Email Author Tom Austin

1993 Stories by Tom Austin

• Swelter 37

  published December 29, 1993

  Rat city, ugly little beasts growing fat and sleek in a tropical cornucopia, vermin functioning as the true parallel creatures to the human race,... More >>

• Swelter 36

  published December 22, 1993

  Once more into the breach of Trashland USA, wallowing in the lurid and lewd, the frenzied countdown to the half-baked resolutions of the new year... More >>

• Swelter 35

  published December 15, 1993

  Oh by gosh, by golly, it's Christmas time, the town that never stays home plunging headlong into a marathon of high-octane socializing. The... More >>

• Swelter 34

  published December 8, 1993

  The Miami story, wired up and ready to roll, the city functioning on scatterbrained creative circuity. Ordinary life, as of late, coming to... More >>

• Swelter 33

  published December 1, 1993

  White Party week, a crush of the noble and base, the pure and putrid, undercut by the frenzy of renown, from Prince to the luminaries of the gay... More >>

• Swelter 32

  published November 24, 1993

  Settle back and relax, it's Prozac time. Life just doesn't get any weirder -- or much worse either -- than this. A dicey proposition of... More >>

• Swelter 31

  published November 17, 1993

  Miami, a tumble through fortune and folly, the celebrated making random unscheduled cameo appearances, propping up a rapidly faltering production.... More >>

• Swelter 30

  published November 10, 1993

  Show business, the new opiate of the masses, rife with ritualized pageantry and comforting recreational delusions, enveloping and pernicious as a... More >>

• Swelter 29

  published November 3, 1993

  Halloween weekend, the national holiday for the nightlife industry, a surreal but profitable refraction of ordinary club existence, sort of like... More >>

• Swelter 28

  published October 27, 1993

  The breaking filth beat, learning too much about people, most of it unpleasant. Lurk around enough crowded rooms, nod politely at appropriate... More >>

• Swelter 27

  published October 20, 1993

  A surrealistic sojourn in the City of Angels, the American dreamscape, glittery and cruel as a mirage, an eerie augury of Miami's destiny. Mired... More >>

• Swelter 26

  published October 13, 1993

  Once more into the breach, another onslaught of rigorous fun, another year of hope triumphing over experience. The season, a heady brew of... More >>

• Swelter 25

  published October 6, 1993

  The party circuit, an ugly scramble for the hollow moment, the regulars rooting around like epicene little pigs, chasing after trifles and... More >>

• Swelter 24

  published September 29, 1993

  Miami, another year of hype and hustle in the city of ambition, another rush to seize the moment in the town that glamour built. A tropical... More >>

• Swelter 23

  published September 22, 1993

  Rosh Hashanah, a new year, a new beginning, a new attitude of unsettling contentment, gooey delight reigning in the house of nice. The first... More >>

• Swelter

  published September 8, 1993

  September song, a seasonal dirge for a cruelly unyielding landscape, the brain a vicious jumble of frippery and unsavory associations, one vast... More >>

• Swelter 20

  published September 1, 1993

  The dog days of the killing season, tempers fraying, minds unraveling, the dark reaches of the collective unconsciousness bubbling up to the... More >>

• Swelter 19

  published August 25, 1993

  Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving, the fortunate and feckless alike craving something beyond their fair share of the available... More >>

• Swelter 18

  published August 18, 1993

  Step right up and check it out, junk culture a go go, the side show that never ends. Girls in various stages of undress and whoredom, freaks up... More >>

• Swelter 17

  published August 11, 1993

  The glitterati constellation, world without end, a black hole of hype and hustle, chance and destiny, ruled by the quantum theory of fabulousness.... More >>

• Swelter

  published August 4, 1993

  The real life funnies, Miami assuming the dimensions of a comic strip, spiced up and dumbed down for the tropical market. Love & Rockets parodying... More >>

• Swelter 15

  published July 28, 1993

  The world needs more love, not more gossip columnists. But then, rooting through the detritus of Western culture, all the gratuitous innuendo,... More >>

• Swelter 14

  published July 21, 1993

  A return to real life after an all-too-brief vacation, slipping in and out of the immediate, pulled back into the dreamscape of memory. "Big Bad... More >>

• Swelter 13

  published July 14, 1993

  Our summer vacation, a busman's holiday amidst the rich pageant of New York, taken up for the season by Patrick McMullan of Interview, mindful of... More >>

• Swelter

  published June 30, 1993

  Memento mori, a dance to the music of time, the distinctions between past, present, and future blurring, the curious workings of memory and... More >>