Review: WARHOL-O-RAMA, Peter Oresick and Pittsburg's saint

I don't live far from the Empire State Building and sometimes send love to the ape atop, batting at airplanes Misunderstanding and Fear. So I was predisposed, when I chanced on Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick on a low-neon-lemon-forced-into-a-shout yellow large as New York's event-structure of cinematic and architectural history, for more memorable strangeness.

And was made pleased. As revealed to poet Peter Oresick, WARHOL-O-RAMA, is a triumph of verisimilitude--recreates the feel of the man and his art machine. There had to be such a triumph, sooner or later. Oresick is a son of Pittsburgh. As you know and have known since before you were born at least if you live, lived or planned on spending a lifetime anywhere a poster or tomato soup can or Andy Warhol's Dracula--wirrrrr-gin bloooooood--Warhol is not only son of Pittsburgh but its greatest commodity and export. Warhol might be odd, but he is in Paradise and Carnegie, albeit born in Scotland, is stoking coals.

True, Warhol made his reputation here, where I live, but New York City claims many artists without fully understanding it serves only as studio. The real work, beauties, brutalities and attitudes, is born in the crucible of hometown.

Dispensing with the query, Was Warhol really an artist, does Oresick's "For Andy Warhol Was a Flake among Artists" (which I reproduce in full):

But an artist among flakes.

Amen to that. "Andy Warhol for Willem de Kooning" is a one-liner relineated. "I hate Andy Warhol I hate Andy / Warhol I hate Andy Warhol I / . . ." and so on. Knowing de Kooning outdistanced him as a painter, Warhol mimicked the remarkably handsome and not always so-nice artist. His white wig reproduced de Kooning's do. Of Warhol, de Kooning said he was "nuttiest of all" the pop artists.

"Andy Warhol for Photoshop®" is a stanza by stanza how-to on reproduction as Andy reproduced, with image, not biology though with destiny. More than being a primer to the artist whose worth as artist exceeds that of mere phenomenon (and it is partly that, primer, Warhol not for Dummies but for Hipsters), WARHOL-O-RAMA (the title itself evocative of American's silly bold pitch) is loving tribute, a compilation of found (such as a letter to Warhol from a Campbell Soup executive) and original poems.

Oresick's passion shows in "Andy Warhol for Philip Johnson":

Infamous architect, whose ignoramus idiom was glass, sat sadly,
in chair, in tedium, in his 98th year, in his famously all-glass house--
fabulous essay in minimal geometry--when his eyes rose gladly
past clear walls of willow & birch & proportions he'd espoused--

slick effects: reflection & transparency--to the fluorescent silkscreen:
a copier. Hung above the copier! Bemused, he slowly slumped, serene.

WARHOL-O-RAMA offers poems of poetry, poems of political commentary, poems of biography, poems of verification for Andy's Catholic church (how many more verifications needed) that Warhol made miracles and copied them, over and over and over again. See for your yourself. See for yourself. See for yourself. See for yourself.

http://www.warholorama.com/press/

http://www.warholorama.com/press/

http://www.warholorama.com/press/

http://www.warholorama.com/press/

NYC Library Screw Up; Lucy Ricardo hired to fix what ain't broken

Congratulations to New York City.

In addition to being the site of two recent much-disputed and disliked museum redesigns (the Morgan and MOMA)--two buildings which now feature dead space and a passing nod to their purpose--housing art for people to admire, study and debate--New York City has also instituted a useless system redesign for its public libraries.

The redesign was the work of computer specialists who do not use the system. I doubt they even use the library, New York City or other. Librarians, clerks and patrons are shaking their heads.

Library clerks used to scan coded numbers on books when we checked them in or checked them out (them being the books) (neither librarians nor library clerks beep when they’re checked out). Post redesign, librarians and clerks scan the codes, but also have to search them out from an onscreen list and manually click. Why? I don’t know how many people have library cards, but out of the eight million or so residents, I figure a lot. That is a lot of extra work. Long lines have appeared where before there were often none.

It's as if Lucy and Ethel got their hands on the system.

And taxpayer money paid for this. ($7 Million from public and private funds.) New York City draws a fair chunk of tax money from our checks. Most expensive city in America, hello? And some of that went toward a useless, annoying and ill-conceived redesign. The previous system wasn’t broke.

When I search for a book, I now have to take extra steps to stipulate I want a book I can have access to, and not a book archived at the research library where scholars and students study. I went there when I was in graduate school and it cool and an honor, but not a useful first step in finding a book. For me. For most of us. And maybe this will change but Publishers Weekly and Library Journal book reviews are no longer available.

I am hoping the New York Times or Daily News take this up. Things are a mess. I have written to the Mayor and City Council every time the library’s been strapped; I do so now, but with much regret.