[SIC] 340: Judged Luggage

Vol 7, No. 30.

Apr 04, 2025

“Ben has written the … J. Alfred Prufrock of link aggregation” - Daisy Alioto

[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 4/3/25 to 7285 subscribers. The original source is cited with each item. Corollary sources are listed at the end of each digest.

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Special thanks this week for stories: Celeste Blewitt, Iolanda Carvalho and Piers Fawkes. Comments, Questions and Contributions are invited from everyone.

Hi all,

Late send (trying to keep this from becoming a trend) because the week’s been especially busy. Dalya Benor had me guest on her The Pleasure Lists Q&A, I talked to

Mark Stenberg

at AdWeek about the commercial prospects for Dirt, a frequent [SIC] source, and though there’s no [SIC] Talks,
Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick
and I made a special episode of HIP REPLACEMENT with Rachel Janfaza
of The Up and Up.

This was a kind of experimental episode - at Substack’s invitation we recorded it remotely via their live-streaming app, but it went off without a hitch. Great discussion, propelled largely by the NYT piece about which super-contrib Piers Fawkes wrote:

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

 “u probably saw this and probably everyone who reads your newsletters or goes to your breakfasts knows it - it looks like the end of the line for gen x (and older millennial) creative careers”

The story’s linked in Piers’s quote. The fact that it’s obviously intended as rage bait for people *ahem* of a certain age aside, I think there are a couple big problems with the article / argument, which Kyle, Rachel and I talk about at length.

First, as Rachel points out - this is something she hears from her Gen Zs regularly too. We’re in a period of upheaval - perhaps even a cynical “every-80-year reinvention” as Big Think posited. In actual fact, across generations America Has Never Been Wealthier. As that NYT piece notes It Just Doesn’t Feel That Way. And with Trump’s new tariffs having calculated by an oversimplified calculation that AI chatbots recommend, it might go from feeling bad to actually being bad. But that’ll be true for everyone, irrespective of generation. Oof.

Second, the idea that *any* career in the creative world has ever been durable and reliable is an illusory one. The trick, to paraphrase Daisy on the Future Commerce pod this week, is to swim in the primordial soup of the marketplace for as long as possible without letting it force you to evolve so much that you can’t evolve again in response to the next wave of change (more on that here):

I was reminded of this again today while taking part in a photo shoot for the optical brand Caddis that centered around Lysa Cooper, the legendary superconductor of downtown NYC nightlife and more recently the West LA creative scene - whom I met as the stylist on one of my first-ever production sets in 2000, a shoot for the Scottish band Travis, whose 1999 Glastonbury “Why Does It Always Rain on Me” performance made them famous, because the heavens opened during the song (on an otherwise sunny day)

25 years later and Lysa’s still a stylist and connector, but also a ‘breathworker / deathworker’ helping people pass into eternity peacefully, but still the community builder / lamplighter she’s always been. Like [SIC] homie Chris Gentile in the NYT story, whose Pilgrim Surf Supply is one of my favorite brands, Lysa’s figured it out. The rest of us will too.

Anyway, here’s the audio version. LMK what you think in the comments. Please?!

Longtime readers will recall that [SIC] started as an associative, exquisite-corpse style chain of links, and that every now and then I return to the practice. This is one such week. So, without further ado…

