Getting Kinky at the Library

Shame on you! Get your mind out of the gutter. I'm talking about Kinky Friedman. He spoke tonight at my small town Texas Library. This is the Kinkster's 2nd visit to the library, ostensibly to talk about his books and about writing. But things have changed since his first visit nearly 3 years ago. This time he's running for governor.

The first time he was here there were lots of sexual references...I can recall a number of audience gasps...and I distinctly remember the word sphincter being used. That was then. This was now.

Tonight Kinky talked a lot of common sense, a lot of humor, and the one edible he knew that any Texan worth his salt would eat heartily: Texana. He referenced Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Sam Houston...all the legendary icons of Texas which were nostalgic, and vote-getting safe bets.

But I have to give him kudos: as he made the audience comfortable, wrapping them in this blanket of Texana, he threw a few curve balls. He said that politicians tried to get everybody worked up over issues that meant absolutely nothing. The issue he cited: gay marriage. He said it wouldn't hurt anybody. That same statement coming from me would have raised the possibility of my being physically attacked. Coming from the cigar-chomping, goateed, black-hatted cowboy-looking Kinky, it was warmly received.

And there was also the idea of naming Willie Nelson as his energy secretary. Or Czar. Or something (I thought ol' Willie should have been drug Czar. Lord knows he's done plenty of research on the subject). He thought we all should be using biodiesel instead of gasoline. He's right.

Something that came through, without a doubt, is that Kinky is serious about being governor. He's not too fond of the political process and his anti-politician leanings seem quite sincere. He hopes as governor to charm the pants off those who want to continue politics as they are.

Is it the cynic in me who thinks there's something further here? Yes, I do think Kinky would love to do Texas good, to turn the place around to start doing some of what it should but isn't, and stop doing some of what it shouldn't, but is. I think there's something more though. I think that as a mondo-bizarro country/western singer, an award-winning widely-read author, a saver of stray animals, I think he wants to be able to put Governor on his lack of resume (surely the Kinkster doesn't actually have one, does he?). I think he wants to lend his name an immortality that will put it up there with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jenning and Sam Houston.

I've read several of his books and can highly recommend him. I've seen him work the crowd twice now, and am cognizant of his talents as a humorist. And you should know that he has a gentle, artistic, poetic and world-weary streak that comes out only occasionally in his writing that's really exceptional. He gets my vote for one of the top five most interesting Texas artists. What remains to be seen though, is whether he'll get my vote for governor.