Is there anything more beautiful than the dual glee and panic of a boxy silhouette of tapered jeans and blinding billowing Technicolor sweaters hurtling down a supermarket aisle as if shot from a cannon in search of a specially marked bottle of Tide? Is there anything more inspiring than a blur of Dep shellacked and … Continue reading
“Once there was a song. The song yearned to be sung” –Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds “The Spinning Song” What makes art relevant, particularly during a global pandemic as complex as COVID-19? What does it look like to speak to a moment when creating seems useless and inadequate? How can culture have an impact … Continue reading
“It would have been easy for Donald to be a hero,” writes Mary Trump, President and Ultimate Member of the Book of the Month Club Donald Trump’s niece and seemingly one of the only people in the Trump clan capable of human emotion, self-reflection, and complex thought, in the epilogue of her recently published, much … Continue reading
“If you really loved me…”–Ziggy slugs–“you wouldn’t rim me while I’m crying.” This is John Waters’ favorite line from Dennis Cooper’s George Miles Cycle, read in a surprise appearance at an event at NYU’s Fales Library and Special Collections in 2000 celebrating the publication of the final book of the Cycle, Period. Specifically deriving from … Continue reading
*Bang!* *BOOM* *tsssssssss* OH MY GOD! WHAT IS THAT?!! IS THAT A BOMB?! OR A BOX OF BOOM SQUAD?! Why are those explosions so close to my rattling windows? Why do they look like they’re being set off beside the NYPD precinct? Is my roof on fire? Quick! I need to grab all my Lana … Continue reading
“Just another day at the office.” This is the defeated phrase sighed several times by blowhard hack…I mean, former National Security Advisor John Bolton in his recently published, not-quite-bombshell book The Room Where It Happened. Treading water in the eye of the shitstorm of daily impeachable offenses, hourly obstruction of justice, minute-by-minute clownish ridiculousness, and … Continue reading
A brick appears in his hand as if by magic. This corn-fed white cis straight-passing Ken doll in a torn Gap T-shirt fresh off the bus from Indiana looks down, realizing that history has its eyes on him–not the gender-nonconforming street kids of color he just met and whose brick he just swiped. No, this … Continue reading
Question for the culture: Just kidding (sorry, Lana) Whew, what a 400 years of the subjugation and violent oppression of Black people in the United States this has been! I mean, week–sure, it’s only been about a week as people across the country and world protest, asserting that Black Lives Matter and fighting against government-sanctioned … Continue reading
As Minneapolis burns to a crisp after the murder of George Floyd by four homicidal cops (charge and arrest, and then, convict and sentence all of them already!), cities across America see police forces violently spiraling out of control at protesters, including arresting and shooting beanbag rounds at journalists, Trump goes to war with Twitter … Continue reading
Well, hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams readers! What’s that? You’re bored after ten-ish weeks of quarantine? Is that how long it’s been?!!! What month is it? I thought it was still March! Or May! Or November! And I know. I know. It’s just so difficult to be in lockdown, sheltering in place, staying at home, … Continue reading
