Nick Cave Asked for the Best of Nick Cave Playlist and I Sent Him This: The Best of the Worst (Or the Worst of the Best) of Nick Cave
Music

Nick Cave Asked for the Best of Nick Cave Playlist and I Sent Him This: The Best of the Worst (Or the Worst of the Best) of Nick Cave

Can the biggest stinkers from your favorite artist actually be much closer to your heart than the universally praised classics? I certainly think so. Last week, Nick Cave received a flurry of inquiries submitted to his Red Hand Files newsletter from new converts who, upon listening to his stint on the Louis Theroux podcast, turned … Continue reading

Am I Weird?: A Conversation on “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”
TV

Am I Weird?: A Conversation on “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”

“In heaven’s name, why are you walking away? Hang on! To your love!” Soaked in the neon pink and blue lighting of a gay bar, a very drunk Jeffrey Dahmer jerkily dances to Sade, holding his whiskey and Coke high, the light reflecting off his glasses (the most famous killer glasses, rivaled only perhaps by … Continue reading

Marilyn–Sort Of: I Love Andrew Dominik’s Flawed Masterpiece “Blonde”
Film

Marilyn–Sort Of: I Love Andrew Dominik’s Flawed Masterpiece “Blonde”

“Please come. Don’t abandon me. Please.” Ana de Armas as Norma Jeane Baker as becoming-Marilyn Monroe prays to a mirror; her hands clasped together in desperate supplication. She’s begging for, as Joyce Carol Oates describes in her novel Blonde, “her Friend-in-the-Mirror.” Tears stream down her face as she pleads to the bulb-ringed three-way mirror. Her … Continue reading

If I Stay All Night and Talk: Conversation as Corrective in Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan’s “Faith, Hope and Carnage”
Books / Music

If I Stay All Night and Talk: Conversation as Corrective in Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan’s “Faith, Hope and Carnage”

Does an artist need to believe—or at the very least consider—the existence of God (or the divine, a higher power, or whatever it is you want to call it) in order to create transcendent work? That’s the question I’ve been wrestling with ever since listening to an advanced copy of the audiobook for Nick Cave … Continue reading

If He Felt He Had To Direct You, Then Direct You Into My Arms: More Items I Would Steal From “Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition”
Art / Books / Music

If He Felt He Had To Direct You, Then Direct You Into My Arms: More Items I Would Steal From “Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition”

In his Last Will and Testament made in 1987, on view in the sprawling exhibition Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition, Nick Cave requested: “…money earned on records, both publishing and record sales, should be used to have and maintain a small but adequate room or rooms that will serve as the “Nick Cave … Continue reading

Man or Myth?: “Stranger Than Kindness” Is a Portrait of Nick Cave through His Many Obsessions and Influences
Art / Books / Music

Man or Myth?: “Stranger Than Kindness” Is a Portrait of Nick Cave through His Many Obsessions and Influences

In the nebulous period of 1983 and 1984 between the drug-fueled dissolution of the trash can-driving, six-inch-gold-blade-slicing, zoo-music-girl-lusting, junkyard royalty The Birthday Party and the official designation of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nick Cave played a smattering of clubs under a few different titles. There was Nick Cave and the Cavemen, which is … Continue reading

Prolix! Prolix! Nothing A Pair Of Scissors Can’t Fix!: 5 Mini-ish Reviews of Books We’ve Recently Enjoyed
Books

Prolix! Prolix! Nothing A Pair Of Scissors Can’t Fix!: 5 Mini-ish Reviews of Books We’ve Recently Enjoyed

You may not know this, dearest Filthy Dreams fanatics, but I’ve occasionally been accused of being long-winded. Rambling. Exhausting. Draining. Just a tad wordy. In a culture where we have writers and editors tweet-advising us to make articles shorter and more palatable for readers, I tend to do the opposite. I don’t care who likes … Continue reading