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[SIC] 7.30.26
Dinner with Steven Tyler, Hot Pussy Painting, Public Reversals and Filmic Vortex, plus The Empire Strikes Book and a chart with a bunch of brands on both sides.
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Hi all,
No sooner had I promised to include events recommendations and a friend section each week, than new ideas for both stopped showing up; such is Newsletter Life. I’ll have more for you in the future. There is one project to point you to at least; longtime buddy Joseph Ari Aloi, aka JK5 just announced The Empire Strikes Book, his new project for the excellent Blurring Books label, which put out [SIC] Talks alum Nikki Igol’s super cool Public Image Library: NYC Restaurant Ads, 1981-1998, among many others.
Joseph / Joey / Ari (depending on which time period you know him from) is one of the purest creatives I’ve ever met; always sketching/making/tattooing/publishing - and one of the nicest dudes ever. The book traces 50 years of drawings inspired by the Star Wars Universe - dating back to basically when he was a toddler; truly a life in the pages. I can take or leave the whole Star Wars thing at this point, as I’d imagine many of you can, but this is a pretty unique time capsule. I’ll be supporting.
Speaking of support, I’d be remiss to not remind you that now that [SIC] is back in the publishing free on Thursday game, aid posts have returned as well. Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays is the new cadence with some new exclusive features. [SIC] talks before they drop to the public, and generally more analysis and deeper dives for me are on the agenda. I opened up the link to Tuesday’s [SIC] day here to give you a sense. It’s far from a final forum, but if nothing else, it’s more links for this week.
Speaking of links for the week, [SIC] Homie and close reader, Francis Zierer, of the mighty Creator Spotlight mentioned that he was back and forth on whether he preferred bullets or no bullets. I’m going no bullets this week, but let me know what you prefer in the poll here. All this feedback is valuable.
Last one before the links. Speaking of feedback, I got a note in response to Tuesday’s [SIC] Day from stalwart supporter Josh McHugh asking how close I was to Reggie James, whose post about data centers I featured last week and again on Tues. I’d say we’re convivial.
More on the Reggie question in a second, but Josh asked as a corollary,
"Are you familiar with Jack Boulware, SF literary fixture and founder/publisher/eic of The Nose magazine, a role in which he attained the distinction of being the first media executive to mock me in print, and as far as I know the last, and yet he walks the earth and writes amazing things like “The Unknown Stones. An alternate reality in which The Rolling Stones never existed“
I hadn’t been familiar, to be honest, but Josh is right. Amazing piece. And as for Josh, he followed up both privately and publicly with this Note, correcting the record.
IDK if including this makes me the second ‘media executive’ to mock Josh (hoping no) but the whole thing behooves me to say I really appreciate your contributions and your feedback, everybody. Keep them coming. Contributions this week from stalwarts Celeste Blewitt and Iolanda Carvalho along with a well-placed Geoff Renaud tip about the origins of AI all the way back in 1950s New Hampshire.
OK now, the links.
[SIC] 7.30.26
Societistics
Free the Wolverine: Popular gray-market drugs may soon be easy to get through mainstream channels. America Is About to Go Over a Peptide Cliff
What are we at now - One in seven Americans on GOP ones? Won’t anybody think of The marriages ruined by Ozempic As weight-loss jabs flatten libido and trigger sudden personality shifts, long-term relationships reach a breaking point.
Speaking of drugs, more US consumers 12 and older now use marijuana on a regular basis than alcohol and tobacco for the first time ever. The teens sneaking contraband into my house are still on Smirnoff Ice, which I’ll take as a positive sign?!
More intoxicants, from Celeste: the Oasis Index….Melbourne is the most expensive place in the world to buy five pint of beer and a pack of cigarettes à la Oasis….
Corollary to that, also from Celeste: Deutsche Bank’s recent cost of living report…
The Economist will see your Oasis index and raise you two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, and cheese: What the Big Mac index reveals about a global currency beef
There’s a tie there someplace too A people’s guide to the ‘Commie Corridor’ of Brooklyn and Queens and it’s not just the McDonald’s on McGuinness…
Talking of destroying the means of production. The Wildberries Edition of WITI today on the OSS, Amazon Prime, and long-range sanctions is a fascinating comment on industrial espionage as state craft.
