[SIC] 333: Noguchi Airport

Vol 7, No. 23. [SIC] Talks with Louis Cheslaw. The Last Head Shop Premieres. A plethora of links per usual. Open in browser for recommended experience.

Feb 13, 2025

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Thanks to Ed Cotton, Campbell Dietz, Piers Fawkes, Celeste Blewitt, Iolanda Carvalho, Matt Lenski, Louis Cheslaw and Paul Hamman for links this go-round. Contributions welcome from everyone - send 'em!

Hi all,

Back home in NYC from an illuminatory few days in Mammoth last week, which prompted me to switch up the content in the daily digest for paid subs a bit - the new Volume (launched Monday) is more expository and less developments-driven. I unlocked Day 282 to give you a sense. It’s an attempt to get more of my POV into [SIC] - LMK what you think. I’ll be digging into what I got out of Camp last week - and plans for the next one(s)🤞 as well.

Otherwise, back to the regular swing of things. [SIC] Talks returns with Louis Cheslaw, a prolific writer and editor who’s been popping up everywhere lately and who I think is emblematic of a next-gen type of media guy; enterprising and unbounded by convention but still hyper respectful of tradition in his work. He’s been a fun one to watch and we had a great chat, summarized below via a handful of the stories we touched on below. Louis also texted my a review of the new film adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella Train Dreams - a favorite of mine and the book I cited in my Monday Media Diet interview for WITI (where Louis is a contributing editor) a couple years back, saying “Btw as a train dreams head…Excited for this.” I am, too.

Speaking of contributions, [SIC] Homie Matt Lenski passed along his new AI filmography experiment The Last Head Shop about the good ole days (pre ‘94) when you could buy a human skull off at discerning boutiques in NYC. Those were the times.

Apropos of the listless and lost: How We Lost the Flow is Ted Gioia’s take on Flow State as our pathway to liberation—before it got taken over by profiteers. It’s got a corollary in another contribution from Paul Hamman (another Camp-goer) who sent this, asking: “Have you read this already? Interesting first-order effect of the para-social paradigm [The Age of Para-Content]” in Taste 101.

I hadn’t, and I piqued to the Tyler Cowen quote “Context is That Which is Scarce” - apparently an old saw of Cowen’s but a thought I’m still interrogating. I get the underlying thought: we are flooded with so much ( and so much of it nonsense) that true differentiation is being able to dial into signal from noise - but the expression itself doesn’t land for me. Gonna keep gnawing on it.

Apropos that, from Piers Fawkes: [The Follower Fallacy] in Props, which he sent, writing “Some thinking for your advisory around Substackers. I mean, it’s a little biased because it’s trying to sell something but i think it highlights common arguments and issues.” Tracks with my sense that scale is pretty underimportant in a ‘riches in niches’ world. More on that to come.

Also coming: I’ve got a [SIC] Talk locked in no with 8Ball’s Sean Monahan that will be fascinating (so if you’ve got questions you want asked, send em my way). Sean’s been on a heater lately and his new one Gen Z doesn't exist, about how maybe we need to revise how we define generations, is no exception. Can recommend.

[SIC] Talks #94: Louis Cheslaw

Discussed in the Pod:

This profile of Loïc Gouzer, the Daredevil at Christie's / The New Yorker
Unrelated: Less is more, and discounts work: A new study looks at the minutiae of paywall strategy / Nieman Lab
Which lead us to[SIC] homie Drew Millard’s Media-Events Newsletter / Media-Events
Louis is a fashion writer so we had to ask: Will men buy bootcut jeans? Weighing up the potential impact of Kendrick Lamar’s viral bootcut jeans from his Super Bowl performance / Vogue Business
Apropos of Vogue biz: Till Vogue Do Us Part. For decades, brides have fought to get their weddings covered in the magazine. Considering how quickly many of those marriages fail, it might be a curse, not a blessing / Air Mail
Also cursed? What Is Hims Actually Selling?. The lifestyle-med company built a business on male anxieties. Now it’s betting on a new message: grievance / The Atlantic
In contrast: apparently quite funny, from Campbell: “Special appearance from your favorite comedian [he’s referring to Conner O’Malley]” A24’s Friendship Movie Trailer / YT

and now… links.

