Nicstalgia

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. 🛼 Connect with Our Guest Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Warpcast @fabiolaio 〰 Lens 🍒 Connect with Nic ⁠Instagram⁠ 〰 ⁠Twitter⁠ 〰 ⁠Substack⁠ 〰 ⁠TikTok⁠ 🦋 Special Thanks Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_ Theme Music by @egmusicnyc Intro Video by @valentinareyes9

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. 🛼 Connect with Our Guests Bijou Candles 〰 Facebook 〰 Instagram 〰 YouTube 〰 TikTok 🍒 Connect with Nic ⁠Instagram⁠ 〰 ⁠Twitter⁠ 〰 ⁠Substack⁠ 〰 ⁠TikTok⁠ 〰 Flique Editorial Article 🦋 Special Thanks Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_ Theme Music by @egmusicnyc Intro Video by @valentinareyes9

BARTYDARTY is featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. We talk about Adam’s journey to becoming a DJ and producer: going on MySpace at the ripe age of 12, blogging in 5th grade, being influenced by Detroit's electronic and house music, and getting his brother’s hand-me-down trumpet. We touch on the EDM explosion of the end of the 2000s to 2010s, listening to “Clarity” on the prom party bus, the dichotomy between Avicii’s struggle with fame and Steve Aoki’s “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” ethos, and the inescapable “Closer” by The Chainsmokers. Adam shares about how not having health insurance inspired his first album, his rebrand to BARTYDARTY and the values behind it, staying in touch with your inner child, doing what your younger self would be proud of, embracing a sense of play while also accepting responsibility, and finding other people who share your values. We explore establishing and integrating IRL and URL identities to reflect who you want to be and remember: you are never too old to make your mark on the world. 💿 About our Guest BARTYDARTY is an electronic music producer/DJ based out of Detroit. Besides obsessively searching for the next best piano riff, BARTYDARTY is passionate about reading, writing, meditating, exercising, creating and manifesting. BARTYDARTY believes in pursuing the absurd, by setting lifelong goals and embracing the progress all along the way. 🛼 Connect with Our Guest ⁠⁠Twitter⁠ 〰 Instagram⁠  〰 ⁠Substack⁠ 🍒 Connect with Nic ⁠Instagram⁠ 〰 ⁠Twitter⁠ 〰 ⁠Substack⁠ 〰 ⁠TikTok⁠ 🦋 Special Thanks Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_ Theme Music by @egmusicnyc Intro Video by @valentinareyes9

Chris Payne is featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. We talk about his amazing new book, WHERE ARE YOUR BOYS TONIGHT?, how he got into music journalism, getting an email from Pete Wentz, My Chemical Romance nowstalgia, and finding out about Paramore before they made it big. Does liking emo music require alienation from, or frustration with, mainstream society? We explore how emo shares outsider themes with punk rock but ultimately focuses on the self, inner turmoil, and interpersonal relationships vs. DIY culture, progressive politics, and zines. We chat about being from New Jersey (Chris) and Connecticut (Me and Chris Carrabba), wearing Converse with band tees from Hot Topic and double popped collar polo shirts, picking out the perfect MySpace song, and so much more. 💿 About our Guest Chris Payne is a Brooklyn-based music journalist whose work has appeared in Billboard, Vulture, Stereogum, and other publications. WHERE ARE YOUR BOYS TONIGHT? is his first book. 🛼 Connect with Our Guest Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack 🍒 Connect with Nic Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack 〰 TikTok 🦋 Special Thanks Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_ Theme Music by @egmusicnyc Intro Video by @valentinareyes9

