And yet … here I am, hustling on Substack
In this edition: Netflix hits, hygiene theater, Cousin Greg, raccoons, ringtones and MSCHF
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NOTE! The newsletter has a slightly different format this week. I keep playing around with this. You might seem more iterations in the weeks to come. Thanks for bearing with it.
If you read anything this weekend
This deep dive into the “hustle economy,” the place you go when a pandemic reveals the precarity of modern work. Full disclosure: I wrote this one. Ironically, while out on pandemic furlough. The hustle economy, as I’ve defined it, is a platform-dependent labor market where workers sell things like classes, ebooks, podcasts, meal-planning templates and membership clubs. It’s laid-off chefs streaming on Twitch and work-starved journalists writing newsletters. I talked to “creators” around the world for this piece, and ended with a dim view of the whole endeavor. And yet … here I am, hustling on Substack! Thank you, capitalism. [OneZero]
This fascinating analysis of the “Netflix hit.” Because we don’t go to movies anymore — we binge on our couches. The big upshot of that, which I never considered, is that we no longer really know what’s a “blockbuster.” Can you have a popular culture, without the demonstrably “popular”? (Do we even care, when we get The Old Guard and problematic Indian matchmakers…?) [Vulture]
This very fun profile of MSCHF, an honest-to-goodness, old-school viral gem. Everything MSCHF makes blows up and sells out, from zany fonts to … bong chickens. This reminds me of an internet era I (and Facebook?) really miss, circa the early-to-mid aughts. A time of like … whimsy and weirdness and invention with no great expectation of a payoff. This is 2020 though, of course, so even MSCHT has a sell: “We have a repeatable process that creates output that self-distributes on the internet without requiring paid spend.” 😒 [Verge]
This sharp unpacking of “hygiene theater,” which you’ll now see everywhere. Of all the links, this is the one I keep flogging in casual conversation. 9/11 gave us “security theater,” that pointless and costly package of pat-downs and bag-searches that doesn’t actually prevent terrorism. Now Covid-19 yields “hygiene theater.” Superfluous Lysol wipes for everyone! [The Atlantic]
President Obama’s eulogy for Congressman John Lewis. In a week that’s seen lots of good writing about Lewis, including (posthumously) from Lewis himself, this speech really stuck with me — I think for its hopefulness. [Medium]
And now for something completely different
Yes, that is … Cousin Greg.
A random fact so interesting I read it aloud to Jason
“Soap operas,” once underwritten by soap companies, are … the OG sponsored content.
Postscripts
The history of the ringtone. The problem with #ChallengeAccepted. The end of the open-plan everything and the very best tarot card apps. Designing a better chocolate chip. Cooking up (iffy) recipes with AI. Olivia de Havilland was drinking champagne and running shit ‘til the day she died.
A serious argument for studying UFOs. How virtual models steal real models’ work. The online movement to #FreeBritney and “a data-driven newsletter of links in other newsletters” (!!). Rebecca Traister on AOC. Priya Krishna and Yewande Komolafe on the white-washing of food. (Bonus related link: The plight of culturally appropriate recipe names in an SEO-hungry world.)
Google is eating the internet. Where Americans can still travel. Watch YouTube from a prepper or conspiracist or climate denier’s filter bubble. In praise of koozies and global transit chimes. I’m amped for Defector, and I don’t even like sports. Last but not least: A murky and (literally!) underground journey inside a Dark Web empire.
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Sarah is publishing a book on food and farming next year — GET AMPED for it. Thank you to her & everyone else who has shared this newsletter. Until next week!
— Caitlin