[SIC] 344: Chernobyl Duck

Vol 3, No. 34. HIP REPLACEMENT with Ochuko, [SIC] Talks redux with Julia Harrison of Saloon, new art direction courtesy of Gordon Hull and all the liiiiiinks.

May 01, 2025

I'm Ben Dietz, longtime media/entertainment business guy, and now advisor-for-hire to brands, publishers and agencies. 

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

This digest was sent free on 5/1/25 to 7439 subscribers. Original source is cited. Corollary sources are listed at the end of each digest.

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Special thanks this week for stories: Molly Raskin, Campbell Dietz, Piers Fawkes, Iolanda Carvalho, Isaac Dietz, Gordon Hull and Celeste Blewitt. Comments, Questions and Contributions are invited from everyone.

Oh hi,

New look this time; long time comrade (and [SIC] paid subscriber), the artist Gordon Harrison Hull offered to contribute some originals collages to help the newsletter stand out - so look out for those in coming weeks.

No [SIC] Talks #101 yet but this excellent edition of Why is This Interesting’s Monday Media Diet with [SIC] Talks Alum Julia Harrison prompted me to repost this chat with Julia from last year, early on in her Saloon comunity’s development. Julia’s young and impressive (and impressively well read) - check it out.

Also young and impressive: Ochuko Akpovbovo, whose As Seen On is a regular source her (and one that I pay for). She joined Kyle and me for HIP REPLACEMENT EP.8 this week and she is (as she wrote herself haha) bright and funny (and quite insightful) in our 40 minute conversation about the Generations XYNZ. Watch, Listen, Like, subscribe - you know the deal.

Beyond that, lots and lots of links per usual, so I won’t belabor the intro section. I’m headed to Portland (PDX not ME) next week for a speaking gig, so if you’re around hit me up. Be nice to say hi in person.

OK,now the main event. Enjoy.

Ben

[SIC] 344: Chernobyl Duck

Vibes Coded

Let’s get visual: Moods April 2025 / Mood Mail
Also made for eyes: A transcript of the ‘Night Owls’ Podcast with Larry Summers / News Items
New phone who dis? Reporters from The Atlantic cold called the president. He picked up and had a little chat. He Still Answers Calls From Unknown Numbers / Variety
Apropos of portentous conversations: The group chats that changed America. A sprawling network of private group chats revolving around the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen are the dark matter of American politics / Semafor
On the subject of ‘dark matter, from Piers: “i can’t really see what the worry is until we have an ‘audience’ large enough for advertisers to car but data privacy at a brain level is an interesting concept” [Brain Implant Companies Apparently Have an Extremely Dirty Secret] / Futurism
Also built on extremely dirty secrets, from Molly: How the Internet Left 4Chan Behind / The New Yorker
Corollary from Molly: Social media is no longer social. Everyone is on social media, and yet these apps are less and less about socialising. Is it time to rethink how and why we’re online? / Dazed
Related: artificial schizophrenia. We are sizzling our monkey brains in white hot server farms. What’s the antidote? / 8Ball
Meantime absurd A.I.-generated characters are flooding TikTok, all vaguely — and inexplicably — related to Italian culture / NYT
While Meta’s celebrity-sounding “digital companions” have been having some very inappropriate conversations with minors / WSJ
Corollary to that How Gen Z Became the Most Gullible Generation / Politico
Poor Zs. As Sean Monahan pithily observes “Porniness is the Opposite of Horniness” [Selling Sex, Losing Touch: How Gen Z Performs Sexuality Instead of Feeling It] / Thotcrime
Ergo The Problem of Finding a Marriageable Man. College graduates are marrying at high rates. Everyone else isn’t / The Atlantic
Related: [SIC] Talks Alum Casey Lewis joined Andrew Zucker on his podcast to talk about Gen Z’s political shift / YT
Simultaneously, from Celeste: 'Gen Z Is Leading The Charge Back To The Office' (FT)
Corollary, from Campbell: There Will Never Be Another Movie Like “Office Space” / YT
Which ties (loosely) to Financial Education. There is a way to make America wealthier without a destabilizing global trade war: economic education / News Items
Case in point: Sales of Botox and Juvederm fell below analyst estimates for the first three months of the year. Botox sales hit their lowest point since 2021. These are the real recession indicators / Sherwood

