My Back Pages: The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

PhilosophyofAndyWarholBookcover

I can’t really think of anything to say about Andy Warhol that hasn’t already been said. I’ll just state that I do think he was a cultural prophet of our times, and I enjoy his art and his words (including The Andy Warhol Diaries, which took me months and months, just a few pages every night before bed, but was completely worth the time). I recently came across this quotation about fragrance in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), which I hadn’t flipped through in ages.

“I really love wearing perfume. I’m not exactly a snob about the bottle a cologne comes in, but I am impressed with a good-looking presentation. It gives you confidence when you’re picking up a well-designed bottle. I switch perfumes all the time. If I’ve been wearing one perfume for three months, I force myself to give it up, even if I still feel like wearing it, so whenever I smell it again it will always remind me of those three months. I never go back to wearing it again; it becomes part of my permanent smell collection.”

My Back Pages: Perfume in “Bergdorf Blondes”

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In 2003 I moved back to New York after living in other states for graduate school and work. Things had changed during the decade I was away. I’m nearing the ten-year anniversary of that return, and I’m remembering how surprised I was by certain things that women my age were suddenly saying and doing. They had made manicures a weekly routine, rather than a luxury for special occasions. They teetered through their daily commutes in stiletto heels. They freely discussed their Brazilian waxes on their cell phones in public. They wore 3-carat engagement rings. And they were reading novels from a sub-genre nicknamed “chick lit.”

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Quick Reads: C. O. Bigelow in The Wall Street Journal

Bigelow Sign

The Wall Street Journal has just published an article about C. O. Bigelow, “the oldest apothecary in America,” in honor of its 175 years in business. The article gives an enjoyable overview of Bigelow’s history, including this line:

Civil War generals frequented the shop, according to old ledgers, and store records from 1905 show Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, strolled the aisles alongside Clarisse Coudert, aka Mrs. Condé Nast.

You can read it here (at least, until some paywall shuts us out).

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Repeating Myself: Donna Tartt’s Next Novel, THE GOLDFINCH

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Donna Tartt’s publisher has just released the cover of her forthcoming novel, The Goldfinch (scheduled for October 2013).

Bookish quotes Tartt’s editor as saying, “The cover suggests a central moment in the story, which I can’t give away here!”

If only we knew more about that cover design. Oh, wait… didn’t I post a few thoughts about the novel’s title, and a possible pictorial source, when it was first announced in February? Let’s see… right here.

And I was right!

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