Muse, Blankies & a Spooky NYC Hit List
We’ve made it to fall! (She squeals.) Leaves are crisping. The ghosts are practicing their harmonies. And Q4 is walking around with her annoying “wrap it up, junior” attitude. Hence, you will find my NYC Calendar of spooky delights at the end of this dispatch. Before that: Muse, blankets, and other stuff we enjoyed clicking on from Slack.
Q: Muse (Meta’s AI mascot) is a Labubu, right?
Tucker: I am truly exhausted by AI releases. Last week my Linkedin feed (my only “social media,” and I look forward to closing that one, too) was all about Jev. Jev is the future. We should all use Jev. This morning the same group said Jev is dead. Don’t know what Jev is/was? That’s fine–it’s not even worth a Google anymore. Everyone is hot on Muse because it’s fuzzy and Alexandr Wang tweets funny stuff. Did you hear about Dots? Now Dots is hot!
In summary, Muse is indeed a fuzzy little demon and a meaningless collectible that makes you feel part of the culture for about 30 seconds. For now I’ll book my own restaurants and post my bank account to the company slack by accident all by myself.
Q: What’s with all the blankies?
Naomi: Over the summer, I got a travel blanket as a gift (Johnny Was) and thought it was sweet, but it wasn’t until the last few weeks (and three back-to-back airport trips) that I truly noticed the blanket…devolution. The under 30s are draping full on bedsheets over their shoulders in the airport. The adults are swaddling themselves it seems. Comfrt has an array of cozy items selling like human-sized hotcakes on Tiktok. There’s Unhide and, of course, the $300 Lola blankies, which are plastered on billboards all over the city. They have loads of reviews (and this odd Forbes story). Why? Maybe the same reason we went crazy for giant water bottles. For Korean skin care. For porch geese. Cozy, cutesy self-care unloads dopamine. Makes sense why everything is bedazzled. We need tidings of comfort and joy.
Tucker: We are a Lola blanket house. The kids travel with these things. The subway ads are trying to get me, too. It’s a fine product but I am not encouraged by our biggest cultural trend right now being “blanket.”
Naomi: I guess a blanket is more useful than a Labubu.
Q: Is AI making everything harder to read?
Tucker: Claude writing is visual white noise. It’s the reading equivalent of listening to the sound of the ocean (which I hear some people actually like). I don’t want this to be an AI newsletter but I suppose that ship has sailed (cue splashy ocean noises).
I don’t use AI in my writing, but I do use it to put together spec documentation. It generates such massive tomes that I find my eyeballs just bouncing off. They are accurate and thorough but I can’t get through them.
I recently leased a Kia Telluride and it was described thusly: “An utterly joyless car that is perfect in every other way.” I think that describes AI writing.
Naomi: Writing aside, AI still can’t see very well either. Proof from a recent project where we had to hand-select Pantone colors for a fabricator. Barbara kicks Claude’s butt every time. (And our human butts in these color challenges, too.)
Tucker’s Highbrow / Lowbrow Grid
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Highbrow x Brilliant: This fully electric reinterpretation of the 550 Spyder.
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Lowbrow x Brilliant: A man running a mobile pizzeria out of a Smart car.
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Highbrow x Silly: This trainable micro duck is dangerously cute.
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Lowbrow x Silly: Who wants a data center plushie in their stocking this year?
Stuff we Bought and/or Forwarded to our Friends
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This Scooch phone case puts the cards inside the case and magnetically attaches to your car mount.
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A USB from USB Club. Stay tuned! We have no idea what is on this thing.
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A service that scores how easily AI agents can use your website. Useful, if you trust it.
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More robots in the streets. These were caught protesting AI in Poland.
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This Untitled Goose Game where you must accomplish small tasks while remaining undetected…as a goose.
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This bookshop in Scotland that will let you stay in the Airbnb upstairs while you run the shop.
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There might be an underground world of competitive backflipping pigeons.
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This app delivers an e-message “via carrier pigeon” (or at least the time it would take for one fly that far).
Some Coalesce News (Why Not?)
- Our NYC offices have moved to Garment District/Hudson Yards East/Madison Square Garden south tunnel! If you ever partook of talks, toasts, or tall flights of stairs at our HQ in Chinatown these past few years, just wait until you see the game room at the new place. Come visit.
- We won the Communication Arts award for our Creative Post typography!
- We’re consulting on many new healthcare projects (Healthstream, Coco Health, Takaido, Groups, CSD). If you need insights on how to launch/run/brand your healthtech startup, let’s chat. We’ve learned a lot.
Alas, Naomi’s Spooky Season NYC Hit List
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Nightfall at Green-wood Cemetery - Walk the stones and encounter film screenings, live music, circus acts, lectures on the macabre, and maybe a ghost if you’re lucky
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I Put a Spell on You - Broadway’s big, glittery Halloween singalong
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The Martin Monster Show - Spooky screening with your favorite Brooklyn-based horror host
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Alyssa Umphress’s Season of the Witch at Joe’s Pub - Sexy song night (with a promise of no Wicked covers)
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One of Company XIV’s Halloween shows - Always impressive/weird
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Lawrence the Band’s Murder Mystery Halloween concert - Joyful themed jam at the Brooklyn Paramount
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Sunbather at 3 a.m. - A dance/mixed performance show honoring the first science fiction film, Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip to the Moon)
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The Robyn Party: Robynoween - Dance your fangs off at 3 Dollar Bill
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Garbage Day: Someone Should Bring Back Hallowmeme - “Comedy, music, and a little bit of journalism” at Baby’s Alright
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Haunted Mansion BK - A walk-through experience (who got around some Disney licensing?)
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My Witch of the Wood tour, by request only (get on the mailing list)
See you at the bottom of the leaf pile,
Naomi & Tucker