Ben

Macrotrends

Is This What Cancel Culture Achieved? Ye called himself a Nazi. That wasn’t the worst story on social media this weekend / The Atlantic
There Has Been a Drought of Cultural Greatness For Most of the 21st Century So Far Human Mediocrity Will Pave the Way For AI Supremacy / Cross Current
Case in point: a paper cowritten by Microsoft researchers found that using artificial intelligence tools can weaken humans’ critical thinking skills / 404 Media
so… It’s time to call bullsh*t on AI. No one is coming to take out culture unless we let them / Embedded
Related to bullshit calling: (but on companies) : BRXND LA’s 2025 Recap [of it’s AI Marketing conference]: Sabotaging the Sabotage, or how organizations can effectively implement AI by working within existing structures rather than trying to break them down / BRXND
Nonetheless Meta started cutting thousands of jobs this week to focus on AI investment and efficiency / Business Insider
Meantime, one recent analysis found ChatGPT not as power-hungry as currently understood / TechCrunch
Back to calling bullshit: Trump issued an executive order directing the treasury to stop minting pennies / CNBC
What the end of the penny means for the economy, your piggy bank, and the way America prices items /NBC News
Another thing it implies: The Crypto Presidency. Hold on for dear life / News Items
Trump’s Trade War Turned Me into a Flag‐Waving Nationalist [writes a Canadian] / The Walrus
So Should Democrats Be a Little More Like Elon? / Harry Cheadle
Cause, like: You Can’t Post Your Way Out of Fascism/ 404 Media.
Paul Skallas’s riff on the political right’s preoccupation with IQ (its analogue to DEI metrics) is worth a look/ The Lindy Newsletter
IE restricting pupils’ phone use in school didn’t lead to better grades or mental well-being, a UK study found / Semafor
Because Gen Z doesn’t really care about China spying on them via apps and hardware / Semafor
Which is good(?!) b/c Bytedance released Omnihuman, which can generate very convincing videos from a single photo/ Forbes
So… Is it Cool to be a Supervillain Now? / The Supersonic
Ergo: Principles for the Permaweird. Chiang's Law, Chor-Pharn's Law, Boyd's Razor / Contraptions

Artists and the Arts

After the Los Angeles wildfires, will art become uninsurable? / The Art Newspaper
From Iolanda: What is art...? [Christies launches AI Art auction and not everyone is pleased] / TechCrunch
Thousands call on Christie’s to cancel AI art auction in open letter / The Art Newspaper
So… Why Has the Getty Museum Acquired an A.I. Photograph? / Artnet
Tiny Tapes offers “Geek FX: The Ultimate Brainrot Effect Pack for Video Editors.” / Tiny Tapes
Stephanie H. Shih’s Time Capsules of the Heart. She rescues objects from the garbage bin of mass-produced memory and reimagines them as art / Hyperallergic
The Felix Art Fair is back in LA next week, paralleling Frieze Week / Felix Fair
The captivating work of Noah Davis: we hear from the curator of the glorious, sweeping show at the Barbican [that] serves as a worthy tribute to the late, great painter / Monocle Pod
The unique design influence of Nollywood movie poster nostalgia / It’s Nice That
The Monkey has a very strange movie poster design / Creative Bloq
Also weird: Ayo Edebiri directed Clairo’s new music video (and it stars, rather unexpectedly, Weird Al / Rolling Stone
And Indie Rock Icon Pete Doherty on Revisiting Old ‘Ghosts’ for His New Berlin Exhibition / Artnet

Brands and Marketing

Kicked off by the Super Bowl, irreverent bro humor and sex appeal-based marketing is officially making a comeback / Digiday
While the Super Bowl LIX Defies Trends, Sets U.S. TV Viewership Record / Front Office Sports
But the ads were bad. Is the early ad rollout to blame for a lackluster Super Bowl? / Digiday
Corollary, from Iolanda: “A really good question... “[Is Netflix bringing us together, or is its personalisation pushing us apart?] / Shots
How Gen Z became Coach’s North Star / Vogue Business
McDonald's rebrands a single store in homage to Stormzy / Creative Bloq
The Duolingo Owl Died. This is obviously a stunt and the owl will, assuredly, come back / CNBC
Still, a jawdropping amount of weird branded X accounts having a digital funeral for the cartoon bird right now — Netflix, Pizza Hut, the World Health Organization, Dua Lipa / Various
TheRealReal launches a Substack newsletter masquerading as an obsessed customer / The Real Girl
Skims is dropping a line of push-up butt enhancers / IG
Ergo: The New Challenges of Brand Management - “In the digital age, brand is signaled by marketers, but meaning is cocreated with consumers.” / MIT Sloan
IE: from Ed: “The bar is too low.” No B Corp for Doctor B. Dr. Bronner’s dropped its BCorp certification over weak rules / Bloomberg
Silicon Valley's enterprise darling announces a $500M investment in Saudi Arabia to advance AI development and Hyperforce initiatives / Salesforce
While Adobe launches the first AI video generator that's genuinely useful / CreativeBloq
And Inside Doritos' 'creator-led' marketing strategy / Digiday
Pinterest’s stock popped 22% after the company reported passing a billion in revenue last quarter / Fast Company
From Iolanda: “Let Nike be Nike again" Woohoo!!! [Nike’s turnaround has begun – but it will take a long time] / Marketing Week
Meantime Adidas is launching a high-end fashion arm called “A-TYPE.” that won’t be for sale, just for seeding / Highsnob

