BORN FOR TRASH by Anna Carera

Garbage. vulgarity . excesses. Easy effects. Bad tast Cultural degradat e. ion. Images of th e undergrowth of society of entertai the nment. For us, tras h is first and forem this. But it is also ost other, reuse of the al ready-made, trium of the unintentiona ph l, is the no-quality. It is a failed form imitation. Expressio of n of a delay, it is ba sed on the princip of emulation: it repl le icates and degrad es pre-existing mod We are faced with els. an aesthetic and sociological catego that is difficult to ry define.

05 Cover letter 08 Miss Keta 14 MonnaLisa and friends 22 Trap and Trash 24 Sfera Ebbasta 32 Why do we stan trash music? 42 Justin Bieber and post Malone 48 Go extra or go home 50 Cars in Russian style 60 @Tylerspangler Illustrations 63 Moschino 68 Four Line | Tatoo | Modern Family 6

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Myss Keta: «I am trash, vulgar and I talk about drugs. So?” by CLAUDIA CASIRAGHI 10

Raised on cereal and Sfera Ebbasta, the rapper born on YouTube (in 2013) comes out on April 20 with her first real studio album, «A life in capslock». We met her. “Take it. There are pastries, remnants of water. Some coffee”. Sitting at the other end of the table, with a black mask covering her face, Myss Keta extends a hand lacquered in red. “Nice to meet you, Myss,” says the rapper born on the web , suggesting that “Keta”, the legacy of her legendary existence of uses and abuses that have become music, may be an unlikely surname. How old is this angel of the night, with platinum hair and dark glasses, it is difficult to say.

r, me . r rfo ia pe nez ” e Ve 1. th ts orta 200 i m ad nd P 9 in ” , e n a s, 1 tim Mila ntie g on of ve a l bol e se r fo ym th ed al) s 8 in t s i ex tiric s 1 ve (sa I wa ’ I “ “

Anecdotes are known about Myss Keta. Growing up in Colombia, she soon made use of drugs, she became the mistress of Gianni Agnelli and the muse of Salvador Dalì. But was this experience the driving force or consequence of your character? «Marzullian question. Myss Keta ( of which the young lady speaks now in the first, now in the third person, editor’s note) has started to put her experience into music with ironic and satirical doing. Each of his gestures then turned into a metaphor, into a symbol through which to tell the newspaper. “ Today, what newspaper does Myss Keta tell? «At present I believe we are in a time when not only women but also men need to free themselves from chains. Men are in trouble. Getting rid of the alpha male I think is very complicated. We should be united, then, in trying to free each of us from our own cages, without dominating us ». And is it possible? «Perhaps, utopian. But the Myssketian value universe foresees this ». Explain yourself. «I have always been linked to the clubbing, gay, queer world and the Myss Keta project, born on an August night, has given me the opportunity to reflect on the values underlying this universe. Without going into strange definitions, I can say that the culture of clubbing pushes each individual to embrace himself. It implies a liberation from the cages of everyday life that has always been part of the Keta project ». Have you ever thought about politics? «Many of my ex-boys are politicians. I can’t talk about my political beliefs because I go for lawyers. You know, I would like food. “ And wouldn’t Myss Keta want to go mainstream ? «I think the answer will only come from living. At the moment, I followed my instincts, letting myself be pushed towards the things I wanted to do. I don’t consider these types of goals».

However, for the first time in five years, he decided to make a real album. Why? «The idea of working on something a little bigger, which was complete and accomplished in itself, came up with us last summer, with Frozen Carpaccio. We started writing myssketian songs (read: desecrating, full of sex, drugs and drinks) and we put the record together ». You were born in Milan, referring to a very specific metropolitan universe. Do you think you can be understood in the rest of Italy? «Yes, because Myss Keta was born in Milan, but over time she tried to 12

detach herself from physical places, from precise geographical references. To some extent, it has universalized. “

mega-shot, by yuppies. The protagonists have changed. They no longer dress as yuppies, but as hipsters ».

What does a life in capslock mean ? «Myss writes in capslock , speaks in capslock. He lives in capslock. Capslock is a way to escape from reality, subtracting yourself from everyday life to look at it with the eyes of excess ».

And some, from Liberato to Gazzelle, even wear a mask...“Because the truth is that I didn’t invent anything. It is from the Greek theater that people wear masks. In history, just think of the Venetian Carnival, there are episodes in which people have put on masks in order to be crazy. “

But from Milan, Sushi & Coca has this “real” changed? «I don’t think it’s reality that changes, but the way each of us has to look at it. In my case, the fundamental switch occurred between external and internal. Once upon a time, every piece of mine told the outside world. Today, I was able to sing also interiority ». Milan, at least, has changed? “For nothing. For me, Milan is the same Milan of the eighties: that thing there,

Many accuse her of being trashy and vulgar. How do you experience all this? «The accusations are true. I often talk about issues considered trashy. I often talk about drugs, but I wonder why it is so noticeable. My male colleagues have never been accused of anything, and I don’t think I say anything worse than what they say. Yet when a girl surrounded by other girls talks about this, she cries out for scandal ». On the cover of the album, which from 19 April, at the Magazzini Generali in Milan, will be accompanied by the #UVIC tour, suckle a monkey. Why? «The monkey is like the animal guide of the album. Represents the irrational part of man. On the cover, I breastfeed a monkey to mean that rationality feeds irrationality, and vice versa ». In short, metaphors on metaphors. “Yup. This album is a bit of a descent into hell, for which we have bothered our friend Dante Alighieri, because who knows better than him what a descent into hell is? “. A descent into hell? «Three parts and three degrees of awareness. With the first tracks you go down, discovering the description of the outside world. Then to an inner world in which the sounds become more experimental. Finally, with just two songs, you get to the myssketian, claustrophobic and artificial paradise ».

If Mona Lisa was living in 2020

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Trap and Trash:

A great deal of people have recently moved against the texts of the famous trap music artists. Formed from a rib of rap music, today she is traveling around the world. Listened to by adults and children, the musical genre, created with the help of autotune and programs to make the voice metallic, boasts innumerable plays. Countless plays give these artists great importance. This is, however, what worries parents above all. They claim that artists like “Sfera Ebbasta” and the “Dark Polo Gang” can become the Polar Star of young and very young. Fires and flames were born after the tragedy at the Sfera Ebbasta concert in Corinaldo. It was this that always put the lyrics of the “trapper” songs under the eye of the public. Many have in fact expressed a condemnation of moral responsibility towards singers, since in their texts they refer to drugs, sex and sexist thoughts. On the social networks, a phrase that has led to the censorship of one of the passages of Sfera has been around for a long time now. “Hey tr ** a! Come to your room with your slutty friend. I take a shower, pinã colada. Drink it if you are really raw. Discriminatory, vulgar and sexist elements. Nothing is missing. Many think, instead, that they cannot influence young people, since they listen above all to their musicality and often do not realize the words used. Many others think that it is simply a musical genre and as such, it should not be the singers to censor themselves, but the radio frequencies. Many others do not consider offensive texts, since there are no references to specific people. The texts of Bukowski, an American writer of great fame, although vulgarities similar to the texts of the “trapper” are not used, have the same irreverent background, but of which nobody speaks. The themes of these songs are the mirror of society, others say. The materialized woman, drugs, sexism. The companies are full to the brim. There are numerous ideas and thoughts about it and it will certainly be the subject of long discussion. It is even more certain that young and very young people will still listen to these artists, from the moment they characterize modern music.

