In 13 feature films, including "Pink Flamingos" and "Hairspray, " he gleefully presents depraved characters undermining a society of squares.

WSJ: John Waters

Some 106 miles to the southeast is a network of salt lakes that are home in spring and summer to vast flocks of pink flamingos.

BBC: New horizons in Kazakhstan

Waters was gleeful at having made a teen-message movie with a PG rating: He was, after all, the Prince of Puke, the man who'd ended Pink Flamingos with his homicidal heroine eating a fresh doggy turd.

NPR: Hollywood's Musical 'Hairspray,' a Little Too Bouffant

Farther upstream, the horizon turns pink and the boat punts towards hundreds of squawking flamingos, hopping in and out of the water as they forage for lunch or fly off to the riverbanks.

BBC: Relaxing among the Yucatan's flamingos