matcha 🍵 Labubu 🧸 Dubai 🍫 Stanley Cup 🥤 Letterboxd 🍿 Trader Joe's 👜 A24 🎥 Erewhon 🛒 Crumbl 🍪 Love Island 🏝️ moonbeam 🌙 rave ☺️

On consumer culture critiques from within consumerism and dissecting why metallics are so in right now.

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Shooter in NYC blamed NFL for brain injuries
He had CTE. What does that mean?
“Blackstone kills people everyday”
"BREIT’s CEO was killed this week"
"In honor of the Blackstone Executive"
“the CEO of gentrification”
These dots aren’t hard to connect, and this isn’t the first time we're discussing this — but: this is revolutionary behavior. I’d go deeper on this but I’m trying to look at not-as-serious stories for the coming weeks as times are bad and I’m preparing to take a vacation (while still keeping this ship sailing). I don’t condone violence, but such violence is the language and expression of deep anger against the ruling class for murdering generations of the less fortunate. Such violence — that of Luigi Mangione, that of Aaron Bushnell — is seeking to correct the failure of the checks and balances that make life livable. I am sure there are many other health care, student loan, etc. deaths and murders that we could file under here too — but this week saw some interesting developments (not to mention the White House planning to spend $200M on a ballroom or DOGE’s spending $21B).

West speaks of a future Palestinian state
Trump’s indifference moved the UK on Palestine
As Gaza Starves, GOP Take Aim at Another Lifeline
A peek into the “pivot to Palestine,” which at this point is more self-serving — or is used as a cover.

El Salvador approves indefinite presidential reelection
One of the most corrupt world leaders just gave himself a pass. Wild stuff.

EU Cuts Aid to Ukraine Over Corruption Concerns
Protests in Ukraine as Zelensky targets anti-corruption
Much of this was last week but continues to be an emerging conversation: Ukraine combating and juggling corruption, all while continuing to fight a war.

Wednesday’s Earthquake Could Be One of the Largest
The tsunami warning this week was concerning and, thankfully, didn’t amount to much — but it is wild that it came from one of the biggest earthquakes on record.

Africa lags behind in access to clean cooking fuels
A fascinating story about the effort to bring clean fuel for cooking to sub-Saharan Africa as cooking with tools like open fire contributes to 800K (!!) premature deaths per year.

Inside the relentless race for AI capacity
AI explosion means millions pay more for electricity
Shot, chaser, as an extremely dookie situation plays out against Trump’s cutting and gutting of clean energy — and you having to pay for it.

I

Forgive me, readers, for I own zero Labubus, I have consumed approximately 10 matchas since they started in LA in the mid-2010s, I have watched zero episodes of Love Island, I have eaten one Dubai chocolate bar (which was given to me as a birthday gift — and I enjoyed), I have logged zero movies on Letterboxed despite making an account, I have zero dating profiles, and I typically clock zero minutes of AI use a day, unless a service is using it without my knowing.

There is mood going around the internet of people bragging about what they have and have not done as far as recent trends, all of which have become so exaggerated, consumerist, and GHC that people are rebelling by sharing how they — the chaste and strong, who have the self-restraint to resist — have not engaged with such “common” temptations. I call it The Great I Haven’t Economy™, where posts about owning zero Labubus, consuming zero matchas, having zero dating profiles, eating zero Dubai Chocolates, owning zero Stanley Cups, and other “Oh, I haven’t.” style posts which are all in direct contrast to the “Dubai chocolate Labubu matcha latte moonbeam rave” trend of listing slop culture items reflective of our great cultural recession. These are flexes that you are above being influenced and, while not an entirely offline expression, your sharing your consumption stats are less about underconsumptioncore and more that you are unalgorithmicable, that you are more likely to participate in the trend of sharing unique lore about yourself than consuming whatever it is that everyone else is doing. You are above that. (See also the economy of “performative [BLANK] starter packs” that cobble all these ideas together to roast people.)

