[SIC] 332: Not Prioritized

Vol. 7, No. 22. Live from Camp Cultivate. Bump Science. + Links, Links, & More Links.

Feb 07, 2025

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Thanks to Iolanda Carvalho, Piers Fawkes, Celeste Blewitt, James Friedman, Mike T, Matt@theTechnorati, Gordon Hull, Jonny Hawton and Ed Cotton for links. Contributions welcome from everyone - send 'em!

Hi from Mammoth Lakes, all.

I’m here for the inaugural Camp Cultivate, a little gathering of old and new friends from all over the map and all over the creative industry world (and the last 20 years of my career). It’s an outgrowth of Breakfast Club co-hosted by Friends from New York and Outbound Hotels and others, and it’s been fun so far. Will write more about it over in [SIC] Day over the next few installments, so if you’re a paying subscriber look out for that. First of many, I hope.

I’m late for dinner (and late again sending this) so I’ll keep this top section short, but since I mentioned paying subs, I liked Emily’s lede on today’s The Bulwark’s Trump Bump. ie: Bump = 1% day-over-day growth on paid readers.

For [SIC] to bump it would mean five (5) brave souls join the paid tier today. It’s $8 from your life, at worst. Bump me?

Love you all, irrespective. Now, the links.

Ben

[SIC] 332: Not Prioritized

The MAGcronarrative:

From Matt: Elon Musk Wants to Get Operational Control of the Treasury’s Payment System. This Could Not Possibly Be More Dangerous / Crises Notes
Nevertheless: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent granted Elon Musk and members of his DOGE team access to a system responsible for trillions of dollars in government payments, including Social Security checks and tax refunds / Politico
A third from Matt: Will the Ratings Agencies React to the Breakdown in Governance? / Stephanie Kelton
Apropos, Jenny Nicholson scraped all the docs from Trump’s exec orders with AI and the results are…. well you know… / Google
So Then I Guess…The Raunchy Right Has Triumphed. Is the MAGA babe calendar what Making America Hot Again looks like? / The Free Press
Also questionable: Trump's Theory of Tariffs Makes No Sense. We can tax our way to prosperity, President Trump claims, but we'll also just…not do that, I guess? / Reason
Still, It’s The End of Bipartisan Foreign Policy, apparently (per Zeihan) / YouTube
More ending: In wake of Meta moderation shift, advertisers have accepted new status quo: brand safety is a myth. Despite changes, brand safety concerns aren’t leading execs to pull back from platforms / Digiday
And The N.F.L. is removing “end racism” messages from an end zone in the Caesars Superdome before the Super Bowl on Sunday / The Athletic
Related: This was [Also] inevitable: Robinhood Markets Inc. is getting in on the sports event contracts craze, offering retail investors the opportunity to place trades on the outcome of Sunday’s Super Bowl / Bloomberg
Sports corollary: The NBA goes "Founder Mode" / Media-Events
From Celeste: “What an intriguing article to understand the business of elite schools” [The Stephen Rossification Of West Palm Beach] / Curbed
While back at home The NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs has created a "Know Your Rights" with ICE booklet. Key Quote: “If you have concerns or questions about what to do if / when you encounter non-local law enforcement such as ICE, please review the information shared in the link below. Translated materials in multiple languages are available in the link” / NYC.gov
Ugly corollary: How a Tiktok Code Word is Exposing the Limits of Online Organizing. The TikTok trend “cute winter boots,” originally algospeak for warning about ICE raids, has devolved into performative activism at best and a cynical engagement hack at worst / Rolling Stone
More questions: May Aliens Be Deported Based on Their Speech? The answer, oddly, isn't settled / Reason
From James Friedman: Not Necessarily New, but Pretty Rad [The Uncensored Library] The Uncensored Library is a digital library built in Minecraft that contains banned journal articles and other materials. The library was created by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and @blockworks to “promote freedom of the press and expose censorship” / IG
Who Said You Couldn't Say That? Thoughts on the anti-woke ascendency / Harry Cheadle
From Iolanda: It's a provocation, but also real food for thought! [Does Donald Trump Approve of My Media Plan?] / Media Leader
And Will Memes Save 2025? / ICYMI Pod

