welcome back to internet bedroom
*~*~*~*~*
discussed
my new internet bedroom
junk journaling
Nana
oral
welcome back
Thank you all for allowing me to disappear this year. I planned to publish a follow-up essay to the Euphoria one but for many reasons it’s still in my drafts. Putting out long-form essays with no real plan or structure during a year where my dedicated writing time dwindled to nearly nothing turned out to be a challenge.
However, given that 2023 was the year of the girl — with everything from girl dinner to girls’ bedrooms finally being recognized as museums (which is to say, archives) criss-crossing the algorithm — what better time than now to return to writing this newsletter/Internet zine/personal diary all about girl culture and nostalgia.
So here we are, back in our bedroom together.
I missed you.
Here’s my plan moving forward:
every other Wednesday, ~*~paid and unpaid subscribers~*~ will receive the internet bedroom newsletter, which will keep you furnished with all the girl reading, girl obsessing, girl micro-trending, girl nostalgia, girl watching, and girl listening you might need to remain completely disconnected from reality at all times
meanwhile, my beloved ~*paid subscribers*~ will receive access to all long-form essays I publish as well as digital copies of any zines I publish in the upcoming year, including my zine about comics, See You in the Dollar Bin
(my hope is to be able to pay to get my nails done once a month so if you subscribe, you’re not only supporting my writing, you’re also supporting my slow and steady transformation into my final girl bimbo form)
I decided to change things up this way for a few reasons. First, my long-form essays about girl culture tend to be deeply personal and I think part of my discomfort with pulling the trigger and publishing them came from knowing they would just be out there for anyone to read.
Putting them behind a paywall not only eases my fears that the wrong eyes will find them, but also makes me feel like the work has purpose. I put a lot of effort into researching and writing these pieces, and I believe the work is of a high enough quality that those who want to can pay to read.
Second, I wanted to put together a proper newsletter zine blog substack for you guys, and bi-weekly rundowns of girl-centric culture seemed like the way to go.
So, if you’ve stuck with me this long - thank you. I am grateful for you taking the time to read and invest in my work this year and I’m looking forward to a new year writing, obsessing, and generally being delusional on the Internet.
rabbit hole: junk journaling
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So far what I can tell about junk journaling is that it involves having very nice nails as well as the mental fortitude to arrange and paste small scraps of paper, trinkets, baubles, etc. into a journal as if you are a magpie. The result is a little book filled with sculptural pages that serve almost no purpose save staving off existential dread.
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My personal favorite junk journaling tiktok is this Willy Wonka themed one — not because the page itself turned out all that great, but simply because it raised questions for me like: what is it like to have a tiny typewriter filled with tinier scissors? and where does one get the patience to melt wax?
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obsessing: Nana
I spent a lot of our time in Japan this past month visiting every Vivienne Westwood store in Tokyo and trying to keep myself from spending all my money on bags and necklaces. Of course, hunting down Westwood shops in Tokyo got me thinking about Nana, which is an underrated classic of shojo manga and anime. I only ever read parts of the manga, which I squeezed in while laying the aisles of Borders or Barnes and Noble during trips to the mall, so it’s been really fun to go back and watch the anime and drool over all the clothes and cute girls.
Nana, which was created by my birthday twin, Ai Yazawa (pisces gang)1, and serialized in Cookie between 2000 and 2009 begins when two girls, Nana Osaki and Nana Komatsu meet on a stalled train bound for Tokyo on their 20th birthday, March 5th, 2001 (once again, big pisces energy). Although Nana O.’s ineffable cool girl vibe seems to clash with Nana K.’s girlish bubbliness, the two are intertwined in life and love from the moment they reach Tokyo.
The anime is dripping in y2k fashion, tech, and, of course, plenty of references to Westwood’s iconic designs (this blog does a wonderful job of breaking down how Yazawa incorporates Westwood’s pieces into Nana’s world). It’s sapphic, dreamy, and the perfect world to get lost in as winter approaches.
listening: “oral,” bjork ft. rosalia
Rosalia’s Motomami was one of my absolute favorite albums from 2022, so to have her collabing with Bjork on a song from the latter’s archives is the perfect way to close out 2023. Bjork unearthed this track from unreleased material recorded between Homogenic and Vespertine and Rosalia serves as the perfect foil to Bjork’s strange professions, which lie somewhere between love and obsession.
I have always loved Bjork’s songwriting because of her playful, bratty, adoring approach to songs about love and sex with men. When she curls around the line pleading, come one, please, can I kiss him? (echoed by Rosalia), or worries, is that the right thing to do?, she brings together all the yearning, uncertainty, and fun of crushing and being crushed.
regretting: Not buying the grip of FRUiTS magazines I found in the basement of a mall in Harajuku. They were all priced below $10. iWeep.
xxx. rm
next month:
the internet bedroom newsletter continues with more dispatches from girl world
~*subscribers*~ will get access to my essay examining the 1990s-era fad of feminizing psychotropic medication, Prozac Nation, meritocracy, and Valley of the Dolls
Reminder: the creator of Sailor Moon, Naoko Takeuchi, is also a Pisces. We really dominated shojo in the aughts.