Rather than introduce Filthy Dreams through a coma-inducing list of random accomplishments or goals, Marion and I thought it would be way more enjoyable to blatantly rip-off the blogging idea of Dennis Cooper, one of our favorite and most terrifying authors, and list our prized possessions, giving a glimpse into our values, psyche and bad taste.

I am going first with a random assortment of gifts, books and slightly off-putting but thoroughly enjoyable art I’ve amounted over the years:

1. ‘Mama Roux’: my good luck voodoo doll from New Orleans (I’ve had a good time ever since)

2. A Keith Haring pin reading “Cat Hat” and sticker promoting “Debbie Dick for President: More Balls Than Bush” from Haring’s original Pop Shop when it was still open in SoHo.

3. A signed copy of Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Monroe who apologized to me for the filth in the book

4. A found object artwork by Ricardo and Jesse, the Erie, PA bicycle-built-for-two-riding artistic duo/my uncles entitled Exodus, featuring minks from a fur coat escaping a jewelry box

5. A group of ripped and spray-paint covered flyers were gathered for me by artist Andrea Mary Marshall during an interview about her exhibition Gia Condo at the Allegra La Viola Gallery.

6. A copy of artist Jane Dickson‘s small book Hey Baby Wanna Lift?, which she gave to me during my research for my Master’s thesis

7. A postcard from the Eddie’s Grill in Geneva-On-The-Lake, Ohio. Second only to Baltimore as the trash capital of the USA, Geneva and Eddie’s Grill hasn’t changed since 1950 with Roy Orbison playing on the jukebox. A John Waters and David Lynch dream (or nightmare).

8. My worn, 10 years of notes-filled copy of David Wojnarowicz’s Close To The Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration

9. A set of postcards from the Tennessee Williams in Key West exhibition

10. A plastic lobster from a high school friend that sits on the top of my toilet

And, countless more books: John Waters’s Role Models, Kathy Acker’s Blood and Guts in High School, Tennessee Williams’ Memoirs, Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Ann Cvetkovich’s An Archive of Feelings, Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theater: Scourge of Human Folly, Dennis Cooper’s entire George Miles Cycle…