[SIC] 349: The Laughter After

Vol 7, No 39: Visions @ MoMA, HIP REPLACEMENT EP. 12 with Ben Ulansey of the Gen Z Report, Art Shows in NYC, LA and Syracuse and all the liiiiinks. It's all for you.

Jun 05, 2025

[SIC] Weekly is a digest of developments in trends, tech, media, marketing, fashion, food, places and events, published free on Thursdays. Feel no compunction to open every item in a new tab; [SIC] is intended to be read as you would a bulleted list.

This digest was sent free on 6/5/25 to 7626 subscribers. Original source is cited. Corollary sources are listed at the end of each digest.

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

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Many recipients expense subscriptions as research in marketing, advertising, entertainment + tech. You can too. It's sincerely appreciated. 

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New original art each issue is courtesy of Gordon Hull.

Special thanks this week for stories: Isaac Dietz, Celeste Blewitt, Piers Fawkes, Iolanda Carvalho and Ken Miller. Thanks, all. 

Comments, Questions and Contributions are invited from everyone.

Hi All,

I asked if you wanted more events in the weekly and a few of you said yes, so we’re starting this week with some events. First up (image above) is Future Commerce’s VISIONS Summit next week, where I’ll be recapitulating my conversation with Casey Lewis (of After School), Daisy Alioto (of Dirt / Prune / Clone / Blank / Strung) and Erica Chen (of Media Futures Group) about the future of indie media, parasocial publishing and superformats. There are a handful of tickets still avail; if you work in marketing, digital commerce, media or tech for broadly, you’ll probably benefit from some exposure to it. Gonna be fun. Expense it!

One person who co-signed more event recos was [SIC] Talks alum Ken Miller, who curated the FLOWER HOUR group photography show at Authorized Dealer Gallery in LA - open til 28th of June. Go see it if you’re out West.

On a related note closer to home, tonight 56 Henry is pleased to present Small Format Painting, an exhibition curated by [SIC] homie Leo Fitzpatrick and Josh Smith. Each of the 34 artists included in the exhibition was given a 10 x 8 in canvas by the curators, but no further brief; looks like it’ll be rad / 56 Henry

Also tonight (as noted last week); [SIC]’s art director Gordon Hull is showing his MILLION DOLLAR SMASH Pinatas at Ace Hotel Downtown Brooklyn; I’ll be there so look for me. After that, I’m going to see Turnstile Under the K with Campbell. HMU if you’re going.

Then tomorrow it’s off to the old homestead of Syracuse for the DEAD END. opening reception, which, if you’re anywhere nearby will really be a can’t miss situation. So don’t miss it.

In other skateboard dreamland news, the Brooklyn Banks are back open again.

quartersnacks

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Last event(s): the excellent and often very funny Garbage Day is doing a three-night residency at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn this July. [SIC] Talks Alum Ryan Broderick’s going to “try and save democracy in America,” with these and each night has a different theme and different guests. You can grab tickets here:

7/8: “The Masculinity Crisis” / 7/15: “Silicon Valley Ate The World” / 7/22: “America Is Doomed”

On your way to and from the events, take a listen to the new HIP REPLACEMENT from this week, with Ben Ulansey from the Gen Z Report. I called this one ‘existential or incremental’ on Notes referring to our discussion about the looming disruptions posed by AI, but we also got very specific about the putative Song of the Summer, Gen Z office etiquette and a bunch of other stuff and it was more-than-typically interesting. Have a listen. Here’s YT:

and here’s Spotify: HIP REPLACEMENT EP. 12 Ben Ulansey

Ok, now the links. Enjoy and hope I’ll see you.

