Welcome to The Trend Report: Business Edition™, a midweek look at top stories, trends, and more of what’s happening online and off by Kyle of The Trend Report™. Today, we’re exploring how Tate McRae invented cursive dancing, the scourge that is Adidas shorts, sponsoring #Rushtok, and a new left-wing talking point to battle billionaires (that may or may not work).
📰 NEWS NEWS NEWS: HIP REPLACEMENT is coming to Ace Hotel Brooklyn with kate lindsay
NYC!!! Mark your calendars!! Ben Dietz and I are coming at you with a ~live~ version of HIP REPLACEMENT at Ace Hotel’s Ace Hotel Brooklyn. Taking place September 17, this podcast will see Ben and I chatting with Embedded’s kate lindsay about recent happenings from the perspectives of Gen X, Millennials, and Zoomers. It’s gonna be cute! And is the first of a string of things I’ll be doing in the city, just like we did back in January. RSVP HERE!!!!! Drop a line if you have any questions, or want to get involved. Stoked!
📲 Tech Talk: Cog-in-the-machine core
There’s a growing feeling in tech conversations that people who work for tech’s evilest are seeking to contextualize themselves as helpless, choiceless cogs in a machine. This line of thought is a means to eschew responsibility, shrugging off any liability onto those above them, saying the evil only happens up there as opposted to the innocent wittwe workews who would nevew huwt a fwy 🥺👉👈 Examples, big and small —
A somewhat popular video from the end of July, posed by a tech worker: “If you still work in the industry, do you also feel like you are being held hostage by a bunch of grown ass men with AI-induced psychosis? Because that’s how I feel.” The replies are filled with people who share the same feelings because they’re in similar situation, where their conclusion is one part “it’s a job” and another part “because of the economy.” Sure.
A recent, semi-viral Hannah Jones video about a date she went on recounted how the date works in Meta’s wearables — and the person insisted they and their colleagues are “normal” and that all the executives above them are the ones who are bad. The comments put it best: “The nazis all were ‘normal people’ too” is one good one while “The subject is *almost* self-aware” is another one of note.
Bill Gates’ recent admittance that AI is “dangerous” is held in one hand while his being a key investor in the technology is held in another. This “big” moment is delivered with tail-between-the-legs, as various people (Ahem, The New York Times.) are heralding his #Bravery as akin to whistleblowing instead of what it actually is: the “Regulate me!” meme, which fits in with peers like Dario Amodei and entities like OpenAi speaking out similarly when the train is already speeding down the tracks, brakes severed by the ones pointing out the issue.
All of this reminds me of this summer’s #NeverForget moment: Emily Sundberg’s Mark Zuckerberg interview, which put lipstick on the pig that is surveillance and technofascism, all excused away with a “Aw, shucks. I didn’t mean anything bad! I’m just a kid!!” The dollars in the eyes of many below the C-suite are understandable, and I am sure in ways my hands — like yours — have dirt on them. The question is how to minimize the enablement of harm as we’re almost certainly going to descend into a mass cultural ego death, which the aforementioned items represent a trying to get ahead of: one cannot be in the torture chamber, critiquing the executioner, whilst getting paid for helping him drop the ax. You cannot have it both ways! Thus, this “I am but a lowly cog-in-a-machine!” talking point from the bottom to the top that seeks to clean one’s hands — and assumes you and your anti-Flock and anti-data center ways will be dumb enough to take seriously. Keep an eye on this as it’s a classic move we are likely to hear and see more and more as we come closer and closer to our being completely razed — politically and economically — by those mumbling of their innocence. As Cy Canterel called the workers to do back in April, the best way to salvation is to out these evils and engage in refusal — not hand-wringing. Refusal.
📓 NYC Diary: Save me from the Addidas shorts
In 2023, a TikToker in NYC went viral for her ridiculous outfits that she swore were cool. She is — increasingly — proven correct given the Adidas shorts trend, where every guy and girly want to look like Harry Styles and Zoe Kravitz, two svelte stars who are constantly appearing to be between workouts and functions, creating a confusion of apparel that dissolves social decorum and personal style. Indulge my old man yelling at the clouds-ness and perhaps my being permanently stained by European “elevated” style, but let me say this: the athletic shorts on the bottoms with a “cute top” on the top practiced by all genders in New York City must stop. It’s easy, breezy, summery, of course, but it also looks like you’re wearing a laundry day outfit that reveals the mindset of someone laughing to keep from crying, a collective who has given up and is hoping no one notices. And maybe that’s the point! This is a clear wannabe John F. Kennedy Jr. style thing that no one is pulling off, people trying to crib classic prep but ending up akin to the kid who forgot their P.E. change-out clothes, who is subsequently forced to wear whatever the gym teacher had lying around. It represents a clear lack of a POV that isn’t about “Gen Z doesn’t know how to dress!” (All ages, genders, ethnicities, sexualities, etc. are wearing this style!) and is more about laziness enabled by climate change and being over-worked. While I’ve spotted this look in many cities (Barcelona, Paris, Copenhagen, LA) for years, the concentration in NYC clarified these feelings. I’m with you in its being too hot, in our being overworked, and in loving shorts — but I do not wear drawstring waisted “athletic shorts” out of the house, no matter how fancy they are, because they represent a too laxxing of the sartorial, that you have quit or “retired” when it comes to your appearance. It’s the same reason I got up and got dressed every day of the pandemic, why I put on cologne even when home alone: it is a form of caring for yourself. It’s a shame that so many beautiful people look so slovenly, brain rotted by run clubs and athleisure’s widening gape. Let’s wrap it up this summer and remember how to separate the church and state that is performance wear from casual wear. (Devil’s advocate? Society refusing to allow Gen Z and Millennials economic mobility and the ability to grow up has resulted in two generations looking like adult children. That is a reason to solve these myriad crises!) More trends noticed, much of which ties to our great athleisure creep —
Black Salomons continue to keep a grip on the guys and girls. It is the it shoe, which isn’t just in NYC but worldwide.
Blonde long-haired dachshunds are the “it” dog, which carries on a trend I’ve clocked in Paris and Scandinavia: dachshunds are the 2020s answer to French Bulldogs.
The Trader Joe’s bags are everywhere, yes, but it is very quickly being cannibalized by its New England opp: the mini LL Bean tote.
As I bemoaned in January, which I have bemoaned for years: No one is wearing color! Everyone is grayscale! I sat in Washington Square Park for an hour on Sunday and the lack of color was depressing despite it aligning with generational macro-trends. As with the Adidas athletic shorts, BREAK THE CYCLE! FREE YOUR MIND!!! AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW!!!!!!!!!
Whilst sitting in Washington Square Park, two young things happened given it was NYU’s move-in weekend and tours were happening: all the young people looked old (or: the freshmen on tours looked like they were in their 20s versus like baby 18-year-olds) and none of them looked as “beautiful” as the thinkpieces on looksmaxxing claim they are. My eyes were parched for youthful beauty.
We overheard the aura battles, which are so dumb but are a trend that is indeed “happening.” I may write about them on Sunday.
Two celebrity sightings: Mary Beth Barone walking her dog near a Leon’s Bagels and Mike D. at Dimes.
Please help Bobby Aaron Solomon find a job and continue sending me opportunities because my bank account cannot sustain this local trend.
