Welcome to Filthy Dreams
Well hello there! Welcome to Filthy Dreams, a blog that analyzes culture through a queer lens. Rather than jumping right into new content, we thought it best to introduce ourselves and our aesthetics with our Trash Manifesto
Latest Entries
If You’re Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough: “Jackass” Makes Me Proud to Be an American
A deep, creaking, warping groan. An echoing, bellowing thump. A sickening, spewing splash. This trio of sounds is some of the funniest I’ve ever heard. The source? A badly-in-need-of-a-pump Porta John, absurdly strung between two towering cranes, flung precariously 150 feet into the air like a norovirus fever dream version of a Six Flags Sling … Continue reading
Ellie Thatcher’s “The Quiet Wing” Took Me to Pasolini’s Underworld
For me, 2026 is best represented by Genesis’ “Land of Confusion” music video, specifically Reagan’s nightmare sequence: haunting puppet mountains, representative of the people who run our world, towering over us with their sharp teeth, ready to crunch my body for their 7:00 dinner. Only Genesis’ puppets of power have now been radically amplified by … Continue reading
It Wasn’t God Who Made the Scat Souvenirs in Derek McCormack’s “The Shithole Opry Collector’s Guide”
When I traveled to Nashville in 2023, I spent most of my time running in and out of country music-themed gift shops—or really, one gift shop in particular. Sure, I also perused the Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline T-shirts at their conjoined museums. But it was the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum store … Continue reading
Is Glenn Branca’s “Symphony No. 13 (Hallucination City) for 100 Guitars” the Most Powerful Musical Composition of the 21st Century?
Can you listen to ear torturer/noise master Glenn Branca’s auditory assault “Symphony no. 13 (Hallucination City) for 100 Guitars” without macabrely dwelling on the horrors of 9/11 and, well, everything that came after? I know I couldn’t when attending the experimental symphony on a whim last Friday at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. The concert, … Continue reading
Filthy Dreams’ Pridemaxxing Music Playlist
Hot diggity dawg…it’s that time of year again, Filthy Dreamers! That’s right: stop doomscrolling, get off the couch, dust off those Pride flags, straighten out the leggings, thaw the frozen sausage links, grab the loudest, most jarring tee, do a backflip, ice your back, streeetch, grab those weights, smash them against your face, remove those sausage … Continue reading
The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room Turned the Nauseating Enormity of the Epstein Files into Bad Anti-Trump Art
I haven’t curated an exhibition since 2019. It’s not for lack of trying. I was months into a show about nightlife with Fotografiska before they picked up their museum and left the city. More recently, I submitted a proposal for a trash aesthetic exhibition, an idea that made me so excited I buzzed my way … Continue reading
We Are All MK-Ultra Victims: The Berserk Philosophical Furry Apocalypse of Gianluca Cameron’s “You Know It’s Black”
The biggest surprise in Gianluca Cameron’s full-blown foam-mouthed wacko novel You Know It’s Black, a book stuffed to the brim with unexpected and inexplicable brain-wringing stunners, may be the presence of filmmaker, actor, musician, unsimulated sex scene producer/anti-porn neuter, Trump supporter, and Roger Stone-rivaling Nixon fanatic Vincent Gallo. Gallo appears as the fittingly phobic one-night-stand … Continue reading
I Refuse to Review Exhibitions with Heinous AI Slop Press Releases (Or Why I’m Probably Not Writing Much About Art Anymore)
Throughout my years of writing about art, I’ve, of course, encountered many, many terrible press releases, filled with impenetrable jargon, effusive yet meaningless artspeak, and so much liminality, relationality, materiality, and space. I’ve rolled my eyes. I’ve sighed. I’ve cackled. Yet, it wasn’t until recently, with the overwhelming AI sloppification of NYC art galleries’ written … Continue reading
Madonna’s “I Feel So Free” Is a Euphoric Disco Miracle
I cried in disbelief listening to Madonna’s “I Feel So Free.” Not at first. When I initially sampled the rip of the old-school radio (yes, radio!) premiere of the first track from her upcoming album Confessions II, “I Feel So Free” came off to me as generic gay bar fare, perfect for a Hell’s Kitchen … Continue reading
She Makes Me Dance Till She Got Me Crazy: Maya Man’s “StarPower” Is My Favorite (Mostly) AI-Generated Art Show
I’m not often impressed by visual art, or at least institutionally accepted artsy-fartsy art, that engages with artificial intelligence. Most AI-related art fails to outshine or even match the wackadoo aesthetics of naïve AI slop produced by the Internet, whether heartfelt Charlie Kirk memorials showing the Turning Point guru paling around with Abraham Lincoln and … Continue reading