In October of 2006, my friend Loree and I went on vacation to Toronto, CA. Among Niagara Falls, the CN Tower and other tourist attractions there, we went to the Art Gallery of Ontario to check out one of the largest (ever) exhibits of Andy Warhol works. Including his movies being shown on the wall, his paintings and of course his famous self portraits. Just like everyone else, I was slightly familiar with Warhol works - I could have probably spotted one if I saw one, and of course was aware of his Cambell soup can fame. But other than that, I didn’t know much about the man himself or the meaning behind his work.

I came away from the exhibit completely fascinated and slightly obsessed with all things Warhol. I’ve since become familiar with all of his works and even most of the people in his life. The Life and Death of Andy Warhol by Victor Bockris gives an amazing account of Andy’s life, his (anti)loves and even his death. It also dives into his relationship with Edie Sedgwick and their intention to “rule the world”.

I was looking forward to seeing Factory Girl for a while now. I’m a big fan of Sienna Miller and I think she’s a great actress when given the right outlet (like Alfie) and this movie really solidified her capabilities as an actress and if anyone sees her in this movie, they’d have to agree that she will have work for a long time in the future. At first I thought Guy Pierce was a strange choice for the role of Andy Warhol (Memento anyone?); but he did a pretty good job and portrayed Andy about how I would have imagined him. I think Andy was a lot more shy than was shown, and a lot LESS talkative and animated. Andy was an ultra-shy/scared/quiet person, who talked in cryptic phrases to the press most of the time (unlike this movie where he makes funny/clever comments when being interviewed.)

Overall, I thought the movie was just “ok”. It was fun for me to see some of the people from the Factory “played out” and given identity other than the pages of a book. But as for real quality, I think Factory Girl came up quite short. First of all, I can hardly take any movie seriously that puts Jimmy Fallon in a serious character role. (I’m rolling my eyes). Not only is Jimmy Fallon not funny whatsoever, but he doesn’t have the acting abilities to pull off this role either. Hayden Christensen is mediocre as who I’m assuming is suppose to be Dylan? Besides Miller pulling off an amazing job as Edie, the only other saving grace to the movie is Pierce’s portrayal of Warhol. I found myself only looking forward to scenes with him in it and the only thing interesting about Andy Warhol’s life, is Andy himself.

I would say that if you go to see this movie and don’t really know much about Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick or life at the Factory (from reading things about it), you’re going to be pretty bored and lost when you watch this movie. If you love Warhol’s life, like I do, you might be slightly fascinated by Factory Girl and enjoy it a small bit. I can’t say it’s a terrible movie, I just found it slow, semi-boring and just mediocre.

I’ve been quite out of the blogging game lately. I still take about 10 min a day to cruise by some of my favs, but that is probably 1/10 of the amount of time I normally spend reading my daily fixes, etc. In fact, I haven’t been on the internet very much at all in the past few weeks and I’m starting to notice it. I’m starting to feel out of touch and I’m not sure that is a healthy reaction to lack of internet. It should be a welcoming relief, but it’s not. I’m realizing that I am almost (*almost!*) completely reliant on the internet and I’m not sure that I would function without it. Sad really.

I’d like to think that I have enough in my life to keep me busy, without depending on the web for amusement. But after getting caught in the real world for the past few weeks (overrated, let me tell you), I’m starting to feel guilty for not checking my PR or Adsense obsessingly. Man, I’ve really been slipping.

I’ve even received offers for website design projects and they are currently sitting in my inbox like I could care less. Of course I DO care (somewhere deep inside, I’m pretty sure that I care), but am I jumping on the opportunities? Nope. I’m spending my evenings sleeping and reading an Andy Warhol biography. Between playing and taking care of Tyler, and yelling at my fiance for not taking the garbage out, or putting the milk away, of course. I’ve almost become too tired to surf my sites and keep up with the happenings in the frantic pace that I normally do.

It feels weird, that is for sure. I can feel the inner struggle between complete disregard for the internet and silly people on myspace and the need to optimize, optimize, optimize and push on in my desires to become an internet millionaire.  I guess sometimes we all need a break.

Or do we?

Does anyone else get this way?