✨✅ VIBE CHECK: kylie minogue is back
Padam?
Happy Pride Month. To quote a line from The White Lotus that I stg was taken from me @ 23 years old:
If you’re looking for a friend, gay guys are really the best.
Originally, I was going to regale you with stories from nights in the pre-pandemic Brooklyn queer scene but the more I wrote about it, the less I felt it was my story to tell. (If you’re looking for that, look for McKenzie Wark’s “Raving.”)
I simply wanted to say: I owe the gays a lot — not only the excellent nights, but the possibility-oriented imagination that they’ve shared. You stop believing that life is oppression when you spend enough time in their spaces. You start believing that liberation is possible. (And, after a few years, you start to learn the difference between liberation and hedonism.) Bless the gays. Happy Pride.
Anyway, as a lifelong ally and girl-who-used-to-spend-a-lot-of-time-behind-the-DJ-booth-at-The-Rosemont, I will always cheer a solid club track. Particularly one by a longtime gay icon.
Cue: “Padam Padam.”
For the uninitiated…let me introduce the first worthwhile club track of summer 2k23. By none other than criminally-underrated Kylie Minogue.
This is not a place where I will be unpacking the video (although I do feel like we should have a group discussion about populism/class cosplay and the resurgence of motel aesthetic soon.)
No.
Simply. I want to use the release of “Padam Padam” as an excuse to talk about the only piece of celebrity gossip I really care about: Kylie Minogue’s relationship with Nick Cave. (Jesus. Not me using Pride Month as an excuse to talk about something straight. Lol. Fuck.)
But hear me out.
I guess they started dating in 1995, after they met to record the Ophelia-chic “Where the Wild Roses Grow.”
Apparently, Cave wrote the song with Minogue in mind which feels like the most Nick Cave way to get a girl. (Write a song about murder and get your crush to sing the part of the dead girl.)
But I think this is just further proof that Minogue’s allyship is unparalleled. If you’re going to be a woman dating a man, ‘90s Nick Cave is by far the campiest choice. You get photo shoots like this:
And this.
Just….the two different energies. Cracks me up.
See, for further example, this interview from 1995 MTV:
Kylie Minogue laughs about watching AbFab. Nick Cave (in sunglasses) says he doesn’t watch any TV. Kylie talks about chocolate. Cave responds, “Chocolate’s about grief, isn’t it?”
To their credit, when asked if they’ve ever fancied someone of the same sex, they both respond that they “like to keep their options open.” So there you go. Happy Pride.
To be clear, their relationship is only “rumored” but I’m taking it as fact (solely for the comedy). If they were in fact dating, their split must have been fairly amicable split because they stayed in touch.
In 2017, they were photographed at a party together with Cave’s wife (designer of The Vampire’s Wife, a brand which, to be honest, I don’t understand. I will never get the appeal of dressing like a glitzy Christian fundamentalist but whatever. I digress.)
Honestly, now that we’re here, I think this whole post was just an excuse to show you that picture. I have nothing more to say, really. Other than: Padam.
Oh, and here’s a picture of Kylie with Alison Mosshart and Mary Kate Olsen.
Let’s get into some links:
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