[SIC] 337: Prosecco Landlock

Vol 7, No. 27.

[SIC] Weekly is a digest of developments. It's intended to be read linearly, as you would a bulleted list. Feel no compunction to open every item in a new tab. 

This specific digest was sent free on 3/13/25 to 7141 subscribers. The original source is cited with each item. Corollary sources are listed at the end of each digest. 

[SIC] is made possible by its paid 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 recipients expense their subscriptions as research in marketing, advertising, entertainment + tech. You can too. Thanks for your support.

Special thanks this week to Matt @The Technorati, Truett Dietz,  Leann Abad,  Piers Fawkes,  Iolanda Carvalho,  Celeste Blewitt & Bridget Russo for stories this week. 

Comments, Questions and Contributions are always invited from everyone. 

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Hi all,

Lots on today so sending early.

Some brief housekeeping first: per Axios, Substack said it now has over 5 million paid subscribers, up from the 4 million it announced in November, a 25% increase. Whether by intention or by network effect, free subs to this humble digest are up 28%, outpacing the Stack’s rate.

Pretty good. But. Looking more closely, [SIC]’s *paid* subscribers (what Substack is crowing about) are only up 15%, lagging the pace.

Plainly stated I’m hoping to catch up. so to help nudge you a little, for the next week (through March 20) get 25% off an annual [SIC] subscription clicking below:

I’m grateful for the support, which buys me beer and validates the time spent. I’ve been trying to make paying more valuable lately, too. A couple examples of what’s in [SIC] Day posts to whet your paying appetites:

Coffee Table Books Right Now.

Brodernism, Mel Ottenberg as The Aestethe, Silver-fluencers and Ed Cotton on A24

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Next up: Brands & Culture New York is on April 2 and if you’re a strategy/marketing/ media/content/entrepreneur/brand person you’d probably get some significant value out of it. You *definitely* will dig the panel I’m mod’ing with gang of [SIC] Talks alums:

Tix are on the Brands & Culture site, and in keeping with this week’s theme there’s a 25% discount with code BEN25. Come hang. And say hi!

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Apropos of [SIC] Talks, no new episode this week. But so as not to leave you longing I’m happy to announce the first episode of a new audio/visual venture called HIP REPLACEMENT that I’ve developed with [SIC] Talks alum Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick (of The Trend Report). It’s a weekly conversation among generations (I’m X, Kyle’s Y and our guests will be (mostly) Zs - and it’ll attempt to try and understand just exactly what's going on in the current moment. Here’s our first episode with special guests Chloe and Claire Selleb, whose Selleb App (currently in beta) is aiming to grow into “the biggest search engine in the world powered by the most verifiable inputs,” in Claire’s words - and whose eponymous newsletter is a real-world look at what young people are *actually* buying. Or, as Kyle posted:

YouTube is here (like, subscribe, all that!)

Spotify here too (same drill!)

Thanks to Kyle, Chloe and Claire and our series producer (and pilot episode guest) Campbell for getting things rolling. The upcoming guest list is STACKED. Will be fun.

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Corollary to that (to bring it back around to the Substack news), I got a text from Breakfast Clubbing stalwart and cool young-dude-about-town Leann Abad yesterday saying:

"missed bkfst club this AM because I got home late from last nights Substack event at the Wall Street baths. Here’s my report in case useful for the newsletter or pod convos:

- initially intimidating vibe, check-in process was a bit unorganized (to be expected from the bathhouse)

- steam room was popular, then sauna, not many braved the cold plunge (side note: a cold plunge to take away the nerves of being half naked surrounded by strangers is a great hack. that plus a shot of ginger-infused vodka)

- lots of folks lining up for water and vodka, the bar line stayed long until the very start of the readings

- ran into several friends you’d know - Gutes and Megan of course, Sami from SNAKE, some others in the Substack world

- readings were about desire. my favorites were humor-based: Cat Cohen and Jaboukie. Jaboukie told a fanfic story about experiencing polyamory for the first time with Sen. Mitch McConnell and his wife Elaine. There was a bit about losing the remote to Mitch’s butt plug at the inauguration (pt 2) only to realize Ted Cruz had picked it up and started button spamming

- there’s a discussion in the Feed Me chat this morning about this event. seems people are into a more creative brand event but not into the whole sanitation (or lack thereof) element with a bath house event. i for one think we need shit like this to strengthen our immune systems. everyone i spoke to at the event was initially a bit apprehensive about the concept (i wasn’t alone in the nerves), but evidently everyone seemed very respectful of each others space, very friendly people there!"

