One of my favorite zines from way back in the 1990's was Dishwasher, the continuing saga of an amiable but aimless young man attempting to get a job as a dishwasher in all 50 states. It ran 15 issues and was always well-written and attractively designed, which couldn't have been easy considering Dishwasher Pete was putting it together while on the road, sleeping on friends' couches and (usually surreptitiously) visiting copy shops when he wasn't shoulder-deep in suds.
He disappeared in the late 90's and occasionally I'd Google "Dishwasher Pete" just to see if there was any news about him or if Dishwasher #16 was finally out. But the hits were always old ones -- Dishwasher Pete on PRI's "This American Life" or the story of how he scammed David Letterman by having a buddy pretend to be Dishwasher Pete on that show.
Well, Dishwasher Pete is back. He's living in Amsterdam, working as a bicycle mechanic and he's written a very entertaining book about his days dish-dogging everywhere from hippie communes to trains to resorts to oil rigs. (Some review blurbs have compared this book to "On the Road" but if you're like me and Truman Capote, and you think Jack Kerouac's writing was just typing, don't worry ""Dishwasher" is a lot better than that.)
Check out Dishwasher Pete's website and see him on the Letterman show (for real this time).
2 comments:
If you agree with Capote about Kerouac....then you have limited vision and zero appreciation of the sacredness of life that Jack so tenderly and poetically shared with us.
Maybe you're right, T.J. but then again maybe I just like coherent prose.
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