[SIC] 399: Subjective Objectives

Vol. 8, No. 39. (Almost) final thoughts, nightlife diaries, HIP REPLACEMENT with Carmen Vicente of Scroll Sick, and all the liiiiinks.

Ben Dietz

May 28, 2026

`[SIC] Weekly is a digest of developments in trends, tech, media, marketing, fashion, food, places and events, compiled for information obsessives and published free on Wednesdays. Read like an outline for a sense of the week’s gestalt. Nobody clicks every link, except me.`

`I’m Ben Dietz, advisor-for-hire to brands, publishers and agencies, interviewer, moderator and occasionally event/exhibition producer. Give a shout: @dietznutz on socials.`

`New original art and animation each issue is made by` Gordon Hull`. Special thanks this week for ideas:` Cara Cannella, Kevin Johannesen, Randy Irwin, Foster Kamer, DB Burkeman, Erica Chen, Steve Bryant, Piers Fawkes, Iolanda Carvalho and Celeste Blewitt `Comments,questions and contributions are invited from everyone.`

`This digest was sent free on 5/27/26 to 8538 subscribers. Original source is cited. Corollary sources are listed at the end of each digest.`

`[SIC] prospers when you share it, so please do.`

Hi all,

We’re coming to the end, so to speak.

For anybody not paying attention lately, next week’s [SIC] will be the last one in this incarnation; I’m done with mass aggregating and after a break in June while I head to Cannes, I’ll be back with a new angle of approach for [SIC] and its systems.

Part of the change is reflected in Seth Godin’s “Unpaid Labor” post from this morning; as he notes “If it’s paying off for you, keep going! If it’s not, it might be worth reconsidering, he notes.”

I am not unpaid for this, but the quote gets to how I’m feeling about the aggregate-and-filter thing; both that it’s become a diminishing return game for me and also that others are killing it right now, so this daily/weekly exercise is less useful to you, the audience.

The other part is reflected in the unintentioal dyad of Elz’s Enantiodromia Edition for WITI, on high-context environments and purer feeds ahead, and in Michael Williams’s No News is Good News essay yesterday. To wit: there’s just too much stuff and we’re all kind of over it. We want less to be more again. I’m gonna try and figure a way to resist my natural tendency to magpie, in this next incarnation.

I’ve also got a few other things to figure out. Cara wrote me yesterday: “Thought of Breakfast Club” in linking to The US Chamber of Commerce’s Human Connection Microgrants program that will award $500,000 in grants ranging from $2,000–$10,000 “to support community-building efforts that strengthen belonging, trust, and social connection”. BC has become a bit of a multi-headed beast lately (happy hours in Boston and Panama City tonight, for illustration); over 8000 people globally across over 50 cities. But when the Esprit de Corps is “Everyone’s Invited, Especially You,” there’s wrangling involved. Don’t let it stop you from starting a BC in your city, tho. Or from coming to hang out.

Beyond that, there’s the ‘reporting’ that I’ve been threatening to do, which probably amounts to 50-year-old-at-the-party-journals moreso than anything, but might still be interesting. Case in point: Sydney Bradley chided me for showing up late and missing ideas forconversation at the Perfectly Imperfect “Local’s Guide to Brooklyn” release at Ace Hotel DTBK last night; to paraphrase PI’s Tyler Bainbridge, they could be the new MGMT. My favorite from their newest, No Bad Words, is “Honest” but the whole thing is fun and catchy. A&Rs are circling, from what I hear.

I was late to the Ace because Campbell and I went to the Violet Skateboards premiere for William Strobeck’s new film ’Squeaky’ at the Angelika Village East. The video’s really good. Longtime [SIC] readers know that Bill and I grew up skating together in Syracuse, so it’s a point of pride getting to see his very particular lens on the world continue to flourish. And the crowd was what you’d expect: a who’s who of the NYC skate and downtown art scene, as well as a few surprise faces from the West Coast and overseas. Predictably somebody set off a roman candle in the middle of 2nd Ave afterward and brought traffic to a halt.

