It seems like nobody wants to work these days

Job search, Stars Hollow trip, CD haul, Drake's memetic legacy, "ugly" beauty 💿

May 02, 2024

This past weekend, I was a ~~New Milford~~ Stars Hollow, Connecticut townie. So cute! So quaint! I went to the Gilmore Girls gazebo, browsed bookstores, boutiques, and vintage shops, and ate lime chocolate chip ice cream. (Maybe an unpopular flavor choice, but I LOVE citrus!) Unfortunately Milo Ventimiglia was nowhere in sight, but other than that, it was a gorgeous spring day!

I also picked up some very interesting books, a bunch of CDs (1-minute haul below), season 1 of The Simple Life, and a bilingual Canadian version of Britney Spears’s Crossroads at a local library sale. The Physical Media Renaissance™ continues! My new CDs needed a home, so now a vintage, transparent icy blue CD tower – to match my transparent icy blue Memorex CD boombox – is on its way!

In this issue:
👩🏻‍💻 It seems like nobody wants to work these days…except for me! Help me get a job :)
🦉 The enduring legacy of Drake, the meme of our generation
📲 Jessica DeFino on “ugly” beauty, Sufjan on Broadway, Kirsten Dunst, Reese Witherspoon, and when Missy Elliott replied to me on Twitter (still need to frame it)

ICYMI, last week’s issue included thoughts on my rewatch of The Anna Nicole Show, the crack in Taylor Swift’s armor, why Celine Dion looks older than JLo, 13 Going on 30: Millennial Edition, and so much more.

Support Nicstalgia with a paid subscription for less than Lindsay Lohan’s Birkin, Mac computer, Chanel bag, Parliament cigarettes, and private jet. Never quit fighting to live your dreams. God bless.

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

👩🏻‍💻 I make a great personality hire

Since I got laid off, people have graciously asked what I'm looking for in my full-time job search. I put together a website to show you!! ⋆˙⟡♡⋆˙⟡♡⋆˙⟡♡

I finally embrace that first and foremost, I am a personality hire!!! My instantly recognizable aesthetic, irreverent writing, relentless drive to innovate & challenge the status quo, and reputation for enthusiasm have gotten me much further than a resume ever has. (I got my last job through Twitter lol.)

HUGE thank you to the friends, peers, and former colleagues who have supported me through this really difficult process. Check out the site, feel free to share, and please keep me in mind if you see any aligned roles that come up.

Nicstalgia-wise, I’m going to continue writing weekly letters, creating onchain projects on Zora, and producing intermittent podcast episodes. I’m also writing a paper on AI's impact on fashion, media, and consumer culture; researching AI x aesthetic labor to develop into a presentation; learning how to make browser-based art; compiling some kind of anthology of my work; writing some more; DANCING; and of course, doing fun/random DIY crafting projects. I am truly never bored!!!!!

Having deep conversations, giving fun presentations, and hosting are my favorite things to do, and I’m always excited to explore new opportunities for connection. If you are any of these people, please email me at nic@nicoletremaglio.com. And if you know any of these people, please send them my way!

Cultural producers (critics, authors, artists, et al.) who would like to be a guest on my podcast or vice versa
Culture writers who needs a quote for an article, ideally through a sociological or sociocultural lens (the more esoteric, the better!)
Cultural coordinators, teachers, and event organizers who are looking for speakers, presenters, hosts, etc. (virtually or IRL NYC-based!)
Cultural critics and researchers who just wanna be friends and talk about things we’re thinking about!

People ask me a lot if I’m planning on monetizing the show or making it my full-time job, It’s just not a priority, especially after a network told me I needed to have a macro-sized audience, which is algorithmically impossible to achieve as a podcaster unless you’re a Bravolebrity or mega-influencer of Bachelor Nation status. The creator economy and attention economy are so fundamentally broken. (We’ll save that essay for another day.)

Retiring from the dog and pony show of social media and making the full mindset shift from content creator to cultural critic has greatly benefitted my mental health. It’s why I love writing this newsletter more than ever! I’ve already shifted my focus to what the next iteration of the internet will look like and would rather innovate and shape the future than burn myself out making Reels. It took several years, but I am finally very happy, proud, and aligned in my creative pursuits! I’m only putting out content that feels FUN for me to make/create/perform, and it shows. No pressure, no obligation, and always excited to learn, collaborate, and expand my creative horizons. Anyway, glad we covered that!!!

My favorite message I’ve received lately <3

🦉 What a terrible time to be alive (or whatever Drake said)

Nicstalgia guest and one of my favorite Canadians, Ruby Justice Thelot, wrote a piece for Dazed about one of my other favorite Canadians, Drake. Why Drake is the most meme’d rapper of all time mentions my SIXPOSIUM presentation Social media ruins everything and the accompanying poetry book that I made of Drake’s song lyrics!!!! (Btw if you haven’t checked out Anna Gorham’s Drake as babygirl and Sarah Chefka’s It Is Highly Unlikely That This One Will Ever Be For You, please do, and in the words of Drake, thank me later.)

You can now collect the SOCIAL MEDIA RUINS EVERYTHING book on Zora!

