🌎 Links

Can Are.na Make The Internet Calm Down?

The social platform that feels like a more organized Tumblr. 

The Soft Sell... 
The health-care brand Hims wants to leverage young men’s anxiety over erections and hair loss into a multibillion-dollar empire.

Apple Glass' could project AR directly onto a wearer's retina
Apple is researching how "Apple Glass," or other future Apple AR devices, could skip tiny screens altogether, and instead use micro projectors to beam the images straight onto the wearer's retina.

Baseball, Popular but No Longer Dominant, Seeks to Reclaim Its Cool
Add trampolines to the warning tracks... that's it, that is answer.

🎶 Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey's new album, Blue Bannisters, is good. Favorite songs on the album are Arcadia, If You Lie Down With Me, and Violets for Roses. I have always liked her music ever since I stumbled across Videogame during the peak of Tumblr's internet relevance. I'm not sure she gets the credit she deserves as an artist. She's put out two albums this year that are both a lot better than some of her contemporaries – I'm mostly referring to Kacey Musgraves here. Some people, Steph, refer to Lana Del Rey as a schtick. Whatever. She has some instant classics – Love from 2017 is an American masterpiece and I stand by that! 

Ok, that's enough about Lana Del Rey... This is embarrassing. 

Herman Miller Archival Ads + Prints

Check out these limited-edition posters and archival advertisements that will be available at Herman Miller on October 26.

🌎 Links

Raya and the Promise of Private Social Media

The app has created a space free of the problems that plague the rest of the Web, but only by leaving almost everybody out. The company likes to play down its exclusivity, but its admission rate is in the single digits... Like an élite college, Raya accepts, rejects, or wait-lists its applicants; every application gets a personal response, as does any complaint or query from an active member.

Squid Game was sourced, written, and produced in South Korea. Within 10 days of its release, the show was No. 1 on Netflix in 90 countries

Two weeks ago, at the Code Conference, Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel claimed “the total addressable market of content is infinite.” Netflix is spending $17 billion a year to validate his thesis. So far, they’re both right. Since last Friday, Netflix raised subscription prices in 11 countries by as much as 40%. A company’s ability to raise prices is a function of the delta between the price and the perceived value.

Dirt

The Substack newsletter about our online habits — streaming incessantly and falling down internet rabbit holes. Sent several times a week, it talks about TV shows, movies, and the aesthetics of the internet — the “avant-garde of digital content.”

L’invisible, The Rock Boat

 

L’invisible is an artificial rock that can be driven and moved around. The sea-faring boat comes from the mind of a French artist named Julien Berthier.

According to Berthier’s website, the boat was designed to explore and ask questions about the boating industry and the unintended environmental effects of humans. 

I am always drawn to work that subtly modifies an environment or object. The unexpected alteration or juxtaposition that can turn something ordinary into art or a statement has always been really interesting to me. It caught my attention and I thought it was worth sharing.

The same artist previously made a floating sculpture from a large sailboat that had been modified to appear as if it is capsizing – it was called Love-love and the artist described it as a permanent and mobile image of a wrecked ship that has become a functional and safe leisure object.

🌎 Links

Ben Affleck Plays Himself
Becoming a tabloid star gave the actor his best role ever.

The 200 Best Albums of the Last 25 Years, According to Pitchfork Readers
Radiohead, Kanye, Kendrick, Lorde, LCD Soundsystem, Wilco, and Fiona Apple are all in the top 25.

The Downward Spiral
Are we human, or are we content? Dean Kissick ponders Demna Gvasalia, Donda, the cult of celebrity, and the actual occult. 

Is Sucking Carbon Out of the Air the Solution to Our Climate Crisis? When water was a problem with cholera and typhoid, governments worldwide built a water treatment infrastructure. It’s part of what they provide to their citizens. Today we have an air problem, so we need an air-treatment infrastructure.

The problem with America’s semi-rich
They are hyper-focused on getting their kids into great schools and themselves into great jobs, at which they’re willing to work super-long hours. They want to live in great neighborhoods, even if that means keeping others out, and will pay what it takes to ensure their families’ fitness and health. They believe in meritocracy, that they’ve gained their positions in society by talent and hard work. They believe in markets. They’re rich, but they don’t feel like it — they’re always looking at someone else who’s richer.

🎶 Big Thief

Big Thief – Certainty

Other favorite songs by Big Thief include Shark Smile, Paul, Masterpiece, and Not.

10th Anniversary of Steve Job's Death

On the 10th anniversary of Steve Jobs’s death, Sir Jony Ive reflects on their collaborations and friendship:

Steve’s last words to me were that he would miss talking together. I was sitting on the floor next to his bed, my back against the wall.

After he died, I walked out into the garden. I remember the sound of the latch on the wooden door as I gently pulled it closed.

In the garden, I sat and thought how talking often gets in the way of listening and thinking. Perhaps that is why so much of our time together was spent quietly.

I miss Steve desperately and I will always miss not talking with him.

Read full article via Wall Street Journal  – also an insanely beautiful film on apple.com remembering Steve.