[SIC] Sundays 123: Smorkin’ Labbitz

Vol. 3, No. 23

[SIC] Sundays, is the exclusive, less-edited, more stream-of-consciousness digest of developments for paid subscribers of [SIC] Weekly. Thanks for being here. Please share with those who’d enjoy. Here’s a button:

Corollary Sources this week: Public Announcement / Music Ally / the Pudding / 1440 / The Material Review / The Honest Broker / Kottke

---

[SIC] Sundays 123: Smorkin’ Labbitz

1. The End of the 20th Century. The U.S. election ushers in a new world order / History Club

2. Apropos: A brief history of the word “fuck.” / Lithub

3. The Meme Election Era. Virality Drives Victory / Understanding Tiktok

4. A quick related digression: Brooklyn Man Charged With Staging Car Crash Shown in TikTok Video  viewed more than 74 million times / NYT

5. How to live in a polarised age. Instead of regretting how populists exploit resentments, liberals need to find out what those resentments are / FT

6. Because? No one benefits from you scrolling and feeling sad / Sublime

7. NPR's All Songs Considered published a podcast earlier this year that compiled the best songs to calm the nerves, including the "one song scientists determined is the single most relaxing song of all time — so relaxing, it may reduce your anxiety by up to 65%."  / NPR

8. And now the songs have been compiled into a playlist / Spotify

9. Apropos: FT critics’ best advice for how to discover new music / FT

10. It's Called a Dance Floor .Vogue by Madonna is one of the most remarkable examples of artificial stereophonic sound ever produced / Seek Hifi

11. Related, in “making” music: The making of a modern hit factory. Why Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo chose John Janick / FT

12. Apropos Janick’s point about “picking being the art:” Why it’s often luck, not talent, that takes us to the top. No one likes to admit it — but life’s lottery has a big role to play in success / FT

13. Also related: Time Waits For No Band. The Reunion Tour Comes For Us All / The Contender

14. Corollary: Groupies: Women of the Sunset Strip From the Pill to Punk / GQ

15. And … These 11 artists taking over the globe in 2024 and 2025 [are mostly old or dead]/ Christies

16. More golden oldies: Stephen Graeme, Goldie and Ashley Walters star in Adidas Spezial film / The Drum

17. Elsewhere: Painting by the AI robot Ai-Da sells for more than $1m at Sotheby’s / The Art Newspaper

18. Corollary to that: The Users Who Overtook the Machine Culture / Ssense

19. And “Social Studies,” a documentary series by Lauren Greenfield, follows a group of young people to capture how social media has reshaped their lives. Naomi Fry considers teens and their screens / The New Yorker

20. Related My Internet: Ochuko Akpovbovbo, [SIC] Talks alum / Embedded

21. Speaking of Influencers: From Addison Rae to Chloë Sevigny: Everyone’s Hooked on Getty Images Fan Club / Ssense

22. Elsewhere in modern media: Total Monetization Could Mean Giving Readers Choice / A Media Operator

23. And The Winners of the 2024 PhotoBook Awards /Aperture

24. Related: [SIC] homie Kelli Anderson’s interactive pop-up book Alphabet in Motion / Kickstarter

25. More visualizers: All the cities bigger than New York: Visualizing the world's 25 largest cities / Visual Capitalist

26. Not included: Prague, The City of Wine? The rich winemaking history, and perhaps future, of the Czech capital / Slop

27. Unrelated: The Expert’s Handbook to Bocce and Boules / The Palm Report

28. And The Quilt Index, originally launched in 2003, is an open access, digital repository of thousands of images, stories and information about quilts and their makers / Quilt Index

29. The Backpack: The Invention That Changed School Forever / The Atlantic

30. Finally, so rhetorical: Why queues are so tricky. We spend a significant part of our lives waiting — from ordering coffee, to snagging Taylor Swift/Beyoncé tickets, to navigating airport security lines / Youtube

31. And, returning us to today’s start: Why Is the Tesla Cybertruck So Depressingly Ugly? It's a bigger problem than just one sinister-looking car / The Honest Broker

    

    [SIC] Sundays 123: Smorkin’ Labbitz