Much of this has to do with our lack of genuine culture, that people feel that their lives and their world consists of products: that’s obvious, nothing new, a feature — not a bug — of culture since the Reagan era. Given how technology is decaying so much of what “the real is” (AI fakery, bots making up most online traffic, AI music for AI listeners) without giving us much in return besides dissolving local culture, people are looking back at the present from within the present and realizing that they have nothing to show for it: again, the culture recession made manifest. But there’s a twinge of something not-nice to this, which isn’t an anger at the cultural and political systems that have created this landscape but a drawing of the knife at each other paired with an incredible chasteness, a haughty “I am above you.” that creeps into eugenics adjacent territory by people including claims of having had zero broken bones. There is a deep seriousness to it all, which is perhaps why the joke of people cancelling themselves before someone cancels them got taken as actual reasons to cancel someone. The loss of comedy as a genre that people cared about or that feels “necessary” in culture is an expression of our self-seriousness too. There is a culture of fear (“Don’t perceive me!”) that collides with casual cringephobia (“Just found out I'm chopped and unc.”) and the general vibe that Gen Z are killjoys (No Drinking! No smoking! Less sex! More religion!) which is largely attributed, as ANU observed, living in a panoptic world where any slip up can become an Astronomer style world ender. Then there is the misogyny and homophobia embedded in this, arms and legs that give this conservative “I don’t do that.” feeling a deeper, seedier meaning, that a stuffed toy and a colorful drink and a dating show are things one must rise above to achieve nirvana: to be tempted by the accessories of the girls and gays is to become a worthy human, all this chatter says.

Even as the poster of the viral post that started it all admitted, “as if i don’t have several hello kitty build-a-bears, encyclopedic knowledge of america’s next top model, & a diet dr. pepper addiction”: this is what happens when we try to fight capitalism from within capitalism, that we see so much of the world through products and then pretend that we aren’t also participating in it, posting these musings on sites where we are all the product (Even Substack!). The AI everything of it all, the landfillcore of it all, the answer isn’t to post through this shit but to log off: we know this and yet we don’t do this.

Perhaps the answer is the ridiculous-but-great make your own (cursed) Labubu trend, of making things yourself, of keeping items for as long as you can, for relying on friends to share and swap items, of buying for life, of interrogating what your need to buy something is actually getting at as our homes and closets and phones are already full. The solution is perhaps in another rising economy: the free economy, a rising universe of sharing that I keep seeing more and more people in my life participate in. Kindred and Behomm to swap homes, TrustedHousesitters to travel more and get pet care, Tandem to exchange languages Freecycle to give and get, the rise of buy nothing groups, the current appeal of Reddit, the value and need for open source software: that is the answer. Perhaps this is found by growing up or by economic hardship: unsure. But these noble solutions are rising and, if we’re lucky, they will become the future. Until then, these fires are met with fires, online discourse waged against online discourse, of allowing the cop in you to police those who cannot police themselves.

Can We Not Be Weird About Sydney Sweeney?
This is the yin to the yang of the Sabrina Carpenter debate from a few months back, this time the right enacting it upon the left (versus the left enacting it upon itself). Which is all to say: this is all advertising. The Dunkin thing, the Gap/Old Navy thing: it’s all rage bait designed to crank the yap generator. Stop falling for this shit! Advertising as a surrogate for grand political statements (Or action!) illustrates a bit of culture’s brain rot.

Starbucks profits plunge as turnaround adds up
If they were smart, they’d poach the Red Lobster head (and stop supporting genocide).

It's Not Too Late for the Movies to Reject AI
The whole AI Wizard of Oz thing is one of the more terrifying expressions of Hollywood selling itself out to tech whims. Embarrassing! At least the memes are good. (It also fits into the Abba and Elvis things, all of which reinforce the culture recession idea.)

The End of Work as We Know It
CEO Brags: Firing People, Replacing With AI
"40 jobs AI will eliminate first"
Another charging horse to be included in the revolutionary items mentioned at top as real grim work developments emerge, thanks to AI-on-the-job stuff. “AI doesn't go on strike. It doesn't ask for a pay raise.” will be etched on our collective tombstone — or their collective tombstone!

Amy Sherald Cancels Her Smithsonian Show
Smithsonian removes Trump from impeachment exhibit
Five ways museums can be more ethical
The Amy Sherald item from last week and the recent Smithsonian item pair nicely with Gareth Harris’ upcoming book.

Everyone is listening to secular praise music
This is the only take on the state of music. It’s so good. Well done, kelsey weekman! This also plays into the Target Music™ convo. (Also? This human cover of the AI joke song is great.)

Supersized insect discovered
"how does something like this go undiscovered"
This is a very Australian thing and kind of cool but also: do y’all need glasses? That’s quite a big thing to miss, especially since it “may be the heaviest insect” in the country.

Why ‘Mankeeping’ Is Turning Women Off
This is…very real, which I’d say is a very “man” thing versus “straight man” thing.