Which has a parallel in news that Schools in at least three states will be equipped with drones this year that can smash windows and pepper-spray active shooters if teachers report a threat.
And since we’re talking of surveillance states, take a sec to revisit The Cursed Quest to Make Meta Glasses Cool in NY Mag for your daily dose of cringe.
Slop-olipsism
My Journey Into The Slop Factory ( In which Taylor Lorenz attempts to make automated videos and discovers that all these services are just money pits).
TayLo’s adventure notwithstanding, A new report claims that AI slop is slipping through the verification and quality checks that advertisers have long placed on digital content.
On the subject: Rachel Karten reports That storytime TikTok is probably an ad. “UGC creators” are posting fake skits about bad bosses and toxic mother-in-laws to sell products. Consumers are falling for it,” as she writes.
So here’s The Economist offering tips on How to spot AI writing. Large language models like long words and em-dashes—or do they?
Whatever the truth, Substack ’s AI detection partner Pangram announced a $9 million fund-raising round to help you spend a bunch of time trying to ‘got ‘im’ lazy writers
And thus: Substackers Say New AI Detection Tool Is a ‘Witch Hunt’
Incidentally the Substack system judges this post you’re reading to be 0% AI-generated. Which is true, tho I did dictate a bunch of the text via Wispr.ai. Speaks highly of the sources I’ve pulled from, I guess?
In any case: “You will learn to love AI writing” predicts unrepentant pragmatist Tyler Cowen.
Maybe the writing that gets you there is stuff like the Hugging Face AI break-in, as told through an increasingly committed bear metaphor: Think about the whole thing by picturing a bear at a campsite.
And since you’re in your mind’s eye, another one to picture, from Geoff Renaud: The Meeting of the Minds That Launched AI: the 1956 Dartmouth AI workshop
HIP REPLACEMENT EP.67: João Rodolfo
The Kylie Jenner Meta glasses debacle continue to dominate conversation, to the point that parody ads are popping up condeming the tech. The strategist and Signals author joins us from Brazil to chat surveillance stunting, finstas, and Olivia Rodrigo’s man in finance among other things.
Listenings
I was asked to be a judge of The Signal Awards recognizing the podcasts that define culture, and while I’ve already started my listening, you can still get nominations in by the end of day tomorrow, July 31.
Corollary to that: “The Story of Money” The FT’s podcast is not only in front of the paywall but is hours and hours of following the dollars all the way back to the source.
Also on the podcast tip from Celeste: Norman Cook’s Desert Island discs episode. Fatboy Slim is fucking in heaven.
Norman, who I really am a big fan of, ends with “Born Slippy (Nuxx)”, which is as indelible a reminder of my age as any I can think of.
And for which there’s no better evidence than apparently my wife is taking my son to see Underworld at Knockdown Center in September.
Also on the Maspeth/Ridgewood border: Underscores live at Elsewhere for The Fader
Evidence of a few of the Seven Ways Electronic Music is *Still* Imagining a New Future
Even if ‘the dancefloor is dead’ and Everyone wants to play the harp now.
Standout track from the Charli record, incendentally: “Persona”
Artism
Why do celebrities keep trying (and failing) to become artists? Adrian Brody, Ed Sheeran, Jack White, who next?
More questions: Why Are There So Many Toxic People in the Art World? “Every industry has toxic people, but desperation gives the art-world toxicity its particular flavor.”
More flavor: Diné Weaver Venancio Aragón Dyes Wool With Kool-Aid
More textiles: Ralph Lauren teamed up with fourth- and fifth-generation Gee’s Bend textile artists Claudia Pettway Charley and Loretta Pettway Bennett for its latest Artist in Residence collaboration to create a limited-edition range of apparel and home goods
While up North Brooklyn’s smallest – and strangest? – art history museum is hidden in plain sight. Salvator Mundi Museum of Art, a minuscule exhibition visible entirely from the street through a panel on one local artist’s front door.