The “Squeaky” premiere was muted, in certain corners, by the untimely passing of Marc Johnson, who was not a New Yorker but who was definitely an icon for skaters everywhere. RIP. There was a melancholy parallel in the story Kevin sent me, texting “In the event you missed this yesterday” [What I Learned About Loss While Skateboarding at Costco]. We’re all going to die. But first — just one more trick.

Speaking of OGs in still in the mix; DB Burkeman and I have been going back and forth a bunch about his upcoming visual history Illegal Rave Flyers of the 90s, on his Blurring Books imprint. For a guy who’s produced a bunch of books, “It’s been extraordinary watching the success of the Kickstarter. There’s an appetite for this book unlike anything I’ve done before,” he texted. Pre-order a copy (the Kickstarter closes June 1) and look out for more DB in [SIC] soon.

Also DB-coded: Friends From New York’s Art Nite in Bushwick, for which Heidi Hartwig’s brought together the old school (DAZE, STASH) and the new (QZAR, HOMESICK) with Large Professor playing records. See you there. Campbell Dietz might be in the house too / Partiful

Or, if you’re in Atlanta, go check out Truett Dietz’s show of his ‘Slopworld’ drawings - which are drawings but are not slop. Unlike Campbell, Truett is no relation, but he’s a [SIC] homie and the show looks rad. / IG

HIP REPLACEMENT EP.59: Carmen Vicente

In which the social strategist and Scroll Sick author joins us to chat the Enhanced games, what comes after the taste economy, and the continued faking of the feed.

Or, listen:

Last thing before the links: [SIC] Talks alum Foster Kamer has a big package on AI and its peregrinations in the new issue of GQ; he quoted me (and by extension Campbell) in this piece on the future of creativity given the current Slopacalypse. I was glad to be included, even if I couldn’t manage a better word than ‘disruptive’ in the quote. Oh well. Its a good piece and I stand by what did manage to articulate. As Foster wrote me “Most of the rest of the package is here, here, and here (it’s a little larger in print).”

Ok, till next time, the links.

Ben

[SIC] 399: Subjective Objectives

The Current Moment

This is a very 2026 kind of headline: Massive 90-Foot ‘Claw’ To Alter White House Skyline for UFC Freedom Fight / NY Sun
This one too: The stunt pilot hunting Ukrainian drones / The New Yorker
Speaking of stunts: Does Anyone Know What’s Happening in Iran? Plus: Spencer Pratt’s mayoral campaign rattles Los Angeles, Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” sparks backlash, and the editors revisit Project 2025 / Reason
Cause, like, Spencer Pratt Really Thinks He Can Be the Next Mayor of Los Angeles / Vanity Fair
Corollary: No, Creators Don’t Deserve to Be Paid for This. The influencer political advertising boom is poisoning democracy / User Mag
So, like, Where Are America’s Ambassadors? Around the world, more than 100 of the country’s ambassadorships are unfilled—a sign of the Trump administration’s opinions about the value of diplomacy / The Atlantic
Meantime, A growing number of US employees are planning to fake calling in sick in order to snag last-minute tickets to World Cup matches / Business Insider
Apropos of that: The healthcare creator is finally diagnosing how they best fit into the creator economy / Digiday
Because?! Americans Have Entered the Age of the Needle. Americans’ enthusiasm for injection has never been higher / The Atlantic
As GLP-1s shift fashion, food trends / Axios
And thus: In a world of $600 sneakers, $9 gelato is the new point of entry. How Ice Cream Exposed the Luxury Illusion / Dotdotdot
Related: from Celeste: Inside The Luxury Sports Tourism Boom / Vanity Fair
Because: As the World Descends into Chaos, Rich People Have a Very Pressing Concern: Where Can They Go on Vacation Now? / Vanity Fair
Fancy any Travels in the Stans, then? / Not Competing
Cause like, France Is Banning Zyn and Threatening To Jail People for 5 Years / Reason
But like, What happens if your iPhone is stolen in London? / NYT
From Randy, Will Self has news for the UK: You’re an Addict Apodictically / X
Conspicuous trades on prediction markets are spoiling top pre-filmed reality shows / Variety
Meanwhile Denver’s Newest Clean Energy Source Will Be Sewage / Reasons to Be Cheerful
Erin Brockovich made a map to track data centers around the country / Nieman Lab
Thank God For Data Centers These Gigavillains Are Bringing So Many Technologies Down the Learning Curve / Not Boring
Superhot Rock Holds the Energy of the Future / Reasons to Be Cheerful
Do you wanna look hot or do you wanna look cool? / Blackbird Spyplane
Do Unstylish Men Deserve Love? Advice for Our Sexual Culture: swag gaps, the flightiness of contemporary dating and re-entering a world of desire / Many Such Cases
Speaking of style? Teen Vogue photographed 20 high schoolers on prom night / Teen Vogue
While further afield: The It-Kids of India / Vogue Business
Corollary: Were the Kars Really 4 the Kids? Breaking down the Kars4Kids scandal / Roca New