Thanks, Leann. I love this for lots of reasons - but mainly because it exemplifies how I’ve always liked this Thursday digest to function: as a place for my smart, tuned-in friends to help me make sense of things. Which is to say, if you’ve got reports like Leann did - send em, so that i don’t have to chase.

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Speaking of chasing (last thing before the links).

Another of my regular contributors, the legendary Piers Fawkes of PSFK sent my the NYTimes story from last weekend that launched a million groupchats:

[Gen Z Is Tired of Chasing the Trend Cycle]. About which he wrote:

 “I just think it’s funny that the NYT that tends to pour jet fuel on any consumer / travel /.culture trend it must have a department tracking can write about this topic, throw stones at social media and not once reflect on its own impact of over consumption/travel/self-loathing. ” 

And to which I replied:

“I’m gonna use this as a way to comment on this week’s Are Men in a Spermpocalypse? in GQ.” 

Because?! This is a story I first encountered in Details Magazine in 1993 and has stuck with me since, but the dissonance in the last few years is pretty wild.

The same Google search produces:

• From

  • 2018: Sperm Count Zero / GQ

  • 2021: Shanna Swan Interview: An Alarming Decline in Sperm / GQ

  • 2021: The Sperm-Count 'Crisis' Doesn't Add Up / NYT

  • 2023: The Global Sperm Count Decline Has Created Big Business / NY Mag

  • 2024: No evidence sperm counts are dropping, researchers find / The University of Manchester

• And coming soon,

  • 2025: Spermworld (an FX production) / YT

As a parent of a young man the same age as I was when I first heard about the Spermpocalypse, the story at this point is as specious and click-thirsty as The Atlantic’s Teens Are Forgoing a Classic Rite of Passage, which claims teenagers have declared that love is a concept created by the media.

It arrived in my inbox the same day my 15 yr-old celebrated her 2-month ‘anniversary’ with her boyfriend. Which makes it seem to me like most rites are still right on. It’s just the way we’ve agreed to merchandize the edge cases.

ok, now the links.

Ben

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[SIC] 337: Prosecco Landlock

Chaos Magic (Or": Dream it… Become it)

• Generation Beta are just cute little babies, but their parents are already grappling with the negative associations with the word Beta / WSJ

• Corollary: The History and Future of Memeing Things Into Reality. Introducing Slotraptions, AI-assisted textual contraptions / Contraptions

• And: Speaking things into existence. Expertise in a vibe-filled world of work / One Useful Thing

• So we’re trying to make sure Half-Past Four Is the New Five O’Clock in More Efficient Workday / Bloomberg

• Because? From Piers: “on reasons to stay at home today” [Bosses who think they’re funny create emotional labor for employees, says study] / Fast Company

• Bringing us to: The Insights Industrial Complex / Linkedin

• Actually? Marketers don’t know what an insight actually is and consumers don’t care / The Drum

• So… Coaching Is the New ‘Asking Your Friends for Help’ / The Atlantic

• Here’s an insight: The Future Is Online Betting On Literally Everything / Dinner Party

• Betting-related: The rise of zero-sum thinking. The world is entering an era defined by zero-sum thinking; the perception that “life is a battle over finite rewards where gains for one mean losses for another”/ NYT

• Bringing us to, from Matt: ‘Digitizing the Fisc’. The current separation of fiscal powers crisis, exemplified by Trump's takeover of the Treasury's payments IT systems / X

