“As I walk these narrow streets where a million passin’ feet have trod before me, with my guitar in my hand, suddenly I realize nobody knows me,” dryly sings Nick Cave in the beginning of “The Singer,” his take on Johnny Cash’s “The Folk Singer” on Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ 1986 cover album … Continue reading
“Now Orpheus, crawl, O shamefaced fugitive, crawl back under the crumbling broken wall of yourself, for you are not stars, sky-set in the shape of a lyre, but the dust of those who have been dismembered by Furies!” –Tennessee Williams “Orpheus Descending” In his ongoing Q&A newsletter The Red Hand Files last week (#20 if … Continue reading
Why hello there, faithful Filthy Dreams readers! What’s that? You’re in the mood to rank moments from the past year with no real basis except for your own fervently subjective but strongly felt opinions? Me too! I’m ready to get zealous and list, wrap-up and rank anything and everything that happened in 2018 with fanatical … 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
Well hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams readers and Twin Peaks fanatics! You are awake–100%! And you know what that means–time to head to the Roadhouse for our weepy penultimate Lost In The Bang Bang Bar for Twin Peaks: The Return Part 16. So get out your tissues. And I know I’m talking with a lot of assurance–Side … Continue reading
Christ has died! Christ has risen! Christ will…come again? Why hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams readers! Welcome! Would you like a glass of Sacramental wine? Hey! I know in church they only let you have a sip but Jesus wouldn’t want us to be cheap now would he? I know what you’re thinking, faithful Filthy … Continue reading
“I believe in the power of love,” croons Lady Miss Kier in Deee-lite’s infectiously joyful song “Power of Love.” And in our dark times, when waking up with near crippling existential dread and terror is apparently the new normal, a musing on artistic representations of love seems like a welcome form of escapism and a … Continue reading
As a connoisseur and supporter of nightlife as an important domain for activism and art in the face of judgments of its superficiality and frivolity, I naturally jumped at the chance to dive into Tim Lawrence’s recently published study of New York nightlife Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980-1983. At 600 pages, … Continue reading
Samuel Beckett seems like a good place to start. After election night on Tuesday, it feels like we’re living in one of his plays. I didn’t really want to write this piece–or any election-related “think piece.” It always seems egomaniacal and self-indulgent. But, I couldn’t find a way to avoid writing about our ominous election of Donald Trump. Continue reading
Nick Cave’s thoughts on time have stuck with me long after witnessing his deeply upsetting grief-strewn film One More Time With Feeling. Directed by Andrew Dominik, One More Time With Feeling is an all-encompassing look into the recording of the Bad Seeds’ album Skeleton Tree in the wake of the death of Nick’s son Arthur … Continue reading