Mall World
Shop till you drop (on YouTube).
Love to make a connection up in here. Or at the very least, attempt to!
Can’t help but take mental notes on everything I encounter that may one day congeal into a ‘stackworthy “bit,” whether that’s linking disparate dots (not to be confused with Dippin Dots, ice cream of the future) or going long on niche passions with great enthusiasm.
‘Cause at the end of the day, I love stuff.
This impulse / affliction can be epidemiologically traced to growing up in and around the shopping centers and retail plazas of greater New Jersey — gorging on records, mags and anything else you could blow lawnmower money on, hopping from store to store like an IRL treasure map of open browser tabs.
In that regard, Nourished By Time’s “BABY BABY” felt like the perfect start to get into some mall madness. Excellent tune, filmed on iPhone in East Rutherford’s American Dream (with captions!) for maximum society-skewering metanarrative.
But where does that crumb of an idea go next?
American Dream’s ass-blasted waterpark Shrek statue?!?
Perhaps it’s a path to my own past, shilling StarTACs out of a Bell Atlantic Mobile kiosk a few towns over in Woodbridge Center.
No butt stuff (hey now) but the in-store playlist did contain a lot of Sugar Ray and New Radicals, whose Evan Bernard-lensed “You Get What You Give” (“as featured in the 2021 playlist for the Biden Presidential Inauguration”) captured the Staten Island Mall for posterity, complete with teens in Moon Ska tees.
I can still draw the layout of every Woodbridge store from memory like a goddamn blueprint. “Are You Dreaming of a ‘Mall World’? You’re Not Alone.” Well thanks! But for these purposes, Goody don’t got it either.
Post-hardcore cutie patooties Fleshwater filmed their latest single at Northfield Square in Chicago’s South Suburbs.
Will note here that Northfield is a “dead mall.” Sick basis for a video backdrop and/or fringe YouTube community, but the concept also depresses TF out of me. Though if I’m being honest, most visits to present-day live malls do too…
Don’t know if any of this qualifies as a point.
Tentatively circling one, perhaps — the trophic cascade of commerce, Nero’s fiddle, DONKEH! — but may also just have a hankering to pop tags with an OG recipe Orange Julius in hand.
Women be shopping!
Magazines no longer exist, regardless of whether or not there’s a B. Dalton floor to read ‘em on. Glad I don’t ingest BK chicken fries multiple times a week, though a touch of the metabolism that once enabled me to do so would be nice.
There are objective benefits to congregating in a food court instead of a Discord (or Substack lol), but it is what it is.
You can’t go home again.
Lacey Chabert Porcelain Ornament — when it comes to tree hanging IP, I prefer when Darth Vader (or whomever) wears a Santa hat, but will happily make an exception for Gretchen Wieners’ rom-com cross promo. Not even Halloween yet, but guess we have to accept that Xmas has entered the chat…
Numero Group Holiday Funk Bundle (see what I mean?)
Brett Easton Ellis for Stone Island (lol but also fire)
Laurie Anderson revisiting her 1995 CD-Rom (blueberry MacBook ftw)
Tokischa, La Mas Doll, “MUXAXA” — re: changing seasons, these ladies are not letting go of summer just yet and I’m totally fine with that. Run it back with “Un Día Tu” (thx Suze) for maximum uncontrolled body movement.
MUELAS, “MELT” (whoo!)
Jubilee, Live @ Making Time Festival 9.21.25 (all freestyle, yes plz)
Geese, “Au Pays du Cocaine” (ok i get it now, great Milo Hume vid)
Playlists updated…