was in sight. It sounded like it could maybe be managed for a while. Definitely not a ‘get here now’ kind of thing. I was heading to California on February 1st already, and would see her then.

On Sunday night, late, I got a note from my Dad. Mom had been hospitalized. He and I talked; she had been dehydrated and weak, but had an IV and was stable now. I started looking at flights for Wednesday, thinking I’d be most helpful spelling him at the hospital, after he’d been there a few days. My daughter and I’d spoken to Mom on Saturday at length. She’d sounded not great, but not close to the end, either.

Monday I talked to my brother; he was driving down from Northern California to be there. He encouraged me to hurry it up; Mom was moving to hospice. I booked a flight for Tuesday afternoon.

I called my brother Tuesday on the way to the train to JFK; he said she was slipping away. As the train pulled into Terminal 4 he called me back. She had gone. My dad called a minute later to tell me himself.

Not the way I would have liked things to work out, frankly. But that was Mom, and I understood. She didn't fear passing on, just liked she’d never really feared anything, in my experience.

I’m not sure how ‘sui generis’ (a fancy way of saying unlike anything else) entered my vocabulary with the force it has in the last few months, but pops out of my mouth regularly these days. Unconscious premonition, maybe. Because Mom was sui generis, truly.

I could spend forever recounting her story from Tunkhannock to Vassar to London to Cyprus and Tel Aviv to LA. She fell into a lifelong practice of ceramics there, operating the Pottery studio my dad wandered into one day. They moved back East to Syracuse, braved the weather and raised a pair of boys, doing what she’d always done along the way - collecting and encouraging a wild random bunch of personalities who recognized her creative energy and curiosity reciprocated in themselves. Watching her as a kid the unspoken message to me was that rules were what you decided to make of them; what mattered was to keep conditions for serendipity close at hand. Wonderful things happen when you let them. She did that unendingly.

So I couldn't begrudge her deciding to go before I made it to the desert. She went on her own terms, peacefully and without anxiety, letting come what may. Serendipitously. I’m so grateful for that.

I got to see her yesterday at the funeral home. I dreaded going in, but found the experience totally calming and edifying. I could appreciate it. She was there for me in the room, but already exploring someplace else too. Someplace fascinating, if I were a betting man. Her wish was for her ashes to be scattered to the four corners of the world. She was already on her way.

Like I said, I could go on forever, but I’ll save the rest for the celebration of her life we’re planning for Spring. I don’t really get the desert, to be honest - never have. But she loved it, and I’m already looking forward to coming back here then. Feel free to come hang, too. She’d have liked that. The winds will have blown through and SDG&E will have turned the power back on. A superbloom seems unlikely this year. But who’ll really know til we get back out here.

Love you, Mom. Hasta Luego.

B

Program Note: The week’s events played havoc with [SIC] Talks taping; I was scheduled to talk to Sean Monahan, the cultural analyst and publisher of 8Ball, whose work I’ve followed but years and whose newest piece the globalization aesthetic. I really wanted to dig into (especially since it starting with a citation of [SIC] homie Edmond Lau from Esoteric.

Sean notes that there is a progressive response to the conservative-coded “boom boom aesthetic” that we’ve been inundated with this week, and I’m spending the time between responding to condolences attempting to process that take. Mom would have found it fascinating, lifelong progressive that she was. Go read it and look forward to a conversation with Sean in an upcoming edition of the podcast series.

Speaking of the pod, [SIC] Talks alum Ochuko Akpovbovbo has very generously passed along 3 free gift subscriptions left for her excellent As Seen On newsletter. Holler if you want one; first come first served in the comments for this point.

Mom wasn’t a David Lynch diehard by any means, but considering that Twin Peaks was the only primetime family viewing occasion I can remember, Lynch’s recent passing has occupied my mind a bunch lately. Jason Diamond’s The Memorial Post Conundrum about saying goodbye in the social media age has been rattling around my brain this week as such. Have a look.