Medias

“The media is a complete total meltdown. ”Steve Bannon spoke to Semafor’s Ben Smith about why he thinks the [Flood the Zone] strategy — which he’s calling Trump’s “Days of Thunder” — is working brilliantly this time around/ Semafor
But then again….The Washington Post’s reporting on chaos inside the federal government has driven a recovery in online traffic / Semafor
Corollary, from Iolanda: Shorter, faster, all at once... [60 second dramas surge as formats expand] / WARC
BuzzFeed announced that it’s building its own social media platform / The Verge
From Iolanda: And now, going for the TV in the living room... 😉[The TV is now the ‘primary device’ for watching YouTube in the US] / The Verge
Snap sees growth opportunity in Small Business / Digiday
Meanwhile From Celeste: The search engine box and the battle for this real estate. [Big Tech's Other Battle Is For The Box] / Intelligencer
Monocle speaks with Steve Watson from Stack Magazines about print trends in 2025 and the popularity of titles dealing with sex and relationships / Monocle Pod
Corollary: The Bop House is an OnlyFans Paradise that pulls millions per month/ VICE
While TikTok's loss might be Instagram’s gain as Reels grows in content and audience / Digiday
Trendwise there’s also The Financial Times Among UK Media Expanding Into Venture Investing / A Media Operator
And The American Enterprise – a new monthly publication from the American Enterprise Institue focused on long-form opinion essays and commentary / AEI.org
Corollary, from Celeste: “Loved reading this insight into Lauren Sherman, Puck and the growth of B2B journalism via newsletters and non-legacy media.” [They All Love Puck, When It's Not About Them] / System
Very intrigued by the ‘Netflix of Maine’/ Portland Press Herald

Relationships

The Valentine's Day Erotic Economy. Yes, it's a day designed to get you to spend money. For plenty of people, that's the whole point / Many Such Cases
Hence? Solo spenders: Me, myself and luxury. Who needs marriage (in China, anyway)? / Jing Daily
Corollary: Sex in 2025: Extremism, Vulnerability and Discovery – One Pleasure Party Pioneer Shares His Insights / Service95
From there to an: Indecent Proposal. For some, “ethical non-monogamy” is the way of the future. But is it really all that superior to a good old-fashioned affair? / Air Mail
Less old-fashioned: A study by The Economist found that highly educated Americans are significantly less sexually active than the general population / The Economist
Gen Z has less casual sex than millennials (and is more Pro-Marriage) / The Times UK
In fact: Sexual activity among 18- to 35-year-old Americans has declined by up to 50% in the past 20 years / Edward Conard
So Do we need pyrotechnics? Birds of paradise glow when they’re mating / NYT
“it’s 10pm… do you know where your children are?” Apparently Fox 5 made a whole supercut of these ‘70s PSAs / YT
Also dislocated? What Adults Forget About Friendship / The Atlantic

Edible Potable

Got Weird? Milk Is Headed for Its Strangest Year Yet. People are drinking more whole milk / NYT
Hence: What Will Save Coca-Cola? HINT: it's not prebiotic sodas / Snaxshot
But what if … ‘We’ll all have to go vegan’: Wisconsin dairy farmers fret over immigration crackdown / FT
Unintentional vegan corollary: Trader Joe’s and Costco both impose “dozen per customer” egg limit on their shoppers amid shortage / CNN
Also limiting: Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy can also help reduce alcohol cravings / NYT
Hence? Spirits brands are adopting “wellness” aesthetics to get Gen Z to drink more / The Dieline
More booze aestethics, from Celeste: “The merch and branding conversation brings this drink to the current day, merch really adds that next level when it's done well.” [Pastis, The French Cocktail Born From A Banned Spirit] / BBC
And yet even Younger Australians Are Embracing Moderation When It Comes To Alcohol / The Guardian
What for, then, the Best Pubs in Sydney? / Monster Children
Commonwealth corollary: One Way to Get to Know the Locals in Britain? Stay in a Pub / NYT
Hence: Why Bars Matter. A consideration / The Contender
Back stateside: A New Generation of Unbeatable Fake IDs is bedeviling bouncers / NYT
And Big Food Gets Jacked How protein mania took over the American grocery store/ NYMag
Related: How Much Protein Do We Actually Need? Probably more than you think/ Heavies

