32 ways to honor Andy's birthday
1. Go to Pittsburgh. Warhol's birthplace is home to the Andy Warhol Museum and the artist's grave. He lived in the city until 1949, when he moved to New York.
2. Change your name. Born Andrew Warhola, he changed his name after Glamour magazine misspelled it in an illustration. For a brief period he only went by "Warhol."
3. Wear a wig. What, you thought that mop of silver hair was real?
4. Rent Chelsea Girls. Although Warhol made more than 40 films, this was the only one that achieved any commercial success. The controversial 2-hour movie featured sex, drug use and several artist friends from his loft studio, dubbed "The Factory."
5. Eat soup! Warhol's 32 Campbell's soup paintings helped launch his career. He later said before he painted the cans, he'd lunched on soup every day for 20 years.
6. Lie about your background. Would Andy Warhol really be 78 this month? No one knows for sure. Warhol liked to be mysterious about his past, and in every interview he told a different story.
7. Appreciate women's footwear. Before he carved a niche in the art world, Warhol designed shoe advertisements and in 1957 he won the Art Director's Club Medal for a shoe ad.
8. Be kind to your mother. Andy Warhol's mom lived with him in New York from 1952-71. She died in 1972.
9. Throw a party. The wilder and weirder it is, the better. And don't forget to invite lots of beautiful, famous people!
10. Find a party. Warhol claimed he had "social disease," which required him to go out every night. "If I stay home one night I start spreading rumors to my dogs."
11. Read the gossip columns. Andy got his kicks from beauty, celebrities and popular culture. Reportedly, the first thing he did every morning was scan the gossips.
12. Go to the record store. Peer at the album covers Warhol designed during his career, including the Rolling Stones' cover for Sticky Fingers and The Smiths' self-titled debut.
13. Buy a Velvet Underground album. He's also credited with launching this band— a group that, in turn, inspired thousands, maybe millions, of kids to start their own bands.
14. Tell the DJ to play Duran Duran. Yes, Warhol hung out with the wild boys. When asked about keyboardist Nick Rhodes, Andy said, "I love him, I worship him."
15. Dress like Andy. The uniform: black levi jeans and a turtleneck.
16. Take a young lover. Warhol had several young 'n' pretty significant others, although some critics still describe him as "asexual."
17. Stare at something. Warhol loved to observe things for long periods of time. He illustrates this in the film Sleep, which focuses on a sleeping man for eight hours.
18. Watch TV – but only for the commercials. Andy's work, from the soup cans to the Brillo boxes, made people think about the images popular culture mindlessly fed them. He loved advertisements.
19. Read the National Enquirer. Andy Warhol had a subscription and he said everything in the tabloid was true. His "Before and After" series of portraits was inspired by an ad from the Enquirer, in fact.
20. Watch MTV. Before The Real World and Making the Band, the artist hosted a show on the network, Andy Warhol's 15 Minutes.
21. Watch reality TV. The genre perfectly illustrates Warhol's prophetic statement that "in the future, everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes." He would've loved Big Brother 4.
22. Get to know Andy's family. His parents, the Warholas, were Czech immigrants; Andy's nephew, James Warhola, has illustrated several children's books.
23. Get to know Andy's Factory friends. Information about the Factory group is available at warholstars.org.
24. Know Andy's enemies. In 1968, Valerie Solanas shot Andy Warhol three times and nearly killed him. Solanas, who appears in one of Warhol's films, was upset that the artist had stopped paying attention to her.
25. Spend money. Late in his life, Andy was spotted walking the streets of New York with a bag of money, spending it on whatever knickknacks struck him. "It's fun to buy a lot of things for a little," he once said.
26. Give lots of compliments. Honor the spirit of Warhol by enjoying everything! Whether it's your co-worker's outfit or the streetlamp by your house, proclaim it's all "great." Andy would have.
27. Buy a piece of the artist. See the next article in this newletter "Warhol Art Sale" for amazing deals.
28. Dye your hair. Warhol preferred silver, you know.
29. Change your appearance. Andy probably would have used Botox today; early in his career, he had plastic surgery done on his nose.
30. Be bored. Nothing wrong with that. Warhol found boredom interesting.
31. Support an artist. Andy was extremely encouraging of others, and he wouldn't mind a bit if you bought a work or went to an exhibition that didn't have his name on it.
32. Tell everyone — and I mean everyone! — you're celebrating Andy Warhol's birthday. Warhol said publicity is the ultimate symptom of social disease. He may have been shy, but he loved being famous!
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