Raise your glasses high, this one's for you tonight
Fall bucket list complete, RIP VPR, the best & worst movie I've seen in years 🎥
Nighttime newsletter this week! This morning, I taught a Feelin Jovani-themed elliptical fitness class, complete with songs by various cast members of the Real Housewives franchise and Vanderpump Rules.
This afternoon at Thanksgiving with my family. I had the best exchange with my amazing Grammy:
G: I just saw this very funny movie, ‘Luck’ something or other. It was this actress Lohan…
N: Lindsay Lohan!!!!! Of course, I love her!
G: Oh, is she famous?
*My sister and I exchange jaw-dropping glances*
N: Yes, very. We actually recently watched Just My Luck too! So funny!
*Shows her Lindsay’s Instagram*
She’d never heard of the Parent Trap or Freaky Friday remakes or Mean Girls. So now it’s time to start Lindsay Lohan movie nights. Now that’s what I call a family tradition!!! Speaking of, I’ve realized my perfect happy medium day to start listening to Christmas music is November 25th, one month before Christmas. I simply couldn’t wait til after today.
Today, we will be discussing:
🍂 My fall bucket list!¹
💃🏻 “Why are you dressed like that?” “Like what?”
🏡 Nostalgic things to talk about at Thanksgiving
🪄 I saw the best movie I’ve seen in recent memory (WICKED)
⛪️ I saw the worst movie I’ve seen in recent memory (My First Wedding)
ICYMI, last week’s issue included an epic Britney Spears lyric video, update from Nicstalgia HQ, and links for you to enjoy! Reminder: the paywall is removed from last year’s Thanksgiving letter until tomorrow/whenever I remember to put it back on so you can watch vintage low-fi, pixellated Macy’s parades of essentially intelligible quality!
Catch up on these before they enter the archive! 🔐
Huge thank you to Nicstalgia supporters who I will love forever: Janine, Marie, Liv, Mitra, CY, and Chet! 💐💐💐
🍂 Autumn goodbye
Excited to share this season’s bucket list!!!!!!!! “I remember that I have free will” is my personal theme of 2024. Here are my tips on how to make your own list:
• FUN THINGS ONLY. If you feel any semblance of obligation to do this thing, it does not belong on this list. Heartfelt, definite yeses only.
• Be random. Like go ahead and tuft a rug even though you have no idea how to do it. Go to events even if you don’t know anyone (yet). That thing that you’ve been wanting to do for years? Make it happen. It doesn’t have to be a big production; it can be something totally simple or mundane. There is nothing too weird, innocuous, or asinine for this list.
• See where the road takes you. I guess this is called spontaneity?? One item usually leads to another, and you might even add something to the list after you’ve already done it.
• Be open to meeting new people. Frankly, a lot of people tend to be polite, but not necessarily cordial. You don’t like small talk? Grow up. I know this is easier for me to say as a hardcore extrovert, but post-2020, general interpersonal/social skills are sorely lacking. When you go out into the world, be nice! And don’t be on your phone!
• If you don’t do something on the list or don’t wanna do something anymore, just remove it from the list. No one cares, and you’re not being graded or judged on this. It simply exists for your enjoyment and enrichment :)
💃🏻 “Why are you dressed like that?” “Like what?”
Happy “why are you dressed like that” season to all who celebrate and 15th anniversary of me going home for Thanksgiving with a nose ring.
This meme of a family sitting around the table has always captured my feelings around self-expression, tradition, the status quo, individualism, etc. I never knew where it came from until I found a blog post by Rosemary, aka. Joyful Mom at Home, from 2015. Entitled A Catholic Mother's Thoughts, it shares the benefits of having dinner together as a family through a Catholic lens. I personally grew up Catholic, and although some of the wording doesn’t age well for me, I agree with the general sentiment of it. I love coming together for meals, especially when the person is excellent at cooking. (Thanks Mom.)
What’s funny is the first line of the blog post is, “Is there any image of the family more iconic than the family at the dinner table?” Obviously this is in reference to The Last Supper, but I’d say this seemingly innocuous family photo – preserved in internet history as a meme, circulating for almost ten years – has become iconic in and of itself.
