My 50th newsletter of 2024!
Sanasa: The Opera, angelic Furby, miniature Blockbuster closet 🛐
Nicstalgia HQ updates:
My Digital Archiving Project
MDAP has taken a turn! I’m not quite done with Phase II (Phase I was downloading archival data, Phase II was cleanup of about 100 GB of data), but we need to make an emergency detour into Phase III: recovery. I just found out that my ClassPass data set containing TEN YEARS of stats is now incomplete. And just like that, studios that aren’t on the platform anymore are simply ✨gone✨ from my reservation history. There is also no way to download a CSV of classes, so I took a 2 minute and 28 second screen recording of all EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY THREE of them and will type them out into a spreadsheet. Some people have Aura rings, some people have Whoop or whatever it’s called, some people have Apple Watches or competitively count their steps, some people have MyFitnessPal (or maybe they did 10 years ago), but I have ClassPass. Tracking my data and statistics on such a large data set is extremely fun, so I need to go into resuscitation mode before even more information is lost. RIP NYC Unlimited for $99, I’ll never forget you.
“Wonderwall” > Paywall
I took down the paywalls on my archival posts because it’s backfiring and actually preventing people from seeing my work. The best thing you can do is to share my work with other people who would care about it in literally any capacity!!!!! I say I’m a good influence but a bad influencer because I’ve always been very resistant to the creator economy. I find it all icky, and that’s probably why I’ve never been able to make the system actually work for me despite being a very early adopter of nearly every platform that’s popped up in the last 15 years. People don’t talk enough about the pressure to monetize content, even if that’s not what you actually wanna do at the end of the day. Anyway, here’s Wonderwall…
Rest of the Year
There are only two newsletters left in the year! That’s right, this is the FIFTIETH newsletter of 2024. Holy shit?! For the two upcoming ones, one will prob be an essay and one will prob be a big EOY celebration!!!!!! Yippy!!!! If there is anything in particular you would like me to discuss – 2024 pop culture phenomena, this year in music (or music anniversaries), cyclical trend patterns, or any generally Nicstalgic questions – please reply to this email!
On the docket today:
🎭 SANASAAAAA: The Opera
💘 Coral + Mint = 4Ever
📼 Blockbuster closet
🪑 A Cher Horowitz-coded chair
🛐 Praying to my benevolent Furby
🚕 CABS ARE HERE
🚬 What ever happened to fun public goods???
💃🏻 The Jonas Brothers fell so fast
ICYMI, last week’s issue explored the polarizing effects of Spotify Wrapped, which Christmas movies are worth watching, and Lisa Marie Presley’s astrological birth chart. I would just like to take a moment and note to forget everything I said about My First Wedding being the worst movie I’ve seen in recent memory; Hot Frosty has taken the cake! SO BAD. If I met a snowman who was that hot, I wouldn’t be asking so many questions.
Do you have some light reading to catch up on?
Huge thank you to Nicstalgia supporters who I will love forever: Janine, Marie, Liv, Mitra, CY, and Chet! 💐💐💐
📲 I’m just a simple girl in a high-tech digital world
“That is psychotic, and therefore we should do it.” –Fellow Cancer Moon, Leo Rising Nicole Richie about the Sanasa opera that I absolutely should have been cast in. I am quite obviously living for the Paris & Nicole-issance, although people asked if I’m gonna get the SONIC drinks and I probably won’t. There are no SONICs by me and I don’t like soda. But maybe I will anyway? Idk!! Tell me if you try it! Paris & Nicole: The Encore comes out today sanasaaaaaa :)
I’m so obsessed with 21st century girl-coded color theory and it’s going to be a main topic I explore further next year. One classic example: Apricot & mint/teal. In contrast to what the video says, it’s actually coral not apricot and it’s the 2010s not the 2000s, but still, coral and mint is a match made in heaven. They had us sprinting to Charming Charlie (RIP) for these accessories!
Not sure why I didn’t think to turn the teeny tiny closet in my former 181 square foot Times Square-adjacent apartment into a miniature Blockbuster store, complete with snacks and a small TV, but I’m glad someone did.
This swivel chair specifically designed to house half-dirty clothes that you’re not emotionally ready to wash yet is absolutely brilliant. Cher Horowitz would’ve been all over this.
I was literally terrified of my sister’s Furby as a kid and generally find them to have a malevolent energy. My fear of this animatronic, demonic bird only started to dissipate once they came back in a very campy way on social media. This pane of stained glass, featuring a Furby dressed like the Pope, set to a choral version of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” shifted the energetic tides for me. This particular depiction of a Furby is subversive, yet oddly comforting. Maybe even slightly angelic!
CABS ARE HERE. The entire cast of Jersey Shore celebrated the show’s 15 year anniversary (!!!) in Seaside Heights. My roommate when this show premiered in 2009 was from the Jersey Shore, which always added to the excitement of it all.
My faves
are among the 300-plus musicians who signed an open letter supporting the Internet Archive. Its effort to preserve 78 rpm records is part of a $621 million copyright infringement lawsuit. The merciless pursuit of shareholder profits above all else has destroyed the internet, music, and public goods.
🦋 Social butterfly
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