Final note before the links: sent just now by Stella from Pioneer Work’s Broadcast Magazine: “In Is Aging a Disease?, PW Director of Sciences Janna Levin sits down with two heavyweights of the anti-aging debate. Professor David Sinclair of Harvard is a researcher committed to aging in reverse, while Professor Ali Brivanlou is an explorer of human embryonic stem cells, and an impassioned defender of whiskey, cigarettes, and meat. The two discuss the latest in longevity science, pondering if we're predestined to age and die after all.”

My vote is that we are, and the best way to go about it is gracefully. I learned from the best.

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[SIC] 330: Hasta Luego

Culture Macros

• Trump to the [WEF /Davos] world: Make your stuff in America or pay tariffs / Quartz

• And Cancel culture gets cancelled / WSJ

• But! JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are not giving up their DEI initiatives /Bloomberg

• Related: ‘Elon and I hugged it out’: Jamie Dimon says Elon Musk is ‘our Einstein’ / Quartz

• As such: Janan Ganesh on the strange liberal nonchalance over Trump’s return / Financial Times

• Users are confused as to why they’re suddenly following President Trump, VP JD Vance, and First Lady Melania Trump on Instagram /Variety

• Because? From Iolanda; Enshitification by any other name would look the same... 😉[Netflix is Deliberately Dumbing Down TV So People Can Watch While Scrolling] / The Guardian

• Meantime, Netflix raised prices again, but it’s still adding subscribers at a record pace. With 19 million new sign-ups / Quartz

• So then, Is Social Media More Like Cigarettes or Junk Food? / The New Yorker

• 5 ways to combat ‘internet brain’ / Service95

• Because?! Google Is Now the East India Company of the Internet / The Honest Broker

• Also, Hundreds of subreddits are considering banning all links to X / 404 Media

• But How Will Meta’s New Content Policy Affect Artists? / Hyperallergic

• Here’s one way: The Tech Oligarchy Is Stealing Your Sexuality. Notes on the goonicide, the tech oligarchy and the American Gooning Conspiracy / Many Such Cases

• Related to that: The Future of the Internet Is Age-Gated. A wave of new laws and new technology might finally bring the era of the online pornography free-for-all to a close / The Atlantic

• Maybe it’s not all bad? *Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future*. Tyler Cowen on Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato. As you might expect, [he is] in synch with the basic message of this book/ Marginal Revolution

• Corollary: Advertising Week’s roundtable report explores how retailers and brands are evaluating and implementing AI solutions / Advertising Week

• But Agencies have mixed feelings about using AI tools for product placements and influencer marketing / Digiday

• Also skeptical Milan Banned Smoking. Locals Aren’t Having It / Air Mail

• Closer to home: New Yorkers are countering dreary weather with playful fashion / NYT

• Not playing: What happens when the California fires go out? More gentrification / Vox

• In the meantime, tho: Octavia’s Bookshelf, a Pasadena bookstore that survived the Eaton Fire, has become a haven and a hub for mutual aid resources and support / Hyperallergic

• And apropos of that: a new 98-track compilation featuring André 3000, Arushi Jain and more has been released, with 50% of proceeds going to artists and musicians affected by the fire, while the other half will go to displaced Black families and communities. The label behind it, Leaving Records, will also be throwing a fundraising concert on Feb 8, with Julia Holter, Mndgn and more / Bandcamp, IG

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Tiktok / TalkTalk

• Americans aren’t leaving RedNote after TikTok’s return / NYT

• The Vibes Are Off: How Half a Day Without Tiktok Changed Everything / WaPo
  Alleged censorship aside, many TikTok users feel the algorithm is no longer “algorithming.”

