“So, perceiving culture and society entirely in visuals, and before my eyes, I am up against my limits,” says Ezekiel Hooper Stark, the image-obsessed cultural anthropologist and protagonist of Lynne Tillman’s most recent novel Men and Apparitions (136) Continue reading
“Isn’t sex more erotic when spiced with a sense of danger? But how much danger?” asked music critic Stephen Holden in a review of a Donna Summer album. Those really are the questions, aren’t they? What is the line between eroticism and violence–or at least, threat–and how does one know if they’ve crossed it? Disco … Continue reading
After a seven-year hiatus, a Roy Orbison cover was not what I anticipated when looking forward to SSION’s new album O. Of course, an eerie version of the Lynchian crooner’s take on “Big As I Can Dream” was much appreciated. Continue reading
“I’ll never forget the humiliation of bringing my portfolio up to Carmel Snow’s office at Harper’s Bazaar and unzipping it only to have a roach crawl out and down the leg of the table. She felt so sorry for me that she gave me a job,” writes Andy Warhol in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: … Continue reading
Aa…aaaa…AAAAA…CHOO! Whew! *blows nose* Why hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams readers! I don’t know about you but I’ve been honking and horking my way through this holiday weekend. Mary, I’m about ready to give it up and start living in a bubble full-time like a hamster or Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips. Maybe I’ll … Continue reading
Scratch. Scrape. Scratch. Scrape. A chill flies down my neck, ricocheting down my spine. It’s not just the sound of A.K. Burns and Katherine Hubbard’s collaborative video Untitled (shaving performance 2010) that sends multiple senses into overdrive. It’s also the visuals–disembodied hands wielding a straight razor, slicing precariously close to a woman’s bare skin and … Continue reading
You know I love dolls. That’s what John Waters snarled at Marion and me when we dragged our favored doll Carol Anne to meet her Uncle John at a book signing at Gagosian’s Upper East Side bookstore. Though I think of John’s demented doll declaration frequently, his words resonated especially deeply as soon as I … Continue reading