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m SFERA EBBASTA By LORENZA SEBASTIANI 25

MUSIC __Sfera Ebbasta

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Difficult childhood, bad grades at school, odd jobs. Then Sfera Ebbasta discovered music and “something came alive”. Now that his records are in the charts and the tour sold out, he has a message for those who used to laugh at him in the past. And one for one of his idols. Northern suburbs of Milan, Cinisello Balsamo. “Sbirri look down from above, polaroid photos,” I always smile, bye “, yes, but make your cocks”, sang Sfera Ebbasta three years ago in his Ciny, dedicated to these places (with a proud refrain: “C with the hand is where we come from, Ciny, Ciny »). Here the most controversial rapper of the moment - Gionata Boschetti, born in Sesto San Giovanni 25 years ago - grew up here. Instagram calls itself the “TRAP KING”. In recent years he has collected twenty gold and ten platinum records (and the number 28

is growing), the first Italian artist to end up in the global chart of the world’s most listened to Spotify, with the songs Rockstar and Cupido. On April 7, his Rockstar Tour starts, almost all sold out, in the clubs. Our appointment is in the Settimo Milanese area, in the studio of Charlie Charles (Paolo Monachetti), 23, central producer in the Italian rap scene of the moment and founder, with Sfera, of the Billion Headz Music Group label. It would not be said that the most famous Italian trap hits were born there, including the double platinum album Rockstar. Sfera arrives on a dark-glazed SUV, with a group of friends that might seem like a traphouse gang from a nineties Chicago. When he gets out of the car, a bunch of kids circle him, trying to get his attention. He jokes with everyone, asks questions, greets. Then he enters the studio, gives me his hand with

ill-concealed suspicion. Before starting the interview he puts his hands forward: «I notice that he is looking at the tattoo on my temple. It is the symbol of the dollar, alongside that of the euro. It’s my logo. I’ve always had the money in mind, “he explains.

Does it pass well economically? “I’m on my way to becoming a millionaire.”Is this the success you are most proud of? “No. It is going from being mocked by industry insiders to making a record like Rockstar, which became platinum after a week. And my way of saying: Did you see what the fuck I did? If someone asks who brought the trap to Italy, the name will always be mine alone ». What does trapping for you represent? “What I dreamed of, after a thousand sacrifices. I used to come here from Charlie, to record and sleep for days on the couch. Still register here. He and I control everything, any step that concerns our business. Sometimes we spend a few nights at the playstation, but we almost always talk about work ». Two unusual twenties. Do you remember when everything was born? «At the age of 13 I went out with a company of guys very different from me. I was the only one who wore baggy jeans, the others were dressed

“very tight”. I was already with the American rappers, I dressed like 50 Cent. Then I met friends who liked graffiti, we went to steal packages of shoddy cans. I wanted to write my name everywhere.

Meaning? “Wherever I was I always had a canister in my backpack or a marker in my pocket. I wrote my name on the walls, on the school desks, on all the papers that passed through my hands. I felt the need to mark the territory. At school I went very badly, in the first grade they rejected me because I didn’t even have enough. I didn’t feel like fucking and the profs knew I wouldn’t do shit even if they failed me six more times. I tried not to break the balls, and they respected him. At the time I didn’t care about anything. When I listened to rap, only in that moment, something inside me woke up “. How did you approach music? «In the first senior, a guy made me feel like a rapper I didn’t know. I asked who he was, and he replied: it’s me, bro, I recorded in my bedroom. And there I realized that I could do it too. I stopped going to school at 15 and a half. I was a hotel manager. I never regretted it, but I had to start working immediately. The money at home, for my mother and me, was never enough ». 29

What job did you do? “The pizza holder, they gave me 15 euros a night. I spent five on cigarettes and ten on smoking. For me it was enough to be average happy. I worked two hours a night. The rest of the day I did nothing, I was always around. I woke up at 11am and at 11.30am I was already away. I was often bored, but in the meantime I was writing a number of texts on a base number and I was not recording them ». Then? «Then I worked as an electrician for a year and a half, at 16-17 years. I was late, or I left early, because I didn’t want to. I felt I had a bigger road ahead “. It cannot be said that self-esteem is lacking. «It is my salvation, it has always helped me. Even when only fifty people came to hear me. I remember when we went to play in Lugano two years ago, there were very few people, but next to the console he had taken the Gué Pequeno table, he had come to hear us. At the end of the show I went to greet him. And he asks me: choose a girl and go to me. He has always been one step ahead of the others “. A rock star attitude. Do they still exist in Italy, in your opinion? «For me the only one was Vasco Rossi. Now he has a certain age, he no longer has that former rocker appeal. He did what he had to do

MUSIC __Sfera Ebbasta

Who are the new rock stars? “Sfera Ebbasta and the rappers in general. How to appeal to people, as a lifestyle, as a look. And they can sing what they want if they have a sound that holds up “. She often sings about drugs, in her lyrics. Aren’t you afraid that your very young fans will emulate you? “I never hid my use of soft drugs, I like smoking canes. I understand that a boy who follows me on social media, seeing me with a rod in his hand, can say: if he smokes him, he is full of money and girls, then I do too. But an artist must be free not to lie. My fans are not my bosses, as is public opinion. I encourage no one to use drugs, I simply tell my life ». And how is his life now? «After Rockstar it has totally changed. I’m proud of it and I like to flaunt what I’ve got. Of course, this makes me be envied, but I hope others take inspiration and turn that envy into motivation. And not in epithets like “piece of shit”, like those that sometimes come to me on social media “. Do you ever stop to think about your childhood? «I often think about it, I remember the little money, the bills and the too many expenses that were a nightmare. My parents had lived separated since I was two years old. My mother did a thousand jobs and I always lived with her. We did at least ten removals and changed a lot of schools. We lived in so

many shitty houses. But this has taught me to know how to adapt, it is not little ».

What did he feel? «As a kid in the evening when I went to bed I always had the feeling of wanting to do more, to help my mother. Every evening I said: from tomorrow I wake up early, I go to look for work, no more bullshit. But then in the morning I was no longer my master. Actually I knew that my passion would not follow conventional roads. My mother sensed all this, but still tried to correct me. “ And what did he say to her? “She was urging me to go to work, but to see me get up at 5 am to be an electrician certainly didn’t make her happy. Whenever I told her “today I quit my job”, she never scolded me. And he did well. If it had been one of those mothers who bring you back to the factory, maybe in the long run I would have resigned myself. Today it is taken very well, a concert is not missing ». The fact that you no longer have economic problems will be a satisfaction for both. «Yes, but I fill myself with bullshit, I have neither a nice house nor a nice car. Last year I bought her an apartment. But I stayed in a hole of 50-60 square meters. I am full of shoes and clothes and I don’t know where to put them ». What memories do you have of your dad? “He died when I was 30

13. He played guitar, he used to show me video of concerts all the time. At 11, he forced me to see Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin.

What relationship did you have with him? “I remember when I told him when I was 11 that I had learned to smoke, and instead of scolding me, he bought me a pack of cigarettes and told me: let me see if it’s true. The pipes were smoked in the bathroom and I didn’t understand what that smell was. He was a convinced hippie, always traveling, odd jobs. But I thank him, because he gave me his rebellion and passion for music ». Do you lack love? “I’m single, I’m fine now. Sometimes I happen to invite girls to concerts or after concerts, maybe I see them in front of them. On tour I count myself, but when I am in Milan I enter a club alone and go out with two or three girls together. Like when at the restaurant you order a lot because you like to eat a bit of everything ». What if everything end? «I would open a tattoo shop. Or I would look for a new way to emerge. I would do my hair green and turn into a new rapper. But I don’t think it will end “. Do you like flirting? “No. The assumption is that I’m not looking for the girl, so I’m not interested in getting to know someone better. no one ever gets in my mind.

Why do we stan trash music? By Tom Geor

2019 was expected to be the year for gay anthems. While as-yet-unfulfilled promises were made by Rihanna and Gaga for new music and a hotly anticipated collaboration between Ariana, Lana and Miley divided opinions, what was not expected was for the UK charts to be invaded by three drag queens, iconically known as The Frock Destroyers, sitting in the iTunes chart above pop icons like Selena Gomez and Lizzo. 32

MUSIC __Why do we stan with music?

Three weeks later and their single “Break Up (Bye Bye)” is still thriving, last week it hit Number 35 on the Official UK Singles Chart. As The Frock Destroyers busy themselves with a UK club tour, a petition calling for them to represent the UK in Eurovision is making waves, as though the annual event

could get any camper. Critically speaking, their nonsensical lyrics don’t hold a flame to Selena Gomez’s emotionally-charged ballad and, musically, even Divina DeCampo’s whistle tones pale in comparison to a collaboration between Ariana and Lizzo. But this doesn’t seem to have mattered.

