John Waters, 1983. Baltimore, Maryland. Nikkormat, 50mm. Kodachrome 200. NIK
Happy 76th birthday to cinema’s King of Sleaze, the People’s Pervert, the Queer Confucius and everyone’s favourite corrupting role model - John Waters (born 22 April 1946)! Waters’ evergreen cult classicks (sic) like Pink Flamingos(1972),Female Trouble (1974) and Desperate Living (1977) have been warping the imaginations of malcontents for generations now. Years ago, the official Dreamland News Facebook page suggested the following festive tips to commemorate Waters’ birthday. I’ll reproduce them here: “Get a ludicrously large hair-do, tattoo your flesh with the name of your idol, smoke cigarettes in the girls room, give a stranger a rosary job, have an interracial love affair, return a gift for the money (you can do that, you know), stomp some honky lady’s foot, send your enemy a turd, declare it backwards day at the office, prank call your next door neighbour, teabag some old queen at the bar, dance lewdly for a quarter, mainline liquid eyeliner, drink the tears of your incarcerated lover, order a double egg-salad on white toast, do the hokey-pokey… EAT DOG SHIT.”
