[SIC] 309: Sequential Moderation

Volume Six, Number Forty Nine

The [SIC] Weekly digest of pertinent developments, compiled and published free on Thursdays to 6290 subscribers for this edition.

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Also if you’re a breakfast person, Breakfast Clubbing is a [SIC] sister newsletter tracking the free, open-to-everyone breakfast events I started, now happening around the world (NYC, Portland, Milan, London, Austin, Philly, Brighton, Mexico City, Edinburgh etc) . Everyone’s invited, especially you.

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Corollary Sources This Week:

The Daily Upside/ As Seen On By Ochuko /  Public Announcement / After School / Feed Me / Herb Sundays / Nieman Lab / The Future Party / Dealbook / Back Row / Thought Enthusiast / Status / Morning Brew  / Marginal Revolution

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Contributors this week: Matt @TheTechnorati, Piers Fawkes, Ed Cotton, Celeste Blewitt, Iolanda Carvalho and Molly Raskin. Contributions welcome from everyone!

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Hi all,

First, some music to set the mood. Even tho it didn’t include a [SIC] mention, Phillip Sherburne’s Thought Enthusiast appearance prompted me to check out Ghostly International’s Playlist Ghostly: At Work. Which somehow brought to mind Whitey’s indie sleaze banger Leave them All Behind, which in turn prompted me to dial up Walk the Night Radio, based on the Skatt Bros anthem brought memorably to life in this Pacino-at-the-disco-leatherbar video edit. Very important.

Also important: [SIC] Talks Alum Sami Reiss announced Super Health, a newsletter covering the edge of nutrition and wellness, as part of an interview in Heavies about the Deep-Cut Health Books All the Influencers Steal Advice From.

Elsewhere, two-time alum Casey Lewis launched The Afterschool Podcast with an ep on how Back to School Season Is Gen Z’s Super Bowl. And My Life in Meals: Matt Hranek captured another alum’s diet in The Supersonic. In media diets: Daisy Alioto hit the media big time with an NYT profile on how she wants Dirt to become the LVMH of media.

Apropos of high-profile names, this week’s [SIC] Talks guest Ryan Babenzien was talk of the (business) town this week because of a series of ‘viral’ LinkedIn posts (explained in the pod but accessible here, here and here). Have a listen.

[SIC] Talks #80: Ryan Babenzien (Spotify)

Ryan’s a longtime buddy and the accidental architect of my whole Breakfast Club series, but more notably he is the founder and CEO of Jolie Skincare, which is one of my favorite companies to cite when it comes to simple but innovative brand building.

We talked about his viral Linkedin posts of course, but also about Rishad Tobaccowala’s Generosity as a Strategy post, touched briefly on the NYT’s  “Have we learned anything from the pandemic supply-chain crisis,” and dug into Business Insider’s story about Walmart and Walgreens stores locking up so much stuff that delivery workers are avoiding them. Corollary to that: Walmart is winning again — thanks to wealthier shoppers.

Also discusseed, courtesy of Pier Fawkes: [”It’s Miserable Now”: Target Stores Criticized for Locked Up Inventory]”. As Piers wrote, “Someone told me that the reason Walmart is doing well ( and looking nice) is that they raided so many staffers from Target. Problem is - the staffers don't want to move to Bentonville when the deadline comes. Corollary to that, also from Piers: Can 7-Eleven change its U.S. image and become more like the stores in Japan?

And the last one Ryan picked was Who Wants a Man In Finance?, about which The Atlantic says “This is about that annoying song, yes, but it’s also about more than that. The rejection of the girlboss mentality and the rise of the tradwife movement reflect a shift in young women’s priorities — less corporate hustle, more rest and relaxation.” 

Maybe. I think it’s more a desire to just work differently. To that end, Gutes and Megan at Byline (whom I advise) announced a curatorial residency at Ace Hotel, about which they wrote  “In true Byline spirit, we are opening the fourth slot of the residency program to anyone in an open call” ( via Airtable).

