Welcome Digest [1.26.26]
New Fakemink, Lil B erasure, mutant wolves in Chernobyl, and more
Welcome To January 26th
Today’s Important Headlines
👻 Fakemink is dropping an EP this week
“The Boy Who Cried Terrified” is set to drop January 29th. It’s the first new collection of songs that he has released since 2023’s London’s Saviour. Allegedly it won’t be the only thing to dropping this year, and will be followed by an album titled Terrified.
🏚️ These artists secretly lived in a Providence mall for four years
‘Secret Mall Apartment,’ a documentary about Providence artists who lived in a mall for four years, released on Netflix this weekend. It follows an adjunct professor and drawing instructor at the Rhode Island School of Design who, along with friends and former students, covertly built an apartment hidden inside the Providence Place mall as a protest against gentrification and consumer culture. You can watch it here.
💔 Lil B’s music removed from streaming platforms
Starting sometime last week, Lil B’s discography was largely removed from streaming platforms. There has been no official statement from the platforms, and while periodic scrubbing is standard, doing so to an artist of Lil B’s stature is highly unusual. Lil B’s update: “working on it but folks tryna fuck@up hip hop and music progression of unsigned indie artist - Lil B”
🧬 Mutant Wolves in Chernobyl have evolved to survive cancer
A pack of wolves living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ), an area sometimes considered to be the world’s biggest science experiment, are somehow thriving. Researchers, stunned by their success, studied the group, and discovered they had cultivated cancer-resistent genes, likely due to the rapid natural selection wrought by intense radiation exposure.
📈 Is the art market back?
The mood is better than it’s been in years, perhaps even since the 2022 peak, but the recovery is uneven, concentrated at the very top and the very bottom of the market. In other words, it’s a great market for works priced above $1 million or below $50,000. ArtNews conducted a report that investigates why.
Headline curation and words by Mikail Haroon (@mvkail)
Moodboard 024
Today’s inspiration supplement. Click through to view.
From The Archive
An extra piece of content from the Welcome Archive for Magazine subscribers only.
The My Little Pony Circuit Board Etching That Was Sent Into Space (2015)
In January 2015, a SpaceX CRS 5 resupply mission launched toward the International Space Station carrying routine electronics and hardware for the crew.
During manufacturing, an engineer added a silkscreen etching of Princess Celestia from ‘My Little Pony’ onto one of the circuit boards, which was later installed on a device mounted outside the ISS, placing the image permanently in orbit.
