issue 202
Hello! Last week’s email was the most shared note since I started this thing, probably because I blatantly wrote about web 3.0. If you read between the lines, it’s pretty obvious I’ve been closely tracking the space, and subtly promoting it, while also doing my part to poke holes. The holes are usually the people. The individuals. The motivations. Faux populism. I’ll get to that in a sec.
Based on all the positive responses, I moved my flight up to LA to next week. It makes it easier to turn-tail when there’s a maximum security lockdown here in Auckland. It’ll likely remain shut until mid-October, if not longer. I changed travel plans just before the country-wide announcement. It’s illegal to surf or be found too far from home.
Tough, but understandably fair.
It puts me back in the mental state of March/April 2020 and I want nothing to do with that. My life, along with so many others, was seriously uprooted. And for those of you who might think the last year in New Zealand was a vacation, know that it wasn’t chock-full of rainbows and butterflies. Fond memories were very much made…
But the family circumstances are still very dire. My father-in-law has a degenerative disease called multiple systems atrophy, which is not too dissimilar from what Stephen Hawking had with ALS. We were in the right place - the place we had to be, both physically and situationally. My wife is the real hero. A beautiful caretaker. I just played emotional support animal that got up way too early to send emails.
To get this back on-track and to draw a rather distasteful analogy, there are less than 600 community cases of delta here. They’re jamming the population of Auckland that’s near 2 million people. Something similar rings true of the perverse martyrdom that is crypto-twitter and its NFT schemes on Discord chats. A few whales and dedicated disciples scream their wins from the rooftops, the crowds gather 'round to buy-in, to be influenced, blessed with fiscal return. As if their salvation comes through this sacrifice. Groupthink, as dangerous as the kool-aid. Sorry. A tad dark.
Right now it looks to me like a celebrity boxing match. The ‘boxers’ win, as does the broadcaster, the venue and Vegas, but the audience who paid for it ultimately loses. Bet on the house, bail through the side door before the split draw is announced.
A town square turned casino, en plein air… en ligne. Outside… online.
Atomized. Forced social graphs and tokens. The explosion - and exploitation - of community as culture. As commerce. In the past few weeks I’ve seen a lot of paid private clubs emerge to trade in secret. It’s a high school cafeteria full of factions, cliques, where the barrier to entry is already too high for most. And the reasoning for their existence might be, just because or for the lulz. Or its function is to pump internet pictures to make a quick buck. It’s bafflingly sceney. Le nouveau riche.
Alpha. The plebeians now seek acceptance from the patricians - the landed gentry of crypto-saint. The gatekeepers prevail, they dictate the market from ivory balconies. Soho House Miami, baby. The party’s over, or it might’ve just begun. Time will tell. Exclusivity is not rarity. It separates, divides. Tribalism. Being priced out adds insults to injury. It is reflective our time, individualism triumphs. A regime rebundled. The community as product. Sacrosanct.
Corporatist as cooperatist.
-> Insert Groucho Marx refusing to join clubs quote.
-> Insert Plato line on reluctant leadership.
Creation is compassion. Alright this rant is getting out of control. I enjoy clubs and communities that serve to celebrate, to share and spread the love. Work backward from community, then for it. The spigot drips to build hype, to build brand. Beauty. Then the conversion bucket spills on both sides. No fomo, pure fun. A fervored audience rows together for the betterment of all, positive sum. Play to learn. To earn. Create. Rejoice.
And to toot my own horn, I started an anonymous little movie club on top of this newsletter, join here if you want and remember to hit submit. The purpose is just to enjoy some films and deepen our knowledge of the classics, namely the films that had a profound impact on the greats of today. They’re generational artifacts. Shampoo was the first winner, and right now it’s a close race between Touki Bouki and The Wild Geese. Join and I’ll happily share the voting link :)
Side note, I recently discovered there’s an A24 Film Group on Facebook with almost 100k members, created by the fans for the fans. This plays into today’s diatribe, to a degree.
To wrap this up, I do think it’s ironic that web 3.0 is just a smarter version of 1.0, with the social media consolidators being stripped. But if it keeps sliding the way it’s been going, it’ll devolve into the thing it sought to replace. Last time I explicitly wrote about crypto in late Jan ‘19 (issue 70), it was at its bottom after the 2017 hypefest. The inverse might be true now. It’s not for the faint of heart. None of this is investment advice, at all. The hands are supremely weak, or diamond encrusted.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. Buy the rumors, sell the news. See you next week.
