🗞️ Welcome to Zeteo

Mehdi Hasan’s new video company is set to launch in April with shows, essays, newsletters, and podcasts. Excited to see what they end up building.

🦾 What If “Face to Face” by Daft Punk Used Newer Samples? — Nickster

This is incredible. Via today’s Garbage Weekend.

🕳️ Why Am I Down Here? — Aftermath

Spot on. This weeks Drive-Away Dolls has a shot from below, looking up from a trunk at the two stars too.

🌬️ The Weather is Perfectly Interesting, Actually — Atlantic

If you’re not going to talk about the weather, what are you going to talk about? Your kids? Your dog? Are you sure that’s the gripping material you think it is?

📰 Say We Do — Paul Czege

This is a killer little one page broadsheet zine that you can print yourself for $1. I think this is the model that I’m going to switch my little letter of nonsense to as well rather than mailing it out

🇺🇦 Two Years of War in Ukraine — Atlantic

🏀 NBA debuts NB-AI to enhance the live game watching experience — Fast Company

Just plain ol’ dumb. Nobody wants this.

🛌 How Long Is Too Long to Stay in Bed? — NY Times

The last couple weeks have been rough at work for both me and my wife so this was a welcome read.

📺 The CNN, MTV, and Disney of the future — Garbage Day

And eventually it won’t feel strange to not own a TV and only own a wearable of some kind because eventually there won’t be any communal content left to watch with other people.

I just don’t think this is true. Storytelling will always be communal. Households, families, couples, etc. What shows people are watching is still something I hear people talking about everywhere.

🏟️ Apple Sports — App Store

As someone always looking for something to replace ESPN’s app, I think this is actually pretty nice. Still missing some important features—consolidated view of My Teams and My Leagues to start, but widgets and live activities would be welcome too.

🏹 Iran sends Russia hundreds of ballistic missiles — Reuters

Duckers. Pardon my French…

⌨️ Mini Manifesto — Robin Rendle

Killer stuff, as always from Robin.

[+] 20 Feb 2024 — foofaraw[+]

I’ve been riffing on this “foofaraw[+]” idea for a little bit now and I think I’ve nailed the format with this issue.

👻 The Ghost in the Vending Machine — Flaming Hydra

The intellectual-property industry has labored tirelessly to convince the public, which loves storytelling and painting and film as much as it ever has, that art is never individual, and that artists are not real, or no longer real. The reconfiguration of art—just generating a clause about art—is now to be reckoned the same as the entire creative process. Anything people really like, in this construction, was just the collective work of semi-skilled craftspeople interpreting the audience’s own brilliant whims, those whims having been carefully winnowed by a wise and benevolent overclass of creative executives.

Too good not to quote that much.

🧃 Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre bring hit ‘Gin & Juice’ to the beverage space — Food Dive

Surprised it took this long for this to happen. While I’m tired of celebrity brands, I’ll definitely be trying it.

🇷🇸 How Nikola Jokić Became the World’s Best Basketball Player — New Yorker

I always appreciate Thomas’ writing. She’s able to simplify for the audience (can’t imagine too many die hard NYer readers are die hard sports fans), while providing insight and going deep. And who better to go deep on than Jokić.

🦇 Batman Comic Writer James Tynion IV Launches Multimedia Production Company Tiny Onion — Variety

Tynion is pretty prolific as a writer, but this announcement is just so vague. It’s more of a proclamation of ambition than anything else.

🕷️ “Life with Spider” — New Yorker

This was a fun, odd, and sometimes a little creepy short story.

🦖 Tech was something that would free us — Dinosaur Comics

Speaking of tech’s “promise”…

🚕 The high cost of Uber’s small profit — Disconnect

The profit it’s reporting is purely due to exploitative business practices where the worker and consumer are squeezed to serve investors — and technology is the tool to do it.

Its only real innovation is finding new ways to exploit labor.

This is a really terrific piece. The quotes above come before Paris even gets to algorithmic wage discrimination.

⚾ Nike And Fanatics Have Truly Fucked Up MLB’s New Uniforms — Defector

I’m not a big baseball or jersey person, but I could care less if they “look cheap” and are lighter. Lighter actually sounds better. I do, however, understand the complaints about fit.

🧌 Sasquatch Sunset — Trailer

This looks terrificly delightful. I’m not familiar with the work of the Zellner’s, but this feels like it could’ve come from The Daniels. It’s Swiss Army Man meets the rock scene from Everything Everywhere All at Once. What more could you want?!?!