Platformations

Privacy-Conscious Gay Dating Apps Want to Dethrone Grindr. As public backlash against Big Dating mounts, a batch of new gay hookup apps offer community-powered alternatives / Wired
Meantime, Pornhub launched Pornhub Sapphic, a site dedicated to lesbian content / Mashable
And Paris Hilton Is Debuting a Deepfake Documentary on TikTok / ADWEEK
Not one to lose out on romantasy, Spotify is narrating magazine articles now / The Verge
Also romantic: AI Startup Says It Will Pay People $2,000 a Month to Masturbate—Yes, Really / Decrypt
Related? YouTube will now automatically label AI-generated videos / TechCrunch
And Meta will begin charging customers for access to its A.I.-powered chatbot / NYT

AI-gony Aunts

So now… AI Slop Comes for Podcasts / Quartz
AI Agents Plunged the Tech World Into Chaos. Here’s Exactly How That Happened. “The definitive story of how Claude Code and OpenClaw kicked off computing’s biggest transformation possibly ever” / Wired
Claude Code’s creator on the end of the software engineer / Platformer
And of Lawyers? People are using A.I. to help write and file their own lawsuits. They’re overwhelming courts / NYT
The Seventh Sense. Another way of perceiving the implicit? / In Bed with Social
Seven ways to avoid losing your job to AI / Marginal Revolution
Choosing to Stay Human...means choosing when and how to use AI / One Useful Thing
AI Just Isn’t Right. Can AI do fact-checking? A WIRED fact-checker fact-checks / WIRED
So…If you let AI do your writing, I will come to your house and kill you / Numb At the Lodge
In the meantime, How to Make Sure AI Doesn’t Spy on Us or Kill Innocent People. Train them to be Libertarian?! / Reason
Speaking of didactics: How the LLMs describe each other (as university classmates)/ X
From Celeste: The Secret Language Of The Plucked, Stanford University’s Most Elite / Town & Country
Apropos of that: To Land a Job in AI, Try Reading Kant. The world’s leading AI labs are hiring philosophers to think through ethical edge cases / Wired
On the topic of ethics? Doug Liman’s AI-assisted movie Bitcoin will feature deepfakes of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Eric Trump / Deadline
Clearly then: The New AI Money Should Be Spent on Beauty / NYT