Wearables

From Molly: ‘An incredibly political moment’ – why fashion and the Met Gala are celebrating Black dandyism / The Guardian
Also kinda political: Jason Kelce Takes ‘Made in the U.S.’ Very Seriously / NYT
Not serious, but serious business: Labubu dolls, tiny fuzzy Nordic elves with mischievous grins, regularly sell out online. (Rihanna and Dua Lipa are admirers.) / NYT
Elsewhere in Cutesville: Meet “doecore” a term to describe a burgeoning fascination with deer motifs in fashion, interiors, and art / Nobody’s Home
But wait, Are Viral Microtrends Losing Their Cool? From ‘Tomato Girl’ to ‘Quiet Luxury,’ microtrends once swept social media and helped shape retail strategies but Gen-Z consumers are now craving more substantial and lasting styles / BoF
Also more-lasting: Resisting Fast Fashion Through Visible Mending. Stitchers around the world are turning the once-hidden process of clothing repair into a bold fashion statement / Reasons To Be Cheerful
Apropos of that: Young, Scrappy, and Upcycling: Julian Spaccarelli’s Fresh Take on Surplus Style / Selectism
More bag talk: Where Have All The Jack Spade Bag Boys Gone? / The Melt
Related: A conversation with Sid Mashburn. Chatting with the menswear legend about growing up in Mississippi, building without asking for permission, what he learned under Ralph Lauren, and why hospitality matters more than clothing / Sprezza
Relative to that: The meaning of Ralph Lauren nationalism / Compact Magazine
Meantime across the pond: Can British fashion manufacturing reclaim global relevance? / Vogue Business
British corollary from Celeste: 'Real Housewives Of The Cotswolds: What We Know So Far’ / Tatler
Apropos of that: From tradwives to bullet bras: How should fashion engage with womanhood in 2025? / Vogue Business
Why Kering's industry-first water strategy matters. The luxury conglomerate has outlined a plan to become “water positive”, laying the groundwork for other brands to follow / Vogue Business
But Can fashion redraw its manufacturing map? / Vogue Business
While The clock is ticking on Timex’s iconic Connecticut headquarters. The watch company is moving out of its time-telling building, and demolition may be looming / Fast Company

Art and Artists

Working Charli xcx On the Remix. What was last year’s mega-watt pop album brat really about? Smart marketing, sure – but also art-making in-progress, in public / Spike Art
More working in public: I Think, I Draw, I Am, is an exhibition opening June 6th, featuring more than 300 drawings by musician and artist Daniel Johnston (1961-2019) / Pioneer Works
In conrast: John Pawson on Minimalism as a Way of Life / The Slowdown Pod
A Dutch Museum’s Multimillion-Dollar Rothko Scratched by a Child / Artnet
Hence: The End of investment art? Why the bottom of the market flourishing / Artnet
A tip, then: FALCON Art Collective’s inaugural exhibition, R U STILL PAINTING?? an arbitrary, non-national, non-rational, unofficial, and incomplete painting survey featuring over 40 artists. Opening Tuesday, May 6 | 5-9PM 520 8th Ave, New York, NY 10018, 15th Floor / FALCON NYC
Definitely still painting: Alexandra Barth and Rose Nestler in their joint exhibition Esther II at The Estonian House in NYC May 6 - 10, 2025 / Mrs. Gallery
Meantime, collectors’ Hunt for "personality" causing art deco sales to triple. Art deco is starting to challenge mid-century modern's dominance / Dezeen
Related: Dezeen's A to Z of art deco / Dezeen
More lists: CULTURED mag’s Cult 100 list is out / CULTURED
So… Let's Get Critical (w/ Rachel Tashjian) / the New Garde
Also critical: Artist Talks in Times of Fascism / Hyperallergic
Unrelated: “Urban Stomp,” a new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, invites visitors to bust a move on a video-interactive dance floor / NYT

