Reality felt so easily manipulated only a few months ago. Email campaigns. Social posts. Window displays. The words we chose, a series of messages that add up to a narrative, made us feel like we could warp reality itself. Recently, after the coronavirus emptied out our cities and the protests over George Floyd’s murder filled them back up again, it became apparent that the structures around those narratives had failed, temporarily, at least. These structures were the things we had built around the narratives so no one could tear them down or make them their own. Public relations. Content moderators. Police. Now, for a very brief moment, reality is temporarily glitching. Words have very little power over it. Narrative is being taken over by people who are not the narrative-makers. The easiest and clearest example is in the proliferation of murals in New York’s SoHo, something that I wrote about two weeks ago and has since been covered in brilliant ways and some less interesting ways.
Boarded up storefronts have become the place where reality breaks through the narrative because unlike narrative-controlling spaces like inboxes and social feeds, storefronts haven’t become noisy to the point of being useless. They’re new. They’re blank. Unless someone makes sure they’re not blank. There are three types of murals in SoHo, which has basically been turned into an open-air studio where photographers and artists battle for attention among hundreds of new artworks. There are murals commissioned by the brands who own the stores themselves, usually with explicit support of the #BlackLivesMatter protests. There are unofficial or unsanctioned murals, also usually with explicit support for the #Black Lives Matter protesters. And then there is graffiti.
If a business does not put up a message itself, a message that business has no control over will be inserted in its place. The closest anyone has gotten so far in the media to nailing this was Max Lakin in the Times: “As thousands of New Yorkers emptied into the streets in recent weeks, some image consultants correctly identified that their brands would be caught naked.”Until the normal narrative-forming functions of the media resume, a good mural is essential insurance against any extra-narrative message.
The shorter stuff
More on reality vs. narrative, from Jon Stewart: "We’re basically having giant public fights about symbolism, while the reality of our situation goes unexamined.” (NYT)
Ginia Bellafante on what is becoming the media story of the year: "We rarely if ever see friends or colleagues publicly come to the defense of someone caught in an act of cultural arrogance or idiocy, in large part because the risk of adjacent cancellation is too great." (NYT)
🌀Special "You Can't Fire Me, I Quit" Section
I think it's possible that Jimmy Kimmel took a vacation to avoid any potential backlash from the resurfacing of his blackface Karl Malone impressions before he hosts the Emmys in September. (CNN)
Amy Klobuchar with the most obvious attempt to assert control over a narrative. (CBS News)
Special "Big Yikes" Section
Joe Rogan got pummeled by several news cycles last week. (VF)
Twitch is dealing with a wave of abuse allegations against streamers and an allegation that its CEO shrugged it all off. (Engadget)
Microsoft's Mixer, a failing Twitch rival, shut down after signing several streamers like Ninja to supposedly $10-$30 million contracts. (The Verge)
And then there was Snapchat's very misguided Juneteenth filter. (NYPost)
Nothing is funnier to me than Hudson Yards' The Edge, the highest sky deck in the Western Hemisphere, only being open for two days. (NYT)
Absolutely brutal of Variety to buy Google ad words against searches like "Quibi review," "Quibi stock" and "Quibi shows." (Image) (Image) (Image)
Ben Simmons worked out with LeBron in FaZe Clan shorts. (Image)
Lucas Shaw says the pandemic streaming boom is over and TV ratings are back in free fall. (Bloomberg)
Maybe "30 Rock" can help the latter. (Variety)
I just don't really like how this "Perry Mason" tagline makes me feel. (Image)
I think it's weird that Sergey Brin has a secret disaster relief company that uses yachts, drones and airships. (The Daily Beast)
Facebook potentially moving into Neiman Marcus' barely used Hudson Yards space is depressing. (Bloomberg)
One of the funnier media stories of the past couple years is the Barstool/"Throwing Fits" feud, but there's a story that made it into this piece about Dimes that hits hard, too. (NYer)
David Sedaris just couldn't wait until quarantine is over to show off his Bode shirt. (NYT)
Prepare for an app called Randonaut, which guides users to random map coordinates, to become the next focal point of hysteria for a while with just enough TikTok overlap to really boost its chances. (Daily Mail)
The FBI will even spy on Etsy reviews to bust a protester. (The Verge)
Drew Magary calls the opening credits prologue of Gone With The Wind "like reading the splash-page copy for Draper James." (TNR)
An under-appreciated channel: Cinemax. (WSJ)
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