Tentatively, Convenience's Reviews > Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black

Autobiographical recollections from Cookie Mueller - who's most known for being in John Waters' early movies. As a Baltimorean, I was glad to read these stories (even though not all of them take place in B-More). As someone who loves Waters' earlier 16mm films, I was glad to read reminiscences of Mueller making "Pink Flamingoes", eg. In the chapter about that she wrote:

"Making low budget films is work, but it's fun, it's more than working in big budget films. If you're an actor, there is nothing more rewarding, despite the meager pay. On small films you get to know the whole cast and crew in a day, and all of these people are much more inventive because of the limited budget; they create effects that wouldn't have been born if there was more money. Necessity is the mother of invention; this is true. John is a master at this, his imagination runneth over."

What I most remember about this is Mueller's vivid description of someone ODing on heroin at a party & people's desperate attempts to successfuly save their life. After bringing them back from near-death, the person wanted to shoot more heroin. Or something like that. Mueller died in 1989 of AIDS. Too bad, she was an excellent social observor, another sterling example of a working class intellectual, someone who cd write incisively about some truly miserable shit.