Ana from This Must Be Pop is featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. We discuss how the music of boy bands have been overlooked in music history, how This Must Be Pop was developed through a feminist lens, reframing the whole idea of what being a “fangirl” or “fanboy” means, and legitimizing the fandom space by not diminishing the viewpoint of primarily young girls and the LGBTQ+ community. When it comes to boy bands, there are soooo many dichotomies to unpack!! We dive deep on the reconciliation of being rich (well, depending on who your management is) and famous vs. exploitation and rejecting a a superficial, manufactured, crafted image with stifled individuality. Ana and I talk about BSB and *NSYNC musically, commercially, and how you can’t really compare them the way we did in the 90s-00s. We ponder important questions: Why can fandoms be resistant to change? What if Howie was in Menudo? What would have happened to JC Chasez’s solo career had he had the label support Justin did? Do we really need all of these reunions? What does the future of fandom look like? About our Guest Ana is a music journalist as well as the creator and host of "This Must Be Pop", a podcast that tries to shake us from the social stigma surrounding boybands by legitimizing the fan experience and showcasing the legitimately great music and talent of boybands. Connect with Our Guest Instagram Connect with Nic TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack Special Thanks 💖 Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_ Theme Music by @egmusicnyc Intro Video by @valentinareyes9 YouTube CC available in English and Español Episode Transcript

In this solo episode, we are doing whatever the opposite is of taking a walk down memory lane. I share with you my lifestyle, fashion/2010s revival, and tech trend predictions for 2023. We’re due for a 2020s version of wine/paint bars. Pickleball? Grandma stuff? Mushroom bags? I’m here for it. Will we see a resurgence of business casual, going out tops, or the perfect combination of the two: peplum tops?? Dare I mention…side parts? Giant Bakers-esque 6” platform stilettos? It’s time for a new generation to risk it all (namely, a sprained ankle) trying to leave the house. (Shoutout to the Diffusion of Innovations and my retail career for making this episode possible.) Do younger generations ultimately just end up turning into their parents’ generations? Is ChatGPT for Gen Alpha just Wikipedia for Millennials? Is the -verse coming for us? (Taco Bell-verse will have us at bay.) I talk about web3, the next iteration of the internet based on ownership, and dig into what the future looks like for content creators and influencers as the breakdown of social media as we know it begins to unfold. What does content production and distribution look like when we center creators rather than platforms? I share what I think is going to happen to influencers and creators of different sizes based on the current web2 (social media) landscape, the tools that can facilitate positive change so we’re not a bunch of burnt out robots, and advice for fellow nano influencers. (TLDR: don’t trust an algorithm lol.) Nicstalgia had 41 episodes in 2022 – thank you for coming along for the ride! Connect with Nic TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack Special Thanks 💖 Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_ Theme Music by @egmusicnyc Intro Video by @valentinareyes9 YouTube CC available in English and Español Episode Transcript

Andy Frye is featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. We chat about his book, Ninety Days In The 90s, the vibrant Chicago music scene, and how changes in popular culture are actually more gradual than we make them out to be in hindsight. Andy talk about what he was able to discover in the late 80s and early 90s, contrary to radio pop and hair metal dominating the airwaves at the time. We dive into the quintessential Gen X topics: mix tapes, zines, the emergence of college and independent radio, and the age-old idea of being a ‘sellout’. How can you avoid betraying your ideals while still growing as an artist? Are Gen X authentic to a fault? We explore the commodification of music, when concert tickets got super expensive, the best interviews Andy has conducted as a writer. About our Guest ANDY FRYE has written for Rolling Stone, ESPN, Chicago Tribune, and other publications. Currently, he writes about sports business for Forbes. Over his career, Andy has interviewed hundreds of professional athletes, rock stars and other celebrities. Among the bands and solo artists he has interviewed are Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis, Morrissey, Jimmy Eat World, Rage Against The Machine, and Alice In Chains. Connect with Our Guest Twitter 〰 Instagram Connect with Nic TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack Special Thanks 💖 Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_ Theme Music by @egmusicnyc Intro Video by @valentinareyes9 YouTube CC available in English and Español Episode Transcript

Nicole Randone from Misss2005 is featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. This episode goes to show that Millennials and Gen Z have more in common than the internet makes it out to be. We talk about collecting physical media from the 2000s, experiencing the motorola rzr for the first time, my unhinged Mercari emails, and creating “authentic” yet ‘nowstalgic’ 2000s content. Is getting Starbucks at Target the equivalent of going to the gas station in the 2000s? If you’re looking forward to ‘just cracking up’ (shoutout to Jake Thomas), you will love this episode. **Please note that Nicole has met Chad Michael Murray IRL since the time of this recording!!! We chat about One Tree Hill, A Cinderella Story, my Hilary Duff sighting, John Tucker Must Die, vintage Abercrombie & Fitch lace camis (my fashion degree comes out in full force lol), and blinged out Playboy bunny necklaces. We tap into the evolution of technology and content creation in the future, how we basically live in [the DCOM] Smart House, and if Nicole can really remember a time in life without technology. About our Guest Nicole is an early 2000s content creator and influencer, most commonly referred to online as Miss 2005! Nicole has dedicated herself to using the past to bring happiness to the present. Connect with Our Guest TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 YouTube Connect with Nic TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack Special Thanks 💖 Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_ Theme Music by @egmusicnyc Intro Video by @valentinareyes9 YouTube CC available in English and Español Episode Transcript