Hence?: Stuck With an Empty Storefront? Make It Art. Curators are hosting pop-up art exhibitions in empty commercial spaces
Businessism
Stadium design is getting more outlandish
FIFA (a nonprofit, apparently) is planning to create a $20B for-profit spinoff to run commercial and event operations, including the World Cup.
And predictably the European confederation, UEFA, immediately released a statement condemning the proposed move.
No stopping this train, guys - as evidenced by SBJ’s College Jersey Patch Deals Directory. A database tracking the emerging market for college sports jersey patch sponsorships – who’s selling, who’s buying, and how agreements are structured as on-uniform advertising becomes a major new revenue category. Fascinating.
More new category; sports furniture: Fashion designer Kristin Juszczyk is designing the “Jer-Z-Boy” chair for La-Z-Boy’s NFL campaign
No, no sports fans, don’t get up: Door Dash Drone Delivery. Alliteration FTW again.
The 25 brands consumers most identify with — and the 25 they aspire to. “Nike is who they are. Gucci is who they want to be.” People writing in spelled Louis Vuitton 24 different ways.
And thus: Nike is trying to reignite its sportswear business with a hoodie
While luxe/punk run club fave Satisy made some mountain climbing jeans with Levis
In contrast, no ropes: From high heels to ‘Zara death pants’: how fashion falls foul of women’s safety.
More faux pas: The Birkin Is Embarrassing. But What About Chanel Bags?
Corollary, from Iolanda: The power of fandoms... [For CMOs, fandom is simply too powerful to ignore]
Entertainmentism
The Booker Prize 2026 longlist
From Iolanda: Return of the 80’s mall [FX gave an iconic mall an ’80s makeover to promote ‘The Shards’]. The Disney-owned network transformed the Sherman Oaks Galleria
From Celeste: And another favourite distraction is forgotten about…The Fence and a piece on a favourite restaurant. [Solo in Dublino]
23 THINGS IT’S OK TO STEAL FROM A HOTEL (and a definitive list of stuff you should leave in the room).
Welcome to the internet’s “low effort” era, in which we are increasingly becoming passive consumers of hyper-personalized information as online discovery shifts from chronological feeds to AI-driven videos and conversations
HBO Max is experimenting with vertical video through a new feature called HBO Max Shorts
A new media company called Eventual is launching in partnership with Polymarket “to give the world’s top prediction market traders a platform for news and analysis”
Why Kids Can’t Quit Roblox The mechanics of many games on the platform are nearly identical to those of slot machines and sports-betting apps.
Metacriticism
The Creative-Athlete State of Mind. A Reorientation of the Process.
Art for Art Sake by Zadie Smith
Everyone Hates Journalists, Maybe for Good Reason
China’s booming magazine scene: Big names in fashion flip the page east
Magasin, reracked 5 years, 500 issues. Behind the new design with Andrew J.S,.
Acting Natural
I loved the brain stretching involved here; What Is It Like to Be a Cucumber? The “Natural Philosopher” Michael Levin is pondering the question deeply.
Apropos of the heavy-metal people briefly hypothesized in that piece: What Aliens might actually look like
Scientists Are Listening for New Alien Signals; maybe we just weren’t listening on the right frequency.
And thus: Scientists in Costa Rica are using A.I. to test the cognitive abilities of monkeys in the wild
More primate primacy: The Absurd History of Smoking Banana Peels. The “hoax” that tricked federal officials, the FDA, mainstream newspapers—and countless psychonauts seeking a fruitful trip.
Also wild: The Return of the Monarch. After years of decline, butterfly populations are rising—for now.
Turns out some people are just tick magnets
And finally, just gonna leave this here:
The Newest Status Symbol in Longevity Circles? A “Top One Percent” Vagina
Ha haaa - I got a nice comment of appreciation from Reggie - so cool! - and I definitely don't feel mocked at all in your post (the night is young) ... stoked you dug Jack Boulware's piece too!