Here’s the #FrogDestroyers with this weekps top 10 single “Break UP Bye Bye“

MUSIC __Why do we stan with music?

The surprise success of a novelty or musically “bad” song is not revolutionary. Take Bob the Builder bagging Christmas Number 1 with “Can We Fix It?” back in 2000; the longevity of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” since 1997 or the incredibly annoying “Crazy Frog” that dads everywhere had as their ringtone throughout the early 00s. Yet what has changed is the audience, with many of 2019’s novelty songs finding success because of the LGBTQ communities backing them. In August, Peppa Pig released My First Album, a musical

ensemble produced for five-year-olds that was quickly lauded by stan twitter, who claimed it for themselves and crowned Peppa a gay icon. Thus grew the Peppanation, with account names like PEPPACRAVE and peppapig_ isa_boss_bitchhh posting intricately curated content dedicated to her music and even a Peppa themed Met Gala (not a bad shout, Anna Wintour make it happen). “I honestly can’t think of a reason NOT to stan her!” says the fan behind @i_heart_peppa_pig. “From her TV show to her beautiful music”.

Just a few months prior to Peppa gracing us with her glockenspiel skills, one of the biggest queer anthems of the year came from Miley Cyrus’s Black Mirror character Ashley O, a female pop sensation not unlike Hannah Montana who wishes she was a punk rocker but is instead forced to churn out catchy yet meaningless songs, all as fake as the highlighter pink bob wig she is made to wear.Ashley O’s “On a Roll” was written to be the epitome of a basic bop. “I’m not the best lyricist in the world -- like the verse where she says I’m stoked on ambition and verve!” joked showrunner Charlie Brooker, who re-wrote the lyrics of Nine Inch Nails “Head Like a Hole” in “a chirpy way” to create Ashley’s hit. Yet despite the obnoxious and superficial lyrics, the song

became an instant hit in the queer community, played everywhere throughout Pride and spawning an impressive number of Ashley O Halloween costumes. “That Black Mirror episode is written with the P.O.V. that pop music is disposable and inferior,” says Nick Levine, a music, pop culture and LGBTQ writer. He points out that Ashley O is only considered a credible artist once she starts making rock music. “Charlie Brooker is a genius, but you can tell that the episode is written by a middle-aged, straight man who loves Morrissey and grew up listening to indie in the 80s.” Breaking things down in her book, Playing It Queer, musicologist Dr Jodie Taylor argues that “disenfranchised youth opposed 37

MUSIC __Why do we stan with music?

the mainstream sensibilities of dominant culture, which they branded ‘straight’ or ‘square’. In its place, they configured new ’authentic’ minority cultural identities… appropriating, reorganising and re-contextualising a range of stylistic artefacts”. The bubblegum pop that artists like Ashley O produce has always been underestimated and overlooked by critics and the mainstream. That same mainstream has historically ignored, and even outright excluded LGBTQ+ communities. It isn’t that far a stretch, then, for the queer community to adopt it as their own, finding the enjoyment and fun in it that others couldn’t. It was similar in late 2018. Little Monsters the world over were obsessing over A Star is Born and Lady Gaga’s character in it, aptly named Ally. The entire soundtrack was a huge success, with number ones in 15 countries, plati-

num certifications, four Grammy nominations for lead single “Shallow” in 2019, and -- somehow, don’t ask us how -- two further Grammy nominations for another two ballads from the OST for 2020. However, it’s interesting to note that the A Star Is Born songs that didn’t make the cut at the Grammys -- the ones written to show the decline in Ally’s musical credibility -- are actually some of the most popular in the LGBTQ community. “Hair, Body, Face” and “Why Do You Do That?”, in which she sings about sex, tight jeans and asses, come about as Ally gains commercial success at the expense of her truth. Even Gaga herself has been coy about the songs, calling them “shallow” and “the antithesis of where we started” with the character of Ally. Maybe it’s the song’s critical snubs? Maybe it’s that they mirror Mother Monster’s earlier music that us fans hold so dear (even if she herself doesn’t

remember it -- you break our hearts Gaga)? Or maybe we just love a song about tight jeans and asses because, well, why not? “Given the relentless barrage of bullshit we go through day-to-day for merely existing, maybe as LGBTQ people we’re just inherently better at seeing the value within the easily dismissed or ignored?” argues writer, DJ and Eurovision correspondent Rob Holley.

“All art has a heart” His words echo the sentiments of the art movement “camp” -- hello Met Gala 2019 -- that originated in the 60s, as queer people rebelled against the rigid structures of gender and heteronormativity that were defining art at the time. While critics condemned camp as trivial and low culture, the queer community turned it into something beautiful that was to be celebrated. Art for art’s sake. However, as queer people living in 2019, we hold a lot more power. With streaming services and the meme culture of TikTok and Twitter, anything can be a viral hit. No longer

having to create our own counterculture, the mainstream can be hijacked, “appropriating, re-organising and re-contextualising” it to fit our demands. As parents across the UK spent their summers protesting and debating an LGBTQ-inclusive education, we took their children’s favourite anthropomorphic pig and turned her into a 7’11 queer icon. As Black Mirror made an episode deriding a pop song as superficial, we blasted it from Pride floats while waving rainbow flags. “It’s a sub-conscious flex, but queer people have always liked to claim deliberately disposable and trashy pop music as a ‘fuck you’ to boring traditional, guitar-centric, hetero views of what music should be. This is just a very 2019 manifestation of that,” argues Nick. He’s right. What’s more of a massive queer middle finger to the predominantly straight, white male music industry than three drag queens wearing BDSM gear and singing “Baga Chipz is sexy, Baga Chipz is class, Baga Chipz is stunning, she takes it up the shhhhhh-”? Why can’t music be ridiculous, superficial and campy? As Rob Holley points out, “You don’t get that kind of buzz from Radio X’s so-called ‘Best British Song of All Time’, Wonderwall.”

What’s the deal with Justin Bieber and post Malone’s white trash aesthetic ? The Hawaiian shirt, the bandana, the shit-eating grin. They all fall under the authenticating aesthetic of White Trash. // By Emma Madden

Justin Bieber has always been a reliable indicator of emerging trends. His hairstyle in particular has forecast the aesthetics and attitudes of boys across the world. In 2009 floppy surfer fringes hid foreheads; a couple of years later the tussles were shorn in favour of a military-style cut. This year, Bieber’s taking cues from Post Malone and his codified grubbiness. In a recent Instagram post, he poses next to Malone in a clearly inspired Hawaiian shirt, with unkempt hair and a Joe Dirt moustache. Diplo commented that he looked like “The trap Mathew McConaughey” [sic]. Being grossed-out lies close to the feeling of being turned on, and Bieber, with the help of Post Malone, is toeing the line between the two. While some may call this a refusal to submit to masculine beauty standards, what’s really happening is something much more cunning. The Hawaiian shirt, the bandana, the shit-eating grin -- they all fall under the authenticating aesthetic of White Trash. ‘White Trash’ has history as a stigmatising phrase. It came into common

usage in America around the 1700s, and referred to white citizens without money; those who refused to display the etiquette of the dominant race. It stands in opposition to the American Dream and the idea of perfectibility through hard and consistent work. While Americans are supposed to hit the open road in search of the dream, the White Trash sit stationary in a trailer, refusing to improve, denying self-help and self-care; instead leading an existence based on scars that cannot heal. Its aesthetic is hyper-visual, with Hawaiian shirts and pink flamingos and bellies that crash into each other like bumper cars. Whites have been described as the “invisible race”, but the White Trash make their adversity remarkably apparent.