Interviewings

Apropos: Trevor Paglen on art and AI / Artforum
Trevor Paglen and Holly Herndon on Making Art with AI and What the Discourse Is Missing/ TOTEI
Matty Matheson: Matty’s Five Rules For Making Your Own Show / Five Rules for the Good Life
No ghouling: Two-Questions for Ottessa Moshfegh. A Very Brief Q&A with the Writer / Apology
The Talks Talks to Jonny Greenwood / The Talks
Molly Johnson Doesn’t Expect it to be Easy / Byline
My Internet: Julia Vitale. The Air Mail editor-in-chief only follows discourse if it’s juicy and light and fun / Embedded
Paul Mescal interviewed Paul McCartney / Consequence of Sound
My Internet: Kate Lindsay Embedded’s signature Q&A on its founder / Embedded

Entertainmentaining

Backrooms And The Rise Of The Institutional Gothic / MIT Press
‘Obsession’ Makes Box Office History / The Hollywood Reporter
The 20-Year-Old Director Who Found Hell in Empty Hallways / The Atlantic
Sinatra was seasick. Scenes from life aboard a cruise ship filled entirely with celebrity impersonators / N+1
An Uncanny Moment for Jazz Lovers. Sonny Rollins dies the day before the Miles Davis centenary / The Honest Broker
How I’m Wrestling With Miles Davis’s Complicated Legacy as Artist—and Abuser / Vanity Fair
How Janette Beckman Captured Music History in Real Time / Artnet
Corollary: How Much Nostalgia Is Too Much Nostalgia? / Vogue Business
Speaking of running the same playbook: How music promo learned to blend into your feed. Labels and PR teams are turning to niche social media tastemakers to promote new music, hiding ads in plain sight / The FADER
Drake Might Actually Survive Losing the Kendrick Lamar Beef / Vanity Fair
ICEMAN did exactly what Drake needed (and not much more) / The FADER
Apropos: How Hacks Redefined Greatness / The Atlantic
Also redefining? Panic! At the post-reality: On the books telling us what “we must” do about aesthetics and democracy / Dirt
Feed Me’s Summer Novel Reading List / Feed Me
Corollary: The Horniest Literary Novels of All Time / The Things We Don’t Say
The DJ Who Brought America Weird Al, Tom Lehrer, and ‘Cows With Guns’. After 55 years, Dr. Demento has finally retired from the airwaves / Reason
Martyna Basta Is Seeking Shelter in Sound. With just guitar, field recordings, and voice, the Polish musician is capable of stopping time / Futurism Restated
More seeking shelter: My therapist hates my FYP. On how therapy speak become a mental health challenge / Girl Online

Arts and Artists

The Real Meaning of “The Road Not Taken”. It’s not about rugged individualism / Range Widely
Also on ‘the road’: Fixing the Potholes in NYC’s Cultural Infrastructure / Hyperallergic
Revisiting Nancy Holt’s ‘Sun Tunnels’ in an Age of Ecological Collapse. The artist’s landmark earthwork feels newly urgent as the landscape surrounding it undergoes rapid environmental change / Frieze
Public art blossoms around New York / The Art Newspaper
Artist Danielle Baskin created a free font in which “every letter is made of different angles and textures from a photogrammetry scan” from SF’s recently demolished Vailancourt Fountain / Danielle Baskin
Transformation corollary: How JR Transformed Paris’s Oldest Bridge Into a Massive Grotto / Artnet
Checking In with [Photographer] Guarionex Rodriguez, Jr. / Room With a View
Artmaxxing Why is fashion obsessed with art? / The Sociology of Business
Maxx corollary: Frictionmaxxing and the creative virtues of inconvenience / It’s Nice That

