We Need a Lisa Frank Biopic
Saltburn, Nicstalgia stats, Lisa Frankenstein, goodbye Kim K, welcome back Litas 👠
HNY!!! 🪩 Hope your year is off to a great start. I watched MTV’s NYE 1999 (into 2000) performances on YouTube, pulled up the ball drop from last year, and went to bed at 1123 on 123123. That’s auspicious, if you ask me!
I rarely watch movies, but I watched Saltburn because of Jacob Elordi and Richard E. Grant (of Spice World fame). It was fine and not nearly as sensational as the internet made it out to be. A lot of thoughts re: period piece continuity came to mind; it drives me crazy when they use a song that came out after when the scene was supposed to have taken place. (Did I miss my calling as a music supervisor? Can I be a consultant on these things?)
The conclusion here is that we have all fallen for someone in the 2000s who wore a Livestrong bracelet and had an eyebrow piercing. No one was immune. Also I forgot how much I love Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder On The Dancefloor”. (Important distinction: that link is to the official music video, not the scene from the movie. You’re welcome, or sorry.) Okay, enough about that!!!
In this issue:
🪞 Reflecting on Nicstalgia 2023
🧟♂️ Lisa Frankenstein
🤳🏼 RIP to Kim K game
👠 Jeffrey Campbell Litas
🔮 Nicole’s Crystal Ball Part II
Support Nicstalgia with a paid subscription for less than a 90s Lisa Frank Rainbow Reef Skeeter The Seal 3-ring binder.
🪞 Reflecting on Nicstalgia 2023
Overall: I was committed to releasing less (quantity) content and more (quality content) in 2023. I released 10 episodes of Nicstalgia this year, compared to 41 last year. I stopped rushing to put things out and had grace with myself during hiatuses. I was very inspired to add a visual component to my solo episodes, and I’m very happy with how the Physical Media Renaissance™ episode came out! I’ve been doing this show for almost 2 years and I love it more than ever.
YouTube: The most popular episode of this year was with Chris Payne, where we talked about his book, WHERE ARE YOUR BOYS TONIGHT? (which I talked about in last week’s letter ICYMI!) The first ever episode with nostalgia content creator superstar Jenna Barclay remains our most popular episode (almost cracking 1k views!) The other most popular episodes are my solo deep dives. Fashion and MySpace seem to be the topics people like to hear about, which is good news because those are my specific areas of expertise. Please subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already so you don’t miss an episode 😇
Substack: Most newsletters focus on massive growth and tend to lose their quality or integrity with scale. I haven’t attempted to grow this list, and that very well may change this year, but I’m really happy knowing – through the open rate and through the personal emails that I get from you – that you like what you see here. I’ve been writing a newsletter since 2019. The fact that you have been invested in me for FIVE years is really special. (2019 was 5 years ago omg wtf?!)
Max open rate = 72% this year (!!!!!!) vs. 66% last year
Average open rate = 62.75% TY vs. 58.38% last year
Top states where Nicstalgia readers are from are New York and California. We’re bicoastal, baby!
Top 5 publications that Nicstalgia readers also love:
Culture StudyGreat newsletter. Enjoyed The Friendship Dip very much
The Sociology of Business Read Ana’s book, The Business of Aspiration, too
The Unpublishable LOVED Jessica’s article on Madonna’s face
After School by Casey Lewis I read this religiously; thank you Casey for spending time on TikTok so I don’t have to!!!
Back Row Aesthetic Labor is the topic I will continue to explore this year, and this is really what The Tyranny of Getting Ready – and Pamela Anderson going makeup free – is all about
Going Forward: The newsletter will continue to evolve this year! Things are in the works! Stay tuned! If there’s something in particular that you already like seeing, a topic, a trend, an aesthetic, an ideology, a historical pop culture phenomenon, etc. you want my POV on, or something you don’t see in this newsletter that you would like to see, get in touch. Please share Nicstalgia (the newsletter and the show) with a friend if you think they’d like it! 🙏 And if you’re a podcaster/writer/cultural producer/theorist interested in pop culture, fashion, technology, and/or identity and would like to collab this year, I wanna meet you!!!!!
📲 I’m Just a Simple Girl in a High-Tech Digital World
Lisa Frankenstein is a horror comedy – or as it refers to itself, “a coming of RAGE story” (cringe) – coming out this Valentine’s Day. Written by Diablo Cody of cult classic Jennifer’s Body fame, the film is about a high school girl whose crush “just happens to be a handsome corpse!” Cole Sprouse, who was either Zack or Cody from The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, plays said corpse bf. Seems like Edward Scissorhands, no? I personally would prefer and REALLY love to see a Lisa Frank biopic based on her notoriously volatile, cocaine-filled, rainbow-colored work environment. If you haven’t read the 2013 Jezebel article or the very rare 2012 interview with Urban Outfitters, it’s important you do.
Kim Kardashian is shutting down her mobile game after 10 years to focus on “other passions”. I nor anyone I know has admittedly played Kim Kardashian Hollywood, but I still feel like it’s the end of an era. I’m not a fan of the family, don’t follow them, and am not interested in their endeavors as a consumer. However, Kim K doesn’t miss, I’m afraid. Plus, season 1 of KUWTK and its telenovela edits are SO funny, and I do think I would look cute in something from Skims!
ALERT THE PRESSES: LITAS ARE BACK!!!!! You may or may not know that probably half of my shoes are from Jeffrey Campbell. My favorite. I have been obsessed since 2010 because of one shoe that I could not afford but loved nevertheless: The Lita. Named after Lita Ford of The Runaways, this shoe was EVERYTHING in the early 2010s. (Let me remind you about Who Stole My Litas Tumblr…) Apparently there were over 164 different colors and 65 different versions. I would like to see them all in a museum! The foremost journalism about this shoe specifically is Happy 10th Birthday to This Incredibly Polarizing Shoe, a 2020 piece from The Cut written by Marie Lodi. I saw this woman’s name and knew I knew her somehow. I realized it’s because she’s the official Orange Gelée Revival Project reporter for Vacation!!!!!! Iconique.
🔮 Nicole’s Crystal Ball Part II
Wait I’m actually not done yet…I had this note in my phone and forgot to integrate these things into last week’s list. Stating for the record. Comment any of your thoughts below!!!!
🧨 Spice Up Your Life
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