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I recently saw a hot take that the problem with the latest season of 'Euphoria' is not that it has a lot of sex and fetishism, but that Sam Levinson is not a true pervert. And I think that's spot on. Everything about the show feels inauthentic and unfaithful to its own story and characters. The sex is just for shock value and offers nothing else.
But you know who was a true pervert? John Waters, who just turned 80 yesterday. A suburban boy who grew up in Maryland during the 1950s and 1960s, John was fascinated with violent puppet shows, crashing cars, and horror movies. He began shooting his first short films while living in his parents’ Baltimore home, on 8mm in their neighborhood with his friends, including his leading lady and muse, Divine. Exploring forbidden, perverse topics that fascinated him, he made low-budget, anarchic films with his Dreamland friends that challenged censorship and celebrated the “trashy” side of Baltimore culture.
In 'Pink Flamingos,' two families engaged in a vicious competition for the title of “The Filthiest People Alive.” In 'Female Trouble,' a spoiled schoolgirl turned to a life of crime in pursuit of fame. In 'Serial Mom,' a housewife was a suburban serial killer who murdered people for violating etiquette and moral codes. These films celebrated the grotesque and 'filth,' centering outsiders, criminals, and social freaks. In this world, there was no shame, which is often used to subjugate people and make them fall in line.
For him, perversion and bad taste were a form of artistic rebellion and social satire. Using transgressive art to expose the absurdity of mainstream morality, John saw his work as a’ Trojan horse’ designed to get inside and flip middle-class values on their head, and celebrate the marginalized — the eccentrics, drag queens, and the unconventional. He challenged the hypocrisy of people who try to stop consensual, odd sexuality, exposing a suppression that is usually based on control, not virtue. He cared about the unaccepted shadows of our collective unconscious and shined his technicolor light on it through his ‘celluloid atrocities’. Unlike Sam, John’s perversion is nourishment for the soul that’s shriveled up with shame. So, maybe, on the occasion of his 80th year here, skip Cassie and check out the Pope of Trash himself.
Here's what we have for you this week:
Homegrown speaks to four electronic artists about why they’re moving towards dawless setups and analogue music-making. In this piece, we discuss how each artist is using drum machines, synths, and hardware in place of or addition to laptops, and what that shift looks like in their own practice. They get into live performances, changing workflows, whether DJing is just button-pushing, and why kids in general are yearning for physical media.
Read it here.
Barber of the Gods is a short film by Sushant Nagpal that follows a father and son running a barbershop at night, where they can regrow hair by taking years off a person’s life. The film runs alongside a parallel mythological timeline, where a divine barber and his apprentice serve the gods, tying both timelines through the same conflict between generations. Using the premise to look at inherited professions and family pressure, the short film questions the idea of what is considered “sacred,” and blind faith.
Watch its trailer here.
Yaghshiye is based in Chitral, Pakistan, working with local textile traditions and craft practices. The garments use handwoven fabrics and regional embroidery, with materials and colours tied directly to the area. The focus stays on the textiles and how they’re constructed, with silhouettes that keep the attention on fabric. The brand works with artisans from the region, keeping production connected to its source while shaping pieces that sit within a contemporary South Asian fashion context.
Check it out here.
The new PUMA x Ahluwalia collection brings Priya Ahluwalia’s graphic, colour-led approach into football, built from her mix of archive references and street imagery. The drop looks at African football culture through fan style across Morocco and Nigeria, reworking PUMA staples like the T7 tracksuit and V-S1 with all-over prints based on stadium crowds, textured knits referencing the Nigerian flag, and a palette built on pan-African colours. Accessories and footwear follow the same direction, with recycled fibres used across the collection.
Go through the collection here.
At Salud Supper Club, Chef Anishka Bose hosts a multi-course Bengali meal out of her grandfather Debaki Kumar Bose’s home in Kalighat, Kolkata, wmixing Bengali flavours with European technique. The menus change with each sitting and pull from personal memory, with dishes like burrata paratha pizette, goat curry orzo with Bengali laal jhol, and mango coconut panna cotta. With no fixed recipes, Anishka is instinct-driven, drawing from her training in Switzerland while staying rooted in Bengali home cooking.
Learn more about the supper club here.
Mango season is here, and in this list we share five cafés and bakeries working the fruit into their summer menus in different ways. Across these spots, mango shows up in brunch plates, desserts, and cold drinks—pancakes, cheesecakes, iced beverages, and blended drinks—each place taking it in its own direction. The menus keep the fruit front and centre, using it across sweet and chilled formats that fit the season, with each café or bakery building out a small range of mango-led dishes and drinks.
Read it here.
Kaagazz and Moonshine Mead just released a limited-edition bundle called the Contraband Case, combining rolling papers with a new mead created for the drop. The set includes Kaagazz’s eco-friendly rolling papers, designed for a slow, even burn, and Moonshine’s Peanut Butter & Jelly mead, developed as an exclusive flavour for this collaboration. The papers carry a co-branded design, while the mead follows a sweet, flavour-forward profile. The entire drop comes packed inside a briefcase with a contraband theme, including inserts like a case file and custom stickers.
Check it out here.
Superqueens is a full-length drag musical set in Delhi, following five drag performers as they move through their work, relationships, and the realities of performing in the city. The show is structured in a cabaret style, moving between stage numbers, backstage moments, and personal exchanges, with the performers drawing directly from their own lives. It brings in music, dance, and dialogue to show what goes into drag beyond the performance — dealing with venues, visibility, and the limits placed on where and how they can perform.
Learn more about it here.
