Good Morning and Hello Friday.

WOW!!! It’s been one META of a week. Super excited about the new Giphy pop-up downstairs. It’ll be up for an entire month. And I’m covering all things META in #1, 2, 3, and 4 of the blog today.

Also, very excited about my first ever celebration of Christmas in Chinatown. Been spending a lot of time lately exploring that neighborhood, especially the restaurants (#8 and 9 below). Major discovery was Keki Modern Cakes (on Mott Street). The most heavenly baked goodies I’ve ever had. On a par with, if not better than, Lady M’s mille crepe cakes.

And finally another trip booked (until it’s cancelled!). But let’s stay optimistic. This ARTnews-led jaunt to South Korea focuses on Seoul’s art scene. Scheduled for next October. Fingers crossed.

1. [watch] What’s Up On The Trend Front

2. Giphy meta pop-up on Rivington Street

• On Wednesday morning, a META amount of tech equipment was delivered to the pop-up space next door. I was told the projection screens being used are so rare there are only 5 in the world and they were shipped to the LES from Korea just for this project.
• On Thursday, I got a sneak preview and then came back at the end of the day to get photos/video of the finished installation. And I met the artist, Sam Cannon. She’s amazing – check out her work here.
• Location: 2 Rivington Street

Wednesday Set-up

Thursday Installation

7:20 PM: After 2 days of crushing it, it’s a wrap (below). Big congrats to the GIPHY crew – you guys did a phenomenal job!

3. Is Every Mega Brand going meta Now?

1. NIKE acquired RTFKT (pronounced Artifact), a Utah startup founded in 2020 that leverages cutting-edge innovation to deliver next-generation collectibles merging culture and gaming. In February, RTFKT and NFT artist “Fewocious” made $3.1 million when they sold 600 pairs of physical and virtual sneaker NFTs (I wrote about it March 5th).
2. Roblox got a head start on metaverse building. Their metaverse platform has been primarily focused on kids and teenagers — 48.9% of its daily active users are 13 years old or younger. It’s users have grown from 18.4MM in 3Q 2019 to 47.3MM 3Q 2021. Roblox generates revenue by selling an in-game currency called Robux. It increased its revenue by over 100% in the third quarter, earning $181 million in cash flow from operations on revenue of $509 million.
3. Toy company MGA entertainment entered into a partnership with digital asset consultancy firm Ioconic to develop NFTs, digital trading cards, and tokens for its $25 billion L.O.L. Surprise brand. Fans can view their collection in their L.O.L. Surprise Art Gallery, and purchase additional NFTs through limited drops.

4. Immersive Art Experiences are meta successful. museums are freaking out.

• I’ve gone on record saying how much I am NOT a fan of these Disneyfied Van Gogh art experiences but I do LOVE artist-created immersive installations, e.g., Yayoi Kusama, Pipilotti Rist, James Turrell. I am also a big fan of anything Refik Anadol has created for ARTECHOUSE.
• Per Artnet and WSJ: The Success of the Van Gogh Experience Is Making Museums Nervous – As the popularity of the Van Gogh Experience and its ilk shows no sign of waning, museums are struggling to attract audiences. While the Met director Max Hollein notes that “these multisensory experiences are not art,” some audiences in Columbus, Ohio, feel differently. They showed up at the city’s museum hoping for “Immersive Van Gogh,” but got a Van Gogh show instead. “It was awkward,” said the Columbus Museum’s director Nannette Maciejunes. (Wall Street Journal)
• Not surprisingly, additional immersive art experiences are in the works, e.g., Frida Kahlo and Claude Monet.

5. My Chase (Soho) branch has gotten a biophilic makeover. So On trend.

• This week was the FIRST time in over a year that I set foot inside a bank (a very non-metaverse experience).
• I knew Chase had renovated this branch but had no idea they were going biophilic. Very impressed that they’re so on-trend.
• Biophilic design was just named a top trend in the 2022 Pinterest Predicts Report. For those of you not familiar with the term, biophilic is all about bringing the outdoors indoors through natural materials, colors, and—of course—plants. Chase, post-reno, is full of plant-covered walls and plant cubicle separators. This nature-inspired trend is rooted in our basic human makeup. “Historically, being connected with nature has provided food, clothing, and shelter. These connections are imprinted in our brains and we are subconsciously comforted by these colors, textures, and patterns.” I wonder if it will also deter bank robbers?
• Final point: After I got over oohing and aahing at how beautiful and friendly my Chase had become, I realized that when it comes to banking, I’m totally META now, i.e., online only and extremely cash-averse (I’m down to only two or three ATM visits a year).
• The reason for this week’s bank visit? To turn in my cache of cash – almost $100 of coins.

