An Andy Moment

Several Andys went to see the up coming Ric Burns documentary on Warhol. Catch it on PBS on September 20 and 21. It was pretty good. Covered the beginning and middle of Andy's career pretty well, though Laurie Anderson's voice was annoying and there was one art critic who could be visited by Val at some point in time... if you know what I mean.

Andi at Alt. Oscars

Unfortunately Andy T/É was unable to attend due to extenuating bleaching delays, but other Andi showed up in force at the Kostume Kult's Alternative Oscars bash at Crobar in Manhattan on March 5.

Here's a photo of various Andi:

Andy M, Andy O!, Andy A, and Andy J

Val Solanas was unable to make an appearance. She was probably ranting at some man or another.

Val and the Warholas

For the second year in a row, I ran the Idiotarod, which occurred this past Saturday from Brooklyn to Manhattan. I wasn't feeling up to do the entire race, so I donned my Andy wig and joined the revelry in Manhattan.

My team was Val and the Warholas, otherwise known as Valerie Solanas and the man she shot, Andy Warhol.

Solanas, as you may know, wrote the "S.C.U.M." Manifesto, which could stand for "Society for Cutting Up Men," but that's never been proven. What was proven was that Solanas shot Andy at the Factory in 1968, after he missplaced the 'only' copy of a screenplay that she had written entitled, "Up the Ass."

Said Val, "Andy had too much control over my life." Then she calmly took the elevator out of the Factory.

Andy should have died, since the bullet that entered him careened around his body and hit many major organs. He did not. Lucky Andy. Lucky world. Lucky Valerie, too. Andy refused to testify against her, though she did get three years in prison.

February 22 is the 19th anniversary of Warhol's death of a heart attack after a gallbladder operation in 1987. There may be sightings of Val and the Warholas around town.

We love you, Andy.
(And sure, we love you too, Val...)

Andys by Bitpuddle

More photos by Rich_Mansburden

Yours in pop-art,
Andy T/É

Tragedy, Half a World Away

Thursday: Hurricane Stan hits Mexico, floods Guatemala, and a landslide destroys the town of Panabaj, with a population of 800 people. More then 1,200 are dead throughout the region.

Saturday: A 7.6 earthquake hits Pakistan and parts of India and Afghanistan. At least 3,000 are dead and the toll might be higher. UPDATE 10:50 PM EST: 18,000 dead and over 41,000 injured.

I'm beginning to think that the Earth is a little pissed at us. Of course, my mom, a born-again Christian, is thinking it's God's wrath, but I'm going to stick here on Earth and just say that Gaia is pissed off right now.

But disasters happen all the time. It just seems that lately there are more: the Asian tsunami, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Stan, and the Iranian and Pakistani earthquakes. These storms/seismic happenings were unprecendented and large, but natural disasters happen. Of course, with global warming (believe it or not), we may be heralding the advent of bigger and more powerful disasters as we destroy natural coastlines, the air we breath, the earth we sit on, and the natural resources that we need to live.

But hey, as long as I have my air conditioning, what do I care? (Note: dripping sarcasm.)

In 1964, the most powerful earthquake to hit the United States (and Canada) occurred:

March 27 - The Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history at a magnitude of 9.2, strikes South Central Alaska killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.

According to "The Tsunami Page," the Good Friday Earthquake was the second largest ever recorded to hit the world. 52 aftershocks followed over a period of three weeks. 119 people died of both the quake and the subsequent tsunami it created. The low death toll was due to the fact that the area was not densely populated.

FEMA, our favorite disaster management outfit, has a list of Federal Disaster Declarations for the US and its territories in 1964. Among them were Typhoon Louise that hit the Federated States of Micronesia (when we still had them), and Hurricanes Hilda (Louisiana, October 3), Cleo (Florida/Georgia, August 27) and Dora (Florida, September 10).

Other Worldwide disasters that year included:
January 18 - Earthquake in Taiwan affects 62,485 folks.
April 4 - A flood inundates Saudi Arabia, killing 20 and affecting 1,000.
June 13 - A windstorm hits Samoa, killing 250.
November - Another windstorm blows through Vietnam, killing 7,000.
December 22 - What's up with the windstorms? Another one kills 206 in Sri Lanka.
During the year, a drought rampaged Iran, affecting 625,000.
(The above statistics were compiled from various documents at http://unpan.un.org.)

The Walker Art Center in St. Paul, Minnesota is curating an interesting show called ANDY WARHOL/SUPERNOVA: Stars, Deaths, and Disasters, 1962-1964. According to the Walker site, the show will bring together more than 20 examples of the artist's early silkscreen paintings juxtaposing his iconic serial images of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and Elvis Presley with the artist's evocative and at times disturbing appropriations of car crashes, electric chairs, and other "disasters." The other "disasters" would fascinate me, but only the ones that occured in 1964, of course.

And speaking of the Federated States of Micronesia, I almost applied for a two-year position as a project archivist on the island of Yap, but my cat would have had to stay in Hawaii under quarantine for six months, and then another two months once she made it to Yap. I just might have used that as an excuse not to apply for the position in the first place, but I did think about it long and hard. Two years in a Pacific paradise. As long as I could have left during typhoon season, that is. But it sure is pretty...