Pecker

Lowbrow fixations elevated shamelessly to a highly original comic manifesto.
-- John Waters on his own book, "Crackpot"

Sunday, November 8, 1998

I talked with my sister M--- this morning, about her car troubles. She has a Taurus wagon that got overheated and possibly has a cracked block. But instead of replacing it, they are putting some gunk in it to try and seal up the crack, then going back this week for a followup visit. You don't usually do that for a car; wait around to see if it is healed. I'll be going over there for dinner this Thursday, I hope.

I took the bus downtown again, to see the John Waters movie Pecker. I think it must not be doing well at the box office; there were about seven people total in the audience! It's a good-hearted, almost tender, story of a naive young man who takes pictures of his Baltimore neighborhood. Actually I think Waters has always had this kindly way of looking at the weird things he loves. He is a very funny writer; his short pieces are well worth reading!

I walked around after the movie, then remembered a store that I wanted to check out but hadn't been to lately: Nordstrom Rack, where things go after they leave the Nordstrom's store. You have to be careful there, though. Lots of things aren't marked down; instead they are specially purchased for the Rack.

I did find some cool stuff that was a good value: tights in weird colors like wintermelon, lime, and rose quartz, that started out at ten dollars and got reduced to ninety seven cents! I made some other clothing purchases, too, but resisted all candles, soaps, and lotions.

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Dinner at McDonalds at Westlake Mall: why didn't the counter worker just name the kind of soda that they did have, instead of asking the customers what drink they wanted, then revealing at each choice that they were out of that kind. "Diet Coke, please." "Sorry, none." "Regular Coke?" "Nope!" "Well, what do you have?" "Sprite and Mr. Pibb." So I picked Mr. Pibb, which I think I haven't had in years and years. I remember I used to drink it sometimes in college, while snacking on barbecue potato chips. Try it sometime!

After dozing off for a while in the late afternoon, I woke up and tried on some of my recent purchases. Why do two velour t-shirts, supposedly the same size, fit so differently? One is close-fitting but not outrageous, but the other is really unwearable.

I got a call from Stacey: I'm in for Swing Out Northwest! I was chatting with her about this at Friday night practice, since she had said that the beginning of November would be the deciding time. People had to have paid in full by this date, or they'd be out. I'm really psyched! I had been afraid that I wouldn't have been able to go. My friend Darren Holloway will be there as well. I haven't seen him since April.