Gestalt Scraping

The META Trending Trends: 02025. An Analysis of 70+ Global Trend Forecasts → 13 Most Reported Social Shifts / Zine
Related, from Iolanda:Trending forces for 2025 / WARC
(and the report) / Edelman
Corollary: from Ed Cotton: This: Stop posting, start releasing: The 2025 Creative Playbook / Metalabel
While from Jonny: “Some great data analysis and prediction of its causes. Interesting to see changes in attitudes after 2008 financial crisis vs 2020 pandemic — could potentially be seen as the differing motivational impact of the threat of unemployment vs death.” [Gen Z really does have a work ethic problem] / Generation Tech Blog
Apropos: ‘No, I’m Not Phoning to Say I’m Dying!’ My Grueling Week of Calling Gen Z Friends Rather Than Texting Them/ The Guardian
But while young people fret, Gen X women are having the best sex/ NYT
Even so, What’s Up With All the Sex Parties? / The Atlantic
Maybe because weight-loss drugs are transforming marriages? / NYT
What Ozempic Users are buying, a year later / The New Consumer
Ozempic has curbed the obesity crisis. Has it killed the joy of food? Modern dining in a world of tiny appetites / FT.com
Also suppressive, from Celeste: Vaping Is Seriously Harmful To Your Vibe / The New Statesman
The Culture Scene Is Total Madness / The Honest Broker
Treat your doubts like collaborators (Creativity lessons from a Constantly Successful Eternal Beginner who has Never Known Failure) / Blackbird Spyplane
The Bootleg Edition. On beating (then eventually becoming) the real thing / WITI
SV4 corollary: On the Trail of the Insane Clown Posse: A Herb-That-Didn't-Happen™ / Herb Sundays
Mercifully unrelated: John Lithgow in the Criterion Closet / YT

Edibles & Potables

Waffle House is adding a $0.50-per-egg surcharge to its menu items as an ongoing avian flu outbreak ravages egg supplies and jacks up prices / CNBC
And from Matt : Cows Have Been Infected With a Second Form of Bird Flu / NYT
Meantime, welcome to The Last Days of American Orange Juice / The Atlantic
But at least, from Piers: Heinz Is Releasing a Limited-Edition Mustard — and Naming Its Chief Mustard Officer [it’s DJ Mustard] / Food and Wine
Another from Piers: This OG tinned fish company has some thoughts on your fancy fish branding / Fast Company
Corollary?! From Gordon: thought you might enjoy this article on my dad's breakfast club / Warwick Advertiser
From Piers: Unsure if this theory really needed to be proven [Families buy more sugary cereal if advertising targets kids, not adults] / NPR
From Celeste: A new find, loved this story on the history of tomato ketchup, or tomato sauce if you are in Oz, The Surprising Origins And Alternatives To Tomato Ketchup / Atlas Obscura
Apropos: Seven things you should know about Birra Moretti / Vine Pair
Also italian: An academic paper on cacio e pepe / Arxiv
Reality-defying dining. Restaurants are pushing the boundaries of food and drink with out-of-this-world dining experiences/ VML
Hence, from Piers: Chick-fil-A is using drones and ‘game film’ to study how to beat its drive-thru order record / Fortune
And up north it’s Arsons, shootings and sabotage: inside Canada’s lobster wars / NYT
More illicit biz: The Illegal Drug at Every Corner Store. Nitrous oxide is widely available as long as everyone pretends it’s being used for whipped cream. An industry has arisen to exploit that loophole / The Atlantic

AIAIAI.

The End of Search, The Beginning of Research. The first narrow agents are here / One Useful Thing
Related: What DeepSeek Means for Everyone / Crazy Stupid Tech
So! Joanna Stern puts ChatGPT, Claude, and DeepSeek to the test to determine the best AI work assistant / WSJ
But like, really: Do You Need A.I.? The case that hasn't been made / Political Currents
Not for this, anyway. From: “arghhh” [cubism ai slop] / Artnet
Related: How slop flows upstream A pretty compelling argument from Idle Glaze. Worth a read. / Idle Glaze
Hence: AI-generated slop is already in your public library / 404 Media
Apropos of that: Humans are worse at reading poetry than AI is at writing it / WaPo
Related: OpenAI's bold new rebrand is surprisingly human / Creative Bloq
From Piers: “Only available to Pro users (joke)" [OpenAI has undergone its first ever rebrand, giving fresh life to ChatGPT interactions] / Wallpaper
Corollary: I'm obsessed with an OpenAI o3-generated image to ASCII art converter / Creative Bloq
But: A.I. Art Generated With Text Prompts Cannot Be Copyrighted, U.S. Rules / Generation Tech Blog