And speaking of folks I work with The John and Alice Coltrane Home announced this month’s  Detroit Jazz Festival Opening Night  will include TRANSLINEAR LIGHT: The Music of Alice Coltrane featuring Ravi Coltrane with special guests Reggie Workman and Brandee Younger (playing Alice Coltrane's restored harp) with members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. it’s this Friday, August 30, 2024 at  5:00 pm  if you’re in the D, or Stream it live.

Last thing: this is the penultimate edition in Volume Six - next week will be a dive into some numbers from the past year and announcement of Volume Seven programming. It’ll be a little different, in other words. This one should tide you over for a while, tho. Thanks for being here - and here’s to bigger and more ‘elegant’ things, to use Ryan’s favorite word.

And now, the links.

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[SIC] 309: Sequential Moderation

The Macro Narrative

• 10 Patterns from 400+ SXSW '25 Talk Submissions / Zine

• Related: The playing field. Everyone is talent and everything is IP / Business of Sociology

• Are We Living in the Age of Info-Determinism? / The New Yorker

• Well, Don't Give Up on Reading Just Yet / The Lindy Newsletter

• Corollary, from Molly: Culture Froze in the Biden Era. Is It Finally Heating Up? / GQ

• Meantime, Parents and Gen Alpha kids are having unintelligible convos because of ‘brainrot’ language / NBC News

• Apropos: From brats to tradwives: why do we keep putting women into subcultures? / The Guardian

• Related: Aggregation theory. The internet has few centers of gravity right now. (Media thoughtz from Kyle Chayka) / One Thing

• Seven of the 10 Most Expensive Cities to Live in are in the U.S.. NYC, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Los Angeles, and Chicago are top 10.  San Diego, Portland, OR and Tampa complete the US top 10 / Time Out

• Speaking of hot towns, from Ed: “File Under Media. Incredible.”  [The Little Town Being Taken Over by Falun Gong] / NYMag

• Related, from Piers: home protection or …. maybe it’s about having the ultimate accessory for your home? [Applications to carry guns in NYC and NJ are surging] / Gothamist

• Across the pond: Can the Six-Day Work Week Save Greece? / YT

• So… (also from Piers): “the answer might be Sweden… Can This Country Show Europe How to Compete Again?”/ NYT

• ‘Brat summer’ takes Xiaohongshu / Jing Daily

• Speaking of brats: Man who claims he was injured in 'sprinkle pit' sues Museum of Ice Cream / The Art Newspaper

• Related? Theme Parks are slumping / The Future Party

• Makes me wonder: How Long Have We Been Misunderstanding the Word ‘Enthusiasm’? / Frieze

• Also, Does capitalism make you lonely? / Inexact Science

Generationations

• Continuing that thought, from Molly :Gen Z’s loneliness crisis may be changing entertainment tastes. Can Hollywood adapt? / LAT

• Cause, like LinkedIn’s oldheads don’t like Gen Z turning the site into Facebook  / Bloomberg

• Hence? Meet the Granfluencers. From funeral fits to dating hacks, elderly TikTokers are slaying online / The Walrus

• Meanwhile, Zoomers Think Tesla aren’t Cool Anymore / Futurism

Platformations

• New dating app Rizz, allows you to invite your friends to watch and comment directly [on your matches] in a chat / Nylon

• While TikTok is rolling out a group chat feature that will allow 32 users to simultaneously spill the tea / Engadget

• Corollary: Resale platform Grailed introduced a “Curators” program / Grailed

• And Grindr launched a content series, Host or Travel / YT

• Threads might soon roll out a feature allowing posts on the website to disappear after 24 hours / TechCrunch

• While in contrast: Tubi is now capitalizing on its eclectic library of older content and low-budget productions / NYT

• Twitch is introducing 60-second video stories to challenge Instagram/ Techcrunch

