In this issue:

PRESENT
-Snapchat claims it’s a “healthy alternative”-
-The Taliban wants their meme back-
-Fashion Avengers are assembling-

PAST
-Loving life, ish-
-World’s most famous and mysterious chair-

“Don't gobblefunk around with words.”
― Roald Dahl

✦Top Trends✦

Social Media

Is Snapchat good for you?

Ah, yes… Snapchat. Who uses it? Nobody knows. Maybe kids with low taste sensibilities? Maybe adults who want to flash their genitals, free of conscience?

Despite the general enigma around what and who it’s for, Snapchat since its inception proven itself to not be a fad. It’s got 500 million users, and every year some headline pops up of Snapchat crushing quarterly revenue expectations.

✦Why? Because it’s old school✦

Social media is (was) about connecting people with people. Period. During the past few years, that motto has seemingly gone lost. These days, they’re more like political battlefields that’ll fry your children’s brains.

Meanwhile, Snapchat is simply about you and your friends. Just like the good old days of early Instagram and Facebook. Snapchat knows this and is pushing a marketing operation that’ll present it as an alternative to toxic social media; it’s positioning itself as a safer option.

✦Honestly? Not a bad idea✦

The move is seen as smart, especially because social media platforms are getting a lot of flak for their impact on teens.

Despite this move, experts are skeptical about Snapchat's ability to compete with the big players like Meta, TikTok, and YouTube because of its smaller user base and ad revenue.

As always, time will tell.

✦✦✦

King says:
“I use Snapchat. A lot. For things ;)”

✦Poll of the day✦

In the last issue, you were asked:

“How much does a brand’s cool factor matter to you?”

0% - I prefer buying things that are considered cool.
0% - I don’t pay attention, which I think makes me cool.
100% - I do not care.

Tech

Taliban shuts down online gay community 'queer.af' for using Afghanistan’s country-domain.

Queer.af; “Queer as fuck”, is a very funny and clever website name. But maybe not for the Taliban, as the “.af” domain belongs to Afghanistan.

When the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, people were wondering what would happen with this frankly awesome and highly-memeable domain - and now we know.

✦They were just, kinda hanging out✦

"queer.af" used to be a social media space for queer and queer-adjacent individuals seeking a better experience online.

404Media interviewed its founder, Erin Shepherd, who created the queer.af community:

The Taliban, now in control of Afghanistan's ".af" domain, shut down the Mastodon instance "queer.af" before its planned closure in April.

✦Happy accidents✦

Yes, many domain suffixes are actually designated to countries. Many of which can be controlled by said country. For example, “.tv” is not “dot television”, but “dot Tuvalu”, a Pacific island nation.

In the case of Tuvalu, this coincidence has been a very happy accident; for years the domain has been responsible for 1/12th of the country’s gross national income.

✦✦✦

King says:
“I’m trying to get based.af”

Fashion

Marc Jacobs to collaborate with Pharrell, Tremaine Emory, Sophia Coppola, Murakami + more.

Marc Jacobs is celebrating the brand’s 40th anniversary. To celebrate, Marc has called upon the Avengers of tastemaking. 

Just to name a few:

• Pharrell Williams; legendary producer and artist, creative director of Louis Vuitton.

• Murakami; Japanese contemporary artist and designer.

• Futura 2000; the graffiti and street-art innovator

• Tremaine Emory; Denim Tears, ex-Supreme

• Sofia Coppola; Lost in Translation director.

✦For what tho?✦

Marc has gathered this roster to select their favorite piece from the historical archive of Marc Jacobs and reimagine them in their own vision. The reimagined pieces will then be available in limited edition drops on the Marc Jacobs website.

As with everything fashion: this might turn out to be hyped up commercial garbage, or a historical moment.

✦✦✦

King says:
“If these people could sell you a $500 rag soaked in sweat, they would.”

✦Quick hits✦

• Lyft misspelled their earnings citing 5% EBIDTA expansion, when they meant 0.5%; their stock went soaring by +60%, after reporting the mistake, the stock settled on +15%, a quick bounce of $2 billion in market cap.

• Vince Staples releases Netflix show The Vince Staples Show. He cites Swedish cinema legend Roy Andresson as an inspiration as well as King of the Hill and Pulp Fiction. The show also features a cameo from the “biggest baws” Rick Ross. Vince is otherwise famous for claiming that Ray J is one of the most influential artists of our time.