AI-AI-AI

From Molly: The Great Language Flattening. Chatbots learned from human writing. Now it’s their turn to influence us / The Atlantic
Aprppos of that: The AIs are trying too hard to be your friend. Meta AI, ChatGPT, and the dangers of being glazed and confused / Platformer
More on that note: ChatGPT is becoming the everything app but it has a problematic personality / Ben’s Bites
Related: OpenAI is updating ChatGPT's web search tool to include new features for folks who turn to the platform for their shopping / TechCrunch
And ChatGPT launches new shopping features / Vogue Business
Elsewhere: AI “Slop” Comes for Job Interviews/ AEIdeas
Hence, from Piers: Welcome to Chat Haus, the coworking space for AI chatbots | TechCrunch
But WTF are gray bots? AI agents, scrapers and crawlers powering the agentic era are quietly reshaping the web — and potentially the digital economy / Digiday
On the top of “Gray” bots: BBC Studios has created a deepfake version of renowned mystery author Agatha Christie to teach a BBC Maestro course / Deadline

Entertainments

Spotify has paid $100m to podcasters since January / AdWeek
Because?! From Iolanda: “YouTube is the New Everything” [Ezra Klein’s YouTube Makeover Points to Podcasting TV’s Future] / Vanity Fair
Apropos: Watch Ben Affleck raid the Criterion Closet, where he makes some fantastic picks, does a dreadful impression of Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting, and (correctly) identifies his Armageddon DVD commentary as the finest work of his career / YT
Elsewhere in directors: Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face, Russian Doll) is making her directorial debut with Uncanny Valley — a video game-set project that will blend live action and AI / Hollywood Reporter
Not a game: Yale University is adding a course on Bad Bunny / Hypebeast
Corollary, from Molly: From Y2K to indie sleaze: how hyperspecific, themed club nights took over New York / The Fader
Perfect for Sad Boy night, then: Bladee surprise dropped an EP / IG
Elsewhere: Beyoncé is still into Death Grips / Stereogum
But maybe everybody’s nto so into her?! As Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter Tour kicks off, thousands of cheap tickets are still for sale / NBC News
Related: How Live Nation calls the tune for the live music industry / FT
And Universal tightens its grip around NTS Radio. Another grim development in the indie landscape / Network Notes
Less grim, from Iolanda: “Minecraft Club ;)” Warners Announces Rowdy Screenings of ‘Minecraft Movie’ With “Block Party Edition” The studio has announced special showings that encourage talking and singing along with the film, which is already known for inspiring in-theater hijinks / The Hollywood Reporter
Related: “Steve’s Lava Chicken,” is now the shortest song ever to enter the Billboard Hot 100 chart / Variety
Because? From Molly: Why silly music is in right now / Dazed

Attempts at Influencing And Media

Another from Molly: Unpacking the creator economy battleground / Vogue Business
Speaking of Vogue business: Vogue Contributor Jack Schlossberg pronounced “Hey Anna Wintour, I’m sorry, but I’m boycotting the Met Gala this year, I can’t go in good conscience with so much happening around the world and at home — it’s just not the time” / IG
Actually it’s time to party with abandon, suggests [SIC] homie, GQ’s Will Welch [who] has started a new party series in New York called RATS. / IG
Elsewhere: NY Mag is cross-publishing launched Choire Sicha’s “Dinner Party” newsletter on Substack / Substack
Related to that, from Iolanda: Substacking for brands and companies / Econsultancy
Meantime fhe independent magazine “Family Style” is launching “Takeaway,” a zine focussed on Gen-Z / BoF
And SIR! A new men’s magazine embracing non-toxic masculinity is launching / IG
Corollary: The Small Magazines That Birthed Surrealism. Surrealism through Its Journals reminds us that the movement began with, and cannot be understood without, the written word / Hyperallergic
More movements: Jamie Knowles on Dazed Media as the ‘antithesis to monoculture / The Drum
In contrast to that: TikTok touts livestreaming as next big revenue stream for creators and agencies / Digiday
Hence: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hired agency Article 41 to help its student-athletes become social influencers / Tubefilter ‘