“Let’s consider Justin Timberlake. Once he was the good boy with the ramen hair; now he’s the despicable white man who makes more bank than the black men who have serviced his career.” “I definitely feel like there’s a struggle being a white rapper,” said Post Malone in an interview with GQ last year. He raised his objections when he was accused of being a “culture vulture”, and felt it unjust when Charlamagne Tha God asked him what he was doing to support the Black Lives Matter movement (a fair comment considering Malone’s appropriation of rap and black culture at large). Bieber’s been similarly challenged. Last

year he was accused of whitewashing Latinx culture, dancehall, and then completed the cultural appropriation triptych when he dreaded his hair. While this isn’t the first time white artists have been challenged for profiting from a minority culture there is a very long history of that they’re now being questioned for it more than ever. Let’s consider Justin Timberlake, for instance. Once he was the good boy with the ramen hair; now he’s the despicable white man who makes more bank than the black men who have serviced his career while he’s given them nothing in return.It’s a necessary re-evaluation, but the white artists themselves refuse to reckon with their actions. Post Malone’s refusal is especially reminiscent of white rappers of the 90s who felt themselves racially excluded when they tried to make a career in a black man’s business crying victim. And that’s just classic White Trash. Elvis Presley, one of the its forebears, stole rock and roll from the likes of Chuck Berry and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, then made it white. Today, through the same aesthetic, Post Malone and Justin Bieber are attempting to whitetrashwash rap,

MUSIC __Malone & Biber

“Eminem’s trailer-to-mansion story; Bieber’s love of his God and his Jesus and his shit hair; Malone’s Bud Lights, guns, blatant dirtiness, this trashy cosplay draws attention to their so-called unfortunate whiteness.” They’re following in the footsteps of the most successful culture vulture of recent times: Eminem. When he rapped “Y’all act like you never seen a white person before” on his first number one single The Real Slim Shady, he had the listeners’ sympathies. Even my Tory nan loved it. Like Malone, Eminem’s White Trash narrative and aesthetic guaranteed his success in an arena to which he didn’t belong. According to hip-hop scholar Mickey Hess, white artists rely on authenticating strategies, such as “being true to oneself”, and claiming “local allegiances” to their hometowns. Most crucially, they frame their own whiteness as a career disadvantage and a hardship. John Waters, director of Pink Flamingos, has asked, “is ‘white trash’ the last racist thing you can say and get away with?” Eminem’s trailer-to-mansion story; Bieber’s love of his God and his Jesus and his shit hair; Malone’s Bud Lights, guns, blatant dirtiness -- this trashy cosplay draws attention to their so-called unfortunate whiteness. While sheer common sense tells us that it’s impossible to be racist to white people, these artists push for the narrative of the poor, disenfranchised white guy; as though they’re the real victims of racism.

Even the President of the United States exhibits the White Trash Aesthetic. “His hair is as teased and artificial as Dolly Parton’s; his eternally pursed lips recall Elvis’s; his orange skin suggests the kind of cosmetic mask that Tammy Faye Bakker once kept between herself and her viewers,” says The New Republic’s Sarah Baker. His America is one in which White Trash, and therefore white rage, is a concern to be taken very, very seriously. It’s of no coincidence that his presidency commenced shortly after the Black Lives Matter movement took off, since what triggers white rage, says Carol Anderson, professor of African-American studies at Emory University, is black advancement. Soon after tiki torches were carried across the streets of Charlottesville, the Kardashians had their White Trash party, Hawaiian shirts were traipsed down the spring/summer 19 menswear runways and Post Malone broke streaming records.

The make-up artist Rebekka Theenart is among the most innovative of this 2020 in terms of perfect excess, it was the undisputed protagonist of the past summer. The fluorescent color, the glitter, the bright colors and a mix of textures fully represent her style.

TWENTY CARS MADE R E A L LY T A M A R R E I N FULL RUSSIAN STYLE EXTREME PAINTING, BARBED WIRE, FAKE DIAMONDS AND WOMENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S TIGHTS. HEREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HOW TO TURN A CAR INTO A TRASH MASTERPIECE.

All four-wheel enthusiasts when choosing a car are not satisfied with personalizing it with the options offered by the manufacturer, but they look at it like a painter would look at a blank canvas: they stand there in front of the object of their desires and already they all appear the tuning operations that

they can carry out. Modifying a car is a very broad concept and includes from small improvements to the audio system, to changes in aesthetics up to the radical transformations of mechanics and electronics that equip the car. The goal is always one: to make the standard object par excellence a unique

piece! In general, cars with rigorous and spartan lines lend themselves well to fueling the retouching fantasies of bodywork and accessories and then there are those cars that are compressed in their casing and just waiting to develop their potential.

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Moschino’s Couture BY LANDON PEOPLES

From the outside looking in, Jeremy Scott’s latest Moschino collection might have seemed like something straight out of a movie; you know, films like Zoolander and The Devil Wears Prada that tend to satirize the fashion industry, instead of documentaries that explain what it is we do. But for those of us who watched the show in Milan (or who saw the collection as images started to take over our social media feeds stateside), Scott’s latest showing felt more like a lesson in humor, an integral part of his aesthetic that gets cheekier with each season. Even the most well-known faces, Gigi and Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner, Stella Maxwell, couldn’t detract from the fact that Scott dressed his models in garbage couture (or, as one of the graphic tees put it, “trash chic”), or the fact that they were strutting their stuff down a duct-taped cardboard catwalk. But beyond your tongue-in-cheek treasures miniature Sesame Street-style bins, bicycle wheel hats, stained and disheveled Moschino shopping bags — the fall 2017 show’s message is actually nothing new. In fact, Franco Moschino built his entire house upon the idea that one could profit from the fashion industry by mocking it.

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Since Scott took the reigns in 2013, that notion has gone viral; the dichotomy between the serious reputation the fashion industry is known for and the possibility that we could all just be trolling ourselves has become so sellable that it’s nearly impossible to miss a Moschino phone case or controversial pill bag at Fashion Week every season. Hell, the brand’s own Barbie sold out within an hour. If that’s not the most realistic example of the old adage “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” then perhaps we should focus our efforts on other

designers who find themselves simply not funny enough to challenge the status quo.The collection’s inspiration wasn’t far off. “For fall 2017, Jeremy Scott presents a Moschino woman who is so enraptured with fashion that 65

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she wraps herself in every material to bring her closer to it. She is the antidote to the unsustainable cycles of consumption. Her cure? To take materials the rest of us reject and wear them with Moschino panache,” the show’s official press release said. Following the presentation, Scott took his bow wearing one of the many graphic tees we’ve seen at Fashion Month that read “Couture Is An Attitude.” And while you can interpret the rest of the collection however you’d like (we suggest covering one eye and pretending

it’s one giant subtweet that recycling has somehow found its way onto fashion’s main-stage again), he’s right: Couture is what you make it, and extravagance isn’t just found underneath layers of hand-sewn embroidery. Instead, could it possibly come from somewhere deeper within? Of course, we don’t actually know anyone who buys couture. But thanks to Scott and Moschino, we’ve got a fresh perspective: Maybe anything can be couture nowadays. Even a trash bag.

PIMP MY FLOWER The resin pots on which everyone is looking. The Fourline Design brand, founded in Scotland by Tom Budin. Flogged by the difficulty of finding furnishing accessories and decorations for his home, he decided to do it himself and devote himself to good design. Where good stands for ironic, on the piece and at the right price.

TYPE IT ON YOUR SKIN

Tattoos are among the most sought after â&#x20AC;&#x153;pinsâ&#x20AC;? on Pintarest. In Italy, in particular the mini ones on the clavicle and fingers. Favorite subjects? inspirational messages intended as signs of love for oneself.

MODERN FAMILY December 20 is the National ugly Christmas Day. That is the national holiday sweater day so bad it becomes cool. A pretext for charitable collections, such as the one organized every year by Save The Children, and for creative celebrations, such as the Vancouver hipster rally. Honorable mention for the English royal family in the 2016 release of the Museum of Madame Tussauds. 68

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get lost in aries world of streetwear, anti-fashion and trash culture As unisex streetwear brand Aries launches its new site, we speak with the brand’s creator Sofia Prantera about working with Palace’s Fergus Purcell, idolising shop girl era Chloë Sevigny and loving Phoebe Philo.