Tech
Fox makes $100m investment in Elluvio, blockchain streaming Cision
Royal, music marketplace to sell nfts and song rights, raised $16m TC
Mindset, audio platform focused on celebs, raised $8.7m BW
Paid, creator marketing platform for dtc, raised $15m Fins
Picsart, photo and video editing, raised $130m TC
Alethea AI, avatars on-chain, raised $16m in token sale Med
Moment House, virtual concert and events platform, raised $12m TF
Vietcetera, Vietnam focused digital media pub, raised $2.7m TC
Lovo, synthetic speech tooling, raised $4.5m TC
Baidu’s AI voice tech raised at $5b val Reut
NoRedInk, writing curriculum for students, raised $50m TC
Unity acq OTO for acoustic intelligence in voice/chat environments BW
Bright Moments, NFT physical art gallery, raised $1.5m from USV
TikTok acq Pico VR headset maker UpVR
Urbanbase, 3d spatial data tool for designing homes, raised $11m TC
Infinite Canvas, metaverse characters for esports teams, raised $2.8m TC
Bright, live video platform to chat with celebs, raised $15m TC
Discourse, community and discussion platform, raised $20m Discblog
FireMaps, protects homes from wildfires, raised $5m TC
Streamlabs says all tips to gamers won’t be fee’d Engadg
Luna Parks makes live, gamified virtual shows LP
Absurd Joy to launch Tangle, virtual collab platform, with $5m AJblog
Moesif, analytics platform helps creators use APIs, raised $12m Med
Culture DAO focused on virtual beings (dao club) Culture
TikTok and Shopify partner in-app shopping NYT
Minus is social network limited to 100 posts tops Input
Bravely, on demand professional coaching, raised $15m Cision
Simplebet, b2b sports betting, raised another $15m TF
Playbook, dropbox for designers, raised $4m TC
Scientific Games acq Sideplay Ent for lottery games Cision
Ralph Lauren partners w Zepeto for clothing on 3d avatars BoF
Kreatures of Habit, wellness brand from athletes, raised $2.2m TC
Boomy is a new ai music generation platform, offers better share to creators Engadget
Matterport plans spatial notes in xr MMblog
Cribl, open ecosystem for data, raised $200m TC
Chernin raising a pair of crypto funds SEC
Gurley bought some Eth Decrypt
Substack acq Cocoon, app for close friends SSblog
Polygon Studios launches $100m for gaming nft projects VB
OnlyFans reverses the content ban Verge
Media
Dapper Labs to makes LaLiga nft collectibles Sportico
Pietra, helps creators launch merch lines, and UTA for $500k creator fund Cision
Netfilx testing Stranger Things games Polygon
Apple’s news partner program Appl
Disney touts it did $125m digitally of Black Widow (get em ScarJo) Bberg
WPP acq Satalia, AI consultancy BW
DraftKings expands deal with Simplebet GN
Netflix global fan stream event called Tudum Dead
Ubisoft flirting with the idea of a theme park Input
ESPN explores $3b sports betting sponsorship deal WSJ
NFL getting into sports betting Washpo
Red Table Talk expands, gets into podcasts with iHeart Dead
Tubi adds more live channels of sports THR
Stem introduces recoupment rules for musicians Stem
UMG acq Aerosmith catalogue RolS
Politico to sell for $1b CNBC
Vice conducts round of layoff Var and a lame internal note from their CDO twtr
Epic and Time partner on MLK exhibit in Fortnite Gama
UTA signs Rally, crypto focused collectibles Dead
Kendrick to launch his own label Trapital
China restricts how many hours kids can game Var
Publishers aren’t as worried about the cookie crumble as agencies/brands Digiday
NBCU plans its own viewership metric service (lol) Var
Piracy increases when movies go online first (no dur) WSJ
Disney Parks to get some robots NYT
YouTube Shorts seeing rapid growth THR
Tencent beefs up game streaming after China kills merger, Joyy goes public CNBC
Netflix says almost all American households watched a non-english film last yr Coll
Mschf plans Steamboat Willie nft over copyright laws THR
Gimlet lags after Spotify acq BI
Disable FB tracking Washpo
Hong Kong to retroactively censor films THR
Entertainment
Apple and Skydance team on Ghosted with Chris Evan, ScarJo Dead
Mark Duplass and Sterling Brown to star in Biosphere from Mel Eslyn (good ppl!) Var
Eddie Murphy, Jonah Hill to star in comedy for Nflx from Kenya Barris THR
Soderbergh, Ed Solomon team on limited series Full Circle for HBO Max Var
Lord/Miller sets pitch at Lionsgate based on Dennis Rodman’s 48hours in Vegas Var