• So “Is the ‘golden age’ of TikTok over already?” / Dazed

• Also, How do people actually make a living on TikTok? / WSJ

• One way is to leave: Meta is offering $5,000 to popular content creators (read: TikTok creators) who migrate to Facebook and Instagram / BBC

• Related: Bluesky and X launch new video feeds amid TikTok uncertainties. “‘We had to get in on the video action too,’ said Bluesky with the launch of customizable feeds for videos / The Verge

• And: the Substack Creator Accelerator Fund. A $20 million funding guarantee to help creators grow their businesses / Substack

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The Kids These Days.

• Gen Zers are increasingly ditching late nights out for cozy nights at home. They're also seeking out supper clubs — dinner parties hosted in people's homes, often by professionals — as an "affordable alternative to traditional bars in a trendy setting," [says] Elizabeth Tan, WGSN Insight senior culture strategist / Yahoo

• Gen Z is bringing malls back to cultural dominance, re-establishing them as the hub for shopping and social gathering / Business Insider

• Workers are Being Called Back into the Office Full-Time. Can Gen-Z handle RTO? / Fast Company

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Individiduals of Note

• Joao Fonseca Has the Tennis World Buzzing / gq

• And Demi Moore’s Morning Involved “Screaming” / Vanity Fair

• Apropos? YOU THRILLED ME FIRST. On the films of Richard Kern / Apology

• More Gary Hustwit’s new AI-powered, constantly-changing Brian Eno doc, Eno will premiere on YouTube this Friday as a 24-hour livestream / Fast Company

• From Erik: “Ruth was a Vice News contributor ... She's got a good newsletter. In addition to SIC this is another letter I read weekly.” [It’s Day One--Of a New Phase of the Fight to Save Our Democracy] / Lucid

• Elsewhere: Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh makes about $1 million a year from his writing credit on the Ridiculousness theme song / Rolling Stone

• And the story of The Night Hunter S Thompson Almost Drowned Bill Murray / Farout Magazine

• The FKA twigs Interview with Throwing Fits. Podcasting at the pinnacle of human existence / Throwing Fits

• More conversation: The Verge interviews Severance star Adam Scott about the weird computers used for “microdata refinement” on the show / The Verge

• Corollary on control:: Norman Foster’s Empire of Image Control. The British architect has built an unprecedented factory of fine design. Inside the world of the man who creates exquisite monuments for ultra-wealthy clients / The New Yorker

• And The musical universe of David Lynch. To truly understand the signature weirdness of a David Lynch movie, you need to pay attention to the music / NPR

• Related, from Celeste: What David Lynch Knew About The Weather /The Atlantic

• More music: “Thank You, Crazy P”: A Love Letter To Disco, Dancing & One Iconic Frontwoman / Service95

• And more image control: How 'The Substance' Dressed Its Monster / Back Row

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Art (and Protest)

• MAGA is coming for our rights, writes the Artist Coco Fusco. The Siren is here to fight back / Hyperallergic

• Corollary: The Anti-Monuments of Torkwase Dyson. The artist’s multi-disciplinary practice challenges colonial and anti-Black art distinctions between representation and abstraction / Hyperallergic

• And from Piers: love this -[A ceramic tribute to an unloved Carpark] / Creative Boom

• How Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto created his ambitious installation at Paris’s Le Bon Marché / Monocle

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Media-errs.

• I need to memorize this: How to podcast for the internet / Embedded

• Soon come: Inference Magazine, a new magazine about AI progress / Twitter

• Meantime, Democracy dies in deck-ness: how one PowerPoint hints at WaPo brand decline / The Drum

• Corollary; Vox has a new newsletter that dials down the franticness about the Trump administration to stop letting political news take over your life / Neiman Lab

• While As Trump returns to the White House, media buyers clamp down on brand safety / Digiday

• Hence? The Ankler is launching a trade publication centered on the creator economy titled Like & Subscribe / Axios

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Marketations.

