The Reading List: Warhol’s grave, Spike Lee and Raven-Symoné

This latest edition of The Reading List is chock full of pop-culture junkets, so let’s get started.

First, Andy Warhol. Today would be Andy’s 85th birthday, and to honour it, the Andy Warhol Musuem has posted a live feed from Andy’s grave. So much for 15 minutes of fame. You can view it here. (via CBC)

Next, Spike Lee made an interesting comment during an interview with BET.

You mentioned criticism earlier. You’ve been called a misogynist. You’ve been called homophobic. I wonder —
First of all, I’m not homophobic. Because I have a character say the word “f—-t” or “homo” that does not mean that I’m homophobic. Martin Scorsese is not racist. The characters are people he grew up with, characters in the mean streets — that’s those people talking, not him. In that world, those are the things people say. When I went to Morehouse College that’s the way they spoke, thought and talked about homosexuals.

Which brings about an interesting idea: is it Spike’s — or other artists’ — responsibility to remove homophobic or any form of bigoted language from the mouths of his characters?

Still on the celebrity tip, recently actress Raven-Symoné tweeted something on Aug 2 that, to some, was viewed as her outing herself.

In response, some people started saying that their childhoods had been “ruined.” BuzzFeed took a look at all of this and ended it all with one positive response tweet. Check it out.