On March 9, 1966 I met Andy Warhol and his Velvet Underground entourage at the Rutgers University cafeteria. I’ll let the late Lou Reed explain an observation preserved on the internet:
“Andy arrived at Rutgers on the afternoon of March 9 with an entourage of thirteen people and went straight to the student cafeteria where the boys and girls flipped out gawking at Nico while Barbara Rubin filmed their reactions and Nat Finkelstein took photographs. When the campus guards told he couldn’t, Nat punched one of them in the nose and the next thing he knew sixteen cops arrived. They asked Andy for his cafeteria pass which he never had. Gerard and Paul started screaming, and everyone got thrown out…” (UT37-38)
I was taking an early dinner/late lunch when Warhol and friends lined up behind me. I remember talking to a woman in the group–I think it was Nico. We were filmed and so I witnessed and became part of the format that was standard art fare for Andy Warhol. Today it’s called reality TV.
Fast forward past Warhol’s demise in 1987 to the photograph on the left taken earlier this year–my attempt to make myself look like the great pop artist that I met briefly in a time when so much was possible. Warhol’s canvas had no borders and I had a meal ticket for cafeteria food. Where’s my entourage?
67Steffen.com 
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