desperate living

There's something wrong with John Waters. I appreciate his irreverence in some ways, but I also have to question his morals. It's difficult to watch his early movies because of what I consider to be animal cruelty; the chicken getting fucked in Pink Flamingos of course isn't really getting fucked, but the actor is roughing the chicken up while pretending to do so. I always chalked that up to John Waters being young and it being the 70s.

S and I watched Desperate Living last night. It was our second Netflix arrival; S's pick. I don't know what inspired him to put it in the queue. I'm not saying it was horrible or totally offensive. There were a lot of really great things about it. I guess what kind of bummed me out was the second (partial) watch-through with the commentary by John Waters turned on. He's a funny man, his observations about life and art always make me laugh. But his matter-of-fact attitude about the dead rats, skinned possum and slightly thawed dog acquired from the University of Maryland animal experimentation department kind of bummed me out.

It was also very exhausting watching a film in which every line is delivered at a 9 or above; lots of screaming, lots of bad acting, lots of lewdness. The human disgust amuses me, though putting a toddler in a refrigerator (even for just a second to get it on film) was unsettling.

Still, it was great to see Edith Massey again, playing the queen of Mortville with her overly gap-toothed smile, her hideous manner. Back in the day when S and I were first writing songs and performing together, I wrote a song for Edith Massey after seeing Pink Flamingos. In case you don't know the "storyline," Edith spends most of that movie in a baby pen, waiting for the Egg Man to come and bring much desired eggs.

Where is the Egg Man?
Don't he know I'm hungry?
Don't he know this trailerpark is big enough for us three?
Oh, I love him,
And I love eggs,
I love to blow them, suck them,
throw them, chuck them,
running down my legs.

It goes on, but I don't remember it right now. John Waters said that Desperate Living was the first movie he made that wasn't written high on pot. Likewise, when S and I first met and started writing music together, we were stoned around the clock (except when we were onstage). Songs like "The Egg Man" as well as "My Man, Our Horses, and Me" (our most popular song) were created while we were pretty stoned.

S and I made a video on an upstate NY chicken farm for "The Egg Man" and entered it in MTV's Most Unusual Band contest and won! That was back in '94, I guess. Those were the days; we appeared at some event with Beavis & Butthead's life-size puppets, got on The Jon Stewart Show, got flown out to California to sing "The Egg Man" on a standup show on Comedy Central, which replayed every year for several years. We pretty much gave up smoking pot and drinking around that time so we could be clear-headed and focus on our upcoming fame and natural fortune to follow.

I sent John Waters a copy of "The Egg Man" video back then and he sent a return postcard saying thanks and "Edith is probably looking down(?) and smiling."

Last night, we got high to watch Desperate Living. (As much as things change, they say the same.)