Ben

[SIC] 349: The Laughter After

Zeitgeisting

No One Goes to Happy Hour After Work Anymore / Slate
Because? Every Place Is the Same Now / The Atlantic
So we’re all just aura farming / 8Ball
Hence: The Midlife Crisis Is Coming for Millennials LOL. / Vox
Apropos of navigating crisis: The Hobo Handbook / The Paris Review
Corollary: Paperclip-punk as the defining visual aesthetic of today’s internet / Virtual Elena
IIlluminating: Ruptures in the Mediascape: What Next? / The Future Does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past
Related: The end game for Big Tech is coming into focus — and, yes, it involves AI / The Atlantic
Following that: I think four paths for americans might be upside down? the post-globalized, the nolifers, the live players, and the sloptimists / 8Ball
Also what about “Unemployed offspring” that are rebranding as stay-at-home sons and daughters / WSJ
Corollary: LA is full of former entertainment people who’ve pivoted to becoming therapists or life coaches / Vanity Fair
Because? “Everyone Is Already Using AI (And Hiding It)” / Vulture
Counterpoint: W. David Marx posits GenAI is Our Polyester and I am inclined to agree/ Culture: An Owners Manual
But, counter to that: “My AI skeptic friends are all nuts” / Fly
Because? Vibe coding,” the practice involves using AI to develop software, instead of writing the code manually; it is “sweeping the upper echelons of the startup ecosystem” Semafor
Ergo: In the age of slop, craft is rebellion. A conversation about craft, code, and creative freedom with indie game artisan Neal Agarwal, creator of Neal.fun / Working Theorys
Which brings us to: WISDOM SIGNALING (or “ I think I stumbled into The Wisdom Economy”) / Pattern Recognition
More signaling: A TikTok user asked Kylie Jenner about her plastic surgery and Jenner responded in detail / Harper’s Bazaar
Not speficially related, obvs: A High IQ Makes You an Outsider, Not a Genius / The Atlantic
What made the Enlightenment so banging? / Liberties Journal
Not banging: Melissa Febos and Lucy McKeon talk The Sexiest Thing About Celibacy / Broadcast

AI-AI-AI

Youth unemployment in the US is up, and artificial intelligence may be a factor. Overall, 4.2% of Americans are out of work, but among 20- to 24-year-olds, that number is 8.2%, and higher still among men / Semafor
Related from Isaac: Detailed comments from Teachers, breaking down GenAI’s impact on students and learning. Uh oh….[Teachers Are Not OK] / 404 Media
How political cartoonists are bringing AI into their work without outsourcing their brains. Pulitzer-winning cartoonists are experimenting with AI image generators / Nieman Lab

Art & Artists

Panopticon Chic. What happens when artists get their hands on camera glasses and bodycams? / Vik’s Busy Corner
British design needs to become more political, says Samuel Ross. Design; industry is "sustaining mediocrity" / Dezeen
This Storied British Estate Is Reinventing Itself as an Art Destination / ArtNet
Speaking of storied British institutions: Jarvis Cocker Is Out of the Rain. The Pulp singer on conquering his fear of nature, the pleasures and perils of art and aging, and the band’s first new album in twenty-four years / The New Yorker
On that same note, from Celeste: 'Sidetracked By Glastonbury: Sir Rod Stewart' / BBC Sounds
Closer to home: East Williamsburg got a conceptual castle sculpture / Curbed
Opportunities in June 2025. Residencies, fellowships, grants, and open calls from the Grand Canyon Conservancy, the Dedalus Foundation, and more in this monthly list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers / Hyperallergic
Art On Stream: A YouTube Genealogy. Even as algorithms have rapidly dumbed down visual culture, artists have evolved thoughtful commentary, community, and genre forms in an unlikely corner of Web 2.0: YouTube / Spike Art

Medias

Americans trust PBS because it’s publicly funded, not in spite of it / Nieman Lab
Speaking of spite: Is the ‘internet culture reporter’ job dead? / Embedded
Why the best journalists on YouTube are all former Vox employees / Simon Owens
Anthropic has given its AI model family Claude a blog of its own (with a team of humans who oversee the writing and edit it) / TechCrunch
TikTok is rolling out an AI-powered trends-insights tool to advertisers / The Verge
Meta will allow brands to create and target ads on the company’s platforms solely using AI by the end of next year / WSJ
Ai media goes mainstream. new tools for creating and editing images, videos and audio / Ben’s Bites
Apropos: WaPo is launching Ripple, a new initiative to host and promote opinion columns from other newspapers and Substack writers. Eventually, nonprofessional contributors will be able to submit essays with the help of Ember, The Post’s in-development AI writing coach / NYT
What if Google Just Broke Itself Up? A Tech Insider Makes the Case / NYT
Arcade Media, the management company behind the Sidemen, is launching a creator-first brand agency / Tubefilter
Twitch announced that it will soon roll out vertical-video livestreams to compete with TikTok / Tubefilter
TikTok Shop is evolving into a platform where you need to pay for ads to drive engagement / Business Insider
TikTok insists to advertisers that it's a full-funnel platform, not just an entertainment app / Digiday