Sofia went on to work on a variety of brands, most famously Silas, before setting up Aries in 2012 to reconcile her love for “fashion, beautifully made and cut clothes, and sartorial experimentation with the love for streetwear, anti-fashion youth movements and trash culture.” In many ways the label pre-empted a return to exciting early 90s-era influences and experimentalism that can be seen at places like Vêtements. At Aries, you’re as likely to get a rawedged silk dress as you are a skater logo t-shirt, with cartoon graphics courtesy of her friend and collaborator, Fergus Purcell. The new site is an opportunity for Sofia to show the kind of ideas that inspire her collections. She says Aries is a subtle brand, so “it’s really important to have a window on our world, especially with so many layers and references.” _How do you think streetwear has changed over the years? Steetwear used to be fashion. That movement in the mid-80s, that gave us designers like Galliano and Westwood, was streetwear. Streetwear was about being anarchic and pushing fashion boundaries, but then it became skatewear, or 74

something, packaging youth culture and selling it for as much as you can. That’s when I became pissed off with it. Streetwear had become a dirty word in a way. That was when fashion started pushing the boundaries and people got into high fashion, because they were the ones experimenting. But now it’s gone full circle again. _Silas was quite an iconic label, what did it represent? I was working at Slam in the 90s and I started to do an in-house label that didn’t last long. Then me and Russell, who I did Silas with, started this label called Holmes, and that’s when Fergus came in. It was all menswear and I was designing it. That was the time of X Large and Fuct and it was all rebellious and American, and we were doing it from England, and I thought, “No-one’s going to believe this brand coming from this small Italian fashion girl.” I didn’t believe I could be the face of it, so we invented this guy and he was called “Silas Holmes.” My passion has always been in womenswear, even though I’ve done a lot of menswear, and even though the womenswear is menswear inspired. What was slightly

upsetting when the women’s skatewear companies were turning it into this cutesy packaged bubblegum sexy thing, which wasn’t at all where my vision was. I wanted to be a skater - I didn’t want to be one of those girls that hangs around with them. My womenswear has already had that harder edge. I always looked up to the skate style. It’s a shame that youth culture is always driven by the menswear, especially in the UK. I was interested in punk and the way skinheads dressed, but it was always linked to menswear. _Would you ever do menswear for Aries? It would probably be more successful if I did men’s! But it would take something away. And the original concept of the brand was for it to be unisex - that’s how me and Fergus conceived it at the beginning. The sweatshirts and jeans are for men too. It would be very easy to be sucked into the menswear and streetwear world. It feels naturally gender neutral or tomboyish anyway. Most womenswear that is menswear-based is quite intellectual and stark and unsexy, whereas what I do has sexuality to it. The girls are quite sexual to me. I have a problem with make-

up and nail polish, for me beauty is quite pure. That translates into my taste - how the clothes are deconstructed for example. The raw edges, the raw cut stuff needs that lightness. In Italian it’s called posticcio, which translates as “false”, but it’s not false. It’s like when you see theatre and film and it’s amazing, but you see the reality of it and it’s falling apart. _Can you tell us about some of your other fashion influences? Fiorucci was the first label I bought. My dad would take me to buy comics in Fiorucci and that’s what shaped my taste in fashion. Which is a weird clash. I like very elegant clothes. I love Céline. I think Phoebe is amazing. Yet I do like some really quite trashy things. Phoebe really designs for women. I think there’s a lot of high fashion designed by men with different ideas of beauty. She has a similar idea of beauty to me, and she’s from a similar generation. We were brought up looking at those 90s photos shot by David Sims and styled by Jane How and I think that’s the way we look at beauty. I can see it in her references. To me, she’s one of the people I look at all the time and think, “Oh my god, that’s amazing.

_Which other people in fashion do you respect? I always really respected Vivienne Westwood. It’s different now, but at the time it was really inspiring. People are still ripping it off. And I really love Martin Margiela’s purer days. I think it’s probably got too Italian for my taste now! I don’t like fashion when it’s too dressy, but I can still appreciate Versace, like the safety-pin dress Liz Hurley wore. Amazing! Genius in so many ways! You’re influenced by youth culture how do you keep a connection to that? I’ve got kids now! I can go to the skate park with the kids! I’m still really influenced by music. The other day I discovered a couple of new bands. Frau, this punk band, they’re doing things for themselves and are really interesting looking.I wonder if losing touch is what used to happen, and I don’t know if it’s going to happen nowadays because of the internet. You don’t need to go clubbing because you can engage with everything through the internet, so maybe age has become less important. You go to the smallest place in Italy and everyone seems to dress like they do in Hoxton.

Can you talk us through some of your processes? We make a lot of it here. We test and dye here, print and screen here and then send it into production as a ready-made thing to copy by the factory. The production process brings more to the garment, so understanding the way that garment is processed and the way you can make it look by doing it yourself, you can instruct the factory to follow your steps and you can break new boundaries. If you rely on the factory to experiment with the prototype, you’re relying on routes that other designers might have already done, or how good your factories are, especially with washes. The results you get when you actually do the first sample yourself - ripping or ageing or dyeing - are much better. We work with a washer/ dyer that works with all the high-end brands, and they can do anything. Why are the Italian factories so much more experimental than the English ones? I think there’s a different history. Italy has a history of making casual-

wear that England doesn’t. England is very good at making traditional garments and that’s probably why traditional clothing came back, around 2007 because at that point the pound had got quite weak and a lot of the British factories were doing really well abroad, because it was more economical. In Italy, their experience is in experimentation. The problem with not making your first product is you’re relying on someone’s taste to stop bleaching something, for example. Whereas if you give someone something to copy, it’s your taste. Here we do a lot of tests and they’re amazing at copying it. What’s your secret weapon in your studio? The washing machine!? Yeah, Hotpoint! When we moved office. I was like, “We’re only moving office if we get a washing machine!” From the other office I was going back and forth all the time with clothes to wash. I was like, “Today everything is black. Today everything is tie-dye red.” My kids were tie-dyeing - talk about child labour! My husband too - the whole family.

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All crazy about oversize @ITMAYSMEMES It is the IG profile that places iconic pieces in a giant version: coats, down jackets, blazers, sported by celebs of the caliber of Kim Kardashian, Rihanna and Anna Wintour. 78

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“Tourists’’ is the demonstration that trashy TV will never die From the wooden den of the “Re del Po” to the shocking “apericesso” with the wine of series B, the DMax program is the triumph of the differently beautiful. The only cure for those tired of travel copy-paste of the tourist guides By Ray Banhoff In a well-known documentary about the life of the artist, we discover the typical day of Nick Cave. Wake up early and down in the studio to write songs and play. Then moments of reading and study. In the evening, however, it is the same: on the sofa watching TV. Seeing him I was surprised and relieved at the same time. I had always been ashamed of that uneducated habit of spending the evening, but if Nick Cave did it I felt legitimized. Also because on TV, I love watching the darkest things, from trash to programs on buried people at home, passing through those looking for treasures on the desert

island and then bargaining with the junk dealers, up to the debates on local TV. In fact, last night I was glued to the armchair in the torrid heat, to drain the whole episode of Tourists for DMax with Alessandro Mannucci and Wikipedro, a program on tourism that is ugly but otherwise beautiful. What does it mean? Have you ever had that horrendous feeling of being on vacation on the other side of the world with your Lonely Planet and reaching the place so acclaimed on driving? A restaurant, an isolated room, a wood ... It looks so exotic, so beautiful, then you turn away distracted by a noise and

Alessandro Mannucci and Wikipedro in the “Savana Padana’ episode of ‘Turisti”

you hear that they are speaking in your language. Visually localize the Italian and a moment later his Lonely Planet. Same thing for each destination of your trip that should be unique and instead the same as all the others. Because tourism is a form of mass consumerism in which we all become a little flock. Unless you do downshifting , to follow the itinerary of the UNESCO Heritage sites, a brilliant honor coined in the program. The places are so crazy or insane that no tourist would ever go there, and for that reason they have an added value. In the first episode, the two found themselves draining an

