I really had to resist the temptation to just list Melodrama nine times this month. Don't get me wrong - it was a great month for new music, but Lorde is the zeitgeist, singing the song of my anchoritic soul. We'll get to all that in due course. Let me recommend eight other shiny new releases first. 9. Portugal. … Continue reading The Niche Nine: Our Favourite Albums of June 2017
If you're reading this article, you've probably known from a young age that you were... different. While your peers gravitated like heat-seeking missiles toward Britney and Disney princesses and the Spice Girls, you persistently sought out books about girls who spurned femininity and rolled about in dirt. Sometimes it was subtle - our heroine is … Continue reading Nine Plucky Tomboy Heroines Who Made You the Butch Lesbian or Transmasc Icon You Are Today
I'm not going to bother with much preamble, because we all know what AO3 is and we all know why we're here: to rank and categorize all 100 of the most popular ships on the website. Now, a lot of these came as surprises to me - apparently, people actually... write fanfiction about straight couples? … Continue reading The 100 Most Popular Ships on AO3, Ranked
Dear reader, a couple nights ago I got hungry at one o'clock in the morning and went out to the convenience store up the street for some taquitos. And while I was there, in the convenience store on that fateful evening - night, early morning? - I noticed that they were having a sale on … Continue reading Y’all Mind If I Drink A Whole Thing of Raspberry Lemonade Vodka and Yell About Twin Fantasy?
So this is only the second instalment of The Niche Nine, because it's been a weird couple of months and I couldn't get my act together in March or April. That's a real shame, too, because April saw Kendrick drop what's probably going to be my AOTY, along with superb EPs from Young M.A and Animal Collective. … Continue reading The Niche Nine: Our Favourite Albums of May 2017
INTERIOR - PEYTON'S BEDROOM - DAY In the centre of an orange room postered with Car Seat Headrest setlists, nestled under floral bedsheets, PEYTON is lying sound asleep. Peyton's cat, HILLARY PAWDHAM KITTEN, is curled up at their feet, purring contentedly. Suddenly, there is a flash of sound at Peyton's bedside. Peyton blinks and opens their eyes. … Continue reading Alanis Morissette Appeared to Me in a Dream and Told Me They’re Making a Musical Out of Jagged Little Pill
In recent years, much has been made of the phenomenon of "outsider art," or art brut. These terms, created respectively by art critic Roger Cardinal and artist Jean Dubuffet, refer to the creations of artists who work outside of the mainstream, such as psychiatric patients. Now, the term applies to visual art, but if we shift the definition to include the written … Continue reading Charlie Kelly or Charles Bukowski: Can You Guess Who Wrote Each of These Poems?
If you're like me, you're gay and you have depression. And if you're like me, you've come up with a few ways to cope with the day-to-day blues. Maybe you go for walks in the park. Maybe you soak in a bubble bath. Maybe you listen to "This Year" by the Mountain Goats on repeat and bask … Continue reading Gay? Depressed? Here Are Ten Profoundly Healing Clips of Bert and Ernie to Get You Through the Day
At first, I wasn't opposed to watching Gilmore Girls during lunch breaks with my straight co-workers. I'd never seen the show myself, but I'd heard nothing but good things, and I'd been compared to Rory Gilmore so many times over the course of my life that I was curious to see how close the resemblance might be. What … Continue reading Top Ten Hate Crimes Committed by Gilmore Girls Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino
Here are seven different cakes with the words "Robert Pope Leonard" written on them, ranked from most to least cosmically powerful. 7. Harry went to the trouble of buying a cake, purchasing icing, obtaining piping tools, and writing ROBERT POPE LEONARD by hand in hot pink on this cake, but then couldn't be fucked to … Continue reading We Wrote “Robert Pope Leonard” on Seven Different Cakes. What Happened Next Will Warm Your Heart.
The Niche 