The Nicholist #10

My Distractions from My Current Disasters

Welcome to The Nicholist! My weekly list of pop culture where I gush on everything that’s got me obsessed.

---

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

I've been downed with a suffocating feeling of loneliness this past week. To keep from drowning in the nothingness of my company, I've decided to instead drown in the pages of books. Most of what I read were celebrity memoirs from the graveyard of my ARC library, and most of them sucked. But I struck gold with Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, which I highly recommend!

Here's what I read: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (loved), Unfinished by Priyanka Chopra Jonas (dull), How to Stand Up to a Dictator by Maria Ressa (busted out the neon post-it tabs for this one), Broken Horse by Brandi Carlise (good enough), I Tried to Change So You Don't Have To by Loni Love (LOL), and Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall (eh).

Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner

This is my Brangelina. I'm seated.

This Is Not a True Story by Preston Choi

Since closing the world premiere of my play The Bottoming Process in June, I've been in my theatre producing bag. This summer, I've produced two new works festivals, read more than 150 submissions for the emerging playwrights' lab I moderate, and am currently putting up the world premiere of This Is Not a True Story by Preston Choi with Artists at Play. It’s nice to support emerging artists—and get paid for it—but I feel like I’m creatively dying.

Spending these past months supporting everyone else's art besides my own leaves me bitter and jealous all the time. Selfishly, I’ve been having a hard time helping people achieve the same goals and dreams that I have as well. Like, who’s the person in my life helping me get what I want? Cause it’s obviously not me because I’m too busy being that for everyone else. Is this gross to admit?

BUT! I'm incredibly excited and proud of this production and can't wait for opening night. Like, watch this video and tell me it ain't at least kinda very cool!

“SCAN AND COPY” by Bronze Avery

Bronze Avery’s “SCAN AND COPY” is silky pop perfection. It’s giving Danja and Blackout era Britney vibes in a modern pop package. Is it too late to dub it song of the summer?

Catelynn Baltierra Timeline

@idkhurrPart 1 of the catelynn timelime!! Ps-part 2 will be out tomorrow 🥰 #catelynnbaltierra #catelynnandtyler #teenmomog #adoptionjourney

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

My FYP really gathered me with this one. It's a timeline (recap?) of Catelynn Baltierra, a teen mom from 16 and Pregnant who gave her kid up for adoption, so kinda technically, she wasn't really a teen mom despite being on Teen Mom. TikToker @idkhurr releases one part a day, and it's the thing I look forward to the most each day. As of September 9 at 8:16 p.m., we are on part 17.