“apericesso”, that is, being forced to sit on a toilet while the waitress pours into her throat from a funnel of the series b marc. At the table, the risotto was cooked in the cement mixer and then served by the waitresses with the scoop to give the lime. Then there was an epic passage on the banks of the Po, in the lair of a gentleman who lives with a single light bulb (who hates to turn on) in a hut of woods and skulls and calls himself the King of the Po. Randomly. And down to a luxury motel with themed rooms for erotic nights, lap dance and sex in front of the mirror up to a local wrestler gym in the

Crema area, where the healthiest one is totally crazy. The scenic ending: a fake cruise ship in a Lombard village, built by an entrepreneur who wanted to give a different touch to the city. All while laughing without even realizing it, in the face of those who say that the TV is dead. TV is not dead, it is changing. With digital terrestrial the taps have opened and the channels multiplied, perhaps we are witnessing a sort of new creative boom as in the 80s. They end up conducting formats, those that are strong online, such as Wikipedro, a Florentine and web star flanked by Mannucci. Those who watch TV know him as the author

“All the streeta brings to Romagna”

of numerous programs and last year he made the correspondent in Rai for Luca and Paolo, but it was a role that diminished him, in which he did not shine, continually pressed by the two Genoese. One evening Costantino Della Gherardesca rebuked the comedians. Last year, I spent the summer to see Mannucci’s instagram stories, for which he had created a format: Italy in Misurina d’uomo . Emanuele Misurina is the sound engineer with whom he works, the classic boy from the north who doesn’t speak a word or say senseless things. With Mannucci at his side, he was making us laugh.

“Per Aspera and Austria”

Remembering trash and vaudeville, the home of NYC punk As New York’s legendary destination for creepers, Docs, and dog collars prepares to move shop, we speak to its owner, Ray Goodman, about the store’s iconic clientele (from Iggy Pop to Patti Smith) and why punk isn’t dead. St. Mark’s punk playground heyday is officially over. Trash and Vaudeville, the iconic original clothing store for punk rockers and Liberty-spiked poseurs alike, is leaving 4 St. Mark’s Place after 41 years (probably making room for another coffee shop or Little Tokyo establishment). Trash and Vaudeville, the last remaining vestige of the East Village’s once-electric punk scene, was the first store in the U.S. to stock i-D when it started out as a fanzine, dedicated to anti-heroes, trailblazers, and punk subculture. In 1975, when punk erupted in New York City, Trash and Vaudeville was the only place selling true rock-and-roll gear. Generations of legendary punk rockers have since browsed the racks for Dr. Martens, motorcycle jackets, bondage pants, and 84

black skinny jeans. During its heyday, you could easily run into Iggy Pop, Blondie, Slash, or one of The Ramones leaving one of the ephemera-plastered changing rooms. St. Mark’s will never be the same again, without the shop’s familiar neon glow, and without Jimmy Webb, the store’s manager, standing outside, like a landmark himself, in all of his studded-leather, peroxide-blonde glory. But don’t panic just yet: Trash and Vaudeville is reopening later this month two blocks away, at 96 East 7th Street, on a block boasting a variety of local shops with a vibe reminiscent of St. Mark’s’ earlier days. We spoke with the store’s owner, Ray Goodman, about Trash and Vaudeville’s past, present, and future, and whether or not punk really is dead.

How would you explain Trash and Vaudeville’s relationship with punk? Trash and Vaudeville embraced the whole punk scene out of pure love and admiration for the music. I’d like to think that Trash went hand-in-hand with the punk scene. I was the first one to bring the original i-D to the U.S. and the first to carry Dr. Martens in the U.S. both of which hugely influenced punk in New York and everywhere else. Trash has and will always continue to support punk. Not just people who identify as or look like your typical punk, but everyone who has that attitude and wants to express themselves in a different way — be it through clothing, music, hairstyle, or ideology. We’ll continue that at the new 7th Street location. Punk was very much about a mentality, how did clothing play into that? Punk music was a revolution in rock ‘n’ roll, a statement against the mainstream. The sounds were primal, to the point, simplistic, and stripped down which is what made it so great. The clothing reflected that minimalism. It was an original look, an anti-fashion fashion statement. It didn’t matter if a shirt was too torn or if it was being held together with a safety pin. Punk promoted creativity; you could customize your own jacket or pants by just adding little embellishments or scrawling a statement in paint or marker, to express your views on politics, life, or the world. What’s the best article of clothing at T&V? Our black Trash and Vaudeville jean. It’s the first item we ever made and we still make it today with the same fit and style. A favourite of The Ramones, Mick Jones, and Bruce Springsteen. 85

Who are your style icons? Vivienne Westwood is one of the true genius punk designers, one of the few that really created and interpreted something new. Other icons include Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and Jefferson Airplane in the 60s. Then all the glitter bands like Slade with their platform shoes. Definitely David Bowie. Bowie was a fashion genius. I liked people that put things together in their own way. The Sex Pistols, The Clash, the simplicity of the Ramones. The Motown scene with their matching suits, so clean and slick. Curtis Mayfield with Superfly; all those early drug guys and pimps had amazing wardrobes. I love their look. Velvet Underground, The Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger in his blouses and white Capezios). The Mods. Punk movements took place in both New York and London. Can you explain the difference? The attitude in both cities was punk, but they rebelled and revolted against different cultural phenomena. In terms of style, the British punk bands were making more of a fashion statement with bondage and zipper pants, and loosely knit mohair sweaters with rips and safety pins. New York punk bands — The Ramones, The Dead Boys, Blondie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed — wore torn Levi’s, t-shirts, and Marlon Brando motorcycle jackets. If you went to go see the Clash in New York, someone might be wearing a Clash T-shirt with jeans, but if you saw the Clash in London, fans might dress up more militaristic, to reinterpret the band’s look.

What are the best punk shows you ever saw? The Clash in 1981 at Bond International Casino on Broadway. The Clash, Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, and their tour manager Cosmo Vinyl were frequent customers of mine. Mick Jones gave me one of the best compliments when he told me that we have the best black jeans in the world. They set up mannequins at the show and asked me to dress them. So, at their height, I got to see whatever show I wanted. Patti Smith was another key figure. She was breaking barriers and singing songs that made you think about revolting. Her show at The Bottom Line in the late 70s was amazing. The great shows at CBGBs. CBs was the ultimate punk venue, the equivalent to a t-shirt being held together with safety pins, it was held together by god knows what, spit or whatever, but it was great. What do you think the move will do to the block? How do you think you’ll feel when you pass by the old storefront? I’m not leaving St. Mark’s completely because I live on the block so I’ll be passing by a lot. I first went to St. Mark’s in 1967 when I was 13 and never left. I remember saying to myself, “I don’t understand exactly what’s going on around here. But whatever it is, it feels good and I want to figure out how I can stay involved in the scene.” There’s a certain energy that to this day still travels through St. Mark’s. I can feel it. But just like music or fashion, it changes. I will be very nostalgic walking by and thinking of all the great memories there. We’ve had punk rockers and their kids and their kids’ kids coming for the past 41 years, so it’s a bit emotional for everyone that we won’t be there anymore. Without Trash, there’s no physical history left of St. Mark’s’ punk rock period.