[SIC] 340: Judged Luggage

From Piers: “related anti-gloom reading - "Progress isn’t linear and constant, it’s a constant flip flop between highs and lows." [I choose optimism. What have we got to lose?] / Design Week
Corollary, Lefsetz’s new Old School / New School index. Key takeaway: Everything is word of mouth these days / Lefsetz Letter
Apropos of that: Do Whatever A "Real Brand" Could Never Do. In the time of mechanical competency, irregularities are your most valuable asset /Minor Genius
Speaking of geniuses: If Anthropic Succeeds, a Nation of Benevolent AI Geniuses Could Be Born / Wired
While the The OpenAI Studio Ghibli controversy could be a test for art copyright in the AI era / Creative Bloq
Meantime, AI startup Runway released a new video-generating model, Gen-4, to add to its suite of AI video tools / TechCrunch
But No, the new ChatGPT update won't replace advertising / Fast Company
Tho: H&M's digital clone models are already causing controversy / Creative Bloq
And A swarm of AI crawlers have increased Wikipedia’s bandwidth by 50% since January / Wikimedia
Controversial take from Noah here: Why AI Will Improve Content Quality, Not Degrade It / BRXND Dispatch
Especially since An AI Image Generator’s Exposed Database Reveals What People Really Used It For / Wired
And Fake movie trailers created using a mix of AI-generated material and shots from other movies are all over YouTube / Deadline
Hence: Why Feminist Artist Linder Is Taking Control by ‘Deepfaking’ Herself / Artnet
Bigger Picture? It’s No frame, no box. It’s not just AI that’s reshaping the frames we work within. It’s also reshaping the framers themselves / In Bed With Social
Ergo: Why AI Will Lead to More “Proof of Reality” Posts. AI won't be the biggest trend on brand social. The reaction to it will be / Link In Bio
Are we taking AI seriously enough? / The New Yorker

Apropos: Voices in ChAInge: Jamie Metz…0:005:11 / The Medium
Elsewhere, [SIC] Talks Alum Recho Omondi had [SIC] homie Brendon Babenzien on Pod this week / IG
Because?! For Recho Omondi, Knowledge Has Always Been Power / Byline
More homies: FFNY Quick Takes with Domino Kirke / Friends From New York
Not homies but notable: Barry Ritzholtz x Bob Lefsetz pod / Spotify
And critics, fans, and subjects (with tavi gevinson) / internet princess
Interview pros The Talks Talks to Tilda Swinton / The Talks
And to James Beard award winning chef Kwame Onwuachi / The Talks
Meanwhile Dan Ozzi’s got An Interview with Everclear's Art Alexakis that reflects on the 30th anniversary of breakout album, 'Sparkle and Fade.' / Zero Cred
Apropos: Dan’s doing a ZERO CRED sale! $1 memberships! / Zero Cred
More interviews: Leonard Koren on Life as an Aesthetic Experience / The Slowdown

And Fave Painter Andrew Kuo on Previously Unknown Podcast / IG

Speaking of previous unknowns made good: Mikey Madison is Tiffany’s latest “house ambassador.” / Elle
Speaking of flogging jewelry: QVC is pivoting to Tiktok / Fast Company
While Amazon has its eyes on TikTok. The tech giant is exploring a potential purchase as a crucial deadline draws near / Quartz
While from Piers: Labour group tells MPs they must be on YouTube and TikTok / The Guardian
Related, from Iolanda: “From "me at the zoo" to "new king of all media" [YouTube May Now Be Worth $550B And Its Revenue Could Soon Surpass Disney] / Hollywood Reporter
Elsewhere, Instagram will now let users speed up Reels just like TikTok / TechCrunch
And Substack is rolling out a TikTok-like video feed in its app / TechCrunch
Related: Anchors like Joy Reid and Don Lemon are moving to Substack / NYT
Because?! Ad-free platform Substack isn't ruling out ads after all / Digiday
Corollary: Rare Beauty launched a Substack. Hey
Katie Welch
come on the pod! / Substack
Also: The Substack Sessions : live performances by Andrew Bird, Margo Price, Jeff Tweedy, and “dozens more” / Substack
And Substack will legally protect writers targeted by the government / The Verge

How to leak to a journalist. Planning to leak? Read these tips first / Nieman Lab
Corollary: Tyler Cowen is joining the Free Press / The FP
And corollary to that (he’s a professor): What Makes a Good Teacher? The timeless question of education beneath the urgent crises of 2025 / Contraptions
Tyler would agree, I suspect: ‘Y’all Street’ is an exercise in Texas-sized ring kissing. It is not clear whether local exchanges are particularly useful / FT
And with this: Knowledge Under Siege. Strategic Response in the Age of Institutional Redundancy / Contraptions
But at least?! This Financial Firm Gives Investment Advice in Gen Z Slang / WSJ