🏡 Nostalgic things to talk about at Thanksgiving
The holidays are often intergenerational celebrations with extended family members you don’t see often. Contentious topics and awkward silences often arise. It also seems that with a fragmented monoculture, our world views are siloed to an extent. When Netflix, Amazon, and algorithmically-driven social media profiles tailor everything to you, we’re all not necessarily seeing the same movies, TV shows, pieces of news, or memes as our siblings, parents, cousins, etc. the way we used to. (Unless you’re my family and you’ve all seen Lindsay Lohan movies.)
So do we have anything in common anymore? Despite our differences, it’s much more productive to explore the center of the Venn Diagram than the outer circles. When everyone is in the same room for a limited time, I like to take the opportunity to go analog and lean into good old-fashioned storytelling. Your ancestral legacy is priceless; get these stories while you still can, especially from your older relatives.²
Astrology sidebar: Maybe it’s because Pluto’s in my fourth house of family and my moon’s in my twelfth house of the subconscious mind. Maybe it’s because many of my family members have primary placements in the houses representing my roots, heritage, upbringing, home life, emotional inheritance, and ancestral legacy. Idk, I just love this stuff! I’ve been working on my Family Tree project for years, and I’ve started adding anecdotal footnotes. I’d like to one day develop this into a presentation to show my family. Why not! So anyway, here are ways to thoughtfully engage with your family and fun questions you can ask them.
Things to do together:
• Collaborate on a Family Tree
• Make a Family Map to show what parts of the world your family is from (I have a Google Maps list; it’s all Italy and the Tri-State Area LOL)
• Go through old [physical] photos, photo albums, old-school slides
• Watch home videos
Questions to ask your parents, grandparents, and maybe even great grandparents:
• What do you remember most about your parents? Your spouse? Me when I was a kid?
• What was your most memorable moment from playing X sport?
• Whose wedding was your favorite, other than your own?
• What kind of car did you have?
• What year(s) did you live in all of your houses?
• What were your neighbors like?
• When did you meet your best friend(s)?
• What was your first job?
• What was your first vacation? First time on an airplane?
• What was your favorite store?
• What was your favorite food?
• What used to be there [instead of the Bank of America or whatever in your hometown now lol]?
• What smell reminds you of being a kid?³
If you already know the answer, ask again. Guaranteed you will learn something new.
🪄 Aaaaaaa Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (Elphaba voice)
My Wicked origin story/theater experience:
There’s only two types of people in the world: the ones who love Wicked and those who don’t. I fall into the first camp. In 2004, I did a [dance] production number to “Defying Gravity”. Two months before the recital, we went on a field trip to New York City to see Wicked on Broadway! I don’t know if I realized it at the time, but it was the original cast (!!!!!!!!!!!) So to say the least, I’m a fan. However, I’m def not a theater kid (no offense) and didn’t remember any of the plot when I went to see the movie. Whether or not you’ve seen the show, the movie is engaging and well-paced either way.
I mentally prepped for the theater experience for like a week. No water for 3 hours is a long time for me, plus I’m getting over allergies/sinus stuff. I was chain-eating cough drops, didn’t cough, didn’t have to get up in the middle of the movie, and actually had my earplugs in my bag. Success!!! I cried approximately 8 times.
I wish I could just watch a movie like a normal person and go “oh yay that was good” or “oh boo that was bad” and call it a day. However, I cannot. I need 3 hours to watch the movie itself, 3 hours to talk to friends about it, and 3 hours to critically think about it. My brain was absolutely buzzing!
What I can’t stop thinking about:
Maybe I just haven’t dug into the press tour or social media sentiment thoroughly enough, but the cultural discourse around Wicked seems to be super surface-level. It’s lacking nuance and soooo much sociopolitical context about the stories and people behind this franchise’s origin.
Like why is no one (other than on Reddit lol) talking about the fact that we live in Oz? That men who “have no real power” are the ones that run things? (The Wizard) That women uphold and perpetuate this bad behavior? (“power broker” Madame Morrible) That people with privilege leverage whatever opportunities they can? (Glinda) That an entire group of people are cast out (at best) and are met with complicit silence? (The animals) That marginalized people, even if they have good intent, are scapegoated, ostracized, and othered? (Elphaba) That the narrative around these ‘wicked’ people can be propagandized in order to serve the needs of people in power? As Wicked says, “People just need a really good enemy.” In today’s political climate? The call is coming from inside the house. THIS is what we all need to be critically thinking about!!!!!!
