Going out is better than always staying in

"I'm worth a million" -Charlotte York and now also Kim Cattrall

The people have spoken:

I love u guys hehe thank u for indulging my whims it means the world < 3

Ya want links? You’re getting links today!!!!
👗 Why Your Wedding-Guest Dress Is Probably From Abercrombie
🕊 Celebrating Richard Simmons
💔 Missed connections: Josh Hartnett and Rihanna
💄 Baby Lips Lip Balm walked so Star Balm could run
🌲 The friendship quiz
🤳🏼 Aren’t you lonely?
🛠 Total Vibes Locked: The present and future of brand building
📉 Katy Perry girlbossed too close to the sun
😤 “Ungrateful” secondary boyfriend to Carrie Bradshaw lacked creative fulfillment
👠 Move over Charlotte York: a Samantha Jones appearance is worth $1M

ICYMI, last week’s issue included links on Von Dutch’s comeback, Kyle McLachlan’s Brat summer, Polly Pocket, and some eclectic collectors’ Physical Media Renaissance™ collections.

Support Nicstalgia with a paid subscription for less than a Sweatin’ to the Oldies DVD.

Huge thank you to Nicstalgia supporters who I will love forever: Janine, Marie, Liv, Mitra, CY, and Aleena! 💐💐💐

📲 I’m just a simple girl in a high-tech digital world

I’m critically aware of Abercrombie’s rebrand and think a lot about how its shift is a perfect microcosm of American consumerism & society. The Unbranding of Abercrombie is the first piece of journalism (if we’re not counting my Nicstalgia episode from last spring) that goes a good job at truly diving into how “the problematic mall brand pulled off the most exciting makeover in American retail.”

As you may know from me repeatedly mentioning him in this newsletter, I was a big Richard Simmons fan. Was saddened to hear about his passing, but I loved seeing tributes to him, including from Trisha Paytas – a regular in his Saturday morning classes – and my former coworker of whom Richard was a client and friend. I’d actually just done the Sweatin’ to the Oldies workout last week, and it was so fun and silly. I was absolutely dying laughing when I first popped in the DVD – it includes an anti-piracy skit where he finds out his mom Shirley is making illegal copies of his tapes and sends her to JAIL!!!!! “Isn’t anybody honest anymore???”

I found out a few weeks ago that Josh Hartnett and Rihanna had a thing in 2009 and I can’t stop thinking about it. “I would be lying if I told you we were not more than just friends. I have so fallen for him, he is lovely. He is so hot and he is really sweet to me. When we hang out it feels right - even though it's still pretty new.” Like wow, imagine denying a romance with Josh Hartnett and admitting you’re not friends with Beyoncé. The power this woman holds.

Maybelline’s Baby Lips Lip Balm has been real quiet since STARFACE launched Star Balm. How much do you think it cost to get Kim K and North West’s UGC? Actually, I don’t want to know. Adding these sick mood boards to my research arsenal on ~girly~ color theory. Pink & green girls rise!!!

H/t to Gretchen Rubin for this interesting quiz from the NYT: What’s your friendship style? There are four results, based on degrees of sociality and depth of connection. No surprise, I got the Evergreen tree (social + deep). I truly love friendship, but to be very real – I’m so sick of the post-2020 normalization of antisocial behavior and appropriation of therapy speak to avoid conflict. These quizzes remind me that all people are different and some would truly rather stay home than anything else. But to me, in the words of Hilary Duff, going out is better than always staying in.

I was really moved by

Freya India

’s “Aren’t You Lonely?” Sure, there are studies that say we are more disconnected than ever despite being more connected (via social media) than ever. But few really dive into the impact – both tangible and emotional – of loneliness on our day-to-day lives. (It’s really weird to have parasocial relationships with people who used to know a previous version of you.) As someone who requires a high level of socialization and spends a lot of time in solitude (for now), I’m really grateful to nurture connections offline and have friends & family who make me forget that my phone exists.

“And so, many of us don’t have friends anymore; we have followers. We don’t deeply care about each other’s lives; we consume them as content. We don’t have people we can be vulnerable with; we have people who view our Stories. It’s hard to tell if we have loyalty, or just people hoping we like their photo back.

It is in this quiet that I’ve realized: sometimes the best thing you can do to reconnect is disconnect. The best thing you can do for loneliness is to log out. And the only way to forge deep friendships is to risk losing some shallow ones first.”

For my branding, creative, and marketing heads – I’m excited to have participated in my friends at

Times Newᵀᴺ

’s research study on the present and future of brand building. I love their term TVL, or Total Vibes Locked, as the measurement of a brand’s equity. Status quo growth marketing gives me hives LOL so it’s refreshing to explore ideas with critical and strategic thinkers who are reimagining how to cultivate organic growth.

Great piece by Dazed: Katy Perry’s new era is the epitome of 2010s girlboss feminism. Song? Flop. Music video? Flop. Working with he who shall not be named on a “women’s empowerment” song? Offensive. Presenting a calculated, meticulous new “era” pandering to women and gay men? She is not mother. The article kinda says it all, although strongly disagree with “impeccable brilliance” being used to describe “Wide Awake”, “Teenage Dream”, “Walking on Air” and “Never Really Over”. The first two are, the second two are not. (Also, I will not stand for “Hot N Cold” erasure despite it being written by aforementioned problematic person. Ahhhh, the Monster moral dilemma never gets old.)

And Just Like That…, the Sex and the City reboot, comes up often in conversation. I always say the same thing: It’s a self-conscious overcorrection, and there should not have been a reboot at all. Maybe Aiden agrees with me?? The actor said on a podcast – in what appears to be an expletive-laden complaint where he acknowledges that he sounds ‘ungrateful’ – that that he picked acting as the wrong thing to do with his life. He has had no creative fulfillment. For a 25+ year-long career? For a man married to Bo Derek? For someone who starred in extremely successful projects like Sex and the City and My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Sounds like a skill issue to me.

Speaking of SATC/AJLT…, It Looks Like Samantha Jones Will Be Back For 'And Just Like That...' Season 3 After All. I only watched the episode where Samantha showed up for one 70-second scene, for which she was apparently paid ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Good for her for getting the bag, but if you’re gonna take the money, why hold the grudge? The whole beef started in the first place because SJP got paid a LOT more than everyone else. I guess Cynthia was running for office and Kristen was getting that Hallmark check, so they were too busy or unbothered to band together. (THIS is why Friends has the longevity and legacy that no other show does – because when it popped off and the more famous people were offered more money, they insisted on equal pay for all six of them. There’s an essay in me on this lol, more on that later.)

Kim Cattrall when they asked her how much $$$$$ she wanted to appear for a 70-second AJLT… cameo.

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🦋 Social butterfly

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