• But Kids say YouTube is the Coolest Brand / Tubefilter

Stylistics

• Politicians deserve fit checks, too. Lauren Green collaborates on TikTok with everyone from AOC to Fetterman / Embedded

• While in China, celeb stylist Lucia Liu talks Gen Z, fashion, and Qixi Festival / Jing Daily

• Hello Coach, Goodbye Brat Summer: What Gen Z Are Buying Now Gen Z shopping expert Casey Lewis talks back-to-school trends, the popularity of Coach bags, and much more / Back Row

• More bags, from Celeste: The Row's Margaux Bag Is A Future Heirloom In The Making  / Vogue UK

• Also? The Greatest Shoes of All Time / Footwear News

• Goat-adjacent, from Molly: The Business of Beauty Haul of Fame: Don’t Eat That / BoF

Culturations

• This is cool. Curtorial ace Specific Object / David Platzker in collaboration with Wright Auction presents a curated sale of over 250 works by, or from the circle, of Raymond Pettobon between 1978 and 1982+/ IG

• And Skateboards, Objects, and Multiples from the Studio of Mark Gonzales are up for Auction / Heritage Auctions

• But, from Celeste: Where Have All The Connoisseur Collectors Gone? / FT

• Corollary: How authenticity became the hottest currency in music / Dazed

• Also hot? A 481-Year Age Difference? For Some Readers, That’s Hot / NYT

• Dovetails with: Can You Love the Art and Hate the Monster? / The New Yorker

• And the way Industry’s Stock Surges / GQ

• Just in time for, from Molly: The End of HBO Sunday Nights / Slate

• Elsewhere: Andy Cohen's Oral History Of 'Watch What Happens Live' / NYLON

• And From Molly: How ‘The Challenge’ Made Reality TV a Real Career / NYT

• Really elsewhere: Borat Meets the Matrix. Ancient folklore meets the cybernetic future at Ozora, a psytrance festival in the Hungarian woods/ Rave New World

• Corollary somehow: “Nightcall” by the French electro house artist Kavinsky became the most Shazamed song ever in a single day / YT

• From Molly: Missy Elliott, Pop World Builder, Brings a Hip-Hop Fantasia to Brooklyn / NYT

• Also fantastic: The Kaleidoscopic World of Amish Women’s Quilts / Hyperallergic

• And also borrowed from the OGs: Illustrated New York City Life. Stan Mack's comics from another time / The Melt

• More illustration, from Iolanda: An artwork appearing on the shutters of London Zoo has been confirmed as the latest and final image in Banksy's surprise animal art trail across the capital / BBC

Technopolis

• WGSN launches new AI trend hub for industry insiders / Jing Daily

• From Piers: A study...  found that describing a product as using AI lowers a customer’s intention to buy it / CNN

• Just in time for… Job hunters to flood recruiters with AI-generated resumes / FT

• Ergo: How ‘Deepfake Elon Musk’ Became the Internet’s Biggest Scammer / NYT

• And: The girls are using ChatGPT to see if men are lying about their height on dating apps / Twitter

• Meantime, SAG-AFTRA signs off on AI voice deal with Narrativ

• And US artists score victory in landmark AI copyright case / The Art Newspaper

Media-tions

• Influencers descend on the White House. Biden calls them the new “Source of News” / AP

• Related, from Molly:  Brands Love Influencers (Until Politics Get Involved) / NYT

• so I guess … Bari Weiss Knows Exactly What She’s Doing / NYT

• The New York Times Will Stop Endorsing Candidates in New York Races/ NYT

• And Axios is axing the “What’s Next” newsletter on Friday/ Axios

• Want to know what’s happening on the internet? Listen to these podcasts / NYT

• Apropos: The New York Times is making a Wirecutter podcast  / Axios

• From Iolanda:” The Olympic flame may be out. However, its most remarkable moments are still burning in the memories of fans” / Muse By Clio

• Related, from Piers: “... a cute anti influencer headline until you remember the talent’s day rate… [NBC Sent 27 Creators to Paris. It Only Needed Snoop and Olympic Athletes]/ Wired