More background context on Oz:
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book is published by L. Frank Baum (L-FA-BA get it) in 1900. Prior to this children’s book, this guy literally wrote editorials calling for the genocide of the Sioux people. It’s no wonder anyone who wasn’t white was considered wicked in his story. (There are a bunch of allegories and political interpretations of the book which I find interesting as well.)
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is a 1995 book that serves as a revisionist exploration of the 1900 book. “Maguire shows the traditionally villainous character [Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West] in a sympathetic light, using her journey to explore the problem of evil and the nature versus nurture debate, as well as themes of terrorism, propaganda, and existential purpose.” In a parallel to Wicked’s (2024) very contemporary queer-coded ‘otherness’, I thought it was very interesting that Maguire is also gay. His 2004 marriage was one of the first same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts, the first U.S. state to legalize!
I didn’t realize until recently that My So-Called Life creator Winnie Holzman wrote the book of Wicked (2003) and co-wrote the screenplays (2024 & 2025)!!!! She is Jewish, as is Stephen Schwartz who did the music and lyrics, producer Marc Platt, and Idina Menzel, who originated the role of Elphaba.⁴ Wicked the Broadway musical is absolutely an allegory of Jewish history.
The viral moment:
”The stars of Wicked, Out’s Icon of the Year, Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba) and Ariana Grande (Glinda) chat with [Out] about their characters’ great platonic love story and friendship and how the lyrics of "Defying Gravity" empower queer people.” The interviewer talking about people “holding space” for the “Defying Gravity” lyrics has gone completely viral.
Without giving spoilers:
“Dancing Through Life” is now no longer a skip song for me! And it’s not just because Jonathan Bailey is so attractive! I appreciated how in the movie, really everyone fawned over this man, even though he is clearly too old to be playing a college student. In the words of Idina Menzel’s Rent character Maureen – Everybody stares at me, boys, girls, I can’t help it baby!
And on an unrelated note, I read someone talking on Twitter about how the color grading was bad, the colors were too muted, etc. and I would just like to say that I completely disagree. Not everyone needs to post every single thought that pops into their head on social media <3
Anyway, I could probably write 1 million words about it all, but I’m glad the movie was split in two parts, I don’t think it was a minute too long (which I have never said and will likely never say about a movie ever again), and I think it is actually better than the play itself. I haven’t read the book, but perhaps one day I will. If you’ve seen it, please feel free to share any and all thoughts!
⛪️ My First Wedding (2006)
Amazon suggested a movie for me to watch called My First Wedding, starring Rachael Leigh Cook. This was objectively the worst movie I’ve seen in recent memory. It was filmed in 2003 in Montreal with a half American, half British cast and wasn’t released until 2006. One of the characters has this spiky updo hairstyle that is quintessentially late 90s-early 2000s; it broke continuity for me so much that I couldn’t focus whenever she was on screen. It was about a half hour too long, although the Letterboxd reviews do not disappoint. I was also fascinated by this piece of media, as it led me to further examine the connective tissue between the repression of raw female desire, this female desire only existing within patriarchal frameworks, early 00s purity culture, gender stereotypes, and Catholic guilt.
Anyway, the plot. Rachael Leigh Cook (RLC) is engaged and getting married to her fiancé in 3 days. He is a devout Catholic and doesn’t believe in sex before marriage, but she is having lustful fantasies about every guy she sees on the street!! She bumbles into a church confessional and lays it all out. Little does she know, the guy on the other side is the church’s carpenter, not the priest. But then when the carpenter sees she’s hot, he pretends to be the priest so he can sleep with her. WHAT??
You also have to remember this was 2003, peak GWB conservative “Good Christian Values” era. “The separation of church and state” was the hot topic du jour. Speculation about Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson’s virginity were tabloid fodder for years. I grew up Catholic, and I personally hope no clergy member ever knows this quite blasphemous piece of media exists!! This movie is a product of its time and aged badly, but that’s a good thing, because it means we have progressed as a society. Love that for us.
If I rewrote the script: RLC would still confess her impure thoughts accidentally to the carpenter, but he wouldn't see her face afterward. Then this kindhearted person and hard worker merely servicing the church would feel so much guilt about misleading her and not having a chance to set the record straight, that he wasn’t actually the priest, that he would become a parishioner at the church himself. He would start making confessions of his own! Then the real priest would matchmake them after a couple months of sitting next to each other at church. Idk kinda sounds like a brilliant screenplay to me.
