Jackie Shane is reclaiming her time–or more accurately, the times have caught up to Jackie Shane. A Black trans soul singer who captivated Toronto nightclubs in the 1960s, only to disappear from the spotlight in 1971, Shane has reemerged as a fearless icon with this week’s release of a double album Any Other Way that … Continue reading
If you’re like me, dearest Filthy Dreams readers, you probably haven’t been able to tear yourself away from the ongoing shit show of the Trump administration this week. I mean, Donald Jr. releasing his own incriminating emails via Twitter? Who could ask for a better story! In fact, I’m so into this whole overly dramatic, … Continue reading
Following yesterday’s first post of the shows we missed reviewing in 2016 due to being forced to work on other projects for cash before the windfall of the Arts Writers Grant, I’m returning to a show from much earlier this year–Mx Justin Vivian Bond’s My Model/My Self at Participant Inc. “Explain what? A role model?” exclaims … Continue reading
“It might trigger an education!” quips Lady Bunny in her ongoing one-drag queen show Trans-Jester at Stonewall. While a punchline addressing the eye roll-inducing demand for trigger warnings in college classes (What book do you start with–Grapes of Wrath? That ending does deserve some sort of warning), Bunny could be referencing her entire show, which takes … Continue reading
In his book Role Models, our preeminent filth elder John Waters writes, “Explain what? A role model? Someone who has led a life even more explosive than mine, a person whose exaggerated fame or notoriety has made him or her somehow smarter and more glamorous than I could ever be? A personality frozen in an … Continue reading
Why hello there! Come, let me make you a drink from my mouth organ! What’s a mouth organ? Well, funny you should ask, dearest Filthy Dreams reader: a mouth organ is only a bizarre instrument dreamed up by the deviant mind of one of our oldest Filthy Dreams’ role models: that sickly aesthete himself Jean … Continue reading
I’ll never forget the first time I saw Darienne Lake: she stomped and bounced from behind the curtain to the the Club 69 take on Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love.” Up to that point, I had only seen a few drag shows so I came to expect a certain look and style with the queens–i.e., slender, … Continue reading
