Cult film director, John Waters (“Hairspray,” “Pink Flamingos,”) joined Boston Public Radio hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan to talk about Carsick, a memoir he wrote premised on what he calls his "homo-hobo" journey from Baltimore to San Francisco, and his predictions and anxieties about it.
Maybe the least predictable notion of all is that "people in the middle of the country still pick up hitch hikers," Water shares. Second to that were the views of those he rode with. One man, he says, didn't trust Obama. Not because he appeared to be in favor of gay marriage, but because he appeared to be "wavering." More than that 'every straight man talked about how smart and wonderful his wife was...but it was his second wife," Water chuckles.
Everything about Waters is impeccably debonair, from his trademark pencil thin mustache to his colorful dress shit, and his slip-on Vans. But it's still not difficult to imagine him hopping in a random vehicle with an unknown stranger. "Hitchhiking isn't a beauty regimen," he cautions. There were many seedy hotels and filthy cars. Not that either of those things put him off.
In fact, "I stayed friends with the people that picked me up," he clarifies. He's encouraged them to run in elections, he's attended their Christmas parties. Water scoffs at the accusation of being an East Coast elitist: He's gone on an extended spoken-word tour through the deepest places in middle America. But, he says, those places are not as far away as you think: "Everywhere is cool now. Everywhere is the same. There's a little local color because of the internet, but it's all the same."
Ultimately Waters' journey through ordinary America, is just that. But maybe that's what makes it so extraordinary.
