Adryan Corcione is featured on this week’s episode of Nicstalgia. Tri-State Area pop culture enthusiasts unite!!! We chat about how we met (spoiler alert: we are the only people talking about Xanga), Gerard Way working at Hot Topic in the Willowbrook Mall, Adryan’s journalistic work and forthcoming book about growing up online at the advent of social media, the themes of identity and connection, and parallels between the early internet and now.

We have a show and tell of select pieces Adryan’s awesome physical media collection, featuring Lindsay Lohan covers from Cosmopolitan (2022), Playboy (2012), Nylon (2009), Maxim (2007), Fangoria (2007) featuring possibly the only favorable review of I Know Who Killed Me (2007), and Interview (2004). We talk about how Lindsay’s personal life overshadowed and informed the perception of IKWKM and the parallel between how her public struggles with substance abuse mirrors how society views drug and mental health crises. How we treat It Girls affects the treatment of girls everywhere.

Ultimately, I pose the question – How can we as the general public, media, internet, and cultural critics do better going forward have more compassion for the people around us? We dive into the consumption of public figures, the price of pursuing fame, and the right to privacy. Even reality TV stars have boundaries! Despite what’s shown (and sold) to the public, celebrities are people and have nuance…but so does everyone else. Social media has democratized access to celebrities - we can contact them – AND celebrity – we can become them ourselves. We close out with a Britney Spears oracle card reading! Moral of the story: Pop culture matters!

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Kelli Williams is featured on this week’s episode of Nicstalgia. Kelli shares how Laguna Biotch came to life, and we explore the sense of freedom that comes with shamelessly leaning into the things you like – including but not limited to Backstreet Boys and Celine Dion. We explore the undoing of societal conditioning around being a fangirl, revisiting things you loved when you were younger, healing your inner teenager, and creating a world where you can be you. Why aren’t people willing to be silly anymore?? We wouldn’t know.

Kelli and I talk about the wave of millennial nostalgia happening right now and how it’s not new, buying concert tickets instead of houses, Kelli’s experience of being in the crowd at TRL, and how in the 2000s, BSB had to do a whole media circuit with news vs. celebs’ Notes app posts today.

Speaking of celebs, we dive deep into the democratization of access to celebrities through social media, blurring of lines with parasocial relationships, how social media has changed the concept of celebrity and whose legacies are impacted (Justin), and how this affects us as pop culture researchers and lifelong fans. We explore how different celebrities are positioned as actors (Jennifer Aniston), entrepreneurs (Gwyneth), and even products or objects of consumption themselves (Britney, Paris).

Of course we talk about Laguna Beach!! Reality TV has evolved and is more produced, but there will always be conflicting stories about what’s “real”. Wanna know what 2000s fashion was REALLY like? Watch Laguna Beach and you’ll find out everything you need to know. We also explore who the best/worst One Tree Hill character is and our initial reactions to The OC vs. our reactions during the rewatch. California, here we come!

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In this episode, I explain how “nostalgia” is often used as a misnomer for “nowstalgia” when marketing an old cultural object to a new consumer demographic. Drawing inspiration from my article, “Nostalgia vs. Nowstalgia, and Why Both Matter in 2022”, and dig into six key considerations of how both affect connection, communication, and commerce: regenerative revenue, trend zeitgeists, context collapse, retro subversion, compensatory consumption, and projection bias.

Get ready for a deep dive on the commodification – more specifically, the Etsyfication, Coachellafication, yassification, and tattooification – of licensed band t-shirts that capitalize off of existing, nowstalgic IP. Why does every youth culture fixture generation think they invented every style when it's really a recycled version of what came before? We’ll explore the context collapse of flannel shirts, The Cerulean Principle (inspired by the infamous The Devil Wears Prada monologue), and my personal favorite nowstalgic aesthetic: Groovival, a revival of 60s culture from the vantage point of the 90s.

You will learn about how isolated cultural objects, like an olive green utilitarian jacket, gain context through composition and can therefore be dated like a time capsule. Millennials’ fear of being cheugy exemplifies their resistance to The Chasm™ – when you become old enough to witness the completion of a standard 20-year trend cycle and are no longer considered the fixture generation of youth culture.

I explain how tie dye has been an enduring cultural symbol with different meanings over time, why hipsters annoy everyone, why Millennials are outraged by Gen Z reselling their 00s pink and black zebra print homecoming dresses, why I love nowstalgic content creators (shoutout to Merel, Nicole aka. Misss 2005, Sammiee, and Sarah), and why everyone for some reason thinks they can predict the future about what will “come back”. Even if a headline says the biggest trend for 2024 is nostalgia, it isn’t. That’s because nostalgia never goes out of style.