The original punk movement ended, but what incarnations of it do you see in youth culture today? Is punk dead? Fashion trends come and go, but from an attitude perspective, I think punk still exists. Punk was just another way to say, “We’re not the status quo.” Punk bands are still forming, with a new, current message they’re trying to get across. It’s not 70s punk, but it all comes down to the same counterculture expression. Whether it’s called punk or something else, as long as there are people who aren’t happy with what’s going on in the world or in their personal lives, some form of a punk movement will always exist.

this brand turns trash into luxury fashion By Cheryl Santos

“It’s absurd to spend your money on something made of trash,” says Sebastián Narbona of Novedades, “but it’s also absurd how much brands charge for their clothes.” “There must already be enough materials in the world to be able to stop producing any more,” Sebastián Narbona tells i-D regarding his fashion and recycling project, Novedades (meaning “novelties”). According to figures from the World Bank, in 2016, it was calculated that each person generates 1.63 pounds of waste daily, a number that, according to the same organisation, will only increase. Taking this into account, we can say that, yes, there are enough materials out there so it’s obvious that they should be reused. With this in mind, the Chil-

ean art director decided to set up Novedades, as “a brand made with luxury trash, which is specially selected and made to high quality standards” a few months ago. “I like what can be done with the materials you have around you, with resources everything is more controlled, recycling is a logical consequence when you play with trash.” The fashion of recycling historically has a sense of humour, a necessary factor when giving new life to materials we’re accustomed to seeing in other contexts. Check out the sustainable creations of Gypsy 89

Sport or the Ziploc collection of Japanese shop Beams, just to mention a few. According to Sebastián, “changing the use of the objects that we have around us is something that we do every day and it happens spontaneously. In Mexico they are very familiar with this concept and you see it anywhere.” I completely agree. The fashion industry’s traditional production and consumption cycle is causing more pollution more than airlines, thanks to the rise of fast fashion and the tons of clothes ending up in landfills

each year. “It is absurd to spend your money on something made of trash, but it’s also absurd how much brands charge for their clothes. I want to use the same language and let the fact that the scam is obvious go unnoticed when they ask me for the price [of Novedades], I always end up saying ‘be careful with your money,’” explains Sebastián. Novedades has a very basic and effective premise: “the world is going to end and we can do whatever we want.” This is impressive-

ly communicated with a series of images captured by Alexis Rayas. The set is decorated with the same material that the clothes are made from the typical plastic bags that you might be given in a bodega or takeout shop, or in Sebastián’s case, Oxxo, a Mexican convenience store chain. Giving new use to familiar images DHL has never been the same since Vetements is a recurring practice in fashion, as a response to the over-saturation of information and daily stimuli. “We are surrounded by new icons all the

time, the Oxxo coffee bag is part of the city, and considering the option of putting it on as clothing is a tangible action. It’s something that you have in your house to put trash in, for your dog’s poo and seeing it in a photo on your feed as a piece of clothing makes you say, ‘Wow, they’re plastic bags,’ and you carry on looking at your feed, like nothing happened, but for a few seconds it surprised you and made you feel something.” So, what are Sebastián’s plans for Novedades? “Turn trash into cash, baby.” Amen.

Smi l e a n d Smi l e! The smiley, the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most famous face is an evergreen. On instagram the @smiley profile, with attached the hilarious e-commerce, offers endless variations, including clothing and merchandising.

NICOLAS CAGE THE 10 MOST TRASH ROLES

(2016) Dog eat dog er by Paul Schrad

Mandy (2018) by Panos Cosmatos

profezia (2014) Left Behind - La g by Vic Armstron

CINEMA __Nicolad Cage

Il mando lino del ca pitano C by John M orelli (200 adden 1)

5. Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ultimo dei Templari (2011) by Dominic Sena

ngerous Bangkok Da 008) assassino (2 llâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; de ce di Il co ng Pa lli te by fra

ls (1998) City of Ange ling by Brad Silber

Outcast (2014) by Nick Powell

Drive Angry (2011) by Patrick Lussier

10.

Ghost Rider (2007) by Mark Steven Johnson

FOOD? ARE WE SURE? By Chris Offutt

Over the years I’ve known many people with nicknames, including Lucky, Big O, Haywire, Turtle Eggs, Hercules, two guys named Hollywood, and three guys called Booger. I’ve had my own nicknames as well. In college people called me “Arf” because of a dog on a t-shirt. Back home a few of my best buddies call me “Shit-for-Brains,” because our teachers thought I was smart. Three years ago, shortly after moving to Oxford, someone introduced me to John T. Edge. He goes by his first name and middle initial, but I understood it as a nickname—Jaunty. The word “jaunty” means lively and cheerful, someone always merry and bright. The name seemed to suit him perfectly. Each

time I called him Jaunty he gave me a quick sharp look of suspicion. He wondered if I was making fun of his name—and of him. The matter was resolved when I suggested he call me “Chrissie O.” Last spring John T. asked me to join him at an Oxford restaurant. My wife dropped me off and drove to a nearby secondhand store. Our plan was for me to meet her later and find a couple of cheap lamps. During lunch John T. asked me to give a presentation at the Southern Foodways Alliance symposium over which he presided every fall. I reminded him that I lacked the necessary qualifications. At the time I’d only published a few humorous essays that dealt with food. Other writers were more knowl-

edgeable and wrote with a historical context, from a scholarly perspective. All I did was write personal essays inspired by old community cookbooks I found in secondhand stores. Strictly speaking, my food writing wasn’t technically about food. John T. said that didn’t matter. He wanted me to explore “trash food,” because, as he put it, “you write about class.” I sat without speaking, my food getting cold on my plate. Three thoughts ran through my mind fast as flipping an egg. First, I couldn’t see the con-

nection between social class and garbage. Second, I didn’t like having my thirty-year career reduced to a single subject matter. Third, I’d never heard of anything called “trash food.” I write about my friends, my family, and my experiences, but never with a socio-political agenda such as class. My goal was always art first, combined with an attempt at rigorous self-examination. Facing John T., I found myself in a professional and social pickle, not unusual for a country boy who’s clawed his way out of the hills of eastern Kentucky, one of the steepest social climbs in America. I’ve never mastered the high-born art of concealing my emotions. My feelings are always readily apparent. Recognizing my turmoil, John T. asked if I was pissed off. I nodded and he apologized immediately. I told him I was overly sensitive to matters of social class. I explained that people from the hills of Appalachia have always had to fight to prove they were smart, diligent, and trustworthy. It’s the same for people who grew up in the Mississippi Delta, the barrios of Los Angeles and Texas, or the black neighborhoods in New York, Chicago, and Memphis. His request reminded me that due to social class I’d been refused dates, bank loans, and even jobs. I’ve been called hillbilly, stumpjumper, cracker, weedsucker, redneck, and white trash— mean-spirited terms designed to hurt me and make me feel bad about myself.

As a young man, I used to laugh awkwardly at remarks about sex with my sister or the perceived novelty of my wearing shoes. As I got older I quit laughing. When strangers thought I was stupid because of where I grew up, I understood that they were granting me the high ground. I learned to patiently wait in ambush for the chance to utterly demolish them intellectually. Later I realized that this particular battle strategy was a waste of energy. It was easier to simply stop talking to that person forever. But I didn’t want to do that with a guy whose name sounds like “jaunty.” A guy who’d inadvertently 99

triggered an old emotional response. By this time our lunch had a tension to it that draped over us both like a lead vest for an X-ray. We just looked at each other, neither of us knowing what to do. John T. suggested I think about it, then graciously offered me a lift to meet my wife. But a funny thing had happened. Our conversation had left me inexplicably ashamed of shopping at a thrift store. I wanted to walk to hide my destination, but refusing a ride might make John T. think I was angry with him. I wasn’t. I was upset. But not with him. My solution was a verbal compromise, a term politicians use to

mean a blatant lie. I told him to drop me at a restaurant where I was meeting my wife for cocktails. He did so and I waited until his red Italian sports car sped away. As soon as he was out of sight I walked to the junk store. I sat out front like a man with not a care in the world, ensconced in a battered patio chair staring at clouds above the parking lot. When I was a kid my mother bought baked goods at the day-old bread store and hoped no one would see her car. Now I was embarrassed for shopping secondhand. My behavior was classbased twice over: buying used goods to save a buck and feeling ashamed of it. I’d behaved in strict accordance with my social station, then evaluated myself in a negative fashion. Even my anger was classic self-oppression, a learned behavior of lower-class people. I was transforming outward shame into inner fury. Without a clear target, I aimed that rage at myself. My thoughts and feelings were completely irrational. I knew they made no sense. Most of what I owned had belonged to someone else—cars, clothes, shoes, furniture, dishware, cookbooks. I liked old and battered things. They reminded me of myself, still capable and functioning despite the wear and tear. I enjoyed the idea that my belongings had a previous history before coming my way. It was very satisfying to repair a broken lamp made of popsicle sticks and transform it to a lovely source of illumination. A writer’s livelihood is weak at best, and I’d become adept at operating in a secondhand economy. I was comfortable with it. Still, I sat in that chair getting madder and madder. After careful examination I concluded that the core of my anger was fear—in this case fear that John T. would judge me for shopping secondhand. I knew 100