Generation/Art

The Biting Satire of Eleanor Antin’s Photography / Hyperallergic
Where the Wild Things Aren’t. Agnes Callard writes we tell our children that weirdness is a blessing in disguise. That’s our fantasy, not theirs / Asterisk
While Swedish Punk Band Viagra Boys’s Absurdist Send-Up of the Art World. Riffs on the readymade, satirizes zombie formalism, and parodies action painting / Hyperallergic
Corollary: Not All Superheroes Wear Capes, Some Don Gorilla Masks / Hyperallergic
More disguises? Reality shift. Generation Z’s embrace of different realities is a manifesto for hope in a chaotic world / VML
And more shifting: Can Rayne Fisher‐Quann Shift from Internet Princess to Bestselling Author? The publishing industry is hinging its hopes on a twenty‐three‐year‐old with a Substack and a devout following / The Walrus
Apropos: Julia Fox says she’s writing film scripts for the “youth” who want “fresh content” and not reboots / NME
And Hyundai Artlab has announced the third year of the Artlab Editorial Fellowship for 2025. The application is open now through March 3, 2025, 11:59pm EST. Eligibility requirements and FAQs can be found here / Hyundai Artlab
Speaking of brand innovations: Prada commissioned Ottessa Moshfegh to write a short story collection for its Spring 2025 campaign. Each story is written from the perspective of a different Prada persona, embodied by actress Carey Mulligan / Prada
Prem Sahib Captures the Unruly Aesthetics of Desire / Hyperallergic
Operations staff make the art world go round—so why are they undervalued? / The Art Newspaper
oops, I Accidentally Outsourced My Taste in Music / Gunk
Luckily, Chris Black nominates your next indie-rock Obsession / Pulling Weeds
More about him here: Perfectly Imperfect: Cameron Winter / PI.FYI
A teenage Chappell Roan forecasted her best new artist Grammy win / Rolling Stone
Chappell Roan’s Grammy speech and the need for creative agency. The right comment from the right person in the right venue can completely change a conversation / Metalabel
Ergo?! Roblox x Chappell Roan. 1 iconic artist, 4 signature looks. Now you can style your avatar like Chappell / Tiktok

Wearing Clothes

White Oak Denim: How a Southern Cotton Mill Became the Last Bastion of American Made Selvedge / Son of a Stag
Related: The Future of Fashion? Good Clothes / Highsnobiety
Ergo: Topologie begins North American expansion with new Manhattan outpost. The Hong Kong-based, climbing-inspired bags and accessories brand plans to open 18 shops this year. As more brands follow luxury’s lead and open standalone shops, this so-called “retailisation” trend is increasing the competition for prime shopfronts in major cities / Monocle
Meantime: China blacklists Calvin Klein owner amid trade spat. Inclusion on country’s ‘unreliable entity list’ threatens fashion giant’s retail operations / Jing Daily
More bullish: ‘We’re going to fix Harvey Nicks’. Meet the trio of fashion insiders charged with turning London’s best-loved department store around / FT
But Can Dior thrive without Kim Jones? Dior Homme artistic director's exit sparks speculation about a shift in design strategy / Jing Daily
And Is being the ‘underdog’ enough for Under Armour to arm itself against Nike & Adidas? The sports apparel giant plans to “fortify” its brand to better compete. Will it be enough? / The Drum
Related, from Piers: if no one runs in new Nike today, will folks run in old Nike? How Much Does Sneaker Innovation Matter? / BoF
The case for more: Nick Cave Can’t Stand Ankle Boots / Fashion Neurosis Pod

Department of Building.

In London and Chicago, historic fires fast-tracked urban change. The NY Times’s architecture critic explores how Los Angeles could rebuild better / NYT
While back in Gotham: The Leaning Tower of New York. How a luxury condo building in Manhattan went sideways / The New Yorker
After a 50-Year Pause, Archigram Keeps the Dream Alive. The British architecture collective’s latest magazine, Archigram Ten, is part retrospective and part futurism/ Untapped Journal
The designs are in and Salone de Mobile is shaping up nicely / Monocle
And Swedish designers doing things that have "never been done before”. A wave of radical designers in Sweden are experimenting with digital technology and alternative materials to invent new ways of making furniture/ Dezeen
Meantime: Tuscany Reporty: The best “combos are here” / FOR-SCALE
Also there’s: Cannabis paraphernalia as home décor / NYT
Evidence that Physical media is officially back / Embedded
So head to Ten exhibitions for design lovers during Mexico City art week / Dezeen
Polaroids, Small Prints & Ephemera. [SIC] Talks Alum Aaron Stern will be in Mexico City for an exhibition I curated. Opens Thursday, February 6th. It’s at Anent Gallery at Londres 28, 2nd Floor, Juarez, Cuauhtemoc, CDMX. The show coincides with Zona Maco and Material. It’s Mexico City Art Week.
Apropos: As US tariffs loom, Mexico City's art scene looks to the future / The Art Newpaper

Conversationals

[SIC] Talks Alum Alyssa Vingan on Dewy Dudes / Spotify
And then Alyssa talks Everything Is Marketing (w/ Ana Andjelic) (another alum) / The New Garde
Meantime dream [SIC] Talks guest Kyle Chayka talks TikTok Whiplash & Big Tech Conundrums on Day One FM / Apple Podcasts
while Decoder chats with Bookshop CEO Andy Hunter about being the local bookstore alternative to Amazon / Decoder
Oh baby: Conversation between Babygirl filmmaker Halina Reijn and Pedro Pascal / Spotify
Fully grown up, but still fun: Exploring BEAMS of Japan. An interview with Motoki Yoshikawa, Creative Director of BEAMS Men's Casual / Sprezza