Persons of Interest

Tim Barber is “The Photographer Bringing Back a Bygone Era of Debauchery” / Pulling Weeds
The Unfunny Man Who Believes in Humor. How Lorne Michaels became the arbiter of funny / The Atlantic
Meet Surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie, the ‘Jazz Witch’ Who Captivated the Art World / Artnet
Also surreal: Business Insider got a staff list for Elon Musk’s DOGE / Business Insider
And The “Intactivists” Campaigning Against the Cut. New York’s biggest foreskin fans take their anti-circumcision message to the streets / The New Yorker
The Grief And Balance Of Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison / Monster Children
Corollary, per Lefsetz: Fran Healy fronts Travis. He's a fascinating guy, you'll be interested in what he has to say whether you know the band's music or not / Spotify
Also fascinating: From Celeste: Love a cultural conversation on food with a British twist...Harris Dickinson is continuing to fly after Baby Girl [Off Menu with Harris Dickinson] / Off Menu Pod
The case for staying online. Meme historian Aidan Walker says people still have power on the internet / Embedded
FFNY Quick Takes with Matt Weinberger / Friends From New York
Faith Ringgold Paved the Way. The late artist fiercely reckoned with the status quo, leaving the art world better than she found it through a rich legacy of Black feminist activism and artmaking / Hyperallergic
A controversial biologist is looking for new forms of life — on Earth / NYT
Emma Chamberlain now has a cafe in LA / Restaurant Business Online
Listening to Fletcher C Johnson Season 4: Mission Hill “In 2002 I was homeless, dressed in the wrong clothing and terrified of sex. Can one abrasive friend and his kitten with a cocaine problem help me find my way out of this mess?” / Public Announcement
The “Happy Birthday” music video by Fletcher C. Johnson is two mins of pure high-Aughts joy / YT

Places & Spaces

How Progressives Froze the American Dream. over the past 50 years, this engine of American opportunity has stopped working. Americans have become less likely to move from one state to another, or to move within a state, or even to switch residences within a city / The Atlantic
But… America’s “First Car-Free Neighborhood” is going pretty good, actually?/ Dwell
Corollary: The Future of Cities. From Gen Z urban Africans’ frustrated ambitions and development density disputes in Sydney to tackling ‘heat islands’ and community-splitting highways. Plus improving refugees’ lot; natural flood resilience; how the ‘15-minute city’ became politicised; and rethinking places of worship / FT
From Celeste: “watch this space as to who buys a bunker in NZ next.” [New Zealand Loosens Golden VIsa Rules To Attract Investors ]/ FT
Back home, Facing $10M Budget Deficit, Brooklyn Museum Will Lay Off Dozens of Workers / Hyperallergic
But the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance is hiring for a whole bunch of jobs running the gamut: social media to horticulturalists / NBPA
More Parklife: Why Hampstead Heath is the sexiest park in the world / FT

Fashionable Week

An ad from the brand Next banned over ‘unhealthily thin’ model in digitally altered leggings. A UK watchdog upheld a complaint about advert that digitally altered clothing and used low angle to accentuate long legs / The Guardian
Would you chop wood in Prada? How luxury is reimaging gorpcore / Vogue Business
What’s the deal with Selvedge Denim, Anyway? / GQ
The Repair & Restoration Directory. A growing directory of services and supplies for the repair and restoration of apparel, footwear, and gear: things that are often difficult to maintain / Best Made Co.
Marshall Islands football jersey "disappears" to visualise threat of rising seas / Dezeen
Kinda wish I was a Knicks fan for this Cable Knit Knicks Jersey /Lil Father Figure
Also cozy: one of the founding designers of HOKA is launching an extra comfy shoe meant for sitting at the office [they’re hideous]/ Fast Company
More coze: A SHORT ODE: "TO SURROUND YOURSELF" A STRATEGY TO FEEL THE LOVE ALL AROUND / FOR-SCALE
The cult of office design / The Sociology of Business
How Calvin Klein worked its way back to the runway /
How your favorite celebrity merch is made / Teen Vogue
Gen Z watch: Chinese streetwear trend forecast 2025 / Jing Daily
Including? A perverse take on prairie dressing emerged in several designer’s collections / Byline
And Real men wear girly watches / HTSI

[SIC] 333: Noguchi Airport

Corollary Sources This Week: The Future Party / Links I Would GChat You / Morning Brew / The New Statesman / Dirt / After School / Catchdini / Public Announcement / The Material Review / Brendan’s Communication Miscellany / Future Commerce / Politico Digital Future / As Seen On By Ochuko

[SIC] 333: Noguchi Airport

Vol 7, No. 23. [SIC] Talks with Louis Cheslaw. The Last Head Shop Premieres. A plethora of links per usual. Open in browser for recommended experience.

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