I have friends recommend television all the time. To the point that I just can't wait to get off the phone. They seem to think I have time for binge watching television in the middle of my working week. I work 7 days. How hard? I can't tell you really because it's not a regular job is it? But what I don't have is chunks of time like that. Especially the wives of friends of mine. They seem to be across it all. And they seem to think I ought to be too.
You just get swamped with life and moving parts and the thought of having those zen quiet moments are few and far between and frankly these days they scare you because you are so used to the white noise that when it disappears you fear the void.
But this weekend I did take up one of my friends recommendations and I did the Andy Warhol Diaries and I loved it though I had to hit pause a few episodes in to get back to my regular life.
Part of me loved it when Robert Hughes ripped him a new one and frankly I think Hughes was nasty, but there was a brutality to his words that were based in some form of truth, and though nasty, he was eloquent. But, being the person that I am, I was able to see the opposite side of it, and frankly, I have to pay my respects to the Warhol, he wore his mask brilliantly and any person who is able to keep up an act that long commands respect, whether it's the halo of Taylor Swift or the masked Warhol, it's an actor playing their part well.
I don't have anything intellectual to add to what I witnessed. All I wish to say is this - the moment you got to see into that Orthodox church, as they hone in on the colours and beauty of those icons and murals; the moment you heard his brother talk about his favourite meal being the can of soup, well, it doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots and for a small window I was Andy Warhola with his mother at Vespers on a Saturday night, conjuring up my move to New York City. Everything was merely an extension of that, or so I came to think. You could just feel it; the colours, the simplicity, the worshipping. Take that which is old and make it new again. Make those around you Gods, make yourself into one at the same time.
And as for neck ties and bow ties, well, Andy has inspired me to go back to my wardrobe this week and I am going to rethink my day casual wear accordingly as we head into Autumn here. And I am going to try to replicate his bow ties too.
