Year: 2026

“Waste-to-energy” outfit

“Why the long face?” I ask Modigliani‘s women. Like the artist, this sweater is vintage Italian. A work of art created in knitted wool in lieu of oil paint. It was a $10(!!) thrift store win during a dark time when I needed all the wins I could get my hands on. Especially one I could luxurious wrap around me to ward off the existential / actual cold. My favorite cheap Cheep find maybe ever. I wore it all winter long, prattling on about a Modigliani face on my back (no one knew what I was on about because no one else happened to have The Art Book as required toilet reading during their 20s. Ah, shit.) Who knew it would perfectly match the Spittaleu in Vienna. This is a municipal waste-to-energy incinerator. Once an ordinary industrial building, it caught fire in the 80s. After the burn, artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser turned it into whatever this is. An odd attraction. The opposite of an eyesore. What would that be? An eyesalve. Magical unrealism in a sad …

“Rise from the depths” outfit

“Awaken! Stay awake! Rise out of the depths of the underworld!” — The Secret Book of John After a decade of steady weirdo fashion humor, you might (not have) noticed that I haven’t Cheeped in a year and a half. Because I almost died. Then wandered, dead-inside, through the sick-hued Valley of the Shadow of Death for over a year. So it’s not super funny. And I don’t really know how to explain it still, except in lyrics and verses. It was spiritual and it was mental and it was existential. It was the worst of times. I have had so, so many bad times, but this went beyond even my most depressive imaginings. “How long baby have I been away? It feels like ages, though you say it’s only days. There ain’t language for the things I’ve seen. The truth is stranger than my own worst dreams. The truth is stranger than all my dreams.” — Lord Huron “Meet Me in the Woods” The year before it all went down, I gradually lost my …