it was absurd since he is not judgmental in the least. Anyone can see that he’s an open-hearted guy willing to embrace anything and everyone—even me. Nevertheless I’d felt compelled to mislead him based on class stigma. I was ashamed—of my fifteen-year-old Mazda, my income, and my rented home. I felt ashamed of the very clothes I was wearing, the shoes on my feet. Abruptly, with the force of being struck in the face, I understood it wasn’t his judgment I feared. It was my own. I’d judged myself and found failure. I wanted a car like his. I wanted to dress like him and have a house like his. I wanted to be in a position to offer other people jobs. The flip side of shame is pride. All I had was the pride of refusal. I could say no to his offer. I did not have to write about trash food and class. No, I decided, no, no, no. Later, it occurred to me that my reluctance was evidence that maybe I should say yes. I resolved to do some research before refusing his offer. John T. had been a little shaky on the label of “trash food,” mentioning mullet and possum as examples. At one time this list included crawfish because Cajun people ate it, and catfish because it was favored by African Americans and poor Southern whites. As these cuisines gained popularity, the food itself became culturally upgraded. Crawfish and catfish stopped being “trash food” when the people eating it in restaurants were the same ones who felt superior to the lower classes. Elite white diners had to redefine the food to justify eating it. Otherwise they were voluntarily lowering their own social status—something nobody wants to do. It should be noted that carp and gar still remain reputationally compromised. In other words—poor folks eat it and rich folks don’t. I predict that one day

wealthy white people will pay thirty-five dollars for a tiny portion of carp with a rich sauce—and congratulate themselves for doing so. I ran a multitude of various searches on library databases and the Internet in general, typing in permutations of the words “trash” and “food.” Surprisingly, every single reference was to “white trash food.” Within certain communities, it’s become popular to host “white trash parties” where people are urged to bring Cheetos, pork rinds, Vienna sausages, Jell-O with marshmallows, fried baloney, corndogs, RC cola, Slim Jims, Fritos, Twinkies, and cottage cheese with jelly. In short the food I ate as a kid in the hills. Participating in such a feast is considered proof of being very cool and very hip. But it’s not. Implicit in the menu is a vicious ridicule of the people who eat such food on a regular basis. People who attend these “white trash parties” are cuisinally slumming, temporarily visiting a place they never want to live. They are the worst sort of tourists—they want to see the Mississippi Delta and the hills of Appalachia but are afraid to get off the bus. The term “white trash” is an epithet of bigotry that equates human worth with garbage. It implies a dismissal of the group as stupid, violent, lazy, and untrustworthy—the same negative descriptors of racial minorities, of anyone outside of the mainstream. At every stage of American history, various groups of people have endured such personal attacks. Language is used as a weapon: divisive, cruel, en-

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ciphered. Today is no different. For example, here in Mississippi, the term “Democrats” is code for “African Americans.” Throughout the U.S.A., “family values” is code for “no homosexuals.” The term “trash food” is not about food, it’s coded language for social class. It’s about poor people and what they can afford to eat. In America, class lines run parallel to racial lines. At the very bottom are people of color. The Caucasian equivalent is me—an Appalachian. As a male Caucasian in America, I am supposed to have an inherent advantage in every possible way. It’s true. I can pass more easily in society. I have better access to education, health care, and employment. But if I insist on behaving like a poor white person—shopping at secondhand shops and eating mullet—I not only earn the epithet of “trash,” I somehow deserve it. The term “white trash” is class disparagement due to economics. Polite society regards me as stupid, lazy, ignorant, violent and untrustworthy.

I am trash because of where I’m from. I am trash because of where I shop. I am trash because of what I eat. But human beings are not trash.

We are the civilizing force on the planet. We produce great art, great music, great food, and great technology. It’s not the opposable thumb that separates us from the beasts, it’s our facility with language. We are able to communicate with great precision. Nevertheless, history is fraught with the persistence of treating fellow humans as garbage, which means collection and transport for destruction. The most efficient management of humans as trash occurred when the Third Reich systematically murdered people by the millions. People they didn’t like. People they were afraid of. Jews, Romanis, Catholics, gays and lesbians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the disabled. In World War II, my father-in-law was captured by the Nazis and placed on a train car so crammed with people that everyone had to stand for days. Arthur hadn’t eaten in a week. He was close to starvation. A Romani man gave him half a turnip, which saved his life. That Romani man later died. Arthur survived the war. He had been raised to look down on Romani people as stupid, lazy, violent, and untrustworthy—the ubiquitous language of class discrimination. He subsequently revised his view of Romanis. For Arthur, the stakes of starvation were 102

high enough that he changed his view of a group of people. But the wealthy elite in this country are not starving. When they changed their eating habits, they didn’t change their view of people. They just upgraded crawfish and catfish. Economic status dictates class and diet. We arrange food in a hierarchy based on who originally ate it until we reach mullet, gar, possum, and squirrel— the diet of the poor. The food is called trash, and then the people are. When the white elite take an interest in the food poor people eat, the price goes up. The result is a cost that prohibits poor families from eating the very food they’ve been condemned for eating. It happened with salmon and tuna years ago. When I was a kid and money was tight, my mother mixed a can of tuna with pasta and vegetables. Our family of six ate it for two days. Gone are the days of subsisting on cheap fish patties at the end of the month. The status of the food rose but not the people. They just had less to eat. What is trash food? I say all food is trash without human intervention. Cattle, sheep, hogs, and chickens would die unless slaughtered for the table. If

humans didn’t harvest vegetables, they would rot in the field. Food is a disposable commodity until we accumulate the raw material, blend ingredients, and apply heat, cold, and pressure. Then our bodies extract nutrients and convert it into waste, which must be disposed of. The act of eating produces trash. In the hills of Kentucky we all looked alike—scruffy white people with squinty eyes and cowlicks. We shared the same economic class, the same religion, the same values and loyalties. Even our enemy was mutual: people who lived in town. Appalachians are suspicious of their neighbors, distrustful of strangers, and uncertain about third cousins. It’s a culture that operates under a very simple principle: you leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone. After moving away from the hills I developed a different way of interacting with people. I still get cantankerous and defensive—ask John T.— but I’m better with human relations than I used to be. I’ve learned to observe and listen. As an adult I have lived and worked in eleven different states—New York, Massachusetts, Florida, New Mexico, Montana, California, Tennessee, Georgia, Iowa, Arizona, and now Mississippi. These circumstances often placed me in contact with African Americans as neighbors, members of the same labor crew, working in restaurants, and now university colleagues. The first interaction between a black man and a white man is one of mutual evaluation: does the other guy hate my guts? The white guy— me—is worried that after generations of repression and mistreatment, will this black guy take his anger out on me because I’m white? And the black guy is wondering if I am one more racist asshole he can’t turn his back on. This period of reconnaissance typically doesn’t last long because both parties know the covert codes the other uses—the avoidance of touch, the averted eyes, a posture of hostility. Once each man is satisfied that the other guy is all right, connections begin to occur. Those connections are 103

always based on class. And class translates to food. Last year my mother and I were in the hardware store buying parts to fix a toilet. The first thing we learned was that the apparatus inside commodes has gotten pretty fancy over the years. Like breakfast cereal, there were dozens of types to choose from. Toilet parts were made of plastic, copper, and cheap metal. Some were silent and some saved water and some looked as if they came from an alien spacecraft. A store clerk, an African-American man in his sixties, offered to help us. I told him I was overwhelmed, that plumbing had gotten too complicated. I tried to make a joke by saying it was a lot simpler when everyone used an outhouse. He gave me a quick sharp look of suspicion. I recognized his expression. It’s the same one John T. gave me when I mispronounced his name, the same look I gave John T. when he mentioned “trash food” and social class. The same one I unleashed on people who called me a hillbilly or a redneck.

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HOW TO SURVIVE: TRASH TIPS

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