-Martin Booth
THE INDUSTRY OF SOULS, a novel
Twenty-five years ago today:
April 1, 1987
Wednesday
This weather we’ve been having is too good to be true. I love it. In twenty days I will have ‘my pretend’ poison oak for a week (so that I can have some extra time off). I was almost going to go forward with this plan earlier because my boss, Steve Adams, pissed-me-off yesterday.
I didn’t like when he said, “Mike, you should call the customer before sending the first letter.”
Crap. Just let me do my job the way it works for me.
On May 24, 1987 there will be a big Golden Gate Bridge Birthday Celebration. How exciting.
Carla returned to work. I finally got the scoop. She was arrested last Sunday night for causing trouble with the police on a routine pullover of drunk driving while with her girlfriends. What a nightmare! They booked her. That was too much of a story.
Last night I went to SAFEWAY and Tony, the bag boy (and a definite QBL-Questionable type), was there. He smiled at me. Shit! I saw him again today while I was bicycling. I wonder.
Mark Landreth telephoned. We discussed the idea of going out this weekend.
Mark confided, “You know, I’ve been seeing a lot of Ivy lately.”
“Oh yeah…What did you do?” I asked.
“We went out and spent last Friday night together.”
He didn’t give me much ‘dirt’ on this date. It’s probably still in the introductory phase.
I fell asleep while watching DYNASTY when I received a phone call from Los Angeles. It was that older, film director guy named Teddy Charach. He woke me up. He talked of numerous subjects.
Teddy said, “I wrote a script titled TERMINATION 5.”
“What’s it about?”
“It’s a suspenseful thriller with a lot of intrigue.”
I went on to explain to him about my desire to get into Yellow Page Advertising Sales.
Teddy encouraged me by saying, “You should get into ‘Broadcasting Sales’. I have connections in the radio business. I can show you around.”
“Oh, that sounds interesting.”
“You should really move to L.A.”
I thought Teddy was all talk but he made the possibilities seem endless. I tried to make the notion clear in my defense that I had no interest in him in any intimate way.
Teddy acknowledged me with two words: “I understand.”
I felt a bit more carefree and said, “You know, I want to write a book. And yeah, I want to be a STAR.”
“You should move to L.A. and I’ll be your protégé.”
I laughed aloud at his idea.
It was all in fun as I continued by saying, “It’s hard for me to leave the security of the company I work for and five weeks of paid vacation.”
I could sense Teddy nodding as he said, “I can work with you on that and get you to leave.”
Perhaps more money would do the trick. Is that what he meant?
I telephoned Eileen Grabinsky after I hung up the phone with Teddy Charach. It was 11:30PM.
Eileen said, “I guess my boss isn’t going to Palm Springs for the weekend after all.”
“I guess that means you have to work and I can’t see you.”
“Yes, unfortunately I’m booked.”
“Oh…great,” I said in my frustrated, bummed-out tone.
Eileen exclaimed, “Yeah, but next weekend looks good!”
I felt in the mood to disclose something private. I decided to tell her about my ‘sperm donation’ and how a little girl was born—that is a part of me--sometime around September 1985. Now only three people know about this little secret: Eileen Grabinsky, Mark Landreth and mom. I think that’s it.
Through pictures, he schemed to kill, tease, and rearrange time. Andy Warhol tried to fade into his entourage. His work’s major theme was interpersonal manipulation.
-Wayne Koestenbaum
ANDY WARHOL
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