INTRO /
WELCOME BACK DEAREST READERS. DIPPING BACK INTO THE PLAYBOOK OF THE RELAUNCH, I WILL BE RANDOMLY INCLUDING BRIEF AND INSIGHTFUL INTERVIEWS WITH SOME OF THE MOST CLEVER FOLKS I HAVE FOUND ON THE INTERNET. MORE ON THAT LATER.
I ALSO WANT TO TOUCH ON SOMETHING THAT I HAVE WITNESSED OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS AND THAT IS THE “DOOMIFICATION” LINKEDIN. THE CAUSE, IMO, IS A COMBINATION OF THE FUCKED UP JOB MARKET, THE FAILURES OF HOLDING CORPS, AND THE RISE IN FIDELITY OF WHAT AI CAN DO, AND HOW THAT AFFECTS HUMAN CREATIVES AND DESIGNERS ALIKE.
LOOK, I HAVE SAID IT OVER AND OVER. AI CAN ONLY REALLY SOLVE FOR TWO PARTS OF THE GOOD, FAST, CHEAP TRIANGLE.
AI CAN REFERENCE DECADES OF HUMAN THOUGHT AND REPRODUCE SIMILAR WORK FASTER AND APPARENTLY CHEAPER. NOW GOOD IS A RELATIVE TERM, BUT IMO, ONLY HUMANS CAN MAKE SOMETHING GREAT. THE OTHER TWO POINTS, I DO NOT HAVE A SOLUTION FOR RIGHT NOW.
WITH ALL THAT BEING SAID, LET’S GET ON TO THE NEWSLETTER. NOW MORE THAN EVER, PLEASE SHARE, SUBSCRIBE TODAY, AND ENJOY.
LINKED OUT /
Christened one of “the most powerful New Yorkers you’ve never heard of” by New York magazine, Gabriella Khalil’s reputation precedes her — and with her jet black, hips-grazing, glass-straight hair, the 41-year-old appears plenty intimidating at first glance. She has a roster of impressive creations, and one of them is our favorite hotel, aka Palm Heights.
In an age where the past and present intertwine more seamlessly than ever, the concept of nostalgia takes on new dimensions. “Nostalgia isn't what it used to be” is not just a snarky remark but an observation of how our longing for the past shapes, and is shaped by, the evolving cultural and commercial landscape.
This article by Unorthodox Blend explores the role of nostalgia in brand heritage and counter-culture, understanding its power to connect and its potential to alienate when not navigated thoughtfully.
Camper has a pair of white textile women's sneakers with recycled polyester 3D knitted sock, EVA footbeds, and XL Extralight® Sustainable+ outsoles. A six-piece modular shoe designed to be assembled and disassembled repaired, recycled and customized by you. When you purchase a pair of ROKU shoes, they will arrive fully assembled. However, you can learn to disassemble and reassemble them at any time! I love this concept and have already copped.
Tolo does something that few other businesses in Dimes Square can: it avoids internet bait pitfalls. Instead, they serve great Chinese food alongside killer wine from their neighbors at Parcelle. Come with a date or a few friends before showing face somewhere else in this patent leather-loving microneighborhood. Here is what to order.
This one is near and dear to my heart. I love zines. Zines shaped the punk scene. Zines shaped the skate scene. Thanks to the accessibility of copy shops, punk zines in the 1970s and 1980s sported a gritty aesthetic, exemplified by publications like Punk in the US and Sniffin’ Glue in the UK. In most punk scenes, a zine played a crucial role in scene making through its spiritedness, heart, and fuck you ethos, providing a DIY community-as-media platform. Now they are anti-meme. Which I find interesting,
The Washington Post is calling Kim Gordon a rapper. No matter what you try to label this queen, she knows how to be cool. Also of note is her show “Object of Projection” at Brisbane Powerhouse.
The world we once had versus what the kids have today. Is pale in comparison.
How my generation got all their music from friends we never met.
There also seems to be a cancel on cancel culture forming.
