What does it mean to be radical? How can people from marginalized communities work to disrupt dominant systems of power and control? These questions have exploded recently, particularly after some crusty critics moaned about the lack of radicality in the 2019 Whitney Biennial and artists furiously took to social media in response. But, what is … Continue reading
Dear John, forgive us our sins…Dear John, forgive us our sins…Dear John…Whoa! What’s that? Oh, I’m just praying to the Father–no not Father who art in heaven, or John Wayne like Lana Del Rey in Tropico. I’m praying to our ultimate filth elder John Waters, hoping he’ll guide our way into filthiness, like a beacon … Continue reading
Love can’t turn around! I remember the first summer I arrived in Chicago. I was living in Pilsen, and it seemed like just about every weekend there was a neighborhood block party. At the time, I was totally broke, so I was grateful for the constant merry-go-round of free events. Taco and churro stands spilled … Continue reading
A young, fey sprite-like Truman Capote lounges, spread out on two ornate chairs, wielding a cigarette holder much like Holly Golightly from his Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Though Capote is at his most beautiful, not booze-bloated as his later years, he is somehow the least interesting thing in this photograph by Slim Aarons. The writer is … Continue reading
There are a few, select objects that are intrinsic to my sense of home. Objects that, without which, I would feel a fraction less myself. Things that have followed me for years, bearing dust from various flats and houses, collecting traces of skin from various hands. My copies of Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual … Continue reading
Gary Indiana’s art column in The Village Voice, which ran from 1985 to 1988, is unthinkable from today’s standards of art criticism. And this just isn’t because The Voice doesn’t exist anymore (or, actually, it does in the form of a zombie Twitter account blasting out old articles into the void). More than just the … Continue reading
Well hello there, ghosties and ghoulies! Are you feeling creepy crawly? Me too! All I need is a big cup of our World Famous Pumpkin Punch and I’ll be ready to lunge into an audience of hand-waving disciples and kick them in their eager faces with my pointy-toed patent leather shoes, shrieking about reading diaries … Continue reading
“You’re a fucking liar.” This damning sentence concludes Bob Woodward’s recently published and impossible to find book Fear: Trump in the White House, which offers yet another gaudy glimpse into the ongoing conservative camp circus held in the West Wing. Spoken by John Dowd, Trump’s former attorney that was replaced by bug-eyed wacko and frenzied … 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
“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