[SIC] 260: Slippery, People.

Volume 5, Number 52

The [SIC] newsletter on Thursdays is free, and will be forever, unless I change my mind. Unlikely.

But you CAN pay, if you want. I’m into it. Monthly or yearly, or founding support. Paid subscribers get an additional [SIC] Sundays newsletter each week. And founding supporters get invited to a dinner at my home in NYC with special guests.

Meantime, enjoy. And do please pass along to people you like (or people you need to be smarter).

Corollary sources this week (all worth your review, and all easily discoverable): After School / Lean Luxe / Morning Consult / The Medium / Marginal Revolution / Elevator / Daily Upside / Motive Unknown / 2PM / Exec Sum / PSFK / HAL / The Future Party / Lerer Hippeau / Politico / 1440 / Morning Brew / Public Announcement

Oh also when I’m not newslettering I’m @dietznutz everywhere (IG / X / In / Threads). Follow away.

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Hi all,

Greetings from a day trip to Beantown, where this final edition of [SIC] Volume Five is likely beaming to you from inside a tunnel, soundtracked by “Slim Shady” on Suave 104. The absurdity of the modern condition, as we used to say.

Lots of new stuff coming in Vol 6 starting next Thurs, as teased last week - including a [SIC] Day update each morning for paid supporters, so if that sounds good sign up before then for volume five rates; prices going up next week.

Meantime, lots of good stuff here. Thanks to Iolanda, Scott, Celeste, Molly, Piers, Kling, Gerhard, Marcella (and Johnny, who I forgot to thank last week) for contributions. You might just see contributors take a more prominent role in Volume Six, so as always if you run across something [SIC]-applicable, pass it my way.

OK, now the links.

B

Poolside rephotography

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Zeitgest / Gestalt

• The Modern World was invented in 2012/ The Intrinsic Perspective

• And now The Playa is Flooded / Business Insider

• Related: The Worst Storm of All Time Hurricane Hilary and the Culture of Catastrophizing / Monologue

• Elsewhere: The Hottest Shop in America Is Your Local Gas Station / WSJ

• Because?! Cars And Big Houses Are Becoming Unbuyable / The Daily Upside

• So… Being a landlord is cool now (?!) / The Lindy Newsletter

• Tho from Celeste Blewitt: Even Gen Z Is Investing In (Second Hand) Quiet Luxury' /Vogue UK

• Why ‘Everybody wants to look rich,’ per the Real Real / WWD

• Bama Rush Is a Strange, Sparkly Window Into How America Shops / The Atlantic 

• Millennial and Gen Z couples say they aren’t getting married because it’s too expensive right now / Fortune

• Gen Z’s pickle obsession is very Millennial / Embedded

• Corollary, from Scott Schiller: Who Needs an Entree? Diners Order Salad and Fries and Call It a Meal - WSJ

• From Molly Raskin: Was There Life Before The Group Chat? / Byline

• Another from Molly : Is Having Too Many Followers a Turnoff? / NYT

• Corollary: Trends that brands should keep tabs on for the rest of the year. Six trends, including “pop nihilism.” / Marketing Brew 

• Apropos: Adderall Shortages Are Dragging On—Can Video Games Help? / Wired

• Unrelated: 25 Truths About How Things Really Work / Context Collapse

• Also true: Rolex was 2022’s most sought after watch brand…by thieves / NYPost

• On the screens, A new breed of eco-thrillers feature down-to-earth heroes in an era of environmental collapse / NYT

• While in the meantime Billionaire Techno-Oligarchs Are Creating an Alternate, Autocratic Reality / Vanity Fair

• Which is giving: Tech's broken promises: Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap / Business Insider

World Order

• The transfer of wealth from boomers to ‘zennials’ will reshape the global economy / FT

• Close to half of American adults favor TikTok Ban / Reuters

• Pioneering wind-powered cargo ship charts course for greener shipping / Dezeen

• Peter Zeihan on The Secret of Texas’s Success / YouTube

• "Space is the next cybersecurity frontier.” / Axios

• While from Celeste Blewitt: 'The Future Of Recycling Is Sorty McSortface’. AI, bots and ChatGPT are all  integrated into sorting, processing and the level of detail required / / The Atlantic

• Speaking of a good sorting out: “The Race to Regulate Artificial Intelligence.” / Foreign Affairs