• Evidence that: A great unravelling is under way / NYT

• Related: The Last Days of Public School. A school choice revolution is rapidly reshaping how public education is organized, funded, and delivered in America / The American Enterprise

• Apropos: Statuemania is back (not a good thing) / Dezeen

• And from Iolanda. “Kinda hard to believe it was 5 years ago…”[How Covid 19 Changed the World] / UPenn

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The Many Arts

• From Truett: [In reference to [SIC] 336’s included works on paper]: “The hand drawn Home Depot receipt is so good! I’ve been drawing a lot of stuff from screenshots and other images I’ve taken or found lately, and text heavy stuff is always a fun challenge / Truett Dietz

• Apropos of art shows: The big slowdown: why museums and galleries are putting on fewer shows / The Art Newspaper

• So maybe we’re: Embracing the Resourceful Spirit of the 1980s. London is awash with exhibitions celebrating the past – what can figures like Leigh Bowery and Peter Hujar teach young artists today? / Frieze

• Never Mind the Tariffs. Mexico City’s Art Scene Is Thriving—And Growing / Artnet

• Modernist African art is gaining belated international recognition in galleries and the market / Semafor

• Meantime, From Piers: “Cute but i’d rather have a book about the shirts [She Goes to Trader Joe’s for the Art]” / NYT

• Another from PIers: The Hidden Art of Amsterdam’s Sticker Culture / Pop Up City

• Also revealed, from Celeste: A look into the curatorial mind and home of the UBS art curator, “UBS Art Curator Mary Rozell: People Might Not Think I’m A Scavenger” / FT

• More scavenging: JD Vance memes are now art as Beeple joins the trend / Creative Bloq

• From Piers: as they say, NYC is perfect for MW experience [Meow Wolf’s Seventh Permanent Exhibition Coming to NYC] / Meowwolf

• While in Palm Springs, The Fifth Edition of Desert X Is Here / DesertX

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Creator Con

• Ruth Marcus left The Washington Post after they killed her column. The New Yorker just published it in full / Nieman Lab

• Tara Palmeri is leaving Puck to take her reporting to YouTube / NYT

• While WeWork's Adam Neumann is quietly building a new media startup / Axios

• Meantime, the art and fashion worlds convened at Rick Owens’s austere Left Bank house to celebrate the relaunch of Karlie Kloss’s i-D Magazine / NYT

• Corollary: Best Buy is putting creator storefronts on its digital shelves, so influencers can curate product recommendations / Tubefilter

• While From PIers: “Feed-media play”: Food-delivery empire [Wonder acquires food media company Tastemade] / Restaurant Business Online

• Letterloop is helping overwhelmed people stay connected. A group chat for bad texters / Embedded

• From Bridget: “This is interesting” [A New Model for Sports Media? Boardroom Bets Big on Membership] / THR

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Fashionz

• Apropos of Chaos Magic: This fall’s fashion has a “witchy vibe” / NYT

• But actually? The Runways Look a Lot Like Resale Sites This Season. Reboot culture is coming for fashion, and nothing says "We need a hit!" like a reissue of a blockbuster item / The New Garde

• So, wait: is the only true American Luxury brand (The) ROW-VER? / Fashion People Pod

• Aspirational corollary: Hermès’s creative director of womenswear Nadège Vanhée on Bruckner and boosting revenue/ Monocle

• Also chasing the business bag: Demna Explains His Most “Normie” Balenciaga Collection / Show Notes

• Related: The return of sharp suits and sumptuous, old-school glamour at Paris Fashion Week / Monocle

• So Is it time for smaller fashion weeks to shine?. As the big four fashion weeks lose some of their buzz, rising fashion capitals like Shanghai, Copenhagen, and Riyadh are proving they’re more than just second-tier players / Jing Daily

• More old-school: The J. Peterman Edition. On cinematic universes, Seinfeld, and physical catalogs / WITI

• BBSP reports on The most swagged-out shoe of the last 100 years? /Blackbird Spyplane

• My version: the Kunsten Studio Embla in Hickory stripe - which is theoretically a womens shoe but goes up to a 9M / EU 42 and - trust me, I have two pairs in other colorways - works great for dudes / Kunsten

• More from the wider clog zone: In Sweden, Zyn is for girls / The New Yorker

• While back home: 50%+ Millenniall and Gen Z Couples Pick Enagement Rings with Lab-Grown Diamonds / Fortune

• Also synthetic?! Why the 80s are All the Rage Again: (Flamboyance, Creativity, Club Culture - and no phones)/ The Guardian

• How the Fur Issue Got So Confused. Real fur isn't really "back." In fact, the industry is dying.