• MoMa (the Museum of Modern art) returns Nazi artwork that randomly ended up in their hands after WW2 to the original owners family. The family sold it for $25 million, and now a legal battle is taking place about $4 million that MoMa mysteriously made from the sale.

• 17% of gamers identify as LGBTQ+. While only 2% of video games include LGBTW characters and plots, 72% of gamers say that characters who match their gender identity make them feel better about themselves.

• YouTube is giving assistance grants to 28 hip-hop artists as a celebration of hip-hop’s 50th birthday. This is part of what YouTube calls the Fifty Deep Program.

• Hasbro has made $90 million off the hit video game Baldurs Gate 3 since its release in August. The game is part of the Dungeons and Dragons universe, which Hasbro acquired in 1999.

• Beyoncé garnered 75% of all of the 98,000 celebrity mentions during the Superbowl.

• Instacart lays off 7% of staff; competition and food costs are stressing costs.

• Jeff Bezos; happy guy, extra happy today. He sold off $2 billion worth of Amazon stock. He also moved to Miami, saving him $600 million in taxes.

• Mark Zuckerberg, in a totally shocking statement, claims that the Quest 3 is better than Vision Pro.

• 46% of brands are using Chatbots and AI assistants for copywriting.
61% say that their companies are building AI applications with third-party partners.

PAST

Music

Loving life, with Lifelover

The name “Lifelover” came about when the band’s founder Jonas “B” Bergqvist was called a “life lover” by a man he hated. In B’s personal opinion, people could call him what they wanted. For that, the name simply stuck with him.

In 2011, B had reportedly died in his sleep from an overdose. Rumors of suicide made rounds, but authorities’ investigation found that it was an accident.

That day, Lifelover broke up. But for every year that passes, the 4 studio albums they released sound better and better. The more time swallows it, the more one realizes that this music could never be made again.

The sound they engineered could be boxed into the black-metal category - but won’t do it justice. There’s a softness to it; a sometimes symphonic ambiance that demands you understand the music as sensitive, not just blaring noise.

In 2015, the group reconnected for a final gig. This time, in Quebec, Canada - 5600 km from Stockholm. This was the first time that Lifelover ever performed a show outside of Europe. 4 years after B’s death, time had cemented their legend-status, worldwide.

This 12-year-old 9-minute interview with the whole band is entertaining for many reasons. Besides the looks of the band members and the gentle Swedish accents, it’s also a quick peer into the identity of Lifelover.

Here are 3 quotes:

“We destroy ourselves more with this band than we build up ourselves”

“My mother supports what I do when she’s drunk”

“Most of our fans don’t appeal to us as people”

New to Lifelover? Start with this song.

✦✦✦

King says:
“Just a gang of god-fearing chaps hanging out.”

Product History

This chair is the king of the world.

This is the MONOBLOC chair. Everybody has seen one, owned one, sat on one; yet nobody knows anything about it. Today we learn.

Believe it or not, the MONOBLOC was a hip status symbol in the 70s. 

The materials used to be rare, which made it difficult to produce. It was invented during the Oil Crisis, and the chair was made of an oil-based plastic called polypropylene - that alone made it hard to make.

How much? 300 french franks; or $165 today - for one plastic chair.

When oil stabilized, the chair became so easy to produce that it took over the world. They literally take one minute to make; the polypropylene is heated to 220 degrees and injected into a mold which is then cooled with water. And that’s why it’s called MONOBLOC - every chair is molded in the same block.

So, that’s 60 chairs per hour and 1500 per day.

Today, estimated that a billion of these bad boys can be found across the earth.

Henry Masonnet, the French inventor, never benefited financially from MONOBLOC’s takeover, as he never found a way to patent the production process behind the invention. He died in 2005, mostly unnoticed.

It’s sad in some ways, this chair is probably responsible for countless dinner table chairs in poor countries across the world. Some developing countries even make wheelchairs affordable by mounting a MONOBLOC on them. Those people are probably very thankful for Masonnet’s invention.

If you stacked every chair of this kind on earth, how high do you think that’d be?

✦✦✦

King says:
“Nothing quite like sitting in one of these on the sidewalk on a sunny day.”