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In this episode, I share the experience of my Physical Media Renaissance™ project that I’ve been working on for about a year. I dive into the physical media (CDs), 00s entertainment technology (icy blue Memorex CD boombox), and memorabilia (the iconic Geri poster) that I’ve acquired and six key considerations: consumption, media ephemerality, perceived value, circular economy, friction, and taste.

I talk about what this project means to me on a personal and generational level, why 90s-00s nostalgia has become a thing, the nostalgic and nowstalgic resurgence of flip phones and digital cameras by Luddite teens and Millennial lifestyle editors avoiding doom scrolling, why Urban Outfitters can sell a first-gen iPod for $350, and why I’m buying $1 CDs when Boomers told us to stop eating avocado toast and drinking Starbucks to buy a house for $725k. Haters will have their questions answered: Is this project wasteful? Is it materialistic? I dig into themes of ownership, transience, and – of course – the Diffusion of Innovations model as it relates to physical media.

We constantly switch from screen to screen with utmost ease and endless distractions, so is the friction of using physical media really worse than the feigned conversancy of Spotify Wrapped? If an algorithm wasn’t reinforcing confirmation bias and shaping your choices, would you be able to make them on your own? Wouldn’t it be fun to genuinely discover something?

You’ll learn my Nicstalgia Consumption Rubric framework of how to know what to buy and what not to buy, the similarities and differences between modes of consumption – thrifting, resale, and fast fashion – and how to curate and refine your own taste by using my ‘Live Laugh Love Loathe’ Nicstalgia Curation Rubric. I share my favorite finds and takeaways from the project around mindfulness, non-attachment, value, memories, and sense of self.

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Ruby Thelot is featured on this week’s episode of Nicstalgia. He shares how his love for studying and researching niche internet communities and cultures led him to writing his forthcoming book, A Cyberarchaeology of Checkpoints. We talk about how the concept of checkpoints originated in video game culture and took on a subversive new form as personal life status updates in a YouTube comments section. What happens when a community is formed by thousands of checkpoints in a YouTube comments section, and what happens when that YouTube video is deleted?

We explore the shock of deletion, the jarring experience of no longer having access to a digital space you once frequented. (RIP MySpace.) In the words of internet archivist Rebane2001, “Forget what you lost, save what you can.” Is everything meant to be saved? We ponder the concept of media ephemerality and why we assume permanence of what’s on the internet when we expect real-life places to come and go. (RIP to my Midtown hair salon.)

Digital media is full of paradox – abundance devalues digital media and makes access harder (i.e. trying to find one of the 7500 photos on my phone), preservation disrupts the content’s original environment (i.e. downloading my Xanga archives), and materiality affects relevance and value. We dive into the intricacies of memory and technology, my Buddhist internet philosophy, and how deletion of digital artifacts erases stories, memories, and ‘monuments of emotional history’, therefore impacting the future interpretation and legacy of our civilization.

I ask Ruby what he’d leave in a digital time capsule, the ethics of digital life after death, the morality of AI when “we can only perceive the present once it is the distant past”, and how media literacy and astuteness will develop for young generations in a new digital age.

💿 About our Guest

Ruby Justice Thelot is a designer, cyberethnographer and artist based in New York. He is an adjunct professor of Design and Media Theory at New York University. He is the founder of the award-winning creative research and design studio 13101401 inc.

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Merel from Ex-Girlfriend Shop is featured on this week’s episode of Nicstalgia. Your two favorite Aries Angels chat about what inspired her to start Ex-Girlfriend Shop, our love for Y2K fashion, my first designer handbag, and what it was like for Merel discovering fashion trends pre-internet in the Netherlands and ID’ing celeb outfits post-internet.

I catch a glimpse of Merel’s skillfully curated, iconic non-clothing memorabilia collection, including a Claudia Schiffer Barbie and Anna Nicole Smith bobblehead. In the words of Sheryl Crow (and Merel), “If it makes you happy it cant be that bad.”

We deep dive into Mariah Carey, Tomato Mozzarella, and the JLo “I don't know her” saga, Dollzmania, our shared Halloween costume as Dump Him- era Britney, and my profound emotional experience seeing Crossroads in theaters for the first time in 2002.

💿 About our Guest

Merel is a self proclaimed "Aries angel" and a 2000s enthusiast. She owns an online store called Ex-Girlfriend Shop where she specializes in Y2K streetwear and designer gems. She has a deep love for Mariah Carey and is not afraid to tell the world!

