PLAGUES AND PLEASURES OF THE SALTON SEA

By VBS Staff

If you’re a newfound devotee of Leonard Knight’s paint and adobe gospel, you should check out this documentary on the ruins of the Imperial Valley’s attempted paradise on the Salton Sea. A slightly younger Leonard makes an appearance, as does an old evangelical nudist named Naked Don who’s like his weird, hedonistic bizarro self. There’s also an old Hungarian revolutionary, a manic real estate shill who brought the first McDonald’s to Haight-Ashbury in the 70s, a champion fisherman, and the spirit of Sonny Bono who was trying to push through legislation to revitalize the seaside before he was assassinated by that tree. Oh yeah, and the whole thing’s narrated by John Waters, who we could listen to for days. It’s sort of like the Brazil to Slab City’s Thunderdome. Except without the whole nightmare face. Go here to buy a copy