It is not at all surprising that John Waters’s favourite shop is Kayo – the provocatively underground, kitsch and subversive director adoring the provocatively underground, kitsch and subversive bookshop in San Francsico. Except Waters can surely
“Kayo is the most amazing bookstore in America because it’s the only one I’ve ever found that collects ‘uncollectibles’.” John Waters in the SS 2004 issue of AnOther.
It is not at all surprising that John Waters’s favourite shop is Kayo – the provocatively underground, kitsch and subversive director adoring the provocatively underground, kitsch and subversive bookshop in San Francsico. Except Waters can surely no longer be described as underground, can he? Well, in a way, yes, if we take underground to today describe an aesthetic and no longer a position. If it is an aesthetic then it is one that he has had a hand in dragging up and popularising, fetishising the archetype of the outsider until it has ended up being portrayed by Michael Ball on stage.
Ordained as the Pope of Trash by none other than William Burroughs (who will surely always be its laureate), Waters receives a religious-like devotion from his followers. A recent visitation to the Southbank Centre to give a talk drew scores of them to the venue. They came away with fond tales told by the director: that he never goes to gay bars, as it would position him as part of the majority – instead he goes to ultra-hetero biker bars and tries to befriend the regulars: that all the Dreamlanders (those who have appeared in his movies) bought grave plots next to each other. Divine is apparently already buried there.
He describes in his new book, Role Models, how his admiration for those that some may deem deplorable, such as pornographers, criminals (ex-Manson follower Leslie van Houten), the Baader Meinhof gang, is part of a wider “war on taste”. But in this way he becomes the ultimate taste maker; his motto, If it is outside, it is in.
Role Models is published by Beautiful Books, on sale now.
Text by Tim Burrows
