Welcome to another edition of the Weekend Degen Report.
What to expect: 1300 words a 6.5-minute read.
TLDR: Did you miss me? Delta may have too much power. Arcade and Courtyard revolutionizing the Web3 space. Nobody understands MoMA haha. Now I want bubble gum.
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Creative Corner
GM GM.
Like baby bash, I’m back. Some of yall probably too young to even know wtf I just said haha.
Slowly ramping back up and feeling recharged and ready to conquer. In case you have been living under a rock or something, I dropped a piece with Mr. Lakon while I was out. The next artist piece will drop October 18, 2023 which will cover Nishe.
In the spirit of web3 I have been experimenting with tools that more closely aligned with blockchain tech and writing. I’ve been tinkering with mirror.xyz recently as it added functionality that I have been interested in. Another tool I have been tinkering with is paragraph.xyz. I am still in the exploratory phase but we will see what comes of it. I have also been experimenting with apps like Interface and Converse which have been fun.
Knowledge
As I have been reading Memoirs of Madam Vigee Lebrun in my effort to increase my art history knowledge and research for the launch of Shithead History of Arts Major (SHAM trademark pending) I have come to realize that the art scene from the past is not so different from the current one. More on this shortly.
Another fun tidbit, allegedly 1% of all the USA GDP runs through Delta Amex cards. Which is a crazy ass thing to think about. Delta has been in the news recently too for fucking over customers with their new changes to their mileage program. Not sure if I believe this stat but if it is true, that is bonkers.
NFT Space
Alot has happened since I took my break. I think going back too far won’t be too fruitful so I will focus on the bigger items in the last two to three weeks.
Arcade.xyz one of the leading defi lending apps, recently upgraded to V3. What are those changes?
Collection-wide loan offers on non-vaulted assets
A non upgradable, immutable protocol
Optimizations for decentralization, capital efficiency, and composability, audited by Trail of Bits and Omniscia
On-Chain Whitelisting for Collections & Payable Tokens
On-Chain Hosting for Arcade Loan & Vault NFT Images
Customizable Fee Structure
This has led to many breaking loans being run through Arcade. From someone who put their whole box logo collection of Supreme shirts through the platform for 1.1million. And more.
Another marketplace making waves recently is courtyard.io. Where you can get your pokemon cards digitized into the blockchain, trade, sell and more. Some key perks of courtyard.io
🔒 Seamless self-custodial wallets
💳 Credit card account funding
⛽️ Gasless transactions
❎ In-app marketplace interoperability
So why am I bringing them up? As some of you may know, I am big pokemon tcg collector. I still collect these mfers in real life and never really stopped since I was young. Here is a video of a recent pull I had.
I had heard of courtyard before but recently they dropped some packs that where $300 a pop for a chance to get some rare pokemon cards from the past. It sold out in 30 seconds (I was not able to get one but I got one on secondary). There are some really nice arbitrage opportunities right now in pokemon and card collecting and courtyard is definitely on my radar when it comes to this. The user experience is smoother than stockX experience. I look forward to incorporating them into my degening.
Today, October 13, MoMA will be dropping their postcard collection with some of the big names (ex. Grant Yun, IXshells and more).
Tiffatronn dropped a new SuperRare piece (behind the process below).
"A Distorted Dream of Great Consequence" is an exploration of the notion that in the pursuit of a grand goal, a degree of naïveté is not only helpful but perhaps necessary. If we fully understood the challenges and sacrifices required, we may never dare to begin the chase.
You can view more about this piece in Tiffatronn’s Joyn piece which is great use of that platform and hope to see more artist leveraging it.
Lastly, money_clicc Neurocolor dropped “Tyger Bubblegum”. I was curious to what was the inspiration for this piece and luckily had the chance to ask Neurocolor a quick questions as the palette for this piece seemed eerily familiar. First on the name and inspiration, Neuro said it was inspired by this poem. Specifically these lines below (which you can see how it can start forming).
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
As for the colors, they are inspired by the ole faithful hubba bubba gum. Which is hilarious but also an awesome use of an American iconic gum.
As for the process on how this was made.
yes sir, traced with illustrator, drawing with photoshop. 3D models rendered with blender, and all assembled with After Effects.
this is all improvised drawing with the wacom
I probably missed a ton of shit, but as I shake off these cobwebs we will get back into it. On a side note, the Zealy.io word for this weeks read is, “sabbatical”. As a note, I will be announcing the first phase when it closes, the prizes in a youtube video shortly. Make sure to get in on the fun and giveaways.
Notable Sales
Aight no more pfps, seriously. Not even punks or grifters. If you want pfp sales, just check twitter lol.
Ikuma decided to choose violence and swept two Grant Yun x Avant Arte pieces recently. For 5.5 Eth (Fall) and 9.9Eth (En Route). Congrats to both on this and definitely jelly.
As someone who went to UCSC, and a fan of Cemhah, The Edge is one I am keeping an eye on for the next 24 hours and where it lands.
Sage Green Muse by ACK recently sold for 24.3 Eth.
Upcoming
The physical meta continues. Next week Jeremy Booth will be doing a print run on the 12th. 18x24 in size, all signed and numbered. I will be scooping one up for my house. Make sure to sign up for his newsletter to stay in the know, and tell him that mexican out of california sent you (shoutout Mexican OT).
Excited to see what Monster Month over at the Monster server brings us this year. Last year was pretty epic and every year seems to be getting bigger. Make sure to ask moderator fooh what to do with your pumpkins haha.
Avant Arte has been cooking recently with them bringing us so many physicals. Seeing this teaser below (more info here), got me excited about the grifter book giveaway I am doing this month with reader Hiimdave.
Meme Of The Week
As always, not financial advice
Fin
Have a great rest of your week!
CIAHOAD-Rick James
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