The Speculative Future

• What Is Code Poetry? / Hyperallergic

• Universal Music Group experiments with AI royalties / The Future Perfect

• The scary truth about AI copyright is nobody knows what will happen next / The Verge

• So AI art can't be copyrighted (but is this the end of the story?) / Creative Bloq

• Hence: Generative AI boom "could come to a fairly swift end" / Dezeen

• Corollary: These Women Fell in Love with an AI-voiced Chatbot. Then It Died / Rest of World

• A computer science student explains his breakup with an AI “agent.” / The New Atlantis

Pop Cultures

• Kenny Schachter On the Transformative Power of “NFTism” / Jing Culture & Commerce

• Harmony Korine’s Hi-Tech Vision for the Future of Movies / GQ

• What the Hollywood Strike Has to Do with MrBeast / The By Product

• How a New Wave of ‘Hypersentimental’ Portraiture Is Serving Up Painting for the Age of Vibe Shifts and Nano-Influencers / Artnet News

• Speaking of influencers: Pharrell Williams Shares His Inspirations, From Henry Taylor to ‘Jabberjaw’ / NYT

• Super fans may not be super enough / Music Industry Blog

• Zane Lowe on Why UK Music is Stronger Than It's Ever Been / Hypebeast

• What is ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ doing to soccer? / NYT

• Inside Anchorman’s Epic Battle Sequence / Vanity Fair

• Xbox’s new “8 strikes” mod rollout judges hate speech 3x worse than cheating / Ars Technica

• From Gerhard Stochl: “We know the story but it’s a good listen with all the important players who are still around participating” [Transmissions: The Definitive Story of Joy Division and New Order] / Apple Podcasts

• From Molly Raskin: Noname’s Ambivalent, Triumphant Comeback / The New Yorker

• Also an ambivalent, triumph; Oliver Anthony fans fans who used a quirk of the charts to boost its position — a tactic that K-pop fans also use / NYT

• Last Thoughts on Night Life. A ecology for the New Yorker’s “Goings on about Town” / Beat Connection

• The economics of acting. Just how difficult can it be? Very — and for most actors outside the A-list there just isn’t very much work to be had / FT

• From Piers Fawkes: BikeLife: Matthew Joseph captures the humanity of a misinterpreted underground movement / Creative Boom

• Colson Whitehead on the Monocle Pod / Monocle

• The Brooklyn Circus is dressing a global village / BK Mag

• But maybe “Going Shopping is dead” Retail shopping used to be a pleasurable, social activity; now it’s miserable due to understaffing, inventory issues, and security measures / Vox

• Why Anne Imhof, Queen of Hardcore, Is Selling Merch / BoF

• How young corporate goths bring alternative style to their 9-to-5 / Teen Vogue

• “Caddyshack was apparently a “permanent cocaine party.” / Farout

• From Piers Fawkes: nyc old pics fodder: Allen Ginsberg's vintage portraits of the Beat generation / i-D

• Endlesss unveils Clubs: 'Discord servers made for music-lovers' / Musically

• Can an ethical Made in New York label scale? / Vogue Business

• More made in NYC: fave skate shop KCDC spot lit on Thrasher’s ‘established’ series / IG

• Also made in NYC: A new exhibit in New York celebrates 50 years of hip hop culture, showcasing a 'visual mixtape' of graffiti art, lyrics, and photos of past and present rap stars, as well as a 10-minute documentary which explores the evolution of hip hop as a cultural trend / Fast Company

Media Happenings

• X will remove headlines and excerpts on linked news articles / Fox Business

• Because? Twitter Can’t Seem to Buck Its Advertisers-Don’t-Want-to-Be-Seen-Next-to-Nazis Problem / Vanity Fair

• Media heavyweights form new research group to support free press / Axios

• Meta to Launch Web Version of Threads / The Information

• The New York Times Has Had a Summer of AI Anxiety: “They’re Freaking Out” / Vanity Fair

• Conversely: LinkedIn became cool by being stable / The Future Party

• Netflix may be losing approval during the writers strike, but the kids still love it / Tubefilter

• From Marcella Farman-Dietz: “The 40(ish) Most Important People In Podcasting 2023 / Hollywood Reporter

• Related: How Podcast Producers Became Rising Stars in the Creator Economy / Fast Company

• After Record Downturn, Media M&A Shows Signs of Rebound / Adweek 

• Atlas Obscura Ads Are Crushing; But What's the Story With Experiences? / A Media Operator

