Are We Having Fun Yet?

🦞🥞 Vol. 2, No. 10

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Hello again,

The annual post-Labor Day time paradox¹ has done its thing and here we are, just days away from the final two months of 2024.

Hey, look at us, who would have thought? We have almost made it through the spiciest election cycle in our lifetimes². A candidate got shot! The other party changed their nominee in July! And yet somehow even the biggest moments–remember how central couches were to our lives for a fortnight this summer?–all faded from memory like Marty McFly backing on ‘Earth Angel.’

Living in the feed, we now experience daily what, as recently as Y2K, would have been a month’s worth of stories, images, and video. That alone is not a new development, but the shape of that content deluge has changed. The TikTok-ification of social media, a steamy ladle full of AI slop, and Elon turning up the heat with Twitter’s devolution into “X”³ (amongst other factors) have moved this year’s quest for attention into a giant pool of subcultural chowder boiled over on the kitchen floor.

As we gave our collective consciousness over to the feed, consuming smaller “bite-size” chunks of processed content, it turns out we were gradually (and potentially irrevocably) terraforming seemingly every corner of society into an attention-parched desert memeworld. If we knew the extent to which everything–from how we live and shop to now even how we vote–would be shaped by former Road Rules contestants, dolphin illustrations, the full behavioral spectrum–from the very demure, very mindful to those who lived Brat Summer to its fullest–I like to think we wouldn’t have gone down this road. But here we are, and I don’t think this spray cheese goes back in the can.

So as we approach the end of a weird, wild year, before we reach the final two months and the election that feels like it’s been coming for a decade, we have one last respite: the official holiday for our modern condition. From costumes big and small, nostalgic or ‘ripped from the headlines’ to giant families of 10’ lawn decorations, nothing floods the feeds quite like Halloween.

This year we are witnessing the complete collapse of the corporate wall between corporate monoculture and internet subculture: look no further than pop-up shop 🐐 Spirit Halloween hawking Hawk Tuah jumpsuits one aisle over from sexy nurses, Elsa, and Iron Man. Halloween is now officially for the memes.

Thanks to the actual holiday’s placement mid-week, the festivities already kicked off this weekend and will carry through until next Saturday. Over this week, we’ll witness many re-enactments of moments and trends recent in time, but already distant in memory. A Dia de los Muertos for the memes and main characters we lost forgot about along the way. I don’t know about you, but for me the parade of TikToks, Reels, and Shorts featuring humans trending for 30 seconds for recreating other humans who trended for 30 seconds feels a bit like an EDM track that’s nothing but bass drops.

It’s all a bit exhausting and yet, as I see the first traces of Halloweek hit the feed–filled with Zyn and Celsius and pink cocaine-fueled #fyp flashbacks–I also feel preëmptive pangs of nostalgia. I can’t help but feel like I might want to savor the memories of the Rizzler, Raygun, and Willy’s Chocolate Experience because chances are, it only gets weirder from here.

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🔑 This week, we are launching a new game! Refer new members → earn points → get stuff. Share the gift of Sunday Bunch and cash in.

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• Arkansas May Have Vast Lithium Reserves, Researchers Say

• Cheap solar panels are changing the world

• The Secretive Dynasty That Controls the Boar’s Head Brand⁴

When Kat and Mike Stickler filed for divorce, their lawyers had a math problem.

Among the couple’s biggest assets was MikeAndKat, a channel on TikTok and YouTube in which they shared their lives with about four million followers. No one knew how to evenly split MikeAndKat between Mike and Kat. 

Who Gets the TikTok in the Divorce? The Messy Fight Over Valuable Social Media Accounts

• A sneakerhead guide to every NBA, WNBA signature shoe

• Inside La Finca, Madrid’s ‘Beverly Hills’ and home to Mbappe, Bellingham and more…

• The NFL Makes a Play for Women’s Fashion

• Can Watching Movies Rewire Your Brain?

• Chick-fil-A’s Streaming Service Play App Will Launch Nov. 18

• Pad Thai, Spring Rolls and a Side of Peacock? Why Streamers Are Teaming Up With Delivery Apps

• Into The Cineverse With ‘Terrifier 3’s Distributor: How A Six-Figure Investment Turned Into Tens Of Millions In Box Office

• Early 90s SNL Graphic Parodies
  🎧 SNL Related:

The shows are free and first-come, first-served, but you have to give organizers the address of your crypto wallet when you RSVP, presumably to ensure that the vibe will not be ruined by Americans who do not actually love crypto.

