http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zhIkUm_ty0

Film director Paul Morrissey who was Andy Warhol’s business manager describes how unimpressed he was with Warhol: “He couldn’t influence anybody. He was incapable of doing anything. He was so severely autistic…He couldn’t read!” Morrissey cites Warhol’s name recognition as the reason for his star power versus his art–and says that the world has given him far too much credit for work that Warhol never actually did himself.

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Business Manager of Andy Warhol Found Him Incompetent appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTYd_kcrtxs

Lou Reed speaks at the 2013 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on the astonishing achievements and foresight of Andy Warhol’s artistic style and vision. Reed’s band, the Velvet Underground, was little-known at the time–but Warhol saw something in them before the general public did. In the band’s humble beginnings, they were only able to book shows when they were part of Warhol’s art installations: “We were his one and only band. The factory band.”

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Lou Reed on the Genius of Andy Warhol: ‘He Was the First’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVMs6be1gvk

John Lennon tells the story of how he first met Yoko Ono at one on her art exhibitions and paid an imaginary five shillings to hammer an imaginary nail into her artwork. Lennon and Ono were married on March 20, 1969 and held a week long Bed-In for Peace as their honeymoon in Amsterdam.

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John Lennon Remembers How He Met Yoko Ono appeared first on Witnify.

“Woodstock was both a peaceful protest and a global celebration.”
-Richie Havens

1. The idea for Woodstock came from Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld who were record company executives that wanted to raise money to build a recording studio in the town of Woodstock in upstate New York.

2. The Woodstock organizers originally told authorities that they were expecting 50,000 people, even though they sold 186,000 tickets in advance. Overall, the three-day concert brought in 500,000 people. That’s not all–another million turned around on their way to the concert because of bad traffic.

3. The famous Woodstock poster portraying a picture of a bird perched on the neck of a guitar is not a dove as some people think. It’s actually a catbird, an American perching bird that makes catlike calls.

Melanie Safka plays the guitar on the first day of the original Woodstock Festival. (1969). Source: Woodstock Wikia.

4. Melanie Safka, who was the sixth performer at Woodstock, was never meant to perform. She was not scheduled and had to sing her song “Beautiful People” to the security guards to get backstage.

5. Because of all the torrential downpours during the festival, there was a risk that some artists could possibly get electrocuted. Alvin Lee of the band, Ten Years After, was warned about this. His response: “Oh come on, if I get electrocuted at Woodstock, we’ll sell lots of records.”

6. The food stands raised the burger prices from 25 cents to one dollar when they began to run low on food. The festival participants claimed this was capitalist exploitation and burnt down the stand.

7. After getting word that there was a shortage of food, a Jewish community center used 200 loaves of bread, 40 pounds of meat and two gallons of pickles to distribute to the concert-goers.

8. There were two people who died at the festival. One man, from a heroin overdoes, and a teenager, killed when a tractor ran him over in his sleeping bag. The driver was never identified.

9. The last performance of Woodstock came from Jimi Hendrix. It was a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and it was described by one rock critic as “the single greatest moment of the sixties.” The funny thing is only a fraction of the Woodstock crowd saw it because most went home by the time he came on stage.

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[Blog] 9 Facts About the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y3GOypjMmY

Sara Moulton, a friend of American chef Julia Child and a food stylist on Child’s show, “The French Chef,” talks about the kind of person that Child was. Moulton describes her as an inspiration and talks about the most important lessons she learned while working for Child, such as learning that cooking is all about excellence. Moulton also goes on to share an anecdote about going to a cooking conference with Child.

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A Food Stylist on Her Friend Julia Child appeared first on Witnify.

“You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside you, and you have made your soul grow…”

When English teacher Ms. Lockwood assigned her students at Xavier High School to correspond with a well-known author on their work and request advice, Kurt Vonnegut was the only writer to respond. Vonnegut wrote the following response in 2006 to Xavier students about a year before he passed away on April 11, 2007:

 “Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer and Conguista:

I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don’t make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana.

What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.

Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you’re Count Dracula.

Here’s an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don’t do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Don’t show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?

Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash recepticals. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside you, and you have made your soul grow. 

God bless you all!

Kurt Vonnegut”    

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[Text] Vonnegut’s Letter to Students: ‘Practice Any Art…Make Your Soul Grow’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_nCfPNhmvM

Senior editor and vice president of Knopf Publishing House Judith Jones talks about discovering American chef Julia Child’s cookbook. The book, which Jones named “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” was something that no other publisher would have worked with it during that time. According to Jones, other publishing houses believed “no woman in America wants to know this much about French cooking.” She goes on to explain that after taking the book home and using it to cook a few recipes, she became “totally immersed in it” and convinced the company to publish the book.

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Getting ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ Published appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R92luuT9Ia8

Famous French high wire artist Philippe Petit discusses his passion and inspiration for his performances. Petit, who describes himself as someone who likes to “live on the edge,” first gained recognition for walking between the Twin Towers on a high wire in 1974. Today he continues to perform stunts and now teaches master classes to those who share his courage and enthusiasm.

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A Man on a Wire appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihZJy9L4ew8

Ed Catmull, author of “Creativity, Inc.” and president of Disney Animation Studios and Pixar, discusses the process of disagreeing with Steve Jobs.  It could sometimes take Catmull a week to rebut the quick thinking of Jobs.  Then another week to rebut his follow-up comments. Eventually, he says, there were three possible outcomes: (1) Jobs would come around, (2) Catmull would come around or (3) if no consensus could be found, Jobs would let Catmull do it his own way.

From the Stanford University Technology Ventures program.

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Ed Catmull on Disagreeing with Steve Jobs appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaSJImLKqUk

Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel is asked why he decided to make movies as a way to express himself instead of writing or painting. Buñuel humorously describes his terrible talent for both writing and painting even if he is very good at self-expression via images. When further questioned if he would have gone into a career in acting, Buñuel defines the acting profession as a “nuisance but it’s well paid” because it is such an easy job that requires little work. While this video has no sound, captions transcribing the interview are provided.

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Why Buñuel Dislikes Acting & Went into Filmmaking appeared first on Witnify.