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Nora Woods is featured on this week’s episode of Nicstalgia. Friends since we were 12, we reminisce about dancing in the living room to Beatles records, listening to Queen deep cuts and loving Freddie Mercury, dancing to “Get Low” at prom, going tanning, our fav Latin pop sensations Shakira and Enrique Iglesias, being in the middle school talent show, and being cheerleaders. **Please note that since the time of this recording, I DID locate our cheerleading mix songs!!!!!**

We share our parallel experiences on September 11th, reflect on if Girls and Broad City accurately depicted of our lives as Millennial women in NYC in the 2010s, and recall watching Degrassi at my house (and seeing Toby at hers). We have always been ~very online~ individuals, as young early adopters of AIM, Xanga, and MySpace, and discuss our days on early social media. Nora shares her favorite and most obscure Disney Channel Original Movies and shows us her CD binder from the 2000s, mix CDs intact!!!

Nic & Nora have always had a shared curiosity for pop culture ‘before our time’, a sense of nowstalgia for Queen, and how you never think trends you saw as kids are going to cycle back – until they do.

💿 About our Guest

Nora Woods is a multitalented artist, musician and performer in Long Beach California. She is a singer/songwriter known as Plumbun, and produces music in her bedroom studio. Nic and Nora have been friends since middle school after bonding over their shared interest in art and pop culture.

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Tiffany Tarazi is featured on this week’s episode of Nicstalgia. She shares her journey from second-gen makeup artist to product developer to developing Nosta Beauty. We chat about home videos from the 90s vs. now, capturing both milestones and mundane aspects of day-to-day life for personal use vs. performative nature of social media (and how that changes once you become a parent yourself).

What makeup trend is coming back? What 90s makeup trend was Tiffany’s favorite? How does she make makeup that’s glittery and nostalgic yet doesn’t make me break out into hives like i did with Bath and Body Works glitter? We dive into all of the above, plus how doing our makeup has evolved over time, the Laguna Beach/Hollister-era self tanner epidemic, our hair removal nightmares, and whose makeup Tiffany would love to do on their world tour.

💿 About our Guest

Tiffany, a second-generation makeup artist turned beauty brand founder, is on a mission to evoke fuzzy feelings through her enchanting and nostalgic makeup products. With Nosta Beauty, she brings a unique touch to the world of cosmetics, sprinkling it with an iconic blend of 80s, 90s and 2000s charm!

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Fabiola Larios is featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. We talk about Fabi’s Barbie exhibit at Yami-Ichi, subverting obsolescence and bringing new life to old and retro technology, AI-generated art on Fabi’s irreplaceable pink Disney Princess TV, the iconic 90s computer game Barbie Magic Hairstyler (y también Barbie Salón de Belleza).

We deep dive into rituals, societal conditioning, misconceptions of Barbie, and the meaning adults (not children) assign to Barbie, and how she’s really a representation of our society, projected onto a 12” piece of plastic. We contrast not just the image, but the messaging behind Barbie vs. Bratz and agree that Barbie is an intellectual and a badass.

We play a Dream Outfit and Dream Career game for AI-generated Fabi Barbie and tap into the imagination, play, levity, and joy that Barbie brought us as kids — and how we own that sentiment as adults.

💿 About our Guest

Fabiola Larios is a Mexican Interdisciplinary artist that lives and works in Miami Beach, Florida. Her work explores the intersection of technology, identity, and representation in the digital age. Through machine learning, AI, net art, obsolescence programming, and e-waste, she seeks to challenge our understanding of the self and the impact of social media and the internet on our lives.

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Jocelyn and Alaina from Bijou Candles and the Candle Coven Podcast are featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. We talk about Rocky Horror Picture Show, Seinfeld, being a dELiA*s girl in a Hollister world, shared memory and collective consciousness, and how pop culture represents human connection and is a spiritual experience. The two biggest comedic geniuses: Larry David, who dissects the minutia of life and calls out the absurdity of humans, and Victoria Beckham, for obvious reasons.

We talk about the two most important things essential to my life and well-being, Celine Dion and the Spice Girls, and delve into my physical media renaissance and the icy blue Memorex boombox that I DID end up rebuying.

We answer the important questions: Are we Romy or Michele? Which Golden Girls are we a mix of? Which celebrities would we put on our Mount Rushmore for a dream candle collection? Mel C Heads™️, this one is for you.

💿 About our Guests

Alaina and Jocelyn are married business partners who own and operate Bijou Candles – an e-commerce candle company that features premium soy candles inspired by their favorite women in pop-culture. They also host The Candle Coven Podcast where they break down current pop culture events, talk about their lives, and light candles while they discuss movies, tv shows & more.

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