At the exhibit we learned a lot of things about the artist, Andy Warhol. I hadn't known that he'd been shot by the actress Valerie Solanas, and almost died, leading to a fear of mortality and death. He dyed his hair gray when he was 23 or 24, because that way no one would know how old he was and he could have "old" problems rather than "young" problems. He's also responsible for the now-clichéd "15 minutes of fame" concept, and he's a very quotable fellow in general. Here are seven favorite quotes:
- "When I look at things, I always see the space they occupy. I always want the space to reappear, to make a comeback, because it's lost space when there's something in it. If I see a chair in a beautiful space, no matter how beautiful the chair is, it can never be as beautiful to me as the plain space."
- "They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
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| Te Papa Museum of New Zealand |
- "What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."
- "The President has so much good publicity potential that hasn't been exploited. He should just sit down one day and make a list of all the things that people are embarrassed to do that they shouldn't be embarrassed to do, and then do them all on television."
- "I usually accept people on the basis of their self-images, because their self-images have more to do with the way they think than their objective-images do."
- "I suppose I have a really loose interpretation of 'work' because I think that just being alive is so much work at something you don't always want to do. Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery."
- "Everybody looks alike and acts alike, and we're getting more and more that way. I think everybody should be a machine. I think everybody should like everybody."
After exploring the exhibit we went for a late lunch of thin-crust New York-style pizza from Tommy Millions (not photographed until mostly consumed due to intense hunger! And yes, we did fold it to eat it) and for dessert a thick and creamy "megashake" and frozen yogurt from Wendy's, which in New Zealand is a popular ice cream and hot dog chain.
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| Pepperoni and spinach and mushroom slices |
The pizza reminded me of two fond memories: having been to Grimaldi's, "Under the Brooklyn Bridge" in New York several years ago, and secondly, how my cool, older guy cousin once described pizza as "the food of the gods" in an email from New Zealand (when I still lived in America and we'd correspond sometimes.)
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| Frozen yogurt with banana, berry puree and chocolate flake |
for The Crowd. Made in 1928 and directed by King Vidor, this silent film already discussed issues that are becoming even more applicable today. The movie's title, "The Crowd," is basically the theme of these issues, and the plot focuses on a man, John Sims, and his quite typical life in machine-age New York. He keeps thinking he'll get a big break one day and not have to keep working at a job he doesn't enjoy, but doesn't have the real drive to actually do anything about his situation. He is just another one of "the crowd" of people living their life, doing their job, having a family and family dramas when crises happen, and yet not really going anywhere in the big scheme of things. The crucial pieces of dialogue were shown as writing on the screen, and the acting was very expressive to make up for the lack of much dialogue. The acting and filming was apparently revolutionary for the time, though I wouldn't really know as I've not seen many old films before!
The really cool thing about this film, though, was the live music! Johannes Contag (Cloudboy) had composed a new score for the film, based on music from the ragtime era. Twelve musicians, including strings, woodwinds, a piano, and percussion, (one of the string players being the friend who got me the tickets!) plus a conductor, were performing the score. They admirably rose to the supreme challenge of staying exactly in time with the film onscreen! And the sounds of live instruments going with the pictures was fantastic - it meant that there was something you could really consciously listen to and even watch (the musicians were to the side of the screen) as well as the purely visual story of the film...as if the eyes and ears were being equally engaged, where at a typical modern film the visuals are the main attraction and the music is secondary.
There were some especially cool parts where the violinists had to double as ukulele players, when John in the film was strumming away singing at home or at the beach! All in all, a very enjoyable film with a timeless message and great entertainment value. Well worth the sacrifice of my usual Sunday activities!
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