Elon and his pornbots. It's tempting for critics to say Twitter's problems began after Elon Musk acquired the company in 2022. But Jasmine Enberg, a principal analyst covering social media and the creator economy at E-marketer (previously named Insider Intelligence), says that the platform's woes predated their polarizing owner.
The inside scoop on Outdoor Voices and the closing of all their stores. Also note how crap they were to their employees.
Whodunnit? See if you can guess who put Ye back on the Hot100 before clicking on this link.
If you do something, something will happen. Ben has been a longtime cohort. From the early days of The Brilliance, to a platform I was involved in called TH-OUGHTS, to his unique label, he has been able to carve a unique path. A path that lives some where between culture and commerce. Catch up with him here.
OUTSIDE IN /
Meet a force of Internet nature, also a self proclaimed patron saint of Internet ads. Apple Xenos is an Associate Creative Director and writer, but above all, she is just a girl processing reality through the lens of weird social media content.
TAO: Please give us a quick take on who you are and what makes you tick.
AX: Still figuring this out!!!
TAO: Fair enough. What was the last thing that made you happy?
AX: This Spanish oracle flyer I found on the street while walking to get coffee in Miami at White Rose Café in Little Gables area.
TAO: Ok so “Rosie Oh” was sick. Tell us about how Miami helped manifest that film.
AX: LOL thank you <3 Miami is chaos and full of fucked up characters that you are bound to intersect.
TAO: What is the most beautiful word in the English language?
AX: I like this question…. When I read it, my brain instantly thought of the word “plethora” for whatever reason. Likely due to the letters within the word itself and the fact that it ends with an A. It’s a regular choice in my lexicon and I feel fancy when I say it. Don’t know if people would consider it the most beautiful word, but it’s pretty.
TAO: I love that answer too. That was actually a low-key attempt at a deep cut reference from a Darren Aronofsky film I love called “Donnie Darko” where Drew Barrymore, who plays a teacher, explains a famous linguists’ exploration into the english language.
TAO: What was the last thing that made you sad?
AX: Thinking of my mom getting older. I really can’t handle it. I always tell her I’d rather give her years of my life if I could then have her leave this realm before me haha.
TAO: Ok so we are both low-key djs. I play out in some laid back bars in NYC. I have not played out in a bit and I miss it. What if anything do you miss about being a dj?
AX: Lmfaooooo I miss being more in touch with up and coming music and artists. But that is a full time job in itself. So, as someone who used to count her self worth on knowing obscure noise music and niche record labels, I finally have pride in embracing the mainstream. It’s so much less exhausting! Pop music is like religion for the general population. It keeps us in check and happy and distracted. But my playlist will go from Eartheater to Taylor Swift. So the DJ roots are still in me.
TAO: As an art director and wordsmith, what do you find satisfying about creating work for brands?
AX: Oopp I do consciously think of this often. It’s so satisfying that you can be a practitioner of mass media witchcraft. It’s legitimate spell casting using words, colors, intent, direction, etc. All to penetrate the minds of many to perform your (the brand’s) will. Some spells are more powerful than others. But even doing a social post methodically to create an outcome excites me through that magical lens.
TAO: Follow up, do you feel like you have to tone yourself down creatively when working with brands?
AX: Not necessarily tone down creativity, but tone down online cultural understanding as it applies to presenting ideas. The advertising industry currently exists in an interesting intersection of digital culture, social media, and the trails of traditional big campaign work which often generalized messaging. I love that we can be so specific online and have a big impact. So the biggest tone down letdown I experience is having to halt a lot of my social thinking and POV because it doesn’t fit the traditional campaign mold that clients usually don’t even have money to do… The tides are changing in real time, so know that the above line of thinking will become standard, so no hard feelings. :)
TAO: As an avid reader of your newsletter, can you unpack cursed content for the readers who may not already follow you? Plug away.