Marketizing

2025: The Year Pride Went Beige / BoF
How Craighill Got 45M Video Views In Five Months The success of the design company tells us a lot about the future of social media / Link in Bio
If there’s one Father’s Day Gift Guide I’d swear by, it’s Michael Williams’s / AContinuousLean
Speaking of ACL: A Risky Plan Made in America. Jacob Long bet his family, his livelihood and his personal philosophy about American craftsmanship on a textile mill in Connecticut / NYT
While Europe gets a dose of Hims & Hers as the telehealth company is expands to ye Olde Worlde / Quartz
As if in response, Pornhub is Leaving France / Semafor
While in China, from Iolanda:: Labubuing [Labubu dolls point to China’s growing cultural influence worldwide] / WARC
Fast Company breaks down how Liquid Death expertly uses marketing / FastCo
Why Oatly’s marketers prefer cultural signals to focus groups / Digiday
Nike and Levi’s have a collaboration in the works / IG
Why luxury must teach visual truth. Sweden’s pioneering visual literacy initiative exposes a critical blind spot: luxury brands need to teach consumers to navigate an AI-saturated world where authenticity is key / Jing Daily
From Celeste: 'How Wedding Guest Fashion Became The Main Character On TikTok / Glossy
Why brand platforms are having a big moment before Cannes Lions. Marketers are coming to Cannes with brand platforms to show off /The Drum
Nearly Half of HoldCo Agency Staffers Want Out, Survey Finds / AdWeek

Entertainmentizing

Sauna Raves Are Coming to London / i-D
[SIC] homie Iliza Schlesinger on her new Prime Video special, A Different Animal / Deadline
Corollary: Dua Lipa is launching a podcast for her book club / IG
Apropos of that: Mubi’s first publishing arm is putting the spotlight on cinema through books / Monocle
From Iolanda: Always be playing [Mattel Starts New Film, TV Studio For Brands] /Mediapost
And: [From ‘Squid Game’ to ‘Frankenstein,’ Netflix takes brand promotion to a new level at Tudum] / LA Times
From Celeste: Even Netflix Is Jealous Of Youtube / Vulture
King of the Hill is returning after 15 years. "Hank and Peggy Hill are now retired and return to a changed Arlen after years of working in Saudi Arabia; and Bobby is 21 and living his best life while navigating adulthood as a chef." / Deadline

The Natural World

Faster horses, superior cattle, immortal pets: Inside the Big Business of Cloning Animals / The Atlantic
You Don’t Know Yourself As Well as You Think You Do / The Atlantic
Hunters, nomads, dancers. What style of curiosity do you practise? / Psyche
From Iolanda:Head life…[When memories from fiction become part of who you are] / Psyche
Being "Type C" is one of the latest parenting trends / Pop Sugar
Top athletes are turning to ayahuasca not for healing, but for an edge/ Doubleblind
MDMA may become a prescription treatment for PTSD before cannabis even clears Phase 3 / Doubleblind
A new psychedelic era dawns in America. Magic mushrooms remain illegal in California but you wouldn’t know that from the gatherings in San Francisco / FT
Skin Cancer Made Me Nocturnal. It Was Illuminating. The earth’s rotation taught a writer to find peace in the face of death / NYT
From Celeste: 'The art of the phone call, for nothing more than a debrief and a catch-up.’ The Beguiling Charm Of A Bedtime Phonecall / FT
Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours / Reuters

Geopoliticking

Starter home concepts seek to alleviate Los Angeles housing crisis / Dezeen
LAX: bureaucratic blind spots and jurisdictional confusion turned the busiest airport on earth into a cartel superhighway / Doubleblind
Sydney Airport is auctioning off thousands of unclaimed items from its lost and found, spotlighting the most luxurious — and unusual — items misplaced by travelers / The Guardian
The Trump Administration Is Spending $2 Million to Figure Out Whether DEI Causes Plane Crashes / The Atlantic
Zeihan’s The Future of Tourism part 2 / YT
Why Tariffs Haven’t Led to Soaring Prices – Yet / BoF

Sustenances

From Iolanda: “Food trending” [Unilever reveals the trends driving food premiumization] / WARC
Copenhagen saw the annual MAD Symposium for chefs, farmers, producers and restaurateurs under the theme “Build to Last” / Monocle Pod
Related: The 100 best restaurants in New York City / NYT
Can Gen-Z’s Nostalgia Save Chain Restaurant / NYT
IE?! The Taco Bell 50k is a real race that exists. Participants run 50 kilometers while stopping at Taco Bell locations and ONCE YOU RSVP YOU ARE IN. THIS IS LIKE THE GOBLET OF FIRE / SBNation

[SIC] 349: The Laughter After

Corollary Sources This Week: Gothamist / Kottke / As Seen On / The Future Party / Delightful / Semafor / 1440 / The Morning / After School/ Kneeling Bus / User Mag / Fashion Statement

[SIC] 349: The Laughter After

Vol 7, No 39: Visions @ MoMA, HIP REPLACEMENT EP. 12 with Ben Ulansey of the Gen Z Report, Art Shows in NYC, LA and Syracuse and all the liiiiinks. It's all for you.

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