Weekend Round-Up: Disaster Girl, Digital Vibes, And Ancient Mounds

Each week, our editors gather their favorite finds from around the internet and recommend them to you right here. These are not articles about watches, but rather outstanding examples of journalism and storytelling covering topics from fashion and art to technology and travel. So go ahead, pour yourself a cup of coffee, put your feet up, and settle in. Students Created Faux New Yorker Covers About The Pandemic – The Washington Post Image via linked article. The pandemic has (obviously) changed the way we live. Zoom is now part of the common vernacular in the same way we say Kleenex instead of tissue. It's been a little more than a year since most of the world went into lockdown, and students at the School of Visual Arts in New York participated in a very interesting art project – one that looks directly at how life has changed. It's called "Old New World" and takes the style of New Yorker magazine covers depicting everyday life during the "new normal." From masks at the dinner table to an illustration of a student emerging from the screen of a Zoom class, it all strikes a chord. So much so, in fact, that the whole project went viral. Check out this piece from The Washington Post and spend some time admiring these illustrations over the weekend. –Danny Milton, Editor The Wrestlers Fighting to Build a Chinese WWE – Sixth Tone Image via linked article. MKW Wrestling is an organization that Sixth Tone describes as China’s fledgling answer to the always-entertaining, maybe/maybe-not-scripted sport of WWE wrestling in this recent report. I’m not even a big WWE guy. I didn’t grow up watching it like many people I know did. But I found this story of professional wrestling culture crossing borders and breaking down boundaries to be fascinating. –Logan Baker, Editor, HODINKEE Shop The World Knows Her as ‘Disaster Girl.’ She Just Made $500,000 Off the Meme – The New York Times Image via linked article. On last week’s Weekend Roundup, James shared a piece from The Atlantic on the recent NFT boom sweeping the internet. I found it all to be really interesting and I’ve kept my eye on NFT news ever since. The New York Times reported this week that Zoe Roth sold the original copy of the hit meme “Disaster Girl” as an NFT for nearly half a million dollars. I didn’t recognize the name, but I instantly knew the face. As someone who is constantly caught up in the “where are they now” world of the internet, it was surprising to learn that “Disaster Girl” is now 21 and in college. Also surprising was the backstory behind the meme – the house fire was a controlled blaze! Zoe plans on paying off some student loans and donating much of the earnings from the NFT sale to charity. –Zach Quist, Sr. Product Manager TikTok and the Vibes Revival – The New Yorker Image via linked article. What’s in a vibe? My friend Kyle Chayka has written a piece for The New Yorker explaining the proliferation of digital moods on platforms like TikTok and their subsequent monetization. Rather than selling products, aspiration has taken on an ambient quality in videos about nothing at all. “What a haiku is to language, a vibe is to sensory perception: a concise assemblage of image, sound, and movement,” Chayka writes. –Daisy Alioto, Audience Engagement Manager What Doomed a Sprawling City Near St. Louis 1,000 Years Ago? – The New York Times Image via linked article. I had never heard of the Cahokia Mounds before I went to college in St. Louis, Missouri. But there, they're part of the local lore and woven into the fabric of the area. This article from The New York Times questions the received wisdom about what these strange Earth formations were and what happened to the people who made them nearly 1,000 years ago. It's a story about culture, about history, and about learning for the future. Now I just need Werner Herzog to get interested in the place... – Stephen Pulvirent, Manager of Editorial Operations Top image via linked article.And art-school magazine covers for our current times.