Chris Black, on the “2024 America Loves Crypto Tour”

• Marketing Won't Save You. Your Consumers Will.

• What makes a good newsletter?

• The End Point Of Viral Content

Sites like OnlyFans have begun to loosen Mindgeek’s⁵ stranglehold. “Normal” people — as in, anyone that feels like it — can open their camera app, take some photos or videos, put them behind a paywall, and make some money very quickly. And this breakdown between porn world and not-porn world is having strange side effects on culture. I don’t think it’s an accident that the majority of zoomer slang — glazing, bouncing on it, simp, gyatt — have some connection to the world of porn. And because it’s not just porn that’s going through this transition from top-down platform to bottom-up creator, it also means that a lot of viral content is beginning to feel a little porny. It’s all swirling together now.

• Corinna Kopf Retires From OnlyFans After Earning Reported $67 Million in 3 Years

• Limited-edition booze labels designed by celebrated artists are helping spirits brands go viral

• Livvy Dunne Champions Authenticity as the New Co-Owner of W, Jake Paul’s Personal Care Brand

• Microtrends are taking over social media, and keeping up can be really expensive

• There’s something off about this year’s “fall vibes” (Spoiler alert: AI is making it weird.)

• The Most Sought-After Travel Guide Is a Google Doc

• How Las Vegas Became the Weirdest, Wildest, and Most Futuristic City in America

• Saying goodbye to Foursquare City Guide (RIP 😢)

You were too good for us.

• How elderly dementia patients are unwittingly fueling political campaigns

• Who's Noor Alfallah, Al Pacino and Mick Jagger's Much Younger Girlfriend?

• AI-crafted, personalized wedding speeches in minutes: Wedding Speech Genie

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Last but not least, they’re playing some important baseball games in Los Angeles and New York right now and on Friday night, this happened.

The Yankees and Dodgers head to the Bronx for games on Monday, Tuesday, and (if necessary) Wednesday. LA is off to a good start in the long-awaited battle of the titans, but there is a lot of baseball still to be played.

LET’S GO DODGERS.

R.I.P., Fernando.

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Recommended

📥 SUBSCRIBE

Geosport

Professor Simon Chadwick’s Geosport has quickly become a regular read. I first encountered Chadwick, a Professor of Sport and Geopolitical Economy at Skema Business School, through Roger Paul Mitchell’s (coincidentally named) podcast Are You Not Entertained? Just like Mitchell, he’s a pragmatist and not just one of the hype men who copy-paste the press release about whatever latest announcement from leagues, teams, et al.

If you’re interested in the business of global sport, but you don’t always have time for the deeper dives or spending an hour combing the trades, Geosport will hit the mark with ~500 word quick hits on a specific topic on most weekdays. No heavy lift to keep pace with, easy to skip if the day’s topic isn’t your thing.

📺 WATCH

Detroiters

If you haven’t already, you need to stream both seasons of Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson’s Detroiters–now on Netflix–with a sense of urgency this week.

Watch Detroiters on Netflix →

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In their latest issue, Texas Monthly crowned The 50 Best Tacos in Texas. Let’s close it out with some highlights from the list:

The smoked lamb taco at Yellow Bell Tacos in Austin. Photo: Isa Zapata

Some of the best from San Taco in San Antonio, including the asado de puerco taco (center). Photo: JoMando Cruz

A breakfast taco spread from Mas Coffee Co. in Grand Prairie. Photo: Brittany Conerly

Why stop there? There’s so much more in store just here in Austin, let alone across Texas⁶. Book your flight, I’ll rent the Sprinter van. It’s time we normalize taco tourism.

1. Looks like four months on the calendar but it’s really only two.

2. I haven’t done enough homework to put it at the top, but this one has to sit high on my list of the Top 45 Wildest Years Power Rankings (presented by Capital One).

3. More broadly, even Trump’s overall strategy–to flood the zone with noise–has become a dominant form of communication.

4. An all-time passage:

In May 2022, the chief financial officer of Boar’s Head, the processed meat company, was asked a simple question under oath.

“Who is the C.E.O. of Boar’s Head?”

“I’m not sure,” he replied.

“Who do you believe to be the C.E.O. of Boar’s Head?” the lawyer persisted.

The executive, Steve Kourelakos, who had worked at the company for more than two decades and was being deposed in a lawsuit between owners, repeated his answer: “I’m not sure.”

5. Mindgeek (rebranded as Aylo) owns a majority of the world’s most popular smut sites, including P*rnhub and many, many more.

6. Particularly in cities not as white as Austin.