Dreams Are Made Of

Text and images by Dalya Turunc.

Do you ever feel like your memories, ideas and tastes are slipping into the abyss of the cloud? 

Like if you lost your phone, you’d fall off the face of the earth?

Well, you’re not alone. 

Regulars and first-timers alike swarm Cubbyhole, the West Village’s iconic queer bar, to exchange CDs, DVDs, zines, posters and books, gleaning their media the old-fashioned way – through trade. 

At the swap table, I hesitantly sacrifice my Joni Mitchell CD to the pile, then browse the offerings: a movie poster from The Mask, a Kesha vinyl in pristine condition, a play by Ira Levin and so much more.

I could sit there for hours, trying to assess people’s personalities based solely on what they bring, and what they take. 

Imani Thompson, 26, approaches the table with a tape at hand, posting a flyer for her own party about divesting from Google and Spotify and returning to analog media. 

She swaps Nostalgia, Ultra by Frank Ocean on a burned CD, along with two copies of her cybersecurity zine. 

She reaches for the Kesha vinyl. 

“I think people have created agency with their relationships with technology for convenience,” Thompson says. “And now it’s no longer convenient. So people want to build those leadership skills again on how to own their own technology.” 

The person behind the idea of the Physical Media Swap event is the 26-year-old bartender who goes by the moniker “Handsome.”  

“The beauty in this event is that it’s, like, almost like a lack of organization, everybody just putting shit down, chit-chatting with each other over by the table,” Handsome says. “I was like, not only will people come to the bar, but also people will be doing something I love, which is, like, embracing fucking physical media.”

I eventually leave with one too many zines and stickers in my pockets, but hey, the Joni Mitchell CD feels like a fair trade.