On The Crisis of Cool

This is a newsletter-style roundup, so the summary covers its main pieces. Its lead item is Chris Marino's article on the perceived "crisis of cool," which argues that in 2020s New York the performance of being an artist has taken precedence over the production of art. The newsletter's author adds that younger people are trying to counter perceived cringeness by labeling sincere activities "performative," and predicts that offline coolness will return in a new form. Other items cover Sachin's piece on gambling's changing meaning across cultures, drawing on McLuhan and Geertz, and a ranking of the four main US cities that puts San Francisco and the DMV (DC and Baltimore) closely at fourth and fifth.