Bibbe i Kobra II

NEW YORK Dialog i vårt vardagsrum ikväll (mycket fritt ur minnet!), apropå att TV-programmet om "Warhols vålnader" tydligen sänts därhemma i Sverige:

Gunilla: – So, did the Swedish TV reporter ask good questions on the phone?
Bibbe: – Well, yes, not so bad... There are so many people in this city who don't know much about Warhol, so I guess it was OK. People come up to me all the time, I am interviewed in so many books on this period now. Some ask really stupid questions.
Gunilla: – Can you give an example of a really stupid Warhol question?
Bibbe: – Well, first she [syftar trots allt på Kobras reporter] didn't know how young I was when I came there. So, when she realized I was only 14, she said: "Wow, so when you were at The Factory, it must have been a really mind-blowing experience for you, with the decadence and drugs and all that."
– I had to explain to her that The Factory has mostly been described by people with a very bourgeois background. Of course they were shocked with was going on! But to me... It was nothing compared to what I knew, from when I grew up in the Lower East Side. Yes, there was some shooting up going on, but to me it all seemed pretty normal. It happened in the bathroom, behind closed doors, but most of all The Factory was a working studio – people were working! For all those years, and I am talking about the early Silver Factory period [1963–1967], not when it was at the Union Square, there were actually only two parties taking place.
– But you have to remember, at that time we all thought drugs were fine. Yes, we all knew heroine was dangerous, but we thought speed was fine. We thought LSD was OK, we thought cocaine was OK. In the 50's and 60's you could get speed from your grand mother in Lower East Side! Yes, Edie Sedgwick took amphetamine - but we all took amphetamine. That's what we had instead of martinis.

Ja, bara så att ni förstår vilken mental boendemiljö jag har här hemma. Jag är ju så småborgerlig och nancyesque av mig att jag blir smått chockad enbart av Bibbes berättelser, om sådant som hände i New York 1965.

För två år sedan försökte jag förresten sälja in en lång F&S-intervju med Bibbe, till Tidningen Sex, som jag fick för mig skulle lämpa sig för ändamålet.
Ika Johannesson svarade mycket vänligt ett tack-men-nej-tack som gick ut på att de måste försöka undvika att bara intervjua amerikaner. Fair enough, jag vet få som är så amerikanska som Bibbe. Och oj, vad många really stupid questions jag skulle ställa. (Men nej, mamma, vi sysslar inte med något shooting up härhemma. Inte med amfetamin heller, är kanske bäst att tillägga.)


Memory Lane: Jag och Bibbe Hansen i Japantown i Los Angeles, december 2003. (Foto: Sean Carrillo)

/Gunilla