Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. Fortunately, unlike the second Mrs. de Winter, I know that talking about one’s dreams is tiresome, so I will not bore you with it. We’re not here to talk about me. We’re here to talk about whether Mrs. Danvers is Hot. Let’s make one thing quite … Continue reading Mrs. Danvers is Hot, You Cowards
Though the Drag Race will crown its Season 12 champion in a Zoomed finale tomorrow night, the real winner, in my heart, will be Jackie Cox. The self-professed Persian Princess of Drag, Cox didn't just bring fabulous looks to the runway every week and assassinate her lip sync competition -- she unapologetically, thoughtfully brought her culture … Continue reading Stars, Stripes, and “Salaam, RuPaul Joon!”: A Niche Interview with Jackie Cox
Warning: This piece contains references to transphobia and quotes transphobic comments. I have no compunctions around making the claim that I am trans first and foremost because I want to have gay sex with men. I was raised to see the entertainment value of embellishment; besides, someone out there is going to accuse me of it … Continue reading The Five Chasers You Meet on Grindr
The Niche: Leo! First of all, let me just say I know it's a crazy time right now what with COVID-19 and all, so I really appreciate you taking the time to chat. Leo Tolstoy: Da, da. Talkink to you is nice break from sittink in study and smokink pipe vhile vife vatch over eight … Continue reading A Zoom Interview with Leo Tolstoy About Count Vronsky’s Dick Game
I was once a child who spent several hours a day curled up in a chair tearing through books from start to finish. I checked stacks taller than I was out of the library at a time, and almost always finished them all. But like many once-avid readers, when I hit high school, the demands … Continue reading I Learned to Love Reading Again While Quarantined (And So Can You, with These Eight Easy Steps!)
Dearest Jane, Tis I, your ye olde editor. I am writing to confirm that I have received the first draft of your new novel, tentatively titled Emma, or Clueless & Cantankerous. Whilst I agree that Emma is, as you say in your letter, “straight fire,” and, to wit, a savage satire of the class system … Continue reading What if “Emma,” But Murder?
If you asked me three months ago, in a pre-quarantine life, what my coping strategies would look like come the quasi-apocalypse, I would have lied so hard. “If this is really and truly it,” I joked in the blessed early days, “I’m shaving my head, getting approximately one million stick-and-poke tattoos, and riding a motorcycle … Continue reading Three Things My Sourdough Starter Taught Me About My Attachment Style
In a dream you saw a way to give birth to a premature baby on an airplane, and after a harrowing, hours-long labour, during which it looked at many times like the baby might not survive, you finally named the healthy newborn Ronan Farrow, and you were full of joy. In a dream you saw … Continue reading That One Jenny Holzer Truism About Dreams But It’s Now About My Own Weird Quarantine Dreams
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The year was 1956. Europe, torn up and traumatized by war, needed something that might help it heal. In came the Switzerland-based European Broadcasting Union with an at-the-time highly ambitious idea: broadcast a song contest between European countries, each represented by a performer, to the whole of Europe simultaneously. Ever since then, with the exception … Continue reading Did Susan Sontag Write “Notes on Camp” Specifically About Eurovision? Who’s to Say?
The Niche 