Radio Tania

Warhol, The Oscars, Fame

For the past couple of weeks, I have aired pieces played earlier this year—two interviews with two directors up for Academy Awards. Those directors were Ari Folman of Waltz with Bashir and Laurent Cantet of The Class. Neither won the Academy Award and, in light of Mickey Rourke's loss, I wonder what value the Oscar has (even Sean Penn seemed shocked when he got the award against Rourke). The point being that both these films were great surprises. The Class continues to be chronicled, reviewed and revered in well respected publications across the globe. Waltz with Bashir was a groundbreaking work and well worth the fiscal sacrifices Folman took to create the film. While neither walked away with a gold statue, I still would have voted for them and, in my heart, they won. So after two weeks of repeats, I have just posted a new piece about Warhol and his relationship to music. The interview was with respected curator Tim Burgard, who restructured my thoughts about Warhol. Like many, I saw Warhol as an aloof, self interested, blown up artist but the truth is that he brought portraiture back into modern art, he is one of the most important and prolific filmmakers of our time and he was able to revive the communal aspect of art making by bringing people together to create great work. His open door policy and his keen eye changed people's lives and that is the best thing you can do while alive, make a difference. Check the interviews out and listen to the podcast, Sight Unseen, on iTunes.

 

how disposable is it?

My studio mate Gage invited us over for dinner a couple of weeks ago. He lives in the neighborhood I grew up in, an area that has changed dramatically over the last years, both aesthetically and culturally. In fact, a German friend staying with us talked about how much his neighborhood, St. Pauli, in Hamburg had changed in the 15 years he was there (much like the East Village in NY). He so wished he had tracked the changes, through video or photography. But alas, the evolution is only evident in his memory. But back to Gage. We had gone to get some beer and the shopping bag from the corner store was a collage of discarded medical records from the medical school near by. Why had someone taken the effort to create such disposable items as paper bags...I found the intersection of something so impersonal as a shopping bag and something so utterly confidential as a discarded medical record (albeit an anonymous one) infinitely interesting.