“I glow pink in the night in my room,” opens Mitski’s dreamily atmospheric song “Pink in the Night” off her new album Be The Cowboy. Crooning her obsessive yearning, Mitski uses the color pink as a symbol for a type of solitary blossoming. Of course, this is not the only understanding of the wildly overdetermined … Continue reading
One of the last works on view in the winding, labyrinth-like galleries of the Whitney Museum’s long awaited David Wojnarowicz retrospective History Keeps Me Awake At Night features a hand, presumably the artist’s own, holding a tiny, adorable frog. Just one example of Wojnarowicz’s lifelong affinity for creepy-crawly things–bugs, frogs, snakes, etc., this tender and … Continue reading
“I think that so often in society in order to belong we have to shrink parts of ourselves,” says Janet Mock at the conclusion of Blood Orange’s song “Dagenham Dream” off of the new album Negro Swan. The writer and activist’s voice flows through the album, tying its disparate parts together with her thoughts on … Continue reading
Phew, I don’t know about you, dearest Filthy Dreams readers, but I haven’t been able to tear myself away from watching seemingly every major literary and theoretical academic showing their ass at once, defending Professor Avital Ronell since the original New York Times article last week exposed former student Nimrod Reitman’s Title IX case against … Continue reading
In Brown: The Last Discovery of America, Richard Rodriguez articulates the particularities of brownness, partially based on his own queer Chicano identity. “Brown,” he writes, “bleeds through the straight line, unstaunchable–the line separating black from white, for example. Brown confuses. Brown forms at the border of contradiction (the ability of language to express two or … Continue reading
Selfies are usually accompanied by an automatic groan. Dismissed as superficial and vapid, selfie-taking is often seen as too close to Narcissus staring adoringly at his reflection for comfort. However, for marginalized people, selfies can be a way to create visibility where there is none in dominant, mainstream culture. Ryan McGinley’s current show Mirror, Mirror … Continue reading
“I want you to teach me how to be fabulous,” pleads Macaulay Culkin inhabiting the role of infamous club kid Michael Alig in 2003’s cheeseball Party Monster. In response, Seth Green’s James St. James spits back, “We have nothing in common,” picks up his metal lunchbox/purse, and changes his mind, quoting William Blake: “The road … Continue reading
Political attack ads are almost always trashy–lurid details about an opponent’s sordid life, wild speculation, tasteless graphic design and distorted mask-like images of politicians’ bloated, malevolent faces like cartoon villains. But, few ever strive to become art or at least be so bizarre that they reach a level of aesthetic greatness that can only be … Continue reading
Can humor be a form of resistance in our increasingly dystopian era? I certainly think so, as I’ve argued on Filthy Dreams previously (and repeatedly). Recently, though, comedy, mainly stand-up, is being reevaluated due to comedian Hannah Gadsby’s highly emotional and now, greatly hyped special Nanette. Continue reading
“Whores have the ability to share their most private body parts with total strangers,” begins a list of Forty Reasons Why Whores Are My Heroes made in 1998 by sexologist, artist, activist, performer and sex worker Annie Sprinkle. Continue reading