This week I'm going medium brow to distract you from college football.
Andy Warhol (in case you don't recognize him above) is . . . well, is he high brow art? Low brow art? Corporate artist? Late/mid-century proto Banksy?
Medium brow seems okay to me. But what do I know? I'm only an art enthusiast. (Though I have toured The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. And I once took a Warhol-ian photograph of a banana* one time as well. So maybe I know everything?)
ANDBUTSO, this week's counter-programming is rich with visuals, so let's get into it!
Why am I picking Mr. Warhol to be the center of this week's distraction?
Because I've just realized that two of my favorite authors publishing works orbiting Warhol at the same time. I then read them back-to-back.
First, I got John Green's newest book Hollywood, Ending. In this story, the two characters are actors working on a movie. And the movie just happens to be a biopic surrounding the last years of Andy Warhol's life. The main story is about the relationship between the two actors (Juniper and Kai). The Andy Warhol character is important as a plot motivator but not the central focus of the plot itself.
Then I started reading Chuck Klosterman's newest book Rock*. In this alternative history, the story presupposes that the debut album of the band The Velvet Underground--"The Velvet Underground & Nico"--was such a cultural force that it reshaped all of rock-n-roll/U.S. cultural history. The Warhol connection is similarly tangential. He was a co-producer of the album and provided the banana cover art image for the album.
Before I started reading these two books, I might have summarized the relationship between John Green and Chuck Klosterman as:
Now, however, I am always going to have to acknowledge that Andy Warhol lives in the shared space between them.
Anyway . . . I know it is October and this is prime college football time/weather.
But I've just given you several things that you could take up instead!
- Read one or both of these books.
- Take a weekend trip to Pittsburgh and check out the Andy Warhol Museum!
- Listen to "The Velvet Underground & Nico".
There are many, MANY things that you can do that don't involve college football. If you don't like my suggestions, I am quite sure that you can find yourself something to take up instead. All you have to do is clear up that part of your brain that is normally considering the effectiveness of the Run/Pass Option or trying to remember what a Jet Sweep is. There are many other things to learn about.
And I promise that college football won't miss you.
(It doesn't even know you are watching!)
Until next week!
*Here is the banana photo I mentioned before:
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