Market-ations

• TikTok's nascent shopping service, is expected to lose more than $500 million in the U.S. this year / The Information

• Hence? TikTok Mulls Banning Links to Outside Commerce Sites / The Information

• Also, ads are coming to TikTok search results / The Verge

• Why are TikTok creators so good at making people buy things? / BBC

• ‘Subliminals have a power no teen can explain’ / The Atlantic

• Why brands are hijacking the music video / Creative Review 

• Speaking of hijacks: Pornhub has just started the year's funniest logo battle / Creative Bloq

• While Adidas x Bape rewrite the streetwear playbook / Jing Daily

• Plus, the Met brings art history to Roblox / Jing Daily

• Related, from Jeff Kling: The Met Keeps Releasing Clothing With Pacsun. Why? / NYT

• Corollary from Celeste Blewitt: The growth of 'On Running' and how the brand has grown so quickly in three years. Cult athletic status. 'The Most Impressive World Championship Team Isn't A Country. It's A Brand' / NYT

• From Piers Fawkes: it’s actually pretty strong and attractive. Conran Design Group crafts new logo and identity for global comms group Havas / Creative Boom

• On the other hand, good God: Skechers signs Harry Kane, plans soccer debut / Retail Dive

• Michael Lewis has made a career of minting ordinary heroes. Then he introduces them to his speaking agent / Semafor

• [SIC] homie Ben Lerer on Warby Parker / WWD

• Lab-grown diamonds may not be forever—but their rise is driving down prices / Quartz

• Ford Partners With Madewell for a limited-edition capsule combining Madewell’s premium denim with Ford’s history, inspired by 1970s Ford Bronco racers/MediaPost 

• Stores are leaving San Francisco. Ikea is opening this week / CNN

• And will offer "sustainable, plant-based options" separate from Ikea's traditional food hall / San Francisco Chronicle

• No plants, but based: KFC issues a rare and heartfelt apology to all the utensils that get forgotten when people eat its chicken/ The Drum

• Also forgotten? Brands’ metaverse leads: where are they now? / The Drum

• Vendr dropped a banger of a report on Q2 SaaS buying patterns / Mostly Metrics

• Spotify Leans Into Gen Z's Sadness With 'Bummer Summer' Campaign / Ad Age 

• Not summery: Ice drifting with the real Michelin man / FT

• Also outdoors: Gorpcore brands are becoming more mainstream / Modern Retail

• Corollary: Nike stock suffers record rout on China concern, inventory woes / Bloomberg

• While Dick’s Sporting Goods blamed organised retail crime for lower Q2 margins / BoF

Superficial Interest

• The Beekeepers Who Don’t Want You to Buy More Bees. In Slovenia and around the world, conservationists try — and mostly fail — to combat the widespread belief that honey bees are in danger / NYT

• Which begs the question: Is Beekeeping Wrong? Parasites and pesticides have brought chaos to bee colonies throughout the world / The New Yorker

• The biggest search for the Loch Ness monster in 50 years is about to kick off. Enthusiasts will be armed with drones and underwater acoustic devices, which have never been used to look for the mythical beast / The Guardian

• While in bodies of water closer to home: Tits Out Under the Verrazzano / The New Yorker

• The states that produce the most creative types / WaPo

• From Piers Fawkes: Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea and NBBJ launch renovated nickerson gardens playground in LA / Design Boom

• The Winningest Team in Sports History is … a public High School on the Upper West Side / Duplex Deli Sandwich Club

• A clock that plays music with the current time in the song title / The Pudding

• Ecstasy is considered one of the safer illegal drugs. But there are risks. / NYT

• Obsessing over your productivity? Try percolation instead / Quartz

• The key to depression, obesity, alcoholism – and more? Why the vagus nerve is so exciting to scientists / The Guardian

Food / Drink

• From Iolanda Carvalho: Just this one 😉 Wine trending colors...Category on the Rise: Orange Wine / BevAlc Insights

• How to talk to a sommelier / FT

• Alcohol is bad for you (above small doses) / Twitter

• Cactus Plant Flea Market is collabbing with Erewhon on a $22 smoothie, with a portion of sales going toward Maui relief efforts / Highsnobiety

• Does That Crisper Drawer Even Do Anything? / Bon Appetit

• A new restaurant row blooms in Brooklyn, in a one-block cul-de-sac in Greenpoint / Eater

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The Annual Cycle