Consume Art (Q3 2026)
A Collage of Cover Art from the Art Discussed Below
It's time for another roundup of my favorite art from the last three months!
TELEVISION
I stumbled across King of Drag a couple months ago. Despite being familiar with the global phenomenon that is Drag Race, which features drag queens, I never knew that there was a show dedicated to drag kings. To be honest, it’s not fair to compare King of Drag to Drag Race. The show is aired on a small streaming site called Revry and clearly has a tiny budget. I deeply wish they had money for more episodes to allow the kings time to really show off their craft, but I will say that the level of skill that comes out of these constraints is mind-blowing. When kings have to complete a performance, outfit, and original point of view in less than two hours, they really show up and show out. The horror episodes have haunted me in the best way, as the contestants have used the opportunity to grossly depict their experiences with gender dysphoria and discrimination. I think what I enjoy most about the show is that it gives space for contestants who have grown up socialized as women to express themselves, where other similar casts might be competing for the attention of a man like in the Bachelor.
I've been a big fan of Dropout for years. They're constantly innovating on unscripted comedy shows that have the same level of polish as network television, and my favorite series from them is Game Changer. For anyone unfamiliar, the premise of the show is that it's a game show where the game changes every episode. They’ve explored similar premises to existing shows and ideas like escape rooms, find the imposter, and talent shows. The cast is made up of trained comedians and like Taskmaster, which I shared in my Q2 post, the goal is less about winning and more about being entertaining. I’m genuinely in awe over the premise of this show. I imagine it can be hard on a budget, coming up with new sets, but Dropout has had a lot of success in using Game Changer to pilot ideas for other shows. After seeing the success of original one-off episodes, shows like Make Some Noise and Play It By Ear were developed. I can’t help but think that more small streamers should explore shows like this to help build their audience and catalogues.
BOOKS AND GAMES
I've been playing solo board games for years now, but I recently started exploring more solo tabletop roleplaying games this summer, including an adventure module called Frozen Offerings. It operates similarly to a choose your own adventure book with the added guidance of the dungeons and dragons ruleset. I’ve avoided solo D&D for a while because the system was always designed for collaborative storytelling, but once I let go of my expectations and stopped looking at it the same as regular D&D, I actually enjoyed it. A lot of credit goes to the game’s writer, Paul Bimler, who also wrote a famous series in the solo D&D world starting with The Death Knight’s squire, which I have since started playing. Despite there being limited opportunities for roleplay, Bimler does an excellent job in offering options for the player in Frozen Offerings. There was a lot of content that was easy to follow and balanced well with an immersive and interesting storyline. The game definitely opened my mind up to trying more solo tabletop roleplaying games in the future.
It has been years since I devoured a book, but I finished The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins in three days. The book serves as a prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy, which I loved reading in high school and watching the movies as recently as this past year. Intentional writing is my favorite kind of writing, and Collins does an incredible job at making sure every event, symbol, and metaphor has meaning. The origins of the mocking jay symbol was such an amazing lore drop, and Collins refused to shy away from the intentional, multilayered cruelty of totalitarian governments, especially with a character named Lou Lou. The book itself is a tragedy, but I was comforted a bit by knowing that things would get a little better for the main character Haymitch in the original trilogy. I wanted to read the book before the movie came out this fall, and if the movie trailers are any indication, you can expect me to be talking about it in my future Q4 post.
MUSIC
I discovered Mollie Elizabeth through YouTube. She’s a relatively new, indie artist, who has been putting out daily videos to promote her upcoming EP. I was instantly mesmerized by her music. She’s like the lovechild of Lana Del Rey and Melanie Martinez. Her vibe is perfect for spooky season, as she projects a real haunted doll kind of fantasy. Run Rabbit was my introduction to her, and The Mirror is an exquisite example of her ability to bring new sounds to old adages.
Blind Pilot was at its peak when I was a teenager, and I would often put their songs on my mix tapes. I got my hands on their album And Then Like Lions years ago, and will go through phases of listening to it on repeat. About a month ago was one of those times. I’ve noticed that I really enjoy music with lyrics that sound like poetry, and this album definitely checks that box. Umpqua Rushing is paced beautifully with the last 30 seconds creating a tempo that, when singing along, evokes an emotional and cathartic response to the heartbreaking lyrics. As I’ve grown older, I’ve developed a deeper understanding and appreciation for the lyrics in Like Lions, which is written about anyone standing in the face of injustice, the feelings of futility and the sources of strength.
In some of my other blog posts, I’ve alluded to this year being difficult. One day, I hope to have the courage and clarity to write about it, but in the meantime, I think Paris Paloma’s new album The Fatal Flaw will have to suffice. It shouldn’t be a surprise, that after two posts of me talking about her, I’m lauding her full album now that it’s officially released. I have so many nice things to say about this album, including that I’m so grateful to experience it at this point in my life. Its main themes include love and art. In one interview, Paloma shared that the last song I Cry in Front of Paintings is a sister song to Rothko, another song earlier in the album. She shared that people famously cry when viewing Rothko paintings, but that was not her experience. She compared it to an earlier relationship, and how both the art and the idea of love were still available to her, but she had initially only experienced them in the wrong contexts—with the wrong person and the wrong gallery. I found that each song validated my personal experiences and carried me through all five stages of grief. By the time I heard I Cry in Front of Paintings, something in me clicked, and I realized that after all the grief I’ve experienced this year, I was finally starting to heal.
What art have you been consuming lately?