Welcome to bad bvssy, your local forum on art, music, and film — curated for bad tastemakers, pseudo-spiritual sluts, and chronic doom-scrollers.
Why subscribe?
As humans get older, we spend less time with new people and get stuck in endless loops of the same music, the same stories. I felt this phenomenon hit me during the lockdown accompanied by the COVID-19 pandemic, where I became averse to trying new things. When I began my medical transition years ago, I began to discover new pieces of culture: new movies, new music, new books. As I started to lean into the art of discovery, I decided to commit myself to the joy of exploring newness through storytelling.
This blog is for anyone seeking newness through art and culture, with some help of cutting through the noise of the internet and finding pieces of art and culture that will hopefully resonate with women, 2SLGBTQI+ people, people of color, and other folks living amongst the margins of our societies. Here at bad bvssy, you can sift through several sections:
a what’s-what cultural roundup of recent moments, objects, and pieces of art I love or haven’t been able to stop thinking about, featuring occasional q+a’s with extra special guests (my more-qualified friends).
Personal updates on human living and essays navigating change. This really ranges and is offered for readers who are simply interested in keeping up with the writer behind the curtain.
film:
writings on cinema and television, often to talk about what I’m thinking about in the world. this ranges from short reviews and updates on what I’m watching to more focused essays on a specific title or project.
updates on new music releases and exploring older releases. I’ll be sharing what I’m listening to, what I loved, and what music I’m most looking forward to. genre interests range across the board, with a focus on independent and experimental releases — as well as a deep love for pop, electronic, dance, folk, rock, rap, and more.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
"'Sex and the City'" meets Susan Sontag but if she were Filipina-American, Transgender, and exploring the possibility of a future in comedy."
—My Mom
"Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it."
—Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, on bad bvssy
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laya Lee (she/they) was born to a Filipina woman from the provinces of Mindanao (Subanen land) and a southern White American man from the bayou of Louisiana (Caddo land). She was raised on unceded indigenous land of the Anishinaabe collective, home to many tribes, including the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, and more, also known as Chicago, USA.
Since she was 6, Laya has found unique ways of tucking herself away into quiet, tidy boxes and now spends much of her later years crawling her way out. She has since traded a life of quietude and passivity to recommit herself to a mission of pursuing boldness and honesty through art and storytelling. In her efforts to cultivate joy and whimsicality, she wields comedy, criticism, writing, film, and yapping as mediums of connection.
Laya holds a BFA in Studio Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has shared a variety of visual & video-based work in program screenings and group exhibitions in Chicago and Berlin. Her favorite pastimes include tracking moon cycles, overthinking her social media presence, and considering quitting art to break into e-sports, just to be quirky.
INSTAGRAM / TIKTOK / LETTERBOX’D / SPOTIFY / SUBSTACK
HOW TO SUPPORT
bad bvssy functions as a newsletter — with essays, reviews, and posts going straight to your inbox. You can support by subscribing today, or letting me know you like my work in the comments! Wanna get connected? Reply to my updates in Substack or reach out at layatate.info@gmail.com.