So why IS Drake the most meme’d rapper of all time? Let’s explore further. There are four components that support Drake’s sustained relevance in tandem with the proliferation of social media:

Millennial Misery

Drake might not be like other Millennials in that we were not all 25 sitting on $25 mil, but he is truly the artist – and more importantly, the meme – of our generation. Millennials were born to commodify themselves; to become marketable brands. Drake underwent two major identity shifts: 1. From Lil Wayne’s collaborator to prolific rapper and the most streamed artist of all-time, but as importantly, 2. From Aubrey Graham of Degrassi: The Next Generation fame to Drake, the social media celebrity with a fully crystallized personal brand.

He wants you to talk about him. He knows that what he says goes viral and becomes a part of the cultural lexicon. (For better or for worse, as evidenced by YOLO.) There is only generation with a totally integrated analog & digital upbringing, one that experienced their coming-of-age years on the early internet and through the first wave of peak social media. As a Millennial, Drake is an expert at holding our attention.

“Dropped my phone into a glass of wine…just to give you an idea of where my life is at these days.” Stars, they’re just like us.

Meta-Irony

Drake doesn’t just inspire internet trends, he is a product of internet culture as well. He has even referred to himself as media, seemingly in jest, but like…he’s not wrong. Drake’s relationship with social media, not as a creator but as a consumer, is widely reported and speculated upon. From posting thirst traps to contrived dances for TikTok virality, he mirrors the internet back to us, complete with the posturing, trolling, and spectacular self-indulgence. But is he in on the joke? Are we laughing with him or are we laughing at him? Does it even matter? I don’t think it does. And although Millennials are not the fixture generation of youth culture anymore, Drake keeps up because at this point, he like, is the internet.

“Drake’s relationship with social media, just like ours, is complicated.”

Pop Psychology

Only a Cancer Moon could have their album cover on a tissue box!!!!!! Drake’s unabashed expression of emotionality directly correlates to the societal normalization of online discourse around mental health and subsequent glamorization of mental illness. The ubiquity of social media has also democratized access to a platform at mass-scale, aka. now literally anyone with an internet connection can play TikTok psychologist or detective. His emotional vulnerability is rewarded, with speculation about his personal life and long-term parasocial relationships sustaining his relevance.

My favorite Drake music video is “I’m Upset” because it’s a full-fledged Degrassi: The Next Generation reunion (except for JT because he thought “Drake” reaching out to him was a scam LOL).

Palatable Paradox

Rage bait and context collapse around identity politics are generally what shape what I’m calling the Internet Problem Du Jour (IPDJ). Trends on Twitter are simply IPDJ, meaning, whatever people happen to be fighting about that day. As a Black, biracial, Jewish, former child actor turned major rapper – who’s usually beefing with someone, and with no shortage of misogynistic lyrics – Drake can easily drum up clickbait headlines, SEO-optimized drama, and easily categorized #controversy. He maintains relevance in the current cultural zeitgeist due to the fact that the internet is an inflammatory environment that can take a story about him (even with seemingly innocuous details) and run with it.

Since giving this presentation, I discovered the backstory of this perplexing Drake/Rosie O’Donnell situation. Turns out, Rosie was initially complimenting ‘cute’ Drake Bell’s – not Drake the rapper’s – ‘nice muscles’. I’m dying!!!!!

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

My fav things from the internet rn:
🎭 This review of Illinoise, a Broadway musical featuring the music of Sufjan Stevens (who I became obsessed with in high school due to The OC), really intrigued me. Apparently the cast is comprised of all dancers! Has anyone seen this? I’m curious!

🪞 I loved what

Jessica DeFino

had to say to Dazed Beauty for “Will being ‘ugly’ be aspirational one day?” Some really salient points to think about.

“If the male gaze is the condition of living under patriarchy, the sale gaze is the condition of living under capitalism and in a consumer society.”
“Beauty standards are a way to economically, politically, socially and financially punish people.”

Jessica expanded upon this in

The Review of Beauty by Jessica DeFino

as beauty standards relate to aesthetic labor, my favorite topic:

“[Julia] Fox frames ugly beauty as some sort of progress, but progress toward what? What is gained by performing a high-effort aesthetic of “ugly” instead of a high-effort aesthetic of beauty? Either way, you’re sinking your resources (time, money, effort, thought) into your face. Either way, there are physical, psychological, environmental consequences (on the individual and collective levels) to consider. I’m more interested in the “ugliness” of opting out of aesthetic labor entirely.”

🎬 I love the “[Actor] Breaks Down [Pronoun] Most Iconic [Role/Character/Look]” genre of YouTube videos. Seems like every media outlet has their own version of it now. Bring It On and Legally Blonde are two extremely formative movies for me, so my recent favorites are Kirsten Dunst for GQ and Reese Witherspoon for People.

🎶 Literally 2 seconds after I learned of the director Michel Gondry from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind after watching the Kirsten Dunst video above, I saw that Missy Elliott is joining his and Pharrell’s upcoming untitled musical project. It’s a coming-of-age musical set in Virginia Beach in the summer of 1977 and inspired by Pharrell’s childhood neighborhood. Listen, if Missy’s in, I’m in!!!!