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The New York Post
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/59780.htm (hace falta registrarse)THE HOT SEAT
By MARY HUHN
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December 18, 2005 -- John Waters IF quirky, Christmas-loving filmmaker John Waters caught the Grinch stuffing a tree up the chimney, he'd probably serve him some eggnog.
The director gets a kick out of holiday insanity. A Baltimore native who also keeps an apartment in Manhattan, Waters is a fan of Christmas movies and music, but not traditional ones.
On Wednesday, Waters will appear at the Bowery Ballroom to give a holiday spoken-word performance, including a yarn about the time a Christmas tree fell on his grandmother. His guests include ex-Moldy Peach Kimya Dawson and the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players.
Waters has been listening to Yuletide tunes such as "Fat Daddy" and "Santa Claus is a Black Man" - a take on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" - since he was a kid. For his "A John Waters Christmas" album, he and his producer sifted through hundreds of obscure records to find other lost classics, like the sappy orphan tale "Little Mary Christmas."
He spoke to The Post about his Christmas fixation and his untraditional traditions - this year, his Christmas card is his mug shot.
Q:Are you feeling the holiday spirit yet?
A:Well, actually, I have the Christmas album out and I am going on a spoken word tour for the John Waters' Christmas. Between those two things, I am in full Christmas mode.
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Q:Tell us about your show.
A:Well, I have an hour monologue about my obsession with Christmas - about Christmas crime, Christmas presents, about the Christmas tree falling over on my grandma, what I want for Christmas, about Christmas music, about what you should give people for Christmas, how to shoplift at Christmas, how Christmas is good for criminals.
It's an all-around Christmas feel-good-feel-bad lecture about how to get through the holidays.
Q:Do you leave people feeling good or bad?
A:I think always good. Even if people feel bad about Christmas, I have good advice for them about what to do to make it feel better for them. Anybody that has extreme feelings about Christmas, I think I have good advice for.
Q:How did you end up with your extreme feelings about Christmas?
A:As a kid it was always a big moment. I just saw how it brought out people's emotions and how people seemed so berserk about it and everything. It always interested me and I always try to find extreme stuff about Christmas, like weird Christmas movies, Christmas music.
Q:You make movies, but you put together an album of odd Christmas songs. Tell me about "Santa Claus is a Black Man."
A:I used to hear it on the radio and loved it, because it pushed people's buttons. Baltimore was a racially tense city - there were riots, George Wallace was shot there.
I thought it was delightful because it has a child singer, and then the father comes in and sings about Afros and says "Right on!" And then there's mother, who is a really great singer, and then they bring the Chipmunks in - like they didn't have faith in the song, so at the end they added the Chipmunks. It's the mother lode of Christmas lunatic songs. It surprises you from many different angles.
Q:Any more plans for those songs?
A:I want to do videos for all of them next year. I'd love to see pictures [of the musicians] if they are alive and what happened to all of them. Like little Cindy, who sang "Happy Birthday, Jesus," where is she today? Does she know she is on the album?
Q:You didn't find little Cindy?
A:Well, we didn't have to find little Cindy because she didn't write it. She was 8 years old. I have no idea of the truth of little Cindy, but in my mind I picture her mother forcing her into a little studio in Alabama somewhere and she has on a little ripped Christmas outfit and she paid the money to get a demo or something. That is what I think is so endearing - you feel like you are there with little Cindy in the recording booth.
Q:What's your criteria for a John Waters Christmas song?
A:I wanted to have ones that weren't hipster songs - all these songs were done seriously. I don't think there is an ounce of irony in any of them. I think that's what makes them so good, because I am weary of irony even though I am an irony peddler.
Q:Where do you stand on the Happy Holidays vs. Christmas debate?
A:Well, I have always had my Christmas card say "Season's Greetings" for that very reason. But I am doing a Christmas tour. I never really thought about it, but I even have a politically incorrect title this year.
Q:What are you doing this Christmas?
A:It's my turn this year to cook the Christmas dinner for my whole family, which will be exhausting. I arrive home from this tour and the next day is my holiday party, which I've been doing for the last 40 years, and the next day is Christmas Eve, and the next day I have to cook dinner for my clan.
Q:What are you going to make?
A:Turkey and sauerkraut. Everyone in Maryland has sauerkraut with their turkey. I don't know why. And mashed potatoes - very traditional. I was out in California, wondering why they didn't have sauerkraut. I didn't know everyone didn't have it.
Q:Do you have any favorite Christmas movies?
A:There is only one great cult Christmas movie to me and it's "Christmas Evil." It also has another title - "You Better Watch Out."
It's about a man that one day is shaving and he notices that the shaving cream makes him look like Santa Claus, so he begins to take on the life of Santa Claus. He spies on children, gets a job at a toy factory and starts lurking around people's roofs. So people just think he is an insane lunatic. It's a lovely, great movie.
Q:Are you looking forward to any of this year's big holiday-season movies?
A:Well yes, the gay cowboy movie - I may go see that tomorrow. I like to go to movies at 10 a.m. That's one of the best things about New York, these 10 a.m. shows. I am big on the foreign films and the weirdo movies. The kind of movies that V.A. Musetto writes about are the ones I go see.
¿no tendrá alguien este disco?
