So long sweet summer
Ferreira Fall style, Grand Theft Autumn, Unlock Your Aesthetic, Rainforest Cafe 🍂
Please tell me you sang the title of this email in Connecticut native Chris Carrabba’s voice. Yesterday, I learned that this song is not called “So Long Sweet Summer” but rather “Age Six Racer”. No idea what that means, but if Chris Carrabba says it, I’m on board.¹ I couldn’t make the Dashboard Confessional and BOYS LIKE GIRLS show in CT this past weekend but did almost buy a ticket simply because I saw one listed for $8. So long sweet summer!!!
I’m excited to report that having a seasonal bucket list is very fun!!!! Like a virtual scrapbook.² Solely tracking memories digitally makes everything seem like a blur, doesn’t it? This project was a fun reminder to celebrate connection, bliss, and even mundanity that comes with every literal and figurative season of life. Here’s what I did this summer:
What are you doing this fall? Send me a message or leave a comment on this post!! I already started making my list. LOTS of arts & crafts are on the horizon. I’ll share my ~realistic~ Gilmore Girls fall itinerary with you next week!
Today’s issue:
💄 Ferreira Fall style guide
🍂 Grand Theft Autumn essential tracks
🌈 Unlock Your Aesthetic launch party
📲 JC Chasez’s new album, the one TikTok trend I’m not sick of, 120 hours of Spongebob art, Clueless the musical, what if we kissed at the NYC Rainforest Cafe?, the best Trader Joe’s receipt I’ve ever seen
ICYMI, last week’s issue included my fitness class schedule, Paris Hilton Infinite Icon album review as organized by Paris catchphrase, a lawsuit over Britney Spears fragrances, etc. Enjoy!
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Huge thank you to Nicstalgia supporters who I will love forever: Janine, Marie, Liv, Mitra, CY, and Aleena! 💐💐💐
💄 Ferreira Fall style guide
Singer, model, and indie Tumblr poster girl Sky Ferreira was made for the melancholia of fall. Fans are also adopting ‘Ferreira Fall’ to persuade Sky & Team to drop more info about her forthcoming, long-awaited-since-2015 album, Masochism. In the meantime, here’s your style guide to embody the energy of this starlet with a hard edge and soft center.
Embrace your signature look. Sky’s known for her dramatic side part, red lipstick, and a messy smoky eye or dramatic winged liner. How can you feel like a rockstar, before you even get dressed?
Play with textures. This is my best advice for shaking up your wardrobe. Lace? Leather? Velvet? Fishnets? I’ll take one of everything, please. Mixing and matching is encouraged and expected.
Wear graphic tees that reflect your mood. Sky’s are usually somewhere on a scale from guarded to vaguely threatening, whether it’s thrash metal band Megadeth’s graphic tee or Givenchy’s famous Rottweiler tee.
Carry around fresh flowers. Make a bouquet for yourself. Give someone you love their favorite flower or flowers in their favorite color. Flora brings so much beauty to this world! Revel in it before it gets colder.
Upgrade your shower. Sky’s infamous Night Time, My Time album cover takes place in the shower, and it’s a great reminder to incorporate personal hygiene into your self care routine. Pick intoxicating scents that turn washing your face, hair, and body into a luxurious occasion! You all are so lucky I have a glass door, otherwise someone would have to stop me from getting *the* shower curtain.
Get lost in your bedroom. Rearrange furniture, switch out a throw pillow, DIY an autumnal decoration, journal with stickers, or create a watercolor based on what you see when you look out the window. This is your sanctuary!
Plan your perfect fall day – and do it. My favorite Sky song is “24 Hours”, because I know the exact bittersweet feeling when she says, “I wish these 24 hours would never end.” A perfect day doesn’t need to be elaborate. In fact, the best days are usually the ones when it all clicks – when we realize that who we are, who we’re with, and what we have is enough.
🍂 Grand Theft Autumn essential tracks
Autumn is a very emo season – maybe the most – where one can lament about summer being over, starting a new school year with the same idiots from last year, noticing the first chill in the breeze, or feeling disappointment over a failed romance. Does “Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy”, the second US (first UK) single from Fall Out Boy, count as an autumn song if it was released in the summer?³ I suppose not. The title of the song was actually taken without permission from Braid, a fellow Illinoian indie rock band.⁴
Now it seems
I care more about caring less
Then I was used to (less than I used to)
Then I used
You
I've seen the scene
And its nothing but its shows
Verdict guilty:
Grand theft autumn
To me, the first lyric phrase above expresses disillusionment about it not actually having been “the best summer ever!” and the second represents apathy and detachment, finally making the decision to not let people who don’t matter continue to deplete your time, energy, and attention.
Here are your essential emo tracks for the season, along with a corresponding seasonal activity.⁵ I’m aware that most of these involve being in the car. There’s just something about fall, emo music, and suburban car culture that is so simple, pure, and symbiotic.