• Nike’s RTFKT is rolling out one last collab with 3D-sneaker brand Zellerfeld before it’s boxed for good / Highsnob

• Because?! The Future of Online Resale Is Offline. Fashionphile, Rebag and other secondhand e-commerce platforms are opening stores and partnering with multibrand retailers in a bid to reach new customers / BoF

• Hence: Lacoste to make ‘aggressive’ push into lucrative US sportswear market / FT

• And why Elf Beauty sponsored a women’s wrestling tournament / Vogue Business

• Related?! Can Champion be 'Champion' again? / The Drum

• Meantime, Paris Olympics Medals Are Tarnishing, Putting LVMH in the Spotlight” (NYT)

• And The new Jack Daniels bottle design is leaving a bad taste for some / Creative Bloq

• Apropos of that: The alcohol industry is increasingly reliant on the heaviest drinkers for its profits. A fifth of adults account for 90% of sales in the US, research suggests, and that share is growing as alcohol consumption in the rich world decline / WSJ

• More design, from Iolanda: A trip down memory lane 🙂[The Nokia Design Archive Project] / It’s Nice That

• From Piers: Eat sweet first, says Unilever [Unilver appeals to customers to eat desert first] / PR Newswire

• Corollary: The fan-made Doritos Super Bowl ads show us how advertising does, and doesn't, work / The Drum

• Also snack-fueled, from Iolanda: The state of gaming / Matthew Ball

• ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U | Boiler Room: Tokyo will get you hyped to Fortnite (or something) / YouTube

• Hence: Boiler Room Sells to Superstruct / Mixmag

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Exit on the Left

• Visions of jaguars and serpents are surprisingly common in ayahuasca journeys. They happen no matter the location or the person’s connection to the jungle. But why? / Doubleblind

• Corollary: Never heard of Yogyakarta? It might be the center of the universe / NYT

• Also dreamy, from Iolanda: Spectacular as always... [The Future of Food Report 2025] / Bompas & Parr

• The Texas Yemeni Coffee Bars Edition. On alcohol-free evening hangs, meaningful conversation, and cultural exchange / WITI

• Back in Blighty: Lime bikes keep breaking Londoners' legs. They've become one of the fastest-growing ways of getting around the capital. But do the popular hire e-bikes have a design flaw? / London Centric

• Hence: Letter of Recommendation - Want an Authentic Travel Experience? Try McDonald’s. It’s a much realer version of the supposed authenticity we so often seek [per Alex C. Park] / NYT

• Corollary: Why Flying Sucks So Much / The Walrus

• Apropos of cabin-pressure: How to avoid winter sickness and/or cut it in half. A couple theories on why we get sicker in winter and food-based protocols on how to half-life a cold when it comes up / Snake

• Related: The FDA approved Johnson & Johnson's nasal spray Spravato, the first approved standalone drug therapy for treatment-resistant depression / CNBC

• Also resistant: The stereotype of athletes being stupid is false, and the average professional soccer player is in the 90th percentile for intelligence, new research suggests / Semafor

• Finally, from Celeste: But Are We Losing the Ability to Write by Hand? When digital devices have largely replaced handwriting, do we risk losing the cognitive and sensory benefits that come with it? / The Guardian

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Dates, in order.

• A New Yorker Who Loves Los Angeles. [SIC] Talks Alum' Aaron Stern’s “ Hard Copy” photo show will open finally Jan 23rd

• Back East, the Beams+ store in NY opens 1/28 / IG

• I’ll also be at the Tiny Vices Archive 20th Anniversary Exhibition at the Hole Contemporary, New York, February 8–23 / The Hole

• And tuning into Trevor Paglen and Noam M. Elcott: The Past, Present, and Future of AI on 2.18 / Aperture.

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[SIC] 330: Hasta Luego

Corollary Sources this week: Aperture / Marginal Revolution / Politico / Garbage Day / What I’m Hearing / Elevator / The Material Review / The Future Party / Future Perfect / Morning Brew / The New Statesman /The Daily Upside / Public Announcement / After School / Huck Mag / Nieman Lab