Gyllenhaal to star/producer in Oblivion Song for Kirkman’s Skybound and New Republic Var
Nflx picks up Texas Chainsaw Massacre from Legendary THR
Sony and Joel Silver team on pitch thriller spec The Dryland Var
Paramount sues Mission Impossible insurer THR
Tribeca and Unreal partner for virtual prod classes Trib
Lakeith to star in Apple series The Changeling based on book Var
Nflx and BBC to coprod shows from disabled creatives THR
Tron acq Impression VFX for slate (mk) AE
NZ Black List script winners Med
Nflx picks up Manifest for final season, deal was complicated Var
MTV Docs acq short Hidden Love of JC Var
Bleeker Street makes a movie poster an NFT (mmk) AE
Another Expendables film in the works Var
Private equity scooping up sound stages THR
Collaborative
Joseph Bernstein on the selling of misinformation Harpers
Data driven album covers Nightingale
The increase of inequality Aeon
Spencer trailer (ooooo yis) YT
Future of entertainment will be forged between Hollywood and video games (call me, seriously… ) IW
Unvaxxed 29 times more likely to get hospitalized CNBC
Velvet Underground trailer YT
Reed Showalter examines democracy and lobbying EconLib
A nice puff piece on the distrin Neon Dead
Profile on David Droga Forbes
Anonymity and politics and news UT
Artificial clouds to save Great Barrier Nature
DMG Ventures (DailyMall) takes equity for media exposure Med
Green Knight 5min preview clip (see issue 51) YT
Keem and Kendrick family ties video YT
Community Fund breaks down the last year looking at community startups Med
Jesse Armstrong profile (Succession showrunner) NewYorker
MG Siegler breaks down the Apple press release for developers 500ish
Graeme Boy (CTO) on NounsDao with matching to charity (cool) Mirror
The pumpers and dumpers of skycoin NewYorker
Using VR to scout virtual star wars sets Var
Kanye sells Donda stem player (pretty rad) PF and the album on Spotify
Jonah Hill profile (what a guy) GQ
Doja Cat and Missy Elliott Interview
You’re ahead of the curve if you’re on HackerNews JPdev
Profile on Federer and his sponsorships NYT
Social media stars who move markets WSJ
Spiderman no way home trailer YT
Interview w the new head of mit media lab, Dave Newman Fastco
John Palmer, crypto and new internet logic Mirror and what’s next for PartyDAO Mirror
Power of the Dog teaser YT
Strictly Biz pod w Tinder CEO on interactive stories swipe Night Var
Joanne Wilson tepid on startup investing, valuations too high GGblog
Alex Heath exploring the Snap AR camera Verge
China hackers for hire NYT
Keira Knightley and Lily Rose Depp Interview
Camilla Cannon on host-read ads and parasocial marketing RLM
A look at Wong Fu Prods, YT channel focused on API audiences DB
Enterprise VR revenue might hit $4.2b in 2023 ARI
What’s after white-collar crime NewYorker
Matthew Ball on Nflx and games MBblog
Starling trailer YT
The virologists who became celebs the last year or two VF
Bas Grasmayer on the crypto startups that look like scams Mirror
Lazerow on converting equity to tokens for the users MLli
Angie Douyin, a virtual influencer in China gaining popularity CNN
The Epic and Google Play lawsuit docs PDF
55+ law firms band together to defend SPACs RG
Bias in mortgage approval algos Markup
Wasp nest gives off powerful green glow SciMag
Summary on the state and functions of DAOs Mitztwtr
A look at how Discord makes cash CBI
Clint Kisker comparing NFTs to comics CKtwtr
Experiment to try to make affordable housing for low/middle class LAT
Setting an ENS for your domain name service .com (import) Med
Rex Woodbury on having multiple personalities/identities cross platforms RWss
Fan fin of characters from BAYC Jenkinstwtr
Lin Manuel Miranda on Adam Grant podcast
Rush hour levels have returned to pre-pandemic times Bberg
Walkthrough of Parallel, nft card game (that made a lot of ppl a lot of money) YT
Tony Hawk sells skateboards with some of his actual blood in it, marketing stunt (pretty core actually) Input
Pentagon to soon unveil a space weapon SD
Hand of God trailer YT
The chat bot as companion comforting chinese users FR24
Tracking the worlds fish MassSci
Illustrated database of Japanese folklore Yokai
Owen Wilson interview Esq
An NES game donated to Goodwill sold for almost 500k CNET
Scott Galloway on the metaverse NMNM