Cyberflanerie: John Waters Appreciation Edition

I just look at him and want to laugh-- with him. He's a sort of Edgar Allen Poe x David Byrne x Ichabod Crane x Andy Warhol x Diane Vreeland (if she ever had anything to do with Baltimore)-- beyond brilliant. Not that I relish the movies (the few I've watched seemed to me wince-worthy, at best, Divine divinely and hilariously gross). What I appreciate, sincerely, is his joy as an artist. And I almost went to Baltimore the other weekend after the Writer's Center's "Publish Now!" seminar (more about that anon). But then I didn't. Oh well. The crab cakes can wait. But not my appreciation of John Waters.

John Water's Marfa poster
"Eat food all the same color!.. Pretend to see the Marfa Lights!... The Jonestown of minimalism!" Note, my chickadeecitos, that it is priced at $3,000 and sold out.

The Bat Segundo Interview podcast

The Vanity Fair Proust Questionnaire

The New Yorker calls him ... something not so nice

Interview at the Nervous Breakdown

NYT explains the "Odarama"

Dreamland Ultimate Guide to John Waters
Including a special page devoted to Divine

John Waters in Switzerland

More anon.

COMMENTS.

Crab Cakes in Baltimore with Sally Shivnan

Not much blogging this week as I've been in Baltimore--- where travel writer Sally Shivnan invited me to offer a travel writing workshop and then present the new paperback edition of my travel memoir of Mexico's Baja California, Miraculous Air. It was a lively and talented group of students, and the reading was extra special for me because it was the first time I had seen the paperback. If I do say so myself, it looks pretty good. Then we went out for, what else in Baltimore, crab cakes! By the way, Sally Shivan's essay "Airborne" appears in Best American Travel Writing 2006, and her essay "Gringa Morisca" in Traveler's Tales Best Travel Writing 2005. Look for her articles in the Washington Post and elsewhere.

Speaking of travel writing, I'll be chairing a panel on travel writing for the Washington Independent Writers Conference June 9th, and offering another travel writing workshop at the Bethesda MD Writers Center on June 16th.

I'll also be offering some writing workshops in Mexico City. More anon.