Shawn's Little Gay Opinions
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Gay rabbits on crossed-eyed chickens and the value of art in a world on fire
May 10, 2025
A friend gave me a small wind up toy recently –– a yellow rabbit riding a large, cross-eyed chicken-adjacent bird. I played with it this morning over...
Lilacs and birthdays
May 4, 2025
I’ve been thinking a lot about spring, which is something that I tend to do every year when spring comes. In late winter I sometimes start to doubt that the...
The cardinals are chirping and they say hi
April 8, 2025
I am trying to text a joke. “Healing” is autocorrected to “shaking.” “America is shaking lol.” There are so many little jokes keeping me afloat these days....
Spring, so nice
March 28, 2025
I had a work call this morning with someone I’ve admired for a long time. “We should’ve FaceTimed, I never see your face,” he told me. A common problem for...
Did you hear about all that bad stuff?
February 27, 2025
I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but stuff is happening in the world. Dark stuff. I got an email from an artist colleague recently that called going to...
How am I DOING?
January 29, 2025
I am home sick. It’s hard to tell if it’s exhaustion, existential restructuring of my DNA, some weird new plague, or a secret fourth thing. I’m certainly...
Absurdity, honey
January 17, 2025
(6 min read) A man in front of me at the bodega today was talking on the phone loudly in the attention seeking way that people who know they’re full of shit...
Tissues and art and rage, honey
December 21, 2024
I make a promise to myself every winter that I will have a tissue on me at all times to avoid being without one when I need it. This year I bought eight...
Gay Vampire Reprise
October 13, 2024
Some of you may be wondering: is Shawn over the vampire thing? No. No, I am not. This is not a phase. Last night at The Brick Aux I shared some socialist gay...
Hope? Hope!
September 24, 2024
There’s a little orange cat that lives in the bodega near my train stop. I always keep an eye out for him when I pass by, and his presence–because it is...
Sexy gay vampires and the crushing weight of existence
August 6, 2024
I’ve had a hard time reading fiction this past year or so. I psych myself up, convincing myself that I should be spending my free time learning new...
On keeping it in (and letting it out, honey)
June 7, 2024
I took the day off today. I am exhausted and took a train to be around more trees. I cried on the subway on my way home last night, which might be the first...
Things that are difficult and not difficult
April 19, 2024
I’m staring at a photo of a lemur eating some leaves. This isn’t anything new for me. I’m remembering myself in early grade school on one of my frequent...
On Virginia Woolf and claw machines and wanting to yell
March 6, 2024
sneep snorps and Renesmee and Marina Abramovic and hatchacha cat When I was leaving work today I passed a really chic woman clinging to what looked like two...
On revealing the admin within
January 24, 2024
My show Admin Reveal opens tomorrow. I will show you weird memes about twinks and teach you how to divest from banks that profit off of genocide and climate...
On being online and having a literal spine
January 6, 2024
I woke up the other morning with an email draft I must have sent myself in a half-sleep moment of a-ha. All it said was: it’s impossible to have a posture...
On grief and why it's good
December 21, 2023
I’ve just set-up my away message for my work email. I pray for those still emailing me and I hope the message finds them well and with perspective and with...
On swollen eyes and discomfort
November 11, 2023
I’m listening to Britney Spears’s autobiography the day after my first colonoscopy (it came ten years early). I am looking at the images they shared of colon...
On soaking and being a little troll
August 27, 2023
I opened up my laptop to find an empty Pages document rear its ugly head first thing (I refuse to buy Microsoft Word for some unclear but deeply felt...
On time and making it and taking a little restianka
July 16, 2023
I went to the Bronx Museum for the first time yesterday to see the Darrel Ellis show. There was a walkthrough of the exhibition with several people who knew...
On smoke and carrying on and this being fine
June 7, 2023
I left work early today because the air quality index was "hazardous." That's New York City, baybee. I spent today pretending I was in Silent Hill while I...
On history and my place in it and things I care about
May 25, 2023
I was born in 1988 at the height of the AIDS crisis. I don't think I actually learned about HIV and AIDS until I was maybe 6 or so, when my older cousin...
On things that have happened before right now and things that will happen later
April 5, 2023
Spring is here, and I personally think that is very cool! My 35th birthday is one month away, and it is officially the start of a full month of me not...
on anger and the absolutely bonkers world we live in!
March 21, 2023
A weird thirst trap just appeared on Instagram with a guy tagging himself as being in “Israel. Someone in the comments brought up Palestine and stolen land....
On Inflammation
February 20, 2023
Lately I’ve been experiencing some hip pain—inflammation that happens from time to time, a debilitating issue for a few days until it just goes away. Over...
On Rest and Udder Cream
January 22, 2023
I recently discovered Bag Balm and have started treating my face like a pair of udders. I did a Google search to see where I could and couldn’t put it, and...
On Gratitude and how we should make it cool a
December 27, 2022
When I first moved to Brooklyn in 2014, I lived in a tiny room on a twin mattress (no bed frame) with a window that sat about 5 feet from my neighbors (I...
On Care and Thoughts and Sharing A Lot
November 21, 2022
I am going to write about a few things, some of which mention suicide and mental health. An FYI if that’s not something you want to read right now. I have...
On Class, On Wealth, On Crying
October 4, 2022
A friend recently connected me to an advisory service that offers pro bono support to artists (among other people) who may or may not have access to...
On Disappointment and Overthinking
September 13, 2022
Long time, no see. I have been thinking a lot lately. And in thinking a lot lately I have really dreaded the thought of writing all of those thoughts down....
On Knowing and Not Knowing and Rich People and Not Rich People!
August 5, 2022
I’m in the thick of my first bout with Covid. Apparently isolation can be pretty, uh, isolating. I’m going on 5 days resting in my apartment, and I am...
Rage! It is cool to be angry! And other things going on
July 20, 2022
It’s hot! And the world seems to be particularly engulfed in flames. And I’m angry! I have been having a hard time sitting down and writing because a lot of...
On Studio Space, Clean Sheets, and Pride Henny Work
June 23, 2022
I just changed my sheets, slipped into shorts and am now lying down typing on my laptop with the posture of a shrimp. I’ve placed a book on the foot of my...
On Birds, Class, and Knowledge or Something
June 15, 2022
It has been a while. May was Mental Health Awareness Month… and let me tell ya’, I was aware of it! I have been making and doing and sitting and resting, and...
On Death, Edibles, and Getting Lost (6 min read)
April 29, 2022
I’m turning 34 next week. Around my birthday, I usually spend a good amount of time reflecting, introspecting, digging deep into my little gay psyche for...
Welcome to my newsletter, Girly! On Memes, Labor, and the Twain Towers (6 min read)
April 8, 2022
I’m off to a late start today. I’ve spent the last 45 minutes photoshopping two images of Shania Twain onto the Twin Towers. The image says: Man! I feel like...