Marketations

As talk of recession looms, smaller brands bet on the value of retail media / Digiday
The winners and losers of Google’s third-party cookie reversal. Fair warning: the ground is still shifting under this thing so consider this list more “hot take” than holy writ / Digiday
Why Liquid Death's Chief Media Officer pays attention to the upper funnel / AdAge
‘We’re not just a hot cup company’: What’s next for Stanley / Retail Dive
Marketing has failed big booze but there’s light at the bottom of the bottle / The Drum
Neiman Marcus is the last bastion of the gilded age of American retail / Monocle

The “Natural” World

Free edibles: foraging in London with a top chef / FT
More edibles: researchers say Lab-made psilocybin may be missing something mushrooms have had for millennia. Does isolating the psilocybin compound strip away the spirit that’s guided sacred use for generations? / Doubleblind
Corollary, from Celeste: More bio-hacking, this time in the strain of hyperbaric chambers, [High On Oxygen] / NY Mag
Unsurprisingly: Ultra-processed food increases risk of early death / The Guardian
Hence?! Grazification of Condiments. The kids love plastic maxxing / Snaxshot
Directly related, from Celeste: 'The Big Squeeze' ( This Is Taste)
Speaking of big food: The end of chicken breast dominance. The price of boneless chicken thighs is finally catching up with the price of white meat / The Atlantic
In Defense in Airplane Food / Spike Art
Also scandalous, from Celeste: “The outrage over all the airwaves and newstreams today in Australia has been, wait for it, nope, nope not the Federal Election on Saturday, but the debate over whether Brooki Bakes has plagiarised Recipe Tin Eats caramel slice recipe'A Slap In The Face: Recipe Tin Eats Nagi Maehashi Accuses Brooki Bakehouse of Plagiarism' /Broadsheet
Photographer Zed Nelson’s new book, The Anthropocene Illusion, which meditates on the fractured relationship between humans and nature / Monocle Pod
Apropos, from Celeste: 'This was a heartening piece not only on gardening and nature's sense of plans and seasons, while also looking at mathematical equations, Darwin and geometry asking the questions - do plants know maths?’ Give Me Fractal Fronds Over Kindelberger's Spiral Any Day' / FT

Nouns.

The Spyplane Ultimate TOKYO Guide 2025 / Blackbird Spyplane
Related: Boxes Almost as Valuable as What They Contain “A look at Japan’s love of packaging, from impeccably crafted cardboard to lacquered works of art.” / NYT
And Emojis, matcha, sushi: These 10 Japanese innovations shape our daily lives / NYT
Corollary to that: 200 Ideas in Cafés, Bars & Restaurants. The most compelling design trends shaping the hospitality landscape / PSFK
Case in point?! London’s new Dungeons & Dragons tavern — and why fantasy role-play is on a roll / FT
On the topic of fantasy, this looks cool: Science Fiction Is Strategy, a workshop with an open syllabus of sorts by the Near Future Laboratory / General Seminar
Not-cool-strategy, from Isaac: John Fisher’s Sacramento Miscalculation / SI
From Piers: new places to sip Yemeni coffee shops find U.S. success and new challenges, too / NPR
[SIC] homie (and Breakfast Club Mexico City Host) Steve Bryant announced Julian's: A Cultural Handbook for Curious Travelers, (which sounds like my kind of travel guide) / YT
The favorite in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby? Journalism / Yahoo Sports

[SIC] 344: Chernobyl Duck

Corollary Sources this Week: The New Statesman / Feed Me / The Future Party / Delightful / The Material Review / Deez Links / Huck Magazine / After School / Back Row / Lefsetz Letter / The FACE / As Seen On

[SIC] 344: Chernobyl Duck

Vol 3, No. 34. HIP REPLACEMENT with Ochuko, [SIC] Talks redux with Julia Harrison of Saloon, new art direction courtesy of Gordon Hull and all the liiiiiinks.

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