my week summarized by the best content i consumed (in no particular order)
- The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
- Radiolab: Deception
- 99% Invisible: Noble Effort
- Looney Tunes backgrounds take on a new life when curated by Beñat Iturbe Hualde
“Occasionally, we find an account which changes how we view these images, that re-contextualise scenes that we have previously seen but did not quite appreciate. Beñat Iturbe Hualde, a TV writer and comedian from the Basque country, does exactly this, in his account Looney Tunes Background. Described as “Looney Tunes without Looney Tunes,” the account curates backgrounds from the series active during the golden age of American Animation. These stills take on a poetic feel without the goofy band of anthropomorphic animals. Empty city skylines with tenements tinted purple from the evening sky look a bit more melancholy. Meandering cliffs joined by a tightrope doesn’t seem so comical without the wisecracking rabbit, and instead is rather grand and almost mythical.”
5. Why Is Post-COVID China Embracing A Cyberpunk Aesthetic?
“The original Cyberpunk moniker was a cynical cultural expression, born in an era of growing global capitalism that led to suspicions of the ultra-rich and technocrats. Now, three decades later, this US-born subgenre has become an actual depiction of urban Chinese life. The usual Cyberpunk film setting features sophisticated urban infrastructure with mile-high skyscrapers, neon billboards, and flying cars, against a dark, poverty-stricken backdrop that somewhat resembles a modern Chinese city containing futuristic symbols and contrasting social strata. Numerous videos and films that use urban China as a Cyberpunk stage set have widely circulated online, which only reinforced China’s association with the term.”
“It’s my belief that very few “Substack writers” will make 100% of their income from their newsletter and this won’t be a failure of the platforms but instead related to the nature of creation itself. Enter, the Multi-SKU Creator.
The biggest impact of someone like Casey unbundling himself from The Vox is that he is now an entrepreneur with a product called Casey. His beachhead may very well be a paid newsletter (it’s very good by the way) but the newsletter is just one SKU. Maybe the SKU he cares most about. Maybe even the SKU that makes him the most money. But it doesn’t have to be the only SKU. There could be a podcast SKU. A speaking fee SKU. A book deal SKU. A consulting SKU. A guest columnist SKU. And so on.”
“”Community” is a fascinating rabbithole. Overused, misunderstood, and in constant evolution. One of those things you think you understand, and might even be crazy enough to try and build yourself, it’s all jolly and well until you realize one day it might actually might mean something. Because you’ve tied your social capital to the endeavor, you know the game must go on. Yet, that next stage of evolution cannot happen until you come to terms with one key fact: “You’re marrying your playerbase.””