AX: So, the name comes from the genre of imagery online that is referred to as “Cursed”. I’d say this genre is almost 10 years old…
The elements that make something cursed are shitty photo quality, and a strange juxtaposition of something wholesome and something weird (paraphrasing.) Overall, there’s something just off putting and not right about an image that’s cursed. They’re a distortion of a preconceived expectation and reality.
Today, we have a symbiotic relationship with brands online because content is omnipresent. So of course, organic discourses about brands are manifesting now more than ever in the form of confusing trends, weird online behavior that gets traction, and content that would be totally off brand guidelines.
So using a decade of practicing art criticism, I write about that as well as when brands do things that highlight the cursed nature of our corporate/capitalist led society ATM. Like sponsoring weddings, and tattoos of ice cream logos.
TAO: Is the act of following exes on social a form of cursed content?
AX: LOL! So I wouldn’t classify it as content, but as a user behavior, and if people who have an online life say they don’t do it, they’re lying!
I just wrote about something like this for Polyester Zine, and the act of women creating sleuth Instagram pages being a form of modern divine female intuition. I think everyone should have a finsta for investigative purposes (ex’s, coworkers, prospect love interests, etc.)
TAO: Ever consider morphing cursed content into a podcast?
AX: Sort of! But making myself into a brand sounds so tiring lolool. My vibe is if people read what I put out there, that’s cool. If they don’t, that’s cool too. I’m going to continue to do it either way <3
If I had more time in a day, I’d consider porting what I write into Instagram Carousel type content that’s sharable. But as of right now, I don't know if I have the mental energy to performatively share my thoughts to the world on that scale! <3 The last thing I’d want to turn into is another talking head giving an opinion on something that nobody asked for haha. But I’d be down to talk on someone else’s video or podcast. :’)
TAO: What’s your take on the current health of the Internet? I kinda think it is a bit fucked. Are we ok as a people? If we are kind fucked, how much work do we need to put in to heal it?
AX: Haha, honestly, there must be some sort of easy to digest data tool for internet health based on sentiment out there somewhere. BUT! I think the current health of digital literacy specifically is not as high as it should be. That’s more concerning to me and it’s a big reason why I like to write what I write and the role I try to play within my career. Helping people understand the nuances of nature online and on social media, meaning the language, the subtitles of slang and emojis, the behaviors and what they mean, etc. That’s def paraphrasing. So if you look at internet’s health thorugh that lens, and the fact that a lot of people aren’t primed to understand irony or to decipher what’s real and what’s not, I do think we’re fucked currently.
BUT I do have hope in Gen Alpha and Gen Z. People hate on iPad kids, but they’ll be the first true digitally literate generation, and that vulnerability in our minds as a species will hopefully be obliterated due to that.
PHISHING SCAMS AND RIGGED ELECTIONS WILL BE A THING OF THE PAST WITH THE KIDS!
TAO: Since we are from different generations, I am curious what Kim Gordon (who was highlighted above) means to you. Not just her music, but Kim Gordon as a human.
AX: She just makes me not scared of getting old because you can still be a baddie at 70 and be punk and define fashion trends. She also has not shifted her aesthetic ever. Since I was young, I took note of that from her and other icons like Patti Smith, and vowed to not buy into trending fashion or makeup looks, and to just ride the wave of your own look because that’s what is timeless. So I guess Kim Gordon as a human is timeless chic punk to me hahah.
I also met her once in a cathedral in the middle of Georgia after a noise show of hers, I don't think she liked being approached by a lil 18 year old asking for a photo tho :’)
TAO: That’s rad, I met her once on a PATH train where she was shooting a lo-fi music video for one of her side projects called Free Kitten. I remained an observer and did engage. I just felt lucky I was in the right place at the right time. Ok, so that leads us to the last question on this chat. What’s the best part of waking up?
AX: Plugging into the simulation by sending my mom and fiancé good morning texts and getting back to the repetitive cycle <3
TAO: Thanks for chatting. Maybe next time we can make it a podcast!
Till next time.
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