Early dawn for ‘Warhol Night’

Early dawn for 'Warhol Night'

http://aande.blogs.heraldtribune.com/11687/early-dawn-for-warhol-night/

by Billy Cox
April 10th, 2010

By 1 a.m., the Fringe Film Festival's "A Night With Andy Warhol" was
dead as hell.

Two of the three little ad hoc theaters on the second floor of Main
Street Plaza had been set aside for the advertised marathon, a couple
of life-sized sculptures of Warhol himself greeted visitors at the
entrance to the Fringe Art Gallery down the hall, and the scheduling
grid anticipated running related flicks 'til just before dawn.

But an exhausted Fringe Fest founder Patrick Nagle was the last guy
standing. In a manner of speaking. "We're just not ready to be
totally appreciated for stuff like this," said Nagle, propping
himself up on the back of the chair before him. "But it's OK. It's OK …"

Maybe a dozen people total wandered through for the Sixties-era
counter-culture enduro that began at 10 p.m. Friday. The abbreviated
evening was built on the documentary work of Nagle's wife, Catherine
O'Sullivan Shorr, called "Factory People," an immensely entertaining
look at the legacy of the man who exploited commercial culture for an
even more profitable art form.

"Well, Sarasota's just not a late-night town," said the nostalgic Pat
Talbott, a 78-year-old New York transplant and ballroom dancer who
added she'd gladly go bar-hopping now if there were any decent joints
open this late. "Most people who remember this era wouldn't be up at
this hour, anyway."

Talbott fondly recalled how Warhol's spontaneous "happenings"
influenced her life nearly 50 years ago, when she and a bunch of
impressionable friends decided to start ironing while others ran a
garden hose through a wicker laundry basket and let water spew on the
floor. "Oh, those were the days. We were all young and crazy."

Shorr looked around at the empty seats and gave her hubbie a lot of
credit for trying to pull it off. "Patrick's been trying to turn this
place into New York ever since he got here," she said.

Nagle was disappointed but already considering his next move. "I
think we have to do a series of tiny Fringe events here. There are
all kinds of new alternative ideas that can work in this town," he
said while Lou Reed serenaded phantoms: "Sugar plum fairy came and
hit the streets/Looking for soul food and a place to eat …"

.