Pegged on the massive new Andy Warhol retrospective opening today at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the New York Times asked the likes of Fran Lebowitz, Mary Woronov, Joe Dallesandro, Viva, and many other of his friends, collaborators, and party guests to reminisce about their experiences of The Factory, in all three of its incarnations. A few bits from the New York Times feature:
André Leon Talley, 69, fashion journalist. Receptionist at the Union Square Factory, 1975.
The Factory was very much a creative playpen, but there were still rules. You had to show up every day, or you would be fired. Andy was always walking around being very vague about everything. But you had to be enthusiastic. There was a seriousness about the place, a decorum and deportment.
Mary Woronov (star of "Chelsea Girls")
One day a drug dealer came up. He shot up this girl, and she for some reason passed out. It was in the bathtub. She went under water. We thought she was dead. We panicked because she was not waking up. Finally someone said, “We should send her down the mail chute.” We wrote little notes on her body and puts stamps on her forehead. Then we realized she wasn’t dead. I don’t think she would have fit in the mail chute. But we would have tried.
In those days the Factory was like a medieval court of lunatics. You pledged allegiance to the king — King Warhol. Yet there was oddly no hierarchy. Warhol was also one of us.
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Marianne Keating from The Tate takes viewers through the complex process of making prints in the style of many of Andy Warhol's most famous silk screen works. Read the rest
John Wilcock describes the circumstances behind his quitting The East Village Other over their review of Andy Warhol's 1966 film
Chelsea Girls.
Mean Jean Okerlund interviewed the inimitable Andy Warhol backstage at the 1985 World Wrestling Federation event "The War to Settle the Score." Bonus glimpse of Mr. T and also Cyndi Lauper who was all over the big time wrestling scene at the time.
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A book of John Wilcock comics is now available
A variety of Warhol Moments of 1965, including the filming of Poor Little Rich Girl and Beauty #2 with Edie Sedgwick, Nam June Paik's video delay prank, and the first meeting of The Velvet Underground with Andy Warhol, which John witnessed in person, during the band's stay at Rick Allmen's Cafe Bizarre. From John Wilcock, New York Years. Read the rest
Returning from a trip abroad, John returns to Andy Warhol's Factory to meet a young, fragile, and beautiful Edie Sedgwick.
Andy Warhol eats a Whopper, from Jørgen Leth's 1982 documentary/art film "66 Scenes from America," a collection of moving "postcards" from the United States.
According to YouTube user Hidden Below, who posted this clip, Warhol eating the burger is "a classic ASMR trigger scene, so if you got ASMR you might wanna bookmark this video for a good time."
Noted.
(via Weird Universe)
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A comic strip about Freddie Herko, who was a captivating and influential artist in New York, until his untimely death at age 28, in 1964. From
John Wilcock, New York Years. (Supplements include Andy Warhol's screen test of Herko and an appreciation from The Guardian)
Andy Warhol recorded nearly 1,000 rolls of mostly little-known 16mm film documenting the 1960s avant-garde art world. The Andy Warhol Museum and MoMA are now digitizing this vast archive. Read the rest
Yesterday would have been Andy Warhol's 85th birthday. To mark the occasion, the Warhol Museum and @EarthCam are livestreaming footage of his gravesite. The broadcast is the work of Madelyn Roehrig, a part of her Asking Andy anything project.
Some passers-by wave at the camera. Some talk on their cellphones, apparently unaware of the countless invisible observers. One man, dressed in a kilt, spent many hours at the graveside, playing “Happy Birthday” on a horn and chatting with other Warhol pilgrims. Finally, alone in the dark, he lit up cigarette and took a closer look at Warhol's grave.
The live stream continues today, and visitors still file in and out of the frame to pay their respects—often for 15 minutes or so. Warhol would be amused. Read the rest
In 2002, a fellow paid 75 cents at a New York City flea market for a curious acetate recording of the Velvet Underground. Turns out, the acetate contained early recorded takes and mixes of songs that in different form eventually became my favorite album of all time, The Velvet Underground & Nico. As I posted in 2006, the acetate landed on eBay with an insane $155,401 closing bid. No surprise, but the bidder bailed. The acetate was relisted, finally selling for $25,200. After multiple bootlegs and digital files circulated (like the above YouTube clip), the "Scepter Studios Acetate" was officially released last year on the "45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition" CD box set of The Velvet Underground & Nico, which I included on the Boing Boing Holiday Gift Guide. Well, now you can finally buy an officially vinyl release of the Velvet Underground Scepter Studios Acetate. In fact, I just did! Velvet Underground & Nico: "Scepter Studios Acetate" Read the rest
Several years ago, Dean Wareham (ex-Galaxie 500) and Britta Phillips (ex-Luna) created an alluring soundtrack of new songs and covers to accompany Andy Warhol's famed "Screen Tests" shot at The Factory in the mid-1960s. On February 9, Dean & Britta will bring this mesmerizing multimedia song cycle to life once again in a special concert at the the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. "13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests"
(The Dean & Britta event is just a week after I will be interviewing Peter Hook of New Order and Joy Division on that same JCCSF stage. Info on that here with more to come!) Read the rest