Reddit is looking like a marketer’s goldmine / Trapital
From Iolanda: Streaming clustering [Disney identifies 4 audience types in streaming landscape] / The Media Leader
Why Trader Joe's doesn't invest in retail media or robots / Progressive Grocer
More Wise ‘Why’s?’: The Broadmind Business & Innovation Tracker. How top brands & retailers combine smart acquisitions, engaging experiences, and strategic collaborations to captivate consumers and redefine their markets/ PSFK
IE: Arc'teryx Parent Amer Sports details ongoing shift to DTC in annual report / Shop Eat Surf Outdoor
And: From beginning to End: How the cult British retailer defied the odds / Vogue Business

Speaking of beating the odds: Can’t journalism have an “abundance agenda”? / Matt Pearce
Case in point? The newspaper flourishing without a paywall / NY Mag
Oh also guys? Your Substack is (probably) not getting plagiarized / Embedded
The semantic slide of programmatic’s power word: ‘curation’. Not all curators are created equal, and not every curation pitch holds up under scrutiny. / Digiday
Actual Curation: (Recreated) Gap’s in-store playlists from the ‘90s and early 2000s / Linktree
Formats Unpacked: Chicken Shop Date. How an interview format uses location to create a unique vibe / Storythings
Speaking of unique, from Iolanda: “Mark Ritson on "THE" brand... “[Three things make Coca-Cola better at marketing than anyone] / Marketing Week
Tho, be careful: Why marketers shouldn't follow Unilever's plans to work with '20 times' more influencers just yet / Digiday
Case in point for?! from Piers: [American Man Arrested for Trying to Give Coca-Cola to Isolated Tribe] / Newsweek
Tho Duolingo's viral Ashton Hall parody shows how brands can smash social media / Creative Bloq
No parody: Barnes & Noble’s indie rebrand. With parallels to nonprofit movie theater initiatives / Dirt
Corollary, from Iolanda: “Social Nostalgia for brands” [From Playback to Throwback: How Brands Should Leverage ‘Nowstalgia’ for Social Media] / Shots
How 'Sustainable' Fashion Became a Nightmare for Consumers. It’s increasingly challenging for shoppers to know what actually is / Back Row
IE: Algae or underwear? Mandy Barker documents the fast fashion waste polluting our seas / It’s Nice That
Speaking of getting wasted?! Edible Brands, Home of Fancy Fruit Bouquets, Enters the THC Space/ Adweek
More ‘home,’ from Piers: Philippe Starck reveals surrealist hotel topped with 19th-century mansion / Dezeen
Also surreal: The Bop House Is Giving Onlyfans Its TikTok Moment / Passionfruit
Which begs the question: What's It Like Being a Girl in America?/i-D
And explains why?! Young women are opting out of first dates / Dazed Digital
In other news, subtlety is dead / IG
Also dead: Friday night post-work drinks in London. Thursdays are still popping but WFH has killed the Friday pint / Londoncentric
And also no long popping?! Is the Poppers Party Over? / NYT
Corollary: Can luxury sell sexual wellness? / Vogue Business
And A24 made a rather suggestive “Death of a Uniform Blood Lamp” / A24
More innocent, from Piers: “merch-ish record bag” [Idea Books x Peanuts] / Idea
While "DESIGN.SPACE" scars and confuses LOS ANGELES décornerds. Key Quote: “i don’t really care to sell my pieces next to a kaws doll” / FOR-SCALE

On the graphic side: Airport flightpath heatmaps, artfully done / IG
While more viscerally: Techxtural dining AI entertainment to VR omakase, technology adds texture to fine dining experiences / VML
And from Piers: Sound bars go mobile / Design Boom
From Celeste: “Interesting points on whether there is dominating culture in the current era, and the reference to 'back in our day'..... “[Society Sucks: The Fanatical Diary Of A Teen Scribbler Who Threw Herself Into Punk] / The Guardian
Doesn’t suck: Close The Casino, Seth. 25 years of Boiler Room aging like a fine wine / Catchdini
In contrast, tho: The Vibe Shift Hits Hollywood | National Review