6. Ever wonder What happens to items you buy and then return?

• Liquidity Services (a network of online auction marketplaces), opened an 85,000-square foot warehouse in Phoenix called “AllSurplus Deals.” They picked Phoenix because the largest retailers in the world have their returns facilities there. Those facilities send truckloads of products to AllSurplus who break down the returns and resell them to consumers one item at a time.
• It’s their first facility selling returned products straight to consumers (who must pick up items at the warehouse). No shipping provided and ALL SALES ARE FINAL.
• 500 items are uploaded to the website each day and bids start at $5.
• According to the National Retail Federation, online sales accounted for 14% of total U.S. retail sales in 2020 – that’s $565 billion with $100 billion (18%) of those online purchases returned.

For anyone who claims to be seriously concerned about the environment and climate change, all this willy nilly buying and returning is immensely wasteful. Think about it!!

6. The mayor and the Met have got some serious ‘splaining’ to do

SACKLERS ARE OUT BECAUSE OF OPIOIDS. BUT AT THE SAME TIME..

DE BLASIO OPENS CITY-RUN DRUG DENS

• REALLY!!?! We don’t have enough drug addicts and junkies in the city already?
• Not many people are supporting this. Not even Al Sharpton! He and the mayor are generally in lockstep on all kinds of crazy ideas but this was a bridge too far even for Sharpton.
• And parents in the neighborhood are outraged at the messaging the city is sending to their kids, i.e., “normalizing” drug use to children.

8. Chinatown is roaring back with a young generation of restaurateurs at the helm

• Chinatown was one of the hardest hit areas of the city during the pandemic. But it has finally come back to life and there’s an exciting new trend of Chinese/Japanese culinary fusions.
• This year, for the first time, I am celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Chinese restaurants. I snagged a reservation for Xmas Day lunch at Shun Lee West. Xmas Eve is another story – all the restaurants are busy and you can often only make a reservation for a party of 20 or more! That said we are going to try to make it work at the newly opened Jing Fong on Centre Street. I’ve gotten takeout from there a few times and it is excellent.
• See below for my Chinatown recommendations.

Jing Fong, 202 Centre Street

Mott Street Eatery (98 Mott Street)

Serving dim-sum and omakase!

Cha-Kee (43 Mott St) – VERY FANCY WITH A FAMOUS, YOUNG JAPANESE CHEF

Shu Jiao Fuzhou (295 Grand Street)

The MOST delicious dumplings ever and only $4 for 10!!!

9. [watch] most delish discovery OF THE week: Keki Modern Cakes

• The Ube Cream Puff is NEXT LEVEL deliciousness. OMG I so love it!!
• Better than Lady M’s Mille Crepe cakes and I never thought I would find anything to top that!!
• And they’re not expensive: $4 a piece or 3 for $10
• Keki is most famous for their “bouncy” cheesecake but I wasn’t as crazy about that. I’m all about the cream puffs!

10. Booked! Art-Forward Cultural excursion to Seoul, South Korea (🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻)

• My upcoming trip to Africa is a bit iffy (of course), Faroe Islands is still a go (I’m relatively optimistic about it), and now I’m trying to get my travel on with this trip to South Korea.
• It’s art-forward, led by Andrew Russeth, former ARTnews executive editor and current Seoul resident.
• Trip is organized by Academic Travel Abroad for ARTnewsTravel. Academic Travel Abroad also just partnered with NPR for their cultural trips so I’m hopeful this will be run as smoothly as my Nat Geo trips.

And with that It’s a wrap.

But I do have a question about this car (Jaguar) with a camera contraption on its roof. Anyone have any ideas? It parked across the street and then after about 10 minutes, there was an exchange of drivers. Is this a Google Maps or Waze thing?

And with that, it is indeed a wrap!! I’m planning to get out to Governor’s Island today for the opening of their Winter Village (sounds great with firepits, ice-skating, hot chocolate, etc). But I am even more excited about tonight’s dinner at Caviar Russe with Rodrigo and Elliott. I’ve been a bit of a homebody this week so a caviar extravaganza is definitely in order! Have a great weekend everyone. Can’t believe next week’s post will come at you on Xmas Eve. You know where I’ll be, chowing down in Chinatown!