🍎 Having a dance party in the kitchen, waiting for the apple pie to finish baking in the oven: “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World (2001)
🎃 Putting all of your strength (and anger?) into carving a pumpkin: “Liar (It Takes One to Know One)” by Taking Back Sunday (2006)
🧵 Singing while sewing, hot gluing, and perhaps bedazzling your Halloween costume: “Decode” by Paramore (2008)
🍂 Driving around town to see foliage with your best friend/partner in crime: “Thick as Thieves” by Dashboard Confessional (2007)
🧣 Organizing your closet, folding your sweaters, and having an impromptu fashion show: “The Future Freaks Me Out” by Motion City Soundtrack (2003)
🎡 Sitting in the car, eating messy candy apples or flavored popcorn you just impulse bought from the local carnival: “Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance (2006)
🌅 Taking a walk in the park at sunset: “I Woke Up In A Car” by Something Corporate (2002)
💋 Making out in the car in an empty art museum parking lot: “Hero/Heroine” by BOYS LIKE GIRLS (2006)⁶
🌈 Unlock Your Aesthetic
Unlock Your Aesthetic: A Visual Guide to Find Your Vibe is visual artist and content creator Maris Jones’s new book that helps you find inspiration from your daily life to build your own personal or creative brand. In a time where so much branding advice is still rooted in a neoliberal, self-optimized, self-commodified, girlboss ideology, it’s refreshing and delightful to see a guide that uses imagination as its sole compass.
Through stunning visuals, compelling music, hyper-specific wardrobing, and thoughtful post-production editing, Maris skillfully delivers glamorous nostalgia – a niche that is often denigrated as unoriginal pastiche. She’s my favorite content creator, and I admire her super high-quality mini-movie productions.⁷ My favorite content series of hers include ‘The Evolution of Bedrooms’ and ‘The Evolution of Phones’, where she delivers a gorgeous snapshot-in-time decade by decade.
I was super excited to attend Maris’s Studio 54-themed book launch party in Brooklyn!! My friend Janine and I were decked out in our cute outfits and danced the night away at the House of Yes. There was a sick photo opp, complete with a gigantic rainbow. No step-and-repeat in sight! There were themed drinks, disco balls, and people on roller skates. Wesley hosted and put on a fabulous performance. Maris made a grand entrance and read off of an ancient scroll, because of course. I’ve always personally been obsessed with the 70s, but regardless of your personal aesthetic, this party was a blast. I love seeing people come together to celebrate art, fashion, music, and unabashed self-expression. Can’t wait to keep reading Unlock Your Aesthetic!
📲 I’m just a simple girl in a high-tech digital world
JC Chasez’s First Album In 20 Years Is A Concept LP About Frankenstein. It comes out on October 25th, just in time for spooky season. This will be my new favorite Halloween album, I can just tell.
In late 2021, Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” started blowing up on TikTok. Users were staging performances using leaf blowers as wind machines and it was incredible. Later, once regular travel became a thing again post-2020, dancers were doing the trend in airports, performing high-skill, ultra-dramatic, FULL OUT combinations. The very talented Blake McGrath recently missed his flight at the airport doing this, but it was absolutely worth it. If I was the airline, I would’ve waived the change fee immediately. This is the one TikTok trend I will never get sick of, as it revolves around my two favorite things in the world: dance and Celine Dion.
Woodworker Ike Wynter’s dream came true when he showed his viral piece of Spongebob art to Tom Kenny – the voice of Spongebob – who wanted to buy it!!!! It had already been purchased and he wanted to get it autographed before sending it to the buyer, but Ike sent another Spongebob piece to Tom and his team. The talent!
Clueless is coming to the West End in 2025. The musical originally premiered as an Off-Broadway jukebox musical in 2018, with Dove Cameron starring as Cher Horowitz. The new version had a try-out run in February at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley. Music is by KT Tunstall, which is cool! It would be a nice full-circle moment if Clueless made it back to Broadway, this time with original songs.
Rainforest Cafe BETTER be coming to NYC. I have at least 2 formative memories that took place at Rainforest Cafe at the Westfarms Mall, and apparently my sister still has her membership card!
🦋 Social butterfly
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¹ I saw Dashboard in 2022, sat behind his parents lol, and went to a VIP pre-show performance. His energy is so magnetic, you genuinely do feel like the only person in the room when Chris sings, speaks, or plays guitar. Respectfully, I love him. He also has one of my fav celeb astrological birth charts, but we’ll save that for another day.
² Shoutout to my mom for making me high production quality scrapbooks of my entire life. I really want to start making physical scrapbooks again…Fall bucket list item, perhaps?!
³ Its title also inspired friend of Nicstalgia Chris Payne’s debut book, Where Are Your Boys Tonight? The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008. Watch our Nicstalgia episode here!
⁴ Braid self-describes as an indie rock band, but it sounds more like post-hardcore or post-punk to me. I wasn’t familiar with the band at the turn of the century, but I do agree it’s sonically and culturally a pillar in second-wave emo.
⁵ If you know me, you know I’m very concerned with historical accuracy. Like if you specifically date a video, you have to have a song that matches. Content that breaks this principle is my rage bait. Anywho! All of these songs were released as singles during the autumn season. If someone can help me create a Nicstalgia LLM of music/pop culture statistics, that would be amazing. I do not use Chat GPT for any statistics I share in my newsletter because it gets dates wrong literally 100% of the time, without exception.
⁶ Calling BOYS LIKE GIRLS emo is kind of a stretch, but it was either this or “Always” by blink-182. Again, I need that LLM to speed up the fact-checking process.
⁷ Maris and I both love nostalgia and art, but I discovered in the book that we also share a love for tomato & mozzarella lol. I like to think that building sets and starring in elaborate nostalgic productions is what I’d be doing if I continued down the Visual Merchandising path.