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The Independent Variable

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🎞️ What Can Fashion Learn From A24?

But this strangeness is always a stylish statement, unlike, say, Supreme’s infamous brick. “A24 chooses objects and ideas that are too strange or too narrow for a normal marketing department, and turns them into talismans,” says Martin Mangez-Casey, previously global director of digital communications at Louis Vuitton and an admirer of A24’s approach. “A24 dances to the off-rhythm beat of its own drum and it’s been consistent since it first gained popularity,” echoes Luz Corona, editor of Campaign US.

The way A24 world-builds around their movies and does fun logo iterations has been an enormous inspiration for how I’ve tried to approach building Foofaraw.

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đź“§ December 10, 2025

The final document began with a preamble explaining that a UDHR was necessary because “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,” and because “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind.” Because “the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,” the preamble said, “human rights should be protected by the rule of law.”

Richardson goes on to list all the rights that are included under the United Nations human rights and it sure feels like America doesn’t give a fuck about 70% of those rights now.

I enjoyed this bit:

The U.S. government did not recognize Human Rights Day this year.
Instead, Humeyra Pamuk of Reuters reported, administration officials are threatening to place sanctions on the International Criminal Court to guarantee it will not investigate Trump and his top officials.

Who needs human rights when you have bigger bombs, I guess? We are devolving back to a world where might means right, and unfortunately, we are the bad guys this time.

đź§» I hate the Pantone color of the year

In fashion language, white suggests luxury, like, you don’t have to work, because if you worked, you’d wear a more practical color that won’t get stained within 5 minutes. Staying clean is a privilege — the aristocracy keeps their hands clean and the working class gets dirty for them.

I’m going to go out on a limb and play the contrarian: I kinda like the color of the year. But I do think they are on to something here when it comes to privilege, white nationalism, etc. Especially as the class gap continues to grow and people with abhorrent views continue to show their true colors.

🎼 Quitting Spotify, ethics, and pay per stream

I don’t think it’s ethical to use Apple Music, but I DO think it’s unethical to use Spotify. I don’t think the “How to quit Spotify” article made any point other than finding a more ethical alternative to Spotify, which isn’t hard… and yes, pay per stream has to be a part of that equation.

Related to the previous entry on pay-per-stream, in typical Crucial Tracks fashion, Jason nails everything here, including why Spotify isn’t a great place to be and why you can’t just shrug off the pay-per-stream part of the discussion. Just because there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism, doesn’t mean you can’t try—especially when you can do so for the exact same price.