5 minute read
Screens: “The Andy Warhol Diaries” digs deep.
stage
It Shoulda Been You. An original musical that takes place the day of a wedding, where everything that can go wrong, does. $1018, 8pm. Four County Players, 5256 Governor Barbour St., Barboursville. fourcp.org The Children. A thoughtprovoking and challenging ecothriller. $2025, 8pm. Live Arts, 123 E. Water St. livearts.org
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Charlottesville Reading Series: Aran
Donovan and Anna Caritj. Featuring works of fiction and poetry. Free, 7pm. New Dominion Bookshop, 404 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. ndbookshop.com
etc.
Dune. The PVCC Student Art Club hosts this free screening of Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction film as part of Free Movie Friday. Free, 7:30pm. PVCC’s V. Earl Dickinson Theater, 501 College Dr. pvcc.edu
Saturday 4/16
music
A Night of Percussion featuring Gregory
Beyer. Directed by IJen Fang, with the UVA Percussion Ensemble. Free$10, 8pm. Old Cabell Hall, UVA Grounds. Berto & Vincent. Wild gypsy rumba and Latin guitar. Free,11am. Tavern & Grocery, 333 W. Main St. tavernandgrocery.com John Kelly. Enjoy live music and taste some ciders. Free, 2:30pm. Albemarle CiderWorks, 2545 Rural Ridge Ln., North Garden. albemarle ciderworks.com Jazz on the Patio. Celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month with the UVA Jazz Ensemble. Free, 1pm. The Pub at Lake Monticello, 51 Bunker Blvd., Palmyra. lakemonticellogolf.org Sue Harlow. Live music at the indoor tasting room. Free, noon. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwoodfarm andwinery.com
UVA Division for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Presents: Ellington’s Evening of
Music and Poetry. A night to celebrate the arts through spoken word poetry, R&B, and soul music with Lalah Hathaway. Free, 7pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net
stage
It Shoulda Been You. See listing for Friday, April 15. $1018, 8pm. Four County Players, 5256 Governor Barbour St., Barboursville. fourcp.org The Children. See listing for Friday, April 15. $2025, 8pm. Live Arts, 123 E. Water St. livearts.org
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Stacy Hackney: The Sisters of Luna Island.
Hackney reads from her new middle grade novel, The Sisters of Luna Island. Free, 2pm. New Dominion Bookshop, 404 E. Main St. ndbookshop.com
outside
IX Farmer’s Market. Over 60 local vendors with fresh produce, prepared foods, artisan goods, and more. Free, 9am. IX Art Park, 522 Second St. SE. ixartpark.org
etc.
Bloom Fest. Featuring yoga, a petting zoo, music, vendors, and more. Free, all day. Potters Craft Cider, 1350 Arrowhead Valley Rd. potterscraftcider.com Easter Eggstravaganza. Egg hunts, hayrides, crafting, live music, food trucks, and more. $10, 10am. Carter Mountain Orchard, 1435 Carters Mountain Trl. chilesfamilyorchards.com
I, robot
‘The Andy Warhol Diaries’ is a fair attempt at unmasking the artist
NETFLIX
A nostalgic look at the pop art icon keeps fans guessing in “The Andy Warhol Diaries.”
By Justin Humphreys
arts@c-ville.com
Whether you love or hate Andy Warhol’s work, his impact on the arts as a provocateur, businessman, and impresario is immeasurable. Andrew Rossi’s six-part Netflix series “The Andy Warhol Diaries” sets out to pierce the façade its subject presented to the media. The series gives a fairly nuanced portrait of the godfather of pop art through new and archival interviews with Warhol, his co-workers, friends, and critics. Along the way, it explores Warhol’s era(s) almost as much as it does its subject.
The first three episodes follow Andrew Warhola, Jr. from his early years as an awkward Pittsburgh kid, through his initial New York graphic design career, into his ascension to art superstar, offering fascinating details, like how the Russian Orthodox iconography of his youth influenced his style. The bulk of the story revolves around the period from 1976-1987, when Warhol dictated his activities to writer Pat Hackett. What began as daily accounting by phone became fullfledged diaries, which were published posthumously in 1989.
Therein lies the series’ biggest flaw. Extrapolating on Warhol’s statement “I want to be a machine,” Rossi has an A.I. recreation of the artist’s voice reading his diary entries in a clumsy simulation of his trademark monotone. This synthetic Warhol is gimmicky and off-putting, mispronouncing words robotically like a GPS, and ending its sentences in a clipped, computerized way. The series is clearly attempting to transcend Warhol’s mythic status and humanize him, but this artificial speech undermines a fair amount of those worthwhile efforts. And probably the other biggest problem here is a string of unnecessary dramatizations of Warhol’s private moments, his face always obscured. These precious, stagey vignettes resemble reenactments from an “Unsolved Mysteries” rerun. That aside, “The Andy Warhol Diaries” is engaging overall. The interviews with his co-workers and others are generally informative, funny, and revealing. Standouts include Interview magazine editor Bob Colacello and director John Waters, who praises Warhol as a trailblazer in underground cinema. In terms of presenting Warhol’s humanness and emotionality, the series is particularly poignant when it examines Warhol’s asexual pose and his secretive romantic life—or lack thereof—with his various companions like Jed Johnson and Jon Gould. And despite the obvious veneration of Warhol, Rossi deserves credit for includ-
Six-part series Streaming (Netflix)
ing quotes from the brilliant art critic Robert Hughes, arguably Warhol’s sternest detractor, who once called him “one of the stupidest people I’ve ever met in my life . . . because he had nothing to say.”
Archival footage of Warhol-era Manhattan and his studio, The Factory, is memorable, including excursions into Studio 54 and the thriving ’70s gay bar scene. The music is well-curated by period, including Sparks’ “The Number One Song in Heaven” and The Skatt Bros.’ “Walk the Night.” But Nat King Cole crooning “Nature Boy” over the opening credits is an odd choice, even if it’s used there ironically.
Was Warhol a ridiculous charlatan or an artistic powerhouse—or both? Was he a deep soul, or, as Truman Capote described him, a “Sphinx without a secret”? “The Andy Warhol Diaries” doesn’t definitively answer questions like these, nor should it be expected to. But it does partially succeed in revealing facets of Warhol that the artist himself seldom, if ever, would.