• Not furry: Beams+ x Dinosaur JR / IG

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The ‘Natural’ World

• From Celeste: [The Divers Venturing Under The Ice In The Name Of Science] / BBC

• Japan’s ski slopes have too much snow / NYT

• We're Overdue To End Daylight Saving Time. The government experiment in socially engineering the country into less energy use raised costs / Reason

• There’s a paint for structures that changes color when the temperature outside changes to either retain or reflect the sun’s heat / Dezeen

• Fifteen of America's most significant art deco buildings / Dezeen

• From Celeste: “There certainly appeared to be a theme of space research throughout the program at SXSW. Breaking the sound barrier for the goal of supersonic air travel a la Concorde is intriguing from NASA” [NASA Supersonic Boom] / Space

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AI-AI-AI

• Larry Page is launching an AI startup that uses LLMs to “create highly optimized designs for a wide variety of objects.” / The Information

• The Future Perfect and Vox’s science podcast Unexplainable have a new four-part series about AI called ‘Good Robot’. What could go wrong? / Spotify

• Meantime, Big Tech Companies Can’t Quite Figure Out How to Market AI / Intelligencer

• Hence: Volvo's shocking AI advert looks cheap, generic and soulless/ Creative Bloq

• So: Ad Agencies Prepare To Advertise To AI Agents / Mediapost

• OpenAI released a new set of tools to help developers build their own AI agents on OpenAI’s models / TechCrunch

• And from Piers: early signals of AI first companies [A new fragrance house is challenging the industry’s big players with the power of AI] / Glossy

• From BRXND LA: Dan Frommer’s presentation, which offered a refreshing perspective on consumer AI adoption / YT

• But! No—em-dashes are not a sign of AI / Embedded

• Corollary, from Leann: The Content Creator as Algorithmic Folk Artist / Youtube

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Individuals of Note

• Delia’s Cai’s interview with Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast / A Long Talk

• While Daily Heller interviews Paola Antonelli about the new MoMA exhibition, Pirouette: Turning Points in Design / Print Mag

• And Hrag Vartanian interviews Nick Cave ( the artist) in his Chicago studio / Hyperallergic

• Paul Burke has a bold fix for adland: swap millennials out for Gen Z / The Drum

• The Hard Workout That Asa Akira Can Only Do Once a Week / Heavies

• Also going hard: from Celeste: “Joyce Carol Oates has published 170k tweets … At 86c, it’s great to read of Oates’s tech usage and where she uses it to share insight.” Long Live Joyce Carol Oates / The Guardian

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Reading Materials

• In Search of Lost Metropolitan Fiction / The Melt

• Paperback Row. David Coggins’s The Believer is Back / The Contender

• New totems for an old problem. A lit mag about religion in an era of spiritual chaos / One Thing

• Designing Blank: A new home for books coverage at Dirt. Daisy Alioto introduces Dirt’s new publication about books / Dirt

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Screen Times

• From Iolanda: “Following the "traditional TV" playbook hahaha“ [Netflix’s live push continues with John Mulaney’s late-night talk show] / TechCrunch

• I Am Trapped in the Criterion Closet / McSweeney’s

• Also a trap: half of all songs played on streaming services are at least five years old: “Not only does it signify culture being stuck, but it means that it will be harder than ever for young artists to have a career.” / Can’t Get Much Higher

• Ergo: Sony gives N.Y.U. $7.5 million to train students (on Sony equipment) for jobs in music and audio “that don’t exist yet,” / NYT

