In bad taste #7: 2023 forecast

featuring guest contributors!

Hi, thanks for being here. The entirety of In bad taste is a paid-subscribers only feature. You still have a few days to upgrade your subscription for 25 percent off. No matter what, I’ll see you in 2023, with continued gratitude that you’re reading along <3

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2022 is in its eclipse. I won’t say thank God because I don’t find the changing of the year to be that monumental. It’s only a new calendar, just as much as a new month means a new page. I’m a believer that we all exist in multiple time slices, past, present, and future. Lucky us, to get to relive our greatest hits and worst mistakes. To be reveling somewhere in the best that’s yet to come but for that future version of us is the present. Loss is only a change in relationship to a thing that was. And I’m not sure if I believe anything is truly lost forever. Things just change form.

Things change, including what’s tasteful and what’s less tasteful. No list will be the single source of truth. That’s why the endless posts of in/out lists lately on Twitter are so fun (I’m particularly a fan of @sourhoestarter’s, and @aflaneurnyc’s lists).

little caesar @poettease

everyone’s little 2023 in/out lists are my personal spotify wrapped

At the end of the day, it’s all a matter of taste, and we all think we know best. No one is going to get it right. Many lists on Twitter contradict each other and that’s part of the fun. I am not even sure if I believe there’s such a thing as good taste anymore, but that’s a conversation for another day.

Anyways I think it’s always good to have multiple forecasters in the mix. That’s why I recruited Charlotte from Insecure Tea and Kate from Desire Lines (as well as some friends of the blog) to help me put together this forecast for 2023. (Yes, I know this is so late and you’ve read a thousand of these. I am nothing if not consistently late to the game.) As you know if you’ve been following monthly forecasts, I’m less interested in what is out. Nothing really goes out of style forever—looking at you with reverence and affection, indie sleaze. I believe we figure out what’s out by virtue of experience something distasteful. Let everything happen to you, says Rilke.

Bookmark this, and let’s see what comes true and what’s laughably wrong by this time next year. Whatever happens, I hope 2023 brings you what you’re looking for, even if you have no idea what you’re looking for just yet.

Forecast for 2023