Markets & Marketing

From Celeste: lively discussions on the merits of 24 hour trade. Is Wall Street Ready To Stay Up All Night? / FT
Crypto corollary: Brand Analysis: E is for Ethereum / Nemesis
Elsewhere: The business of Kendrick Lamar / Vogue Business
From Iolanda: “Bizz mixing is the winning strategy 😉” [Adobe Chief Strategy Officer Scott Belsky Exits to Join A24 as Partner] / Variety
Ergo: A new tool called Graze, a platform that allows people to build and soon monetize feeds on Bluesky, is showing users and investors the new possibilities of internet curation / TechCrunch
Related, from Iolanda: “Substacking tactics” [The Rise of Substack for Creatives] / Creative Boom
While A New Flood of Money Is Crashing the Influencer Marketing Industry / AdWeek
Hence: Nordstrom turns to notable New Yorkers for its second NYC campaign installment / Retail Dive
Another from Iolanda: “Online-offline paradox or maybe not” [ How the Internet Reignited Love for the Instore experience] / WARC
Hence: Barnes & Noble is surging in popularity, sales, and store openings, thanks to going viral on TikTok / Bloomberg
Soo… Jason Diamond asks, Should We Kill The Book Blurb Economy? / The Melt
Corollary: From Iolanda:"What does media become when it's only for one?", by Faris Yakob / Medicat
It leads to? ‘An industry on the brink of a major shake-up’: Ad execs on the year ahead in M&A / The Drum
So then What Can We All Learn From The Future of Beauty? / PSFK
Maybe make thing easy to buy?! From Celeste: The Future Of Shopping Is A Nearly 140 Year Old Technology. “Vending machines are never going out of style, now with added tech, they can make it all happen” / Slate
Also banging around a long time, from Piers: “Says it took 10 years to make a smell…”[Rolls-Royce releases custom Phantom Scent for its motors] / Glass Magazine
And a New non-opioid painkiller approved by US health agency/ The first in a new class of pain medicine to be approved in more than 20 years / BBC

Ephemeral Ephermera

Since it’s that time of year: The Super Bowl, Religion, and a “Buzz of Collective Effervescence”. Can Sports Fandom Be a Religious Experience?/ Omnia
Corollary: From Mike T: Hey Ben, re: “Maybe the headline is exaggerated, still this is weird” / x I had never heard about this until [The Zizians and the Rationalist Death] / Read Max
And corollary to that: Engaging with Grief at the Death Café. Amidst cakes and tea, a growing number of people around the world gather to discuss loss, grief, and our inevitable death / Doubleblind
Brings us to: Longevity: The wellness world’s hottest investment / Vogue Business
Elsewhere: Waxing Poetic #1: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” In this series debut, Christian Kerr breaks down a T.S. Eliot classic to see what the Modernist icon can tell us about grinding through the skate-stoppers of the mind / Simple Magic
Apropos, from Piers: An exhibition of non-existent books. It’s clear that this exhibition was put together by a bunch of absolute nerds — and that’s a compliment of the highest order / Hyperallergic
Hence: The self-help book from “Severance,” The You You Are is now available to download / Variety
Elsewhere, from Celeste: Nature and hiking fuelled by the apps, most specifically Tik Tok and Instagram bringing people together to hike. Perhaps the hike club is the new run club. Striding Out With The New Breed Of Gen-Z Walking Groups' / FT
The two NYC human carpets are feuding / Tiktok
From Piers: Go on a sh*tty shopping spree at Unco Store poop-themed goods boutique / Sora News
A new outlet covers climate policy in the language Brazil knows best: Soccer. With quippy headlines, a “betting” portal, a tournament bracket, and more, Central da COP is pulling out all the stops to inform Brazilians ahead of the next U.N. Climate Change Conference / Neiman Lab
Finally, some vibes for the weekend, Bobby’s OÍR — February Monthly Mixtape. A rough and energetic mixtape filled with oddness and nuance / Soundcloud

[SIC] 332: Not Prioritized

Corollary Sources This Week: Elevator / User Mag / Links I Would GChat You / The New Statesman / That Business of Meaning / Scope of Work / The Society of the Spectacle / The Future Party / Head-Hi / After School / Public Announcement / Money Stuff / Politico / Morning Brew / Blazer / Beats and Bytes/ As Seen On By Ochuko / Digital Counsel

[SIC] 332: Not Prioritized

Vol. 7, No. 22. Live from Camp Cultivate. Bump Science. + Links, Links, & More Links.

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