• Brand spend corollary: Brands' usage of YouTube has dropped off. More brands are spending just a little on YouTube and fewer are spending a lot / Digiday

• Elsewhere: There are two TikToks now / Platformer

• Which is maybe; Why the BBC needs a Fortnite correspondent / The Drum

• Related: Disney's $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games last year is part of a broader push to amplify its franchise flywheel with new tech / Axios

• From Iolanda: “The name is Bond. Uncertain Bond" 😉 [Amazon must resist the temptation to bleed James Bond dry] / Marketing Week

• The two-part documentary Plunderer Shows How Art Looting Continues to Pay Off / Hyperallergic

• New York Times reports on hundreds of movie theaters that have survived by turning into tiny non-profits. / NYT

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Foodstuffs

• The Hottest Communist Restaurant in London / The Supersonic

• Closer to home, from Celeste: “I’ve heard the Australians in New York-they are loving it, let’s see if the hype lasts!” [An Australian Pub Lands In New York With Proper Parmis, Pints And More] / Gourmet Traveler

• From Piers: “Love any economic classification that uses fuchsia, turquoise and copper as the labels.” [Harmonize Cafe sets its prices according to your mental health] / London the Inside

• More categorization: Is ranch dressing a liquid or solid? It's neither / The Conversation

• But it IS part of … The gloopening. Foodstuffs: they are what you eat / FT

• Also gloopy? Honey never expires—really / Food & Wine

• Superfood corollary: The Cacao Edition. On ceremony, reverence, and “superfoods.” / Why Is This Interesting

• More superfoodism: Inside the great egg branding crisis. With supply lines scrambled, the way we brand and buy eggs may never be the same / Fast Company

• The Real Cost of Backyard Eggs. Hens are wonderful to keep, but they lay the most expensive eggs you’ll ever buy / The Atlantic

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The Ways We Buy and Sell Things

• From Piers: “To increase linger time [The Rutter's convenience-store chain is adding sports bars] / Restaurant Business Online

• While from Iolanda: The SuperBowl effect is coming to FIFA's World Cup / Axios

• Corollary; Man Utd to build “iconic” £2bn “New Trafford” / The Guardian

• Also big: Inside the Biggest Brand Activations at SXSW, Ranked / Adweek

• Rare Beauty’s chief marketer on winning Gen Z through community-oriented marketing At SXSW, [SIC] subscriber Katie Welch talked about the yearslong route to Rare Beauty launching a brand campaign and why community is a two-way street / Retail Dive

• Elsewhere: Women reject ‘Goddess Day’ marketing / Jing Daily

• While CVS’s New Mini Stores Go All In on Medicine and Skip Everything Else / WSJ

• Corollary: Need a Knee Replacement? You Can Get It at the Mall (in Canada) / The Walrus

• Meantime, electronic music festivals evolving into full-fledged lifestyle brands via clothing, homewares and electronics /WWD

• And Reebok is getting on the green with a new golf footwear line / Hypebeast

• From Piers: “The original wine brand - great origin story/snapshot” [Blue Nun’s Peter Sichel dies aged 102] / Drinks Business

• And: “Nice - and focused - origins story” [What to take from Zildjian's 400-year old strategy] / Cherry Flava

• Speaking of tried and true: Bombay Sapphire is Using DJ Sets and Office Happy Hours to Push Gin / Marketing Dive

• Less proven: T Magazine is publishing a… summer vacation advice column. if Foster Kamer’s not leading, I’m not reading / NYT

• If you’re taking a Midwest trip, tho: DIY America #5: Chicago, IL. the diy scene in the windy city. food, coffee, and even a reading list / Gunk

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[SIC] 337: Prosecco Landlock

Corollary Sources This Week: Culture Work / Semafor / The Future Party / User Mag / The Honest Broker /1440 / The New Statesman / The Future Party / 8Ball / The Art of Noticing / Deez Links / TechCrunch / Kottke / Feed Me / Beats and Bytes / BRXND / Brendan’s Communications Miscellany