📲 I’m just a simple girl in a high-tech digital world
Lindsay Lohan is stunning. That is all.
Kelly Clarkson’s version of “All By Myself” is stunning. That is all.
Don’t talk to me about Nara Smith! I just rewatched Season 1 of The Simple Life (on DVD obv) and it is as fabulous as ever. “Oh Nicole” has become a common refrain in my household.
Vanderpump Rules has been renewed with an all-new cast for Season 12, aka. goodbye Elder Millennials. I initially thought VPR was really dumb, but once I stopped acting like I was too good for it, I realized it’s actually amazing.⁵ In other words, it’s Good as Gold. Some cast members posted messages about their memories from the past 11 years. (Justice for Katie and good for her for keeping it brief.) The sentiment disparity between Scheana & James’ (positive) and Lala’s (negative) IG comments section is also interesting and quite stark.
Speaking of endings within the VPR universe, the Toms’ restaurant Schwartz & Sandy’s is closing. I went to SUR and ate the goat cheese balls, so I felt no need to ever visit any of the other adjacent establishments.⁶ Fascinated by the fact that they held someone’s lizard’s funeral there. (RIP Daug,)
A drag queen doing the [Charli XCX] “Apple” dance dressed as Steve Jobs is camp. Honestly, I’d love to see an entire Homebrew Computer Club drag show where they do a retelling of the founding of Apple. We already know [Apple co-founder and former Dancing With The Stars contestant] Steve Wozniak can dance!
This video of a guy having a PowerPoint presentation open next to the movie playing so his mom doesn’t ask so many questions (“Is that Brad Pitt? How old is he? What about when this came out?”) is fake but still funny.
Shoutout to New Jersey and all of my beautiful readers from the southern Tri-State area!!!
My biggest flex, other than seeing the original cast of Wicked on Broadway, is probably having worked at Michael Kors when that infamous Nicki Minaj feature came out.
Timbaland responded to that Timbaland video. Why is it so accurate though…
This Grandma played Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” by ear!⁷
Although I haven’t seen the show, I am deeply invested in Dance Moms as a meme category. I’d never heard of Sophia Lucia, but she is unbelievably talented; she holds the world record for most consecutive pirouettes.
Someone please go to Toronto and swim in this swimming pool with perfectly in-tact midcentury expressionist architecture inside of a random school. (And then stop by Degrassi High for good measure!)
Literally me in London, except you will also see me driving a gigantic SPICE bus over the Tower Bridge at 100 km per hour.⁸
Happy Thanksgiving, thank you for reading this newsletter, I am so grateful for you ❤️ I leave you with this:
🦋 Social butterfly
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¹ My seasonal methodology: Fall is the Fall Equinox through Thanksgiving, Holiday is Thanksgiving through New Years, and Winter is New Years through the Spring Equinox. Spring is Spring Equinox through Memorial Day, and finally, Summer is Memorial Day through the Fall Equinox.
² Obviously everyone has different family structures and people they spend the holidays with, so “family” can mean your biological family, chosen family, or whoever means something to you. Also I recognize that not everyone has great memories from the past, but in retrospect – and maybe I’m just an optimist – there’s always a silver lining.
³ I just heard that the older generations think of nature, e.g. pine trees and apple pie, and Millennials and younger think of chemicals, e.g. scented markers, Play Doh, etc. Wow. I think of the Tropical Splash Barbie scent, so yeah that tracks for me.
⁴ No offense to Ben Platt but I’m soooooo happy his dad (the producer) did not get him cast in this movie. Idk I saw Dear Evan Hansen, and he’s obviously a great singer, but I’m so glad he stayed the hell away from Wicked.
⁵ My fashion job was already causing my frontal lobe to atrophy, I did not need to accelerate the damage by watching reality TV.
⁶ People have asked me if the goat cheese balls were good, and it’s like, it’s literally fried cheese balls. Of course it’s good. I wouldn’t call the food divine by any means, but you can’t really mess that up too much. I saw Peter when I was there in 2018 but no other cast members.
⁷ I wanna learn piano in the new year! It seems kinda hard? Idk. Do any of you play piano?
⁸ The holiday season is officially here! We are getting closer to my annual Boxing Day viewing of Spiceworld! Did you see the Spicegirls Christmas merch? Afraid I need one of everything…
I love a Lindsay-themed anything!!!