Face It: A Memoir by Debbie Harry

[RobertB]

    When I visited New Zealand in late February, A-EON's Trevor Dickinson showed me the autobiography of singer Debbie Harry, "Face It: A Memoir".  He said that in the book she mentions the night of the Amiga 1000 premiere of which she was a big part.  Now I'll have to buy the book and find out what she exactly says! 

         Truly,
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group -
         http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
         Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network -
         http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan

[RobertB]

    I've just received the book as a Christmas present!  Here is what I wrote for the FCUG newsletter and an excerpt from Debbie Harry's book.

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(Debbie Harry, was a singer, songwriter, and actress who had the lead vocals in the band, Blondie.  Some of her famous songs were "Heart of Glass," "Call Me," and "The Tide Is High."  Andy Warhol was an artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art.  Both of them appeared together on stage for the unveiling of the Commodore Amiga 1000 in 1985.  Below is what Debbie recalled from that event.)

Later, Andy called and asked me to model for a portrait he was going to create live, at Lincoln Center, as a promotion for the Commodore Amiga computer.  It was a pretty amazing event.  They had a full orchestra and a large board set up with a bunch of technicians in lab coats.  The techs programmed away with all the Warhol colors, as Andy designed and painted my portrait.  I hammed it up some for the cameras, turning toward Andy, running my hand through my hair, and asking in a suggestive Marilyn voice, ?Are you ready to paint me??  Andy was pretty hilarious in his flat-affect way, as he sparred with the Commodore host.

I think there are only two copies of this computer-generated Warhol in existence and I have one of them.  Commodore also gave me a free computer, which I passed on to Chris [Stein].

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Harry, Debbie, "Face It: a Memoir," Dey St., an imprint of William Morrow, p. 196, c. 2019.

         Truly,
         Robert Bernardo
         Fresno Commodore User Group -
         http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
         Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network -
         http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan

[RobertB]

From Andy Warhol's diary of those days' events --

Friday, June 14, 1985

During this morning I went down to the Seagram's building for that "How to Paint" video thing that the computer company, Commodore, wants me to be a spokesman for. And I guess I got the job. I was afraid that they were going to put a spotlight on me and have me draw in front of 700 people, but it was okay. It's a $3,000 machine that's like the Apple thing but can do a hundred times more.

Monday, July 22, 1985

Went up to the Kiss of the Spider Woman screening (cab $5). This is the movie Jane Holzer produced with that David Weisman, the Ciao Manhattan person. I can't stand him so I hate to say it, but I liked the movie. And I guess people are wanting arty movies now, or something, it's the right time. I had to get home early and dye my hair because of my public appearance at Lincoln Center for Commodore Computers the next day. Dyed my eyebrows, too. Black. I always dye it black first, and then leave some white and everything. I'm artistic, sweetheart.

Tuesday, July 23, 1985

The day started off with dread as I woke up from my dreams and thought about my live appearance and how nothing is worth all this worrying, to wake up and feel so terrified. Had to be over at Lincoln Center at 9:00, so I was up at 7:30 (cab $4). Debbie Harry got there before I did. She's a blonde again and she's lost another ten pounds. And she was wearing the outfit from Stephen Sprouse that I've never seen anybody else wear yet - the shoes glued into the leg stocking. We ran through it, and the easiest part is running through our thing for the press, that's so easy. They said we had to be back there at 5:30.

The whole day was spent being nervous and telling myself that if I could just get good at stuff like this then I could make money that way and I wouldn't have to paint.

Then when I went back there at 5:30 we went on and I thought I was going to pass out. I forced myself to think about the next job I could get if I didn't. Went along and the drawing came out terrible and I called it "a masterpiece." It was a real mess. I said I wanted to be Walt Disney and that if I'd had this machine ten years ago, I could have made it. Then afterwards people saw the portraits of Debbie and thought those were (laughs) the Xeroxes.

And the news is full of Rock Hudson having AIDS in Paris. And now I guess people will finally believe Rock Hudson's gay. When you'd tell them before, they wouldn't believe it.