This week, the sad news ricocheted around the New York performance, drag, art, and nightlife community that Brian Butterick, otherwise known as drag queen Hattie Hathaway (or sometimes, Loretta Nicks, plain old Loretta or Loretta B. DeMille) passed away. If you, dearest reader, don’t recognize Butterick’s name immediately, just assume that everything you love about … Continue reading
This week, dearest Filthy Dreams readers, a star was born. No, I’m not talking about that film with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper (hard pass–you’re no Judy or Babs!). Nor am I talking about the new members of Congress that turned the House blue and freaked out Trump so much he was in a near-constant … Continue reading
Phew! Well, I don’t know about you, dearest Filthy Dreams readers, but yesterday was quite a day, especially for former Trump campaign advisor Sam Nunberg who shined bright like a diamond all afternoon into evening, performing a jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring flameout on live TV. It was a glorious tour de force, worthy of an Oscar. … Continue reading
“There is no before,” exclaims Flawless Sabrina, discussing the nuances of drag names in the beginning of the iconic 1968 drag documentary The Queen. For fellow queens, trans and gender non-conforming people and generally, anyone invested in queer history, it’s nearly impossible to imagine a before Flawless Sabrina. Drag pioneer, mother and grandmother to numerous … Continue reading
Recently, a tweeted meme reminded me of just how much I miss the golden age of 90’s trash TV. With a Hollywood Squares-like grid of guests on the Ricki Lake Show, the blessed tweeter, DarkSkintDostoyevsky, asks, “Which Ricki Lake Show guest are you today?” And whew, there were so many choices–do you want to be … Continue reading
As most of you dearest Filthy Dreams readers know, today, June 12, is the one-year anniversary of the shootings at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which killed 49 people who were namely LGBTQ and Latinx. Given our ongoing engagement and belief in the significance of nightlife for the queer community and communities of color, it … Continue reading
Why hello there, dearest of dear Filthy Dreams readers! Would you like a mimosa or 10? Yeah, we need them too…Today is officially a week from the horrific and tragic shootings that killed 49 LGBTQ people at Pulse nightclub’s Latinx night in Orlando. We assume, like us, you spent this past week glued to your … Continue reading
Well, yesterday was a doozy wasn’t it, dear Filthy Dreams readers? Learning that after the release of his haunting album Blackstar on Friday, David Bowie passed away, returning to his home planet that he fell from years ago. By essentially heroically scoring his own death with Blackstar, especially the song “Blackstar,” which seems to enact Nietzsche’s … Continue reading
If any photographer, in addition to Wojnarowicz himself, could be said to preserve an alternate history, it would have been Los Angeles-based photographer Albert J. Winn, who sadly passed away this week. Continue reading
As some of you observant readers may have noticed, I don’t often share my writing with other publications on this wondrously decadent blog of ours out of fear of becoming as queer theorist and former Chair of Performance Studies at New York University José Esteban Muñoz would call, using the biting words of Jack Smith, “a walking career.” … Continue reading