I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Memory, how Millennials got old, iPods, DCOMs, Shakira & Enrique MVs 💃🏻

Nov 16, 2023

I love all of my Nicstalgia guests, but there’s something to be said about having a conversation with someone you’ve known for 20+ years. This week on the show, I talk to my dear friend Nora. (Btw you need to check out her and Chris’s new store YTooKay! Yes you can get a Tamagotchi keychain or a Magic 8 ball rug!) 🎱

I think a lot about technology x memory, whether it be exploring the shared memory between family and friends, cognitive offloading, or forming retro memories off of ephemera like a videotape (rather than remembering the event itself firsthand). Reminding Nora of things, her reminding me of things, us both sharing our parallel experiences of something we went through together as friends or more broadly in culture – it was really cool.

This week’s social experiment: Try asking someone you know if/how they remember a recent or distant memory or event in pop culture. If you knew them a long time ago, they might uncover new details unbeknownst to you. If you met them more recently, they could provide a whole new perspective on something you experienced differently. You might be surprised by what they share. Comment below to tell me how it goes. xx

Support Nicstalgia by pledging a monthly or annual subscription for less than the cost of a Beanie Baby in 1997. (Patti the Platypus not included.)

Support Nicstalgia

🍒 This Week on Nicstalgia

Nora Woods is featured on this week’s episode of Nicstalgia. Friends since we were 12, we reminisce about dancing in the living room to Beatles records, listening to Queen deep cuts and loving Freddie Mercury, dancing to “Get Low” at prom, going tanning, our fav Latin pop sensations Shakira and Enrique Iglesias, being in the middle school talent show, and being cheerleaders. **Please note that since the time of this recording, I DID locate our cheerleading mix songs!!!!!**

We share our parallel experiences on September 11th, reflect on if Girls and Broad City accurately depicted of our lives as Millennial women in NYC in the 2010s, and recall watching Degrassi at my house (and seeing Toby at hers). We have always been ~very online~ individuals, as young early adopters of AIM, Xanga, and MySpace, and discuss our days on early social media. Nora shares her favorite and most obscure Disney Channel Original Movies and shows us her CD binder from the 2000s, mix CDs intact!!!

Nic & Nora have always had a shared curiosity for pop culture ‘before our time’, a sense of nowstalgia for Queen, and how you never think trends you saw as kids are going to cycle back – until they do.

Watch/listen: YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts

📲 I’m Just a Simple Girl in a High-Tech Digital World

My fav things from the internet rn:
I could write an essay just in response to this amazing essay by Anne Helen Petersen: How Millennials Grew Up and Got Old. Essentially, what happens now that our gen is no longer the center of all cultural discourse.

Oooh I very much enjoyed this piece by Niko Stratis, Shape That Defines a Life. It’s a nowstalgic look at “old iPods at new prices, and the fetishization of our past”. You know how I love talking about how Urban Outfitters specifically uses retro tech, from vinyl to cassette tapes to even iPods, to sell nowstalgia to those who were not there to experience it the first time around.

My friend Alexa wrote a piece for Future Commerce Are Modern Brands "Post-Purpose"? It’s definitely interesting to think about how brands can not stay silent nor take performative activism, but a better third thing, realigning with its internal values.

📹 Pop-Up Video

Nora is a Disney Channel Original Movie historian, as far as I’m concerned. We talk about her favorites, and the one she thinks is the weirdest and most obscure, this week on the show. My personal favorite was Wish Upon a Star, and yes it is free on YouTube! (You’re welcome.) Prepare for the most 90s costumes and music ever.

For those of us who were more so Nickelodeon kids than DCOM kids, you will be pleased to know that I’ve found an entire playlist of What Would You Do? (1991-1993) episodes. Shows that Marc Summers hosts are comforting to me. (Remember Unwrapped?) I would like to reiterate my statement from above: Prepare for the most 90s costumes and music ever.

This week on the show, we talk about the Latin pop explosion of the late 90s to early 2000s. Taking this as an opportunity to share some music videos from my favorite songs of this era:

“Nobody Wants to Be Lonely” by Ricky Martin ft. Christina Aguilera
The architecture of this building is stunning, and the doves are so dramatic 🕊 Love it. I was very interested to find out where this was filmed. Turns out it’s The Miami Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida.
“Suerte” by Shakira
Spanish version > “Whenever, Wherever” imho. Fun fact, Gloria Estefan was a lyricist for the English language version. Although it was filmed in front of a blue screen, it’s still impressive that she filmed two versions of the same music video. We also mention Shakira’s “Estoy Aquí” (1995) and “Beautiful Liar” (ft. Beyoncé, 2007) in this week’s Nicstalgia episode because they’re bangers.
“Escapar” by Enrique Iglesias
Yeah echoing the sentiment that the Spanish version > “Escape” imho. There are also two separate music videos for this as well, although “Escape” is of much better quality on YouTube lol. (Both are extremely 🥵🔥) The video was filmed in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center and the CityWalk shopping area in Universal City, California. Shoutout to Anna Kournikova, with whom he is still together and has 3 kids with 22 years later 🎾

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Memory, how Millennials got old, iPods, DCOMs, Shakira & Enrique MVs 💃🏻

🍒 This Week on Nicstalgia

📲 I’m Just a Simple Girl in a High-Tech Digital World

📹 Pop-Up Video

🧨 Spice Up Your Life

Discussion about this post