Warhol-o-rama

By Peter Oresick

Warhol-o-rama surveys the extraordinary life--and robust afterlife--of Andy Warhol (1928-1987). In this rollicking poetic sequence Peter Oresick reads Warhol through the eyes and words of others--form... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887485030
• ISBN13: 9780887485039
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Carnegie Mellon University Press
• Length: 102 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.3" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Peter Oresick's Home Run!

Peter Oresick's smartly designed new book of poems, Warhol-O-Rama, delights first with its inspired thematics. 54 poems, each containing the name Warhol in the title, are smartly divided into six sections; each section is appropriately named Warholevision, Warholanomics, Warholocaust, Warholastalgia...well, you get the picture! In a protracted political season in which we're all enduring and trying to survive the personality-driven focus of the media, it's also entertaining and instructive to immerse oneself in the joint consciousness of poet Oresick and Warhol, the late Pop Culture and media icon. Perhaps more than any other figure, Andy Warhol personified the brashness, excesses, and joyous genius of the Sixties. We're rapidly becoming a forgetful nation, so it's with a grateful heart that I read and re-read this book, recalling as I do so that poetry truly does, as Frost suggested, remind us of important things we knew once but forgot. Peter Oresick's sheer delight in his task, and his line-by-line inventiveness, will charm you. In fact, you'll derive much of the guilty pleasure one enjoys while reading celebrity biographies. I have had so much fun with this book of poetry! And, oh yes, that's right! Poetry should be fun, too! I'm grateful to the author for reminding me! --Robert McDowell (www.robertmcdowell.net), The Poetry Mentor, is the author of the bestselling Poetry As Spiritual Practice, published July 15th, 2008 by Free Press/Simon & Schuster

A book of deftly written poetry

A book of poetry about one man is unusual approach, but Peter Oresick makes it work in "Warhol-O-Rama". Andy Warhol was a pop artist who was known for associating with wide variety of people from all walks of life and using the ideas such diverse encounters engendered in his art, be it painting, film making, or writing. Oresick uses an artist's inspiration to write about the artist who inspired him, and the poetry is as original and entertaining as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking. "Warhol-O-Rama" is highly recommended as a book of deftly written poetry and a fascinating read for the legendary Warhol's legions of fans.

Channelling Andy Warhol: Extending Those 15 Minutes of Fame

Peter Oriesick ('For a Living: The Poetry of Work', 'Working Classics: Poems on Industrial Life') is probably the poet most appropriate for creating this survey of a very peculiar and important artist - Andy Warhol. WARHOL-O-RAMA is in many respects a biography as important as any on this unique artist who invented Pop Art. And in keeping with the style of Warhol, Oresick has written poems in many styles, intentionally (it would seem) plagiarizing other poets in the way Warhol very freely copied other artists to make his own brand of restated reality. The result is a book of not only well-written poetry but also poems that crawl inside the psyche of the elusive artist in a way so clever that turning each page is an adventure in The Factory! Oresick divides his travelogue or rake's progress into six sections: Warhollabaloo, Warholevision, Warholanomics. Warholocaust, Warholafatigue, and Warholastalgia. In each section he explores different aspects of Andy Warhol's persona. Some are lyrical, some are nonsensical, some are imaginary conversations (or rather non-conversations) with the spaced out artist, and some are simply sonnets or elegies that celebrate what would have been Warhol's 80th birthday. This is a book for lovers of poetry, for admirers of the space in the art world that Andy Warhol created and over which he still reigns, and for students of art - whether in classroom or armchair. It is as delicious as a can of tomato soup (or Marilyn Monroe, or Liz Taylor, etc)! Highly recommended. Grady Harp, August 08

Warhol's life described using prose in a manner that he quite likely would have wanted

When defining and describing the phrase "avant-garde" art and film, it is almost necessary that you begin with Andy Warhol. His art of ordinary objects and the themes of his films have received comments from high praise to expressions of disgust. Which is expected, if some people were not turned off then it almost by definition could not be avant-garde. This book of prose by Peter Oresick continues that tradition. Using unstructured forms, Oresick expresses events in the life of Warhol as well as descriptions of his art, films and other aspects of his life. While there is a factual base, it is sometimes difficult to determine where the facts end and poetic license begins. There were a few times when I stopped and went online to determine exactly what the circumstances of the event were. Andy Warhol is most famous for a painting of soup cans and for uttering the phrase, "In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes." Yet, he was much more than that, he was the leader of a movement in the arts that has survived his death. Like many other dead celebrities, his work continues to be used, cited and explored. The most telling fact is that Warhol works are now valued as three times that of a Rembrandt. This book in an in-depth and sideways look at the life of Warhol, which is probably the way he would have scripted it.

"Prankster and provocateur": Warhol for poetry lovers

Peter Oresick's Warhol-o-rama is one of those volumes of poetry that make you laugh, make you think, and occasionally make you shudder with the beauty or sadness of the words. Published to coincide with the 80th anniversary of Warhol's birth, and by a press in Warhol's hometown, Oresick's collection is a wonderful tribute to the guy who put the Pop in art. Oresick describes his collection as a "serial portrait of the serial portrait pioneer," and several of his poems spoof that seriality by repeating lines over and over ("Andy Warhol for Beginners" is the cleverest example). Intrigued by the postmortem commodification of Warhol, Oresick explores in his verse aspects of Warhol's life and work that have become iconic and big-moneyed. In the process, he invites the reader to consider the different consumer-camps who've bought a piece of Warhol: urban legend fans, journalists, artists, intellectuals, the establishment, religious types, students, pundits, and Pittsburgians. It's an irony that Warhol himself would've appreciated: Oresick writes serial poems about the cultural serialization of the great serializer. I love it. Some of my favorites in the volume: "Andy Warhol for Believers"; "Andy Warhol for the FBI"; "Andy Warhol for Chimps"; "Andy Warhol for Warholniks at a Loss for Words"; "Andy Warhol for the Heaven of Byzantine Saints"; and "Warhol, Andy for Indexers." But perhaps my very favorite is the haunting "Andy Warhol for the Widow of Andy Warhol": a "memo," with Andy's name scrawled on the appropriate blank line, which purports to have been sent to "Dear Mrs. Warhol" by "The New York Hospital," telling her to pick up the belongings of her deceased spouse. It would be most helpful to us if you would contact me by either telephone or mail at your earliest convenience concerning your wishes regarding disposition of these effects. We appreciate your attention to these matters at what we know is a difficult time for you. In death, Warhol has surpassed himself to become a cultural artifact. Oresick's Warhol-o-rama explores that artifact, and in so doing helps us catch a glimpse of the "prankster and provocateur" who's virtually disappeared inside the artifact. His verse also invites us to reflect on our own mania to commodify everything--which is precisely the tendency that so tickled and repulsed Warhol. Highly recommended