May the Couches We Burn Light the Way
Over/under on Super Bowl Monday becoming a federal holiday?
Hello again,
Greetings from Culver City, at the nexus of the universe where Erewhon meets Trader Joe’s.
I’m writing this en route to LAX on my way back to Austin, having spent a whirlwind 2½ days out in Hollywood and adjacent neighborhoods visiting the We Are Social offices, taking meetings, and attending the BRXND AI conference on Thursday.
Finding Intelligence in Hollywood
As I mentioned last week, I came into the event in need of a reset around AI1, my brain starting the year toggling between cynicism about real near-term impact and dread over the negative second-order consequences waiting down the line. Either this trip would help reframe my thinking to be more sustainably positive or I’d just confirm my worst fears about the career destruction ahead, go home and start preparing for my next career as a woodworker.
You do not have to worry about my newsletter-typing digits falling prey to a band saw, at least for the foreseeable future. In fact, the vibes and conversations (and even many attendees) took me back to the mid-2000s, when everyone was experimenting and we weren’t all suffocating under a weighted blanket of best practices.
I had three takeaways from the day (and happy hour the night before), which have me more excited professionally for the rest of 2025 than I have been in some time…
This full article continues in The Preview’s new section, Artificial Intel.
What else happened this week?
As regular subscribers know, most weeks I spend a good deal of time (some might say ‘too much’) curating the important links from past few days.
To make it happen, I have a long list of sources I read all week, including a few outstanding fellow curators who make the job easier by bubbling up the best stuff all in one place. I can usually hit a few of those, some of my more unique sources, and we’ve got our link rundown for each edition of Sunday Bunch.
This week
, one of my top sources who is as hot as anyone in the curation game right now, turned in a double-overtime, 62-point performance over at [SIC] Weekly that’s so good, I’m taking the week off.Anything I would have shared this week, Ben already got it2. Instead of links from me today, I highly recommend you go check out [SIC] this week:
The Final Countdown
I am not going to tell you who to cheer for (or bet on) today, but I will offer up a few considerations in case you’re undecided or indifferent about the two teams on the field today.
First, Spencer Hall and Holly Anderson make the case for Philadelphia as a Moral Imperative:
We know that part of that complex of survival behaviors is a dedication to a healthy amount of anarchy, and also caring about a sports team to the point where you have to destroy property or drive a jeep up the steps of an art museum. You can’t and shouldn’t fear that, since a healthy dash of anarchy isn’t an indicator of trouble. Philly's people care enough to climb poles when they shouldn’t, or perhaps fashion pools out of city dumpsters.
What we're saying is: Are you, generally speaking, not throwing a battery because you don’t want to hurt anyone? Or are you not throwing a battery because you’re scared of getting in trouble, and don’t care enough to in the first place anyway? All batteries here are metaphorical only, of course. We’d never throw batteries for any reason, at anyone.
[/winks, slides a fresh pack of batteries in your direction]
At first glance, the fan column would seem to go towards Kansas City. I get it, Philly fans can be a lot. But for all of their tailgates and enthusiastic but problematic Native American revelry, can anyone in Chiefs Kingdom compare to King Gillie, Mike Jerrick, this guy, or any number of characters in the Eagles Fan Cinematic Universe?
Making the choice based on an NFL fanbase is tough for many of you because, let’s face it, most of them have a sort of angry mob thing going on.
You might consider each city’s culinary exploits, for which the tale of the tape is pretty clear:
Any expert knows that Kansas City barbecue–the city's lone culinary claim to fame–isn’t even elite.
Meanwhile, Philly has multiple dishes that it invented and/or absolutely owns, and is the obvious and undisputed king of one of them. And it’s not just the Hall of Fame tourist spots, the Philly sandwich bench slaps top-to-bottom:
We all know that, like it or not, there’s a bigger contingent than ever out there choosing based on celebrity fans. I’m not going to do a full tally but I will remind you that while the Chiefs may have Taylor Swift, but the Eagles will always have Princess Diana.
Finally, when it comes to pick 'ems and parlays (particularly the latter), I won't pretend to be your man.
However, I am someone who does have experience3 prematurely making merch celebrating three straight titles, as recounted by the Washington Post this week:
In 2005, according to ESPN, a USC fan began selling T-shirts with “Three-Pete” on them in honor of Trojans football coach Pete Carroll, who was vying for his third straight national title. But the USPTO already had ruled “Three-Pete” too closely resembled the “three-peat” trademark held by Riley’s company, so the fan would have to fork over 5 percent of his sales for use of the term. The fan stopped making the shirts after the company that made them received a warning from attorneys for Riley’s company.
Mark my words: preemptively licensing “Three-Peat” from Pat Riley4 is the mother of all jinxes.
I was already feeling the Eagles’ vibe, between that defense and Saquon’s perfect season being overlooked because an RB hasn’t been MVP since 2012 and people love arguing about QBs with stats but no rings5, but the NFL and the Chiefs doing the deal with Riles & Co gives strong Patriots and their “Perfect Season” and “19-0” shirts energy. You don’t mess with the football gods by trademarking your win before kickoff.
Apologies to my friend Dr. Fuller, but I’m rolling with Steve, Don, Court, and the rest of the Philly crew today.
Go Birds 🦅,
BUNCH
Style note: I think I am going with AI over A.I. for now. The world seems to be divided but I prefer common acronyms to just drop the periods and Noah’s use of AI confirmed it for me.
Anything good you saw this week, Ben already saw it, too. See for yourself.
From my C&D love note from the one-time Laker coach: “In accordance with our Intellectual Property Rights Policy, a representative for Riles & Co., the owner of the Trademark Three Peat, provided us with a notice stating that your use of the mark Three Pete infringes upon their intellectual property rights.”
Who has never won three titles in a row, which is why we felt justified in trying to make them without his permission.
Honestly, do you care that much if Lamar didn’t get another regular season trophy? We all know he’s cemented his place at the top stats-wise, let’s get him a ring.
Wow. I had already copied/pasted the headline into my [SIC] Sunday digest for the BRXND.AI LA recap when I got to the shout out. V. flattered, thanks Kyle!