More from Celeste: “Flankers, I learnt a new word today, within the theme of the perfume biz!” The Big Business Of Perfume Flankers / Glossy
Related, from Piers: The best place to buy Fragrance? Costco / Glossy
Another from Celeste: “living on the road, trying to maintain a semblance of regularity in the midst of showtime for actors, a great read” BYO Deep Fryer: The Life And Meals Of Actors On Tour / Taste
Corollary: Which restaurants have the most attractive diners? / X
And also from Celeste: How Does Mouton Rothschild Stay At The Top? / FT
Cornering the market?! Chipotle buys 5% of all the avocados eaten in the US, according to a Wall Street Journal report / WSJ
More ‘good fats?’ Are Shellfish Good for You? Oysters, clams and scallops are a seafood success story / NYT
Deep-dive dinners are the norm for tuna and swordfish / MIT
How turtle soup became a delicacy—and then disappeared / Food and Wine
Speaking of disappearances: Turnstile might be dropping a new album in June / X

Meantime, here’s Ecca Vandal with “Cruising to Self-Soothe” / YT

Speaking of soothing: Dad Health Edition. The Important Stuff: Sleep, Fitness, Diet, and Doctors / A Continuous Lean
Related: The Monocle guide to hammams / Monocle
Also back East: The Mughal Empire’s Paradise on Earth. An exhibition showcases the sophisticated cultural language developed in the Indian subcontinent from around 1560 to 1660 across the reign of three emperors / Hyperallergic
More exhibitions: 10 Shows to See in Los Angeles This April / Hyperallergic
And more civil society: The 5 most socially cohesive cities / Quartz
Apropos? That Was Williamsburg, Folks. Goodbye to Marlow & Sons / The Melt
But?? From Piers: A New Video Store is coming to Williamsburg / Gothamist

Byline’s The Risk Issue weighs the odds / Byline
Also against the odds: Vic Bakin is documenting Ukrainian youth in Kyiv’s de-occupied territories / It’s Nice That
Elsewhere: The Golden Age of ✏️ Japanese Pencils, 1952-1967 / Stl Art Supply
And How Blue Paper Revolutionized the Art of Drawing / Hyperallergic
Speaking of drawing: An Illustrated Guide to Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle / Hyperallergic
More spectacle: The hot new hire in sports? Team stylists / Vogue Business

Maserati Fragment designed by Hiroshi Fujiwara / YT
Related: Moncler x Mercedes-Benz by Nigo / Moncler
In contrast: Auralee, the Japanese fashion brand for design purists. Ryota Iwai shuns sales targets to create beautiful clothes. His strategy is reaping rewards / FT
From Piers: Do Ugly Websites Sell Better? / Web Designer Depot
Ergo?! How Minecraft conquered the world. It’s the best-selling video game of all time and has now spawned a movie — but why is it so popular? / FT
Elsewhere: 25 Years of Making It Up The Rosie Lee Story/ Unorthodox Blends
Also made up: The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch. “He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yoga—and his future in baseball” / Sports Illustrated
Related, from Iolanda: April fools by brands / Muse by Clios
More fakes: The rise of prosthetic six-packs / CNN
Also weird: Calvin Klein jeans for free! Branded clothes dumped in the desert snapped up on anti-fast fashion website / The Guardian

Corollary, from Iolanda: “Fashionable or maybe not 😉”[Mark Zuckerberg Bought Jesse Eisenberg’s T-Shirt From ‘The Social Network’: ‘It’s My Shirt Now’] / Variety
Speaking of dumb purchases?!, from Celeste: So, Is Othello Really Worth Nearly A Thousand Bucks A Ticket? / Vanity Fair
Making it work: Packing Diaries. Squeezing outfits out of a small soft-sided tote / Yolo Journal
Also packing in the value, from Celeste: “Given the resurgence of Joan Didion's writing and history after the release of Lil Anolik's latest novel, what a treat to be able to be amongst this history. All you need is a library card, brilliance.” [Joan Didion And John Dunne's NYPL Archives Are A Treasure Trove] / Town & Country
Finally, more archive: the redesigned map of the New York City subway is reminiscent of a version from the 1970s / NYT

[SIC] 340: Judged Luggage

Corollary Sources this Week: 2PM / Nieman Lab / After School / Someday Bunch / User Mag / Feed Me / The New Statesman / Offball/ WSJ / Marginal Revolution / Cars & Culture / As Seen On By Ochuko / Poolsuite / Delightful / Public Announcement

[SIC] 340: Judged Luggage

Vol 7, No. 30.

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