Taylor Mead: Lonesome Cowboys September 19, 2008

TAYLOR MEAD: A CLOWN UNDERGROUND
Taylor Mead in person Sep 18 & 19

"If he had decided to live in Paris instead of New York, they'd have built several monuments to Taylor Mead a long time ago." - Gary Indiana

“My philosophy is from Nietzsche: minimum of effort and maximum of error. It's gotten me practically nowhere.” - Taylor Mead

Performer and poet Taylor Mead has starred in over 100 films and is a central figure in the history of underground cinema. Though best known for the films he made with Andy Warhol (including Lonesome Cowboys and Nude Restaurant), Mead has appeared in things as diverse as Saturday Night Live, Rip Torn’s staging of Hamlet and Midnight Cowboy. Now over 80 years old, Mead’s work has a mature innocence, and a celebration of (and longing for) peace and joy that is missing from so much contemporary art today. His performances often bring to mind Chaplin’s “tramp” character. He now spends much of his time writing, doing poetry readings and feeding stray animals. Mead will make his first San Francisco appearance in decades.

Fri, Sep 19, 7:30 pm
LONESOME COWBOYS
BY ANDY WARHOL
Long before Brokeback Mountain there was Lonesome Cowboys, a homoerotic satire of the Western with a hilarious, raunchy co-starring role by Mead. Shot on location at a ranch in Arizona used previously for John Wayne movies, Warhol edited the film while recuperating from his gunshot wound. Also starring Viva and Joe Dallesandro. (1967-68, 109 min, 16mm) Followed by discussion with Mead.

Official Website: http://www.ybca.org