The world of Stephen Brockelman: Memoir, Arts, Opinion
The traditional 1st Anniversary gift is paper. We’re giving ourselves 42.7 pounds of it.
Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné - volume 1, photo courtesy Phaidon Press, London
Today is our 1st/22nd anniversary—one year married; twenty-two years together. (We were ready to make it legal many years ago, but the powers-that-be kept saying, “Boys, that dog don’t hunt.”
In some ways, Jacob and I are rather traditional. In other ways, not so much.
Paper seemed like the right choice, but we already had stationary, monogrammed cocktail napkins, and we’re not quite ready for wallpaper. We questioned how we might take the paper concept a different direction. The answer arrived a few days ago in a massive carton.
Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné
Tonight, at dinner, we’ll open the box and take a look at The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, five books in four volumes. The set weighs in at nearly 43 pounds—of paper. Of course, other things add to the weight of the 2,498 page package: ink, varnish, history, creativity, inspiration, genius, and a touch of Warhol’s wit.
Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné
AFTERTHOUGHT: As collectors, we know how wrong it usually is to speak to the joy of any kind of art by referencing its size or weight. But, remembering one of Andy’s remarks seems to make doing so just fine in this case. Just fine:
Don’t pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.
As a Sr. Writer at T. Rowe Price, I work with a group of the best copywriters around. We belong to the broader creative team within Enterprise Creative, a part of Corporate Marketing Services.
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A long and winding road: My path to T. Rowe Price was more twisted than Fidelity’s green line. With scholarship in hand, I left Kansas at 18 to study theatre in New York. When my soap opera paychecks stopped coming from CBS and started coming from the show’s sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, I discovered the power of advertising and switched careers. Over the years I’ve owned an ad agency in San Francisco; worked for Norman Lear on All in the Family, Good Times, Sanford and Son, and the rest of his hit shows; and as a member of Directors Guild of America, I directed Desi Arnaz in his last television appearance— we remained friends until his death. In 1988 I began freelancing full time didn’t look back.
In January 2012 my rep at Boss Group called and said, “I know you don’t want to commute and writing for the financial industry isn’t high on your wish list, but I have a gig with T. Rowe Price in Owings Mills…” I was a contractor for eight months, drank the corporate Kool-Aid, became a TRP associate that August, and today I find myself smiling more often than not.
Reblogged this on The Midnight Writer and commented:
Happy anniversary! And I admit, I am very envious of your 42.7 pounds of paper – just beautiful.