Look At Me! How Dare You! Close Your Eyes!: Going Camping with Queen Anne and “The Favourite”
Camp / Decadence / Film

Look At Me! How Dare You! Close Your Eyes!: Going Camping with Queen Anne and “The Favourite”

“Did you just look at me? Did you?…LOOK AT ME! How DARE you?! Close your eyes!” This head-spinning hysterical interchange, delivered to the silent suffering of a young servant, marks the moment I fell in love with Queen Anne in The Favourite. Played with maniacal glee by Olivia Colman, Queen Anne, with her angular streaks … Continue reading

Vinegar-Wielding Chemtrails Lady Is The Forgotten Masterpiece Of Net Art (And Conservative Camp)
Art / Camp / Trash

Vinegar-Wielding Chemtrails Lady Is The Forgotten Masterpiece Of Net Art (And Conservative Camp)

Last week, Artsy published a listicle by Rhizome’s Aria Dean on the “10 Artistic Masterpieces Meant To Be Experienced Online,” introducing the publication’s readers (whoever they are) to the highlights of Net Art. Related to the ongoing exhibition and archive the Net Art Anthology, the listicle included some familiar faces such as Jayson Musson’s Art … Continue reading

What The Hell Is The Met’s Costume Institute Going To Do To Our Beloved Camp?: A Filthy Dreams Plea
Camp / Fashion

What The Hell Is The Met’s Costume Institute Going To Do To Our Beloved Camp?: A Filthy Dreams Plea

On Tuesday, I received a promotional email in my inbox (one of many I tend to ignore) announcing the theme of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute 2019 exhibition. To my shock (and horror), it was a theme familiar and close to my black little heart: camp! As a long-time denizen of camp, I … Continue reading

No, Avital Ronell And Her Defenders, Sexual Harassment Is Not Camp: A Filthy Dreams Rant
Camp / Rants and Raves

No, Avital Ronell And Her Defenders, Sexual Harassment Is Not Camp: A Filthy Dreams Rant

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

Why Isn’t The Paperboy A Canonized Camp Classic?
Camp / Film

Why Isn’t The Paperboy A Canonized Camp Classic?

You can tell a whole lot about a film’s impact by the GIFs that remain peppered throughout the Internet even years after its release. For Lee Daniels’s gloriously trashy The Paperboy, its afterlife is preserved in slow-as-molasses, steamy grabs of heartthrob Zac Efron’s Jack Jansen languishing in itty bitty, tighty whities, flexing his tautly muscled … Continue reading

Life As A Punch Line: I, Tonya’s Camp Resurrection Of Tonya Harding
Camp / Film / Trash

Life As A Punch Line: I, Tonya’s Camp Resurrection Of Tonya Harding

When I was eight years old, I wanted to be Tonya Harding. Well, at least momentarily. Playing outside on a particularly frozen day in 1994, I pretended to be figure skaters with a friend. Did I want to be Nancy Kerrigan with her perfect brunette ponytail, Vera Wang-designed white costumes and sophisticated poise? Hell no. … Continue reading

From The Filthy Dreams Kitchen: Horrible Vintage Foods To Frighten Your Holiday Party Guests
Camp / Trash

From The Filthy Dreams Kitchen: Horrible Vintage Foods To Frighten Your Holiday Party Guests

Why hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams readers! I didn’t hear you come in over my manic mixing of gelatin and mayonnaise. Come, grab yourself a glass or three of peppermint martinis. Sure, they taste like regret, but what worthwhile doesn’t, Mary. Even though we recently published our suggestions for terrifying vintage foods for your Thanksgiving, … Continue reading

Daddy Camp: Merging Beauty and Camp In Mike Kuchar’s “Drawings By Mike!”
Art / Camp

Daddy Camp: Merging Beauty and Camp In Mike Kuchar’s “Drawings By Mike!”

Walking through Anton Kern Gallery’s exclamatory (and inflammatory) current exhibition Drawings By Mike!, I had to stop myself from sighing like Tim Curry’s Dr. Frank-N-Furter, “Oh ROCKY!” That urged bubbled up from deep within while viewing drawing after drawing of impossibly tanned, blonde and muscular figures scattered on the walls of the gallery’s chic 55th Street space, which gave its top floor over to deliciously lurid trash. Continue reading