Marketizing

From Erica: “New article for your newsletter feature consideration” [You’ve Gotta Mail] / Linkedin
From Iolanda: The Message Became the Medium. A revisitation series ahead of Cannes Lions: Bonin Bough / Shingy
Case in point: CMOs on the Current Retail Media Landscape according to the Fodda graph data / Retail Innovation Week
What Brands Are Actually Worried About Behind Closed Doors / ADWEEK
“Shrinking” Lessons for the Booming 50+ Market / Advertising Week
Ben & Jerry’s Ben Cohen Says Selling Your Business Is ‘A Shitty Goal’ / ADWEEK
From cocktails to scent swaps: Inside China’s experiential perfume clubs / Jing Daily
Prada now has an in-house mixologist / Elite Traveler
From Iolanda: Everything World Cup’ing…[Nike Reveals Cast of Characters Fronting Nike Football This Summer] / LBB
While BOSS has been tapped as the official businesswear partner of the US Men’s National Soccer Team/ Complex
Another from Iolanda: [World Cup media will be dominated by CAPEs and athletes] Key Quote: “The explosion of digital channels and the velocity of fandom surrounding them is challenging both traditional media and major social platforms while elevating new personalities in sport” / The Media Leader
Mascots are back, but not as you know them / Creative Bloq
Is Jalen Brunson Already the Most Valuable Knick of All Time? / Boardroom
From Steve: “have you been fuckin with protein?” Merch hasn’t died – it’s just taken a darker turn. [Dark Mode Merch] Protein.xyz
Runners turned into Mean Girls: Satisfy x Adidas Runners turned into high school mean girls this week, unleashing a Burn Book of public criticism / Salty
“Racecar” is a palindrome. From Randy: Alpine to become Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team / X
Audemars Piguet CEO says Swatch tie-up smashed web records / Jing Daily
BTS Oreo cookies could be the biggest brand collaboration the world has seen / Creative Bloq
A Collaboration Once Thought Impossible: Beams gets Jansport and Eastpak together on a combination bag / Beams
China’s mall king is quietly moving downmarket / Jing Daily
In contrast, moving up: The rise of the approach shoe in menswear. A deep dive on how we swapped our sneakers for rock climbing shoes / Sprezza
Also from Iolanda: Pinterest’s Summer 2026 Trend Report “shows how sports are becoming a broader cultural language: influencing not only what people wear, but how they connect, celebrate, and show up together” / Pinterest
How a retirement company perfected its look for Gen Z. Bold and empathetic, Standard Life’s new brand identity aims to engage a wider audience / Creative Bloq
Retirement corollary: After shuttering in March, The Face magazine appears to be returning / The FACE
And does anyone know what the hell is going on at Interview? / Page Six
Vox Media, BuzzFeed, and the End of An Era / ADWEEK
The Guardian posts record U.S. revenue / Axios

Fooooooods

Bob’s Red Mill rebrand is the Cracker Barrel controversy all over again / Creative Bloq
Penfolds’ collaborations suggest future luxury wine growth may depend on how seamlessly brands integrate into broader cultural and lifestyle conversations / Jing Daily
Also the future: Not your average joe: 25 of the world’s best coffee shops, run by next-generation owners / Monocle
From Celeste: What It Takes To Run One Of London’s Most Popular Pubs / YT
An anti-viral pastry tour of Brownstone Brooklyn / FT

The “Natural” World

What dogs see in us / The New Yorker
On the subject of ‘seeing things’: A small clinical trial found that a single dose of psilocybin (the active compound in magic mushrooms) significantly reduced cocaine use among addicted participants / Science
Holistic health corollary; Seitai Japanese Bodywork and the Art of Self-Healing / Heavies
More ‘bodywork’: Why Genuine Patina is Personal, and Priceless. What objects capable of withstanding time and frequent use have to offer / Untapped
How the Great Pyramid of Giza Has Withstood Millennia of Earthquakes / Artnet
More ‘time’: The clocks in Nepal are always 15 minutes off from everywhere else / NYT

[SIC] 399: Subjective Objectives

Corollary Sources This Week: Garbage Day / Jimmy / Public Announcement / Marginal Revolution / Off The Fence / The Future Party / Roca News / Politico Future Daily / Jimmy / Gift Guide / Catchdini / Brendan’s Communication Miscellany / Daily Valet / The Future Party

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