XL Cover Story: Trashing the town

Oh, no, there goes the neighborhood. John Waters and Traci Lords in the same night? Fabulous!

  More:
• Trash master John Waters embraces his medium & holds mainstream in his sway
• From porn to B flicks to memoirs, Traci Lords has done it all

If you need further evidence that subversive "trash" culture has been embraced by the mainstream, Waters himself points out that the No. 4 title on the New York Times best-seller list for children's picture books is "Walter the Farting Dog."

From raunchy Hollywood movies like "There's Something About Mary" and "Jackass" to the surging popularity of swanky "gentlemen's clubs" (aka, strip bars), taboos that were once indulged on the sly are now out in the open for the taking. All you need is an ID card, and sometimes, as with Internet smut, you don't even need that, though Attorney General John Ashcroft is looking into it.

Tonight, right here in Austin, two formerly marginalized trash artists are appearing in separate and utterly mainstream venues. Waters — whose murky, outlaw films of the '70s ("Pink Flamingos," "Mondo Trasho") are sleaze totems — and Traci Lords — busted by the feds for doing porn as a minor in the '80s — are presenting shows that just about anyone can attend, and many will.

Both figures are dramatic instances of reinvention. Through the years, Waters has moved from the X-rated stunts in "Pink Flamingos" to slick Hollywood comedies that are embraced by Broadway. Lords has shucked her teen porn diva image, acts in sitcoms and signs her memoirs at respectable stores such as Austin's Book People (as she did last August).

Waters admits to being the godfather of much recent shock entertainment, an influence leading to R-rated gross-out comedies such as "American Pie" and "Me, Myself and Irene."

Thing is, we aren't shocked anymore. Not even by self-styled "shock jocks."

Shock/gross-out culture has become "just plain American humor," Waters told the American-Statesman in 1999. "It has certainly grown from its early roots in exploitation into a completely mainstream taste. It has taken over."

Meanwhile, Quentin Tarantino resurrects retro exploitation flicks in "Kill Bill," honoring them with juvenile religiosity. Critics and audiences adore the bloody over-the-top violence that drenches his martial arts revenge tale. "It's just so cool," they think.

Occasionally what's permissible has to be redefined and moral watchdogs stir into righteous action. Janet Jackson's exposed breast during the Super Bowl halftime show was deemed absolutely intolerable by many cultural observers. The horse passing torrential gas in a woman's face in a commercial during the Super Bowl went unremarked.

"On the one hand you see culture going in (a trashy) direction, and on the other they're squashing it all out," says Lords, who says she is against censorship.

If you don't like it, trash master Waters offers a practical alternative to government restrictions — and his own definition of junk culture.

"Just turn it off. That's what I do when Forrest Gump starts running. I have my community standards, too," Waters says. "Who do I call? I'd like to know who I'm supposed to complain to during the barn-raising scene in 'Witness.' "

  More:
• Trash master John Waters embraces his medium & holds mainstream in his sway
• From porn to B flicks to memoirs, Traci Lords has done it all