[SIC] 7.16.26

A slight return.

Hi y’all.

I woke this morning to find [SIC] Talks alum Edmond Lau’s comment lamenting [SIC]s absence, and it gave me a twinge of regret. That, followed up with Tim’s reason for ending his paid subscription; “Loved the old [SIC]. Unsure what I’m paying for now,” urged me to action. It’s fair. When I ceased the old [SIC] paradigm with Number 400, I said I would be back in July, and my plan is, in fact, to re

turn next week.

Edmond’s regrets aside, the time off has been useful. It helped me realize that I had become a prisoner of my inbox, and I was unintentionally organzing my days around the inflow of information for [SIC]. What will happen going forward is a version of the aggregation I did before, but with a lot more depth, new exclusive elements, and some more analysis from me. Not too much, I hope.

Edmond’s complaint was about the loss of a trusted aggregator, and since I won’t be doing as much of that anymore, here are a few that I love and pull from frequently, where you can subscribe directly for that mainline satisfaction.

To wit: 1440, The Future Party, Litquidity’s Exec Sum. Public Announcement; After-school, Feed Me (dobvs) and As Seen On. The mighty, mighty voicey Web Curios and its more cheerful, OG analogue Kottke. Links I Would Gchat You, which seems to be going on a hiatus of its own. Dirt media’s Clone is an always-on resource to bookmark. Today the BYLINE gang Introducing a new newsletter concept today too that feels like it could be a winner (Disclosure: I’m an advisor). And there’s also Abe Burns’ legendary morning roundup, but that one is invite-only, and I don’t know how to direct you to it.

One newsletter that I wish would come out more, because I love what it aggregates, is Thomas Murphy’s, THEREALMURPHY formerly known as Blood and Champagne.

So there you go. Links aplenty.

As for [SIC], going forward it’s gonna become more of an associative curation of stories with a little bit of analysis and some context provided to give you a sense of what I’m really paying attention to or trying to process directly. One inspiration for this is Aaron Stern ’s elegantly composed but infrequently published Another Newsletter, which tours Aaron’s free, meandering mind, connecting works of art and culture.

To give you a sense of how it works, Aaron recently curated the “Hard Copy” show at ICP in New York featuring the work of Jerry Hsu, the legendary pro skater and one of my favorite photographers.

Jerry’s got a new book called “How About Never” coming out via Mack Books that you can pre-order now: signed versions or standard. I’ve got my copy en route. Bonus: it’s edited by [SIC] Talks alum and former colleague of mine Jesse Pearson of Apology, with whom I share a birthday.

On the topic of birthday, having celebrated last week, I was pleased to receive today my gift from A24’s AAA24 membership scheme: a birthday candle logo shirt. AAA24 has been my longstanding pick for the best loyalty program among any of the entertainment and culture companies. For a small monthly (I think it’s $10 now, I’m grandfathered in at $5), you get a free movie ticket to every new A24 movie, discounts and advanced sale on the excellent swag that they create and, as in my case, a birthday gift every year on your birthday. Cute.

There’s also exclusive content and a peek into the A24 world, which is valuable as an index of the entertainment marketplace, irrespective of how you think about A24’s tie-up with OpenAI. Or its legacy as inspiration for OpenAI’s silicon valley sweater set, as captured by Sean Monahan today. Couch by Sam Altman coming right up.

Anyway, Thomas Bengalter from Daft Punk and Dev Hines talking about Dev’s score for The Invite is cool and thoughtful.

One thing Thomas talks about: how much he likes Andy Warhol’s foundational Interview magazine format. Two creative people talking to each other and having the conversation transcribed. It’s always been one of my favorite formats and one that I’ve tried to emulate, albeit not as a creative or a star, just simply as a curious person.

To that end, I’m bringing back [SIC] Talks next week with the first episode in a while under a new format. It’ll be 30 minutes long and will be published as a transcription for paid subscribers.

Other stuff:

I red-eyed back from SF last night and listened to Clark’s “Playground in a Lake” album on repeat; redolant of Thomas and Dev’s convo it’s dark and orchestral, practically classical. “Lambent Rag” is a deserved fave of the algo but the whole thing is good. Clark’s been making leftfield electronic forever and most of it’s a lot more propulsive, hence the CLARK BANGERS playlist, aptlysubtitled “All my bangers in a neat n’ tidy place” with the PS “Chaos Still Rules”. Great for scrambiling next week’s Discover Weekly, fwiw.

Elsewhere back in Blighty, Es Devlin Is Creating a Living Portrait of the Entire U.K.

And the “Temu Range Rover” is now the UK’s best-selling car.

Closer to home: There’s a Moon Tree in Madison Park. Incidentally we have a Sweet Gum tree in front of the house. They’re great.

Corollary: A link in the Secret Strategist took me to the Tactical Gear site where civilians can apparently buy mil-spec Arcteryx Leaf gear without proof of occupation (certain styles anyway).

Also cursed? The advertising Holdco Stagwell is building its own AI media curation marketplace (an AI-powered pool of curated ad inventory for clients). Still, probably smart; this feels to me like how AI actually gets integrated into high level creative economies longterm: as an expediter in discovering (human-directed) work that actually cuts through.

Less smart: Beehiiv is introducing programmatic ads into its publishing stack. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

But since everybody’s being everything now: Retail Media’s Next Evolution: Getting Into Content.

More pivots: Sauna Beach Parties and Robot Dog Fights is Michelle Lhooq’s new beat: dispatches from the fringes of the Bay Area’s tech accelerationist pseudo-utopia via her excellent Rave New World outlet.

Corollary to that: The United Nations’ latest World Drug Report makes very clear that Drugs Keep Winning in the Global War on Drugs.

More winning: Baddies Who Crab

Baddies related: Want to Have More Sex? Move to New York. Hoping to chat with Magdalene J. Taylor about this one and the rest of what Playboy’s up to lately soon.

Yet, “There is no cool new restaurant in NYC that has no name, zero Google Maps presence, and hosts avant-garde puppet shows put on by beautiful young people,” from "What your city needs to be truly “up”, in which Big Spyplane gets ‘Twerp-pilled.

Also kinda Spyplane coded if you’re out East: Saturday’s Indigo Dyeing Workshop at 180 the Store, Amagansett. Two sessions: 11 am or 2:30 pm

Also Plane-y maybe? This Sun Ra Figurine at Hightide in LA.

Corollary: [SIC] Talk alums’s Ana Andjelic’s Tasteful. A one-day summit on cultural capital, October 14th, Cherry Lane Theater with [SIC] homie Sue Chan and Serviette Magazine

Related, this is fun: The media happy hour returns. Deez Drinks Vol. 1 party report

This too. Everyone is Invited. Hell of a Subway Take. Two Twos My Word, fam. (thanks Harps).

More next week.

Ben