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Chrome plates and homewares in chrome restaurants and chrome homes, all to say that one desires riches but isn’t rich, one desires sterile cleanliness in messy times. All-metal-everything to make life easy, unblemished, without care.

Bags with grommets and studs worn by every It Girl™ and her followers as pierced and studded clothes are adopted by queer men, particularly in the hat department. Such is an expression of the “alternative” without being alternative, the punctured skin removed and — in its place — something that you put on the body. Prick that — don’t prick me. Isn’t that right, Tori Burch? Isn’t that right, Havaianas?

Novelty jewelry casts hamburgers and honey pots and crayons and cutlery into precious metals, making everything in the world a consumable, everything and anything a treasure. But can you afford such things? Probably not. But you can dream.

The metallics of Apple feel too polished and prim now, too common — but Teenage Engineering? Nothing? There’s a technical truth to their metal shells, that these items are not artificial but wear their robotics openly. In a time of constantly increasing computer items that are visually unseen but manipulating the whole of humanity, messing with our brains and ruining our environment, such technology feels like a revelation, retro in a refreshing way. It’s the benign answer to the incoming clanker war.

The new V&A East Storehouse is an aluminum jewel box, suggesting the future of museums places the warehouse at its center — which requires a makeover of how one considers institutions. “The idea of reuse of a structure, once quite marginal, now seems not only reasonable but inescapable,” the Financial Times wrote of the effort. “This strategy absolves the museum from the burden of creating an identity.” History is the magic, the jewel. It’s all a matter of the right frame, as if the spear clutched by a Bronze Age warrior.

Baby foods are almost always in crisis over heavy metals, which are now included in labels and are the reason for many lawsuits. In fact, metal disclosures have become a baby food trend. “I used to think the iron that was in cereal was iron,” Joey of The Basement Yard joked. “Yes, Joey, that’s why if you cook in a cast iron skillet, it enriches the food with iron,” Frank explains. This is true — to a certain extent — which is why there is metal in your cereal. A woman named Amy Carlson was convinced she was god and died from ingesting silver. An extension of right wing new age beliefs, ingesting silver “drops” is believed to prevent illnesses like Covid but is toxic and stains the skin blue. Perhaps we should stick with bronzing the skin.

Canned cocktails continue to be the drink of choice, even to the point that some energy drinks became cocktails. We can draw a line from these drinks to energy drinks to La Croix and other “new” waters, which may subconsciously be a sustainability move as aluminum is seen as a packaging solution to outdo (or undo) plastics. And yet: aluminum recycling in the US is at its lowest in a decade, despite the trend. What’s worse, aluminum trade woes and tariffs suggest the vessels may come at a heavier cost.

“Your planet is now marked for death,” Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer proclaims in the new Fantastic Four. And whose fault is that? Is it that metallics became an expression of our desire for luxury, our moths to the flame of shiny silver flickers of bourgeois comfort? Or is it because of our desire to smother human life in favor of the clunky non-hands of clankers?

Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror sits within a garden in Portugal, its stainless steel face to the sun, a soft dimpling inward that interprets the world upside down. What does she think about, this looking glass? Does she reflect beyond the reflection? We all want to know, as there must be some truth, some magic, within these metals that we love so much. Perhaps it’s a matter of opposites attracting, the organic longing to become inorganic and vice versa in such technical, dehumanizing times. Androids do dream of electric sheep, it seems.

“political analysis that keeps me on this website”
“the unfortunately”
Big week for random-ish couples as Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau, Tom Cruise and Ana de Armas, and Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson proved. (My Katy-Justin theory? He’s gay and queening out with her 🤭)

“thick nosed whore”
“female authors use initials”
The best reads of the week, as delivered by trans women.

“attention at someone else’s funeral”
“someone’s birthday”
“day off work”
I love this creator’s tips for attention. Helpful, if you’re an introvert! (See also: this creator’s ridiculous skits.)

“traveling with someone else’s family”
Somehow, I am both the family and the person travelling with the family.

“YOU OKAY?”
I have been losing it over this reunion video.

“I was teaching John”
To the point of the “mankeeping” story above lol

“fka twigs recording her simlish cover”
“Would be outside just like this”
Big week for good music in silly places.

“wearing Issey”
Only the best, for the mother of God.

"Psychic Twins Predicted Trisha Paytas’ Son"
I am obsessed with the idea that Trisha Paytas holds within her a psychic portal to other dimensions that has been known.

“being raised on Cocomelon”
…and you’ll never think about The Jetsons the same again.

And, finally, a reminder that cocaine is not good for you.

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