• The Chairman of NBCUniversal, said, “The Olympics are our billion-dollar lab.” And the company now has a lot of data./ Hollywood Reporter

• Hence, from Iolanda: “With all eyes on the culturally dominant streaming platforms, Steve McHenry, Managing Director UK at Yahoo, examines how brands can take advantage of those platforms' increasing move towards an advertising model”/ Shots

• Why is a New York hospital setting up its own movie studio? / WSJ

Market / Influence

• Another from Iolanda: “Enormous fandoms with terrifyingly vast lore are getting even deeper and rapidly multiplying with the help of speedy algorithms. LBB’s Zoe Antonov asked strategists across the industry what are the ways adland can harness their power, and how brands can become brandoms" 😉 / IBB

• Ed Cotton on Creativity & Chaos / That Business of Meaning Pod

• Apple is the Big Tech dark horse of adland / Digiday

• WTF is surveillance pricing? / Digiday

• TikTok, Snap offer influencer agencies access to data and creators to gain competitive advantage / Digiday

• The best rebrands of the '80s, from Nike to British Airways and Apple / Creative Bloq

• Allbirds chief marketer on why brand building is key to the company’s turnaround plan / Retail Dive

• From Iolanda: “Changing the culture isn’t easy, writes Faris Yakob, but we can learn from the advertising ideas that failed just as we learn from what stuck, and what once seemed unbelievably stupid" / WARC

• Xmas comes early - Home Depot launches its holiday range in August / Apartment Therapy

• From Piers: ‘Alien: Romulus’ Unleashes Facehuggers in NYC / Event Marketer

• And “better than art projection i guess” [NYC Is Getting A Real-Life Squid Game Experience Where You Can Compete] / Secret NYC

• Corollary earnings wrap-up: A tumultuous time for the gaming industry / Digiday

• Hence? From Iolanda:  Lush has teamed up with Minecraft to launch a collection of bath products/ Design Taxi

• Dabbling’s Annie Dabir rebranded Glossier / Dabbling

• And Dyson launched headphones / Hypebeast

Eats, Drinks and Ephemera

• From Matt: Too Much of Our Seafood has a Dark Secret / NYT

• Also dark? Your Table Is Ready. The Clock Is Ticking. Restaurants are enforcing some strict time limits — whether or not dinner is finished / Grub Street

• From Celeste: Australia's Wine Sector Suffers As Drinkers Shun Lower-End Brands/ FT

• More declines: Sales of plant-based meat dipped 19% in the year ending in  May / Green Queen

• Related? Value is the key to customers in the fast food industry / CNBC

• B/c the future of junk food could be healthy food / Bloomberg

• US Avocado Demand Drives Deforestation in Mexico / Bloomberg

• Your favorite pretzel brand is launching fragrance. Auntie Anne’s pretzel-inspired fragrance, Knead / IG

The Natural (?!) World

• The Veterinarians Preventing the Next Pandemic / The New Yorker

• From Matt: Psychedelic Medicine Has a Therapy Problem / NYT

• So… MDMA therapy didn’t get FDA approval. Now what? / Vox

• From Piers: does a tree fall in the forest if it’s not recorded by a woodsy video blogger? [These Modern Homesteaders Live Off the Grid, but They’re Extremely Online] / NYT

• An Australian start-up wants to use fungi to slow climate change / NYT

• A giant 3D printer is building a neighborhood in Texas / Quartz

• From Piers: “wow. a positive story about living in New York (published in London)” [Cosy, quiet and efficient: how New York is pioneering eco-friendly apartments] /The Guardian

• Boston is rolling out Cargo e-bikes sharing / Axios

• And a service in DC is introducing reusable containers for delivery food / Axios

• Stonehenge rock was lugged 400 miles from Scotland / FT

• A new book uses a mere 50,000 words to delve into 2,000 years of Japan’s rich civilization / Semafor

[SIC] 309: Sequential Moderation