Fabiola Larios, Gremlin, and Vivian Fu are featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. We talk about making a critical statement through subversive glitter art, Dollz, cute internet sounds (what glitter sounds like), and early digital technology. We dive deep on social media and identity, exploring how digital personas evolve, how social media became a romanticized performance, and the psyops behind manufactured illusions of vulnerability. Turns out, photo dumps, making songs in your bedroom, and crying on TikTok aren’t “authentic” after all. (Let it be known that Vivian started “dumpage theory”, dissecting performative ugliness online.) We get into the psychology of the internet and optics of surveillance capitalism, looking at people as statistics in order to sell to them, and the lengths creators, influencers, and people with public-facing personalities on the internet will go to in order to be seen. We think about how to approach being online heuristically, where critical thinking, research, and media literacy help people discern what they see. Whether you’re a creator or consumer of content, you’ll enjoy the candidness of our discourse around internalizing and rejecting the “influencer” moniker, having self-worth and acceptance as a creator, how to not care about algorithms, and dealing with the pressure of being ~always online~. Our heads are already in the future, thinking about how artificial intelligence (AI) impacts the creative process and how web3 will disrupt web2 economies of scale, aka. how musicians will make money from their work instead of the streaming/social platforms. About our Guests Fabiola defines herself as a Net Art AI Internet Glitter Artist, her work is about the representation of the self on the Internet, the vulnerability of personal data, and our digital footprint focusing on surveillance with digital and physical objects. Gremlin is a Los-Angeles based creator who specializes in digital audio art. She makes pop music under the name Boule Goes Boing and creates experimental generative audio as gremlin_bb. When she’s not making music, Gremlin interviews web3 creators for Rusty Rollers Radio on Twitter and acts as a Category Lead for the web3 networking group Friends with Benefits. She loves analog synthesizers and heavy 808s. Vivian is some girl who was once on tumblr but now works in tech. Connect with Our Guests Fabiola: Twitter 〰 Instagram Gremlin: Twitter 〰 Instagram Vivian: Twitter 〰 Instagram Connect with Nic TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack Special Thanks 💖 Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_ Theme Music by @egmusicnyc Intro Video by @valentinareyes9 YouTube CC available in English and Español Episode Transcript

Nikki Pebbles is featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. Can the conversation about thongs ever really end??? No. Talking ~in depth~ about hiding your bedazzled and embellished Mandee’s, Weathervane, Wet Seal, Rave, and Rave Girl thongs from your mom. Did Nikki have her first kiss at a Harry Potter movie, wearing Jessica Simpson’s edible dessert line? Yes, of course she did. (Lorraine just knew.) Shout out to Mike’s Hard Lemonade. We talk about AIM away message/bio drama, dating someone in 8th grade and not only not talking to them but actively avoiding them in the hallway, school locker anxiety, and dealing with being cyber-bullied as the first generation of kids on the internet. We play “Shake It Fast, Watch Yourself” (inspired by the Mystikal song, naturally), where Nikki picks between two songs from my Middle School Dance Spotify playlist. Nikki and I share our favorite high school prom songs and the synchronicities between our childhood selves. Middle School Dance Playlist on Spotify Middle School Dance Culture Nicstalgia episode with Nicole & Nikki on YouTube Connect with Nikki TikTok 〰 Instagram Connect with Nic TikTok 〰 Instagram 〰 Twitter 〰 Substack Special Thanks 💖 Doll Artwork by @hmdraws_ Theme Music by @egmusicnyc Intro Video by @valentinareyes9 YouTube CC available in English and Español Episode Transcript