Role Models is from filmmaker John Waters. If you are already a fan of his, this is the book for you and I highly recommend it. Everyone else, maybe not so much.
It's a biography interspersed with intimate profiles of favourite personalities he has met over the years. Some are famous (Johnny Mathis), some infamous (Leslie Van Houten), and some unknowns from the lower social circles of Baltimore. This is John's invitation and introduction to some of the unique characters he has known.
He is usually called perverse, hilarious and the king of filth. I can see where, in the seventies, he presented an extreme view of society, but this is 2013, and he has long since passed the films he made such as Pink Flamingos to become an iconic artist. His crossover hit Hairspray went on to be a Broadway musical (then a mainstream hit film), followed by Cry Baby with Johnny Depp, Cecil B. Demented with Melanie Griffith, and A Dirty Shame with Tracy Ullman. But then you know all this, because you are a fan of his who see his films and read his books, like this one.
"My favourite characters are people who think they're normal, but they're not. I live in Baltimore, and it's full of people like that. I get my best material in Baltimore - you get dialogue that you just couldn't imagine."
Several dive bars of Baltimore are featured, with profiles of local legends like the masked lesbian stripper named Zorro, and Native-American Esther Martin who ran a derelicts bar called the WigWam.
He includes a hilarious profile of Rei Kawabuko, the Commes des Garcons designer, revelling in the fact the clothes are made to look like they are falling apart. He enjoys wearing his Burberry-like plaid jacket with the extra panel sewn on, making it too long thing ~ Or his off-white shag rug jacket that looks so much like a dirty bath mat that "strangers always laugh in my face. "You bought that?!"
It really doesn't matter to him, adding "And I'm sixty-three years old!".
Anyone who draws a moustache on his face with a marker every day is used to standing out a little. It's what makes life interesting. If everybody looked the same, we'd get tired of looking at each other.
He encourages reading with profiles of his favourite authors, and is an avid art collector. There are profiles of Cy Twombly and Mike Kelley and Richard Tuttle. He buys what he likes and gives the work prominence in his home, living with it and not storing it like some collectors might.
The main feeling I gathered from Role Models was his eager appetite for the new and different. People, art, books, lifestyles - He treats everyone on an equal footing and with respect. Wether he is Christmasing with Valentino in Switzerland, or drinking in a dive in Baltimore, he fits in and finds interest in everything. If you also are open to exploring diverse individuals, these profiles are fascinating and hilarious. It's a great book.
But then you know that because you like him enough to read this review, so go read the book now.
2010 / Tradeback / 294 pages
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