In advance of my trip to the Andy Warhol Museum I checked out their on-line store to see what was for sale. I wanted to spend as much time as possible in the museum and keep my shopping time at a minimum. Regardless of that intention I still spent 45 minutes in the shop. One book that I had seen on-line but not on the shop shelves was Andy Warhol Screen Tests: The Films of Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné Volume 1 by Callie Angell:
I asked about it but they did not have it in stock. It was published in 2006 so it was not a new title; nonetheless I would have to look for it elsewhere. Even now, one month after my visit to the museum, the on-line store still says “temporarily out of stock”.
Merely one day after I got home from my trip (and two days after my trip to the Warhol Museum) I found a copy of this book on-line from a vendor in England. I did quite a lot of Internet searching to find a perfect copy. The vendor was kind to send me multiple photos and answer all my questions about the book’s condition, because I am a stickler for pristine editions. The one he was selling even had its cover in Mylar, so I knew it was protected from pesky fingerprints.
I was eager to get this book, knowing how much I was enjoying its second volume which I had bought at the museum store. However since I was leaving for a trip to Newfoundland on August 12, I didn’t want to chance that the delivery might arrive while I was away. I opted to pay extra for express shipping. Nevertheless, even with priority shipping the estimated delivery date was on or before August 12. I was anxious throughout the entire week of August 5 to 9, hoping that the book would arrive before I left.
When nothing came by August 9, I was despondent. I knew the book could still arrive by Monday however I would be on the way to the airport by the time the mail usually arrived. Over that weekend I asked a neighbour if he could be on the lookout for a package or a package notification card that might be left at my door. I also asked him to check my mailbox in case such a card was placed there, as they sometimes are. I was in touch with him by E-mail from Monday, August 12 till Friday the 16th yet the package still had not arrived.
I was feeling ticked off by then, knowing that I had paid for priority shipping and nothing had come yet. It would have been nice to know the book had been delivered by the latest estimated date, August 12. If it hadn’t come by the 16th I should have opted for regular mail. In any case, when I got home on the afternoon of August 23 my neighbour gave me my mail and returned my mailbox key, yet had no package to give me.
Now I was really disappointed. All that money spent on priority shipping from England and still no package. My neighbour, who has looked after my mail before, was diligent and checked my front door every day. I know that thefts of packages occur frequently yet so far I have been spared the target of porch pirates. Did someone run off with my book? My heavy book that is as big as a pizza box? Who would take that?
I checked to see if the vendor had my correct address. Of course he did; I buy often from a second-hand book website and my address is stored in my buyer profile. Nothing was altered. That very night I sent an E-mail to the vendor to ask about the status of the shipment. I didn’t expect to receive a reply that night since England is five hours ahead of my time zone, but shortly before 9:30 p.m. I got a reply. The vendor had a record that an attempt was made to deliver the book to my front door on August 7.
August 7? I was home all afternoon that day! I was hosting my former manager Amanda for lunch. We were in my kitchen with the blind open. I could see outside and would have noticed any delivery truck. Nobody came to my front door that day and there wasn’t any package notification card left on my front door or in my mailbox. So what happened?
I decided the only thing I could do was go to my post office and see if they knew anything. My packages are sometimes sent there for pickup. It was by then 9:25 p.m. and that post office closes at 9:30 yet at that hour there was no way I’d be able to call them and explain everything. I would have to wait till the next morning, however I was not optimistic that my package would be there.
Worried that my package–and all the money I had spent on it and its expedited delivery–were gone forever, I didn’t have a restful sleep that night. I suppose there are steps that buyers like me can take to get their money back but the hoops I’d have to jump through would be endless.
I rode to the post office, bringing my ID as I had no package claim card to give them. I asked about my package, telling the clerk its attempted delivery date of August 7, who the sender was and what even the size of the box would be. She listened carefully and took some time checking her computer. I stood there, not hopeful. I was expecting her to say something like “Sorry, we have no record of this” yet, miraculously, everything I told her was on her screen. She went into the back room and brought out my package!
How come this was never delivered to me on August 7 when I was home that day? Why didn’t the post office leave me a package notification card? There should have even been a special red final notice card in my mailbox by now anyway. But nothing. Then the clerk pointed out the address on the package: it had the wrong unit number: #23.
Why was it addressed to the wrong unit number? How did it get mislabelled? As it turned out, I had to pay a small duty fee on the book before I could take it. Had I not had to pay such a fee, I wonder if the people–whoever they are–who live at #23 would have accepted the delivery anyway. They might have thought to themselves “There’s no Craig Rowland who lives here but you’ve got a package for him? Sure, we’ll take it.” However they’d be less inclined to accept an unknown package if they had to pay a duty fee for it upfront. I do not know what interaction went on between the delivery service and the people at #23. Was someone home who refused to accept the package? If so, then I’d have expected the post office would have had no recourse but to send it back to England. Yet I am more inclined to think that a delivery attempt was made, yet no one was home. A package notification card would have been left at their door or in their mailbox, with my name on it plus the amount in duty owing. Yet even if someone from that unit had gone to the post office willing to pay the fee, he wouldn’t have been able to claim it without showing ID.
As I was asking these questions to the clerk I noticed that the Canada Border Services Agency address sticker was pasted partially over another address label. The label underneath was the address label affixed by the book vendor, and when I peeled back the top sticker I saw that the vendor’s label had my correct address on it! If the postal clerk had the slightest doubt about releasing the package to me, all doubt vanished when she saw the address label underneath. It was my address. The Canada Border Services Agency made the error when writing up the duty form address label.
What a relief. I finally got my book. I spent the rest of the morning looking through it. The screen tests are arranged alphabetically by screen subject. I suppose that makes it easier to look for people who sat for these tests, but it does seem odd to find that some of the very first subjects, like Baby Jane Holzer in 1964, are indexed next to later subjects like Ed Hood in 1966. A still for each screen test was featured, along with brief production information followed by a biography of the subject. All four original members of the Velvet Underground and Nico had screen tests in 1966. Susan Sontag sat for a test in 1964.
During my time at the Warhol Museum three screen test films were projected onto a wall, side by side. I took no photos of these projections, yet recall who they were: on the left was Ultra Violet from 1965 (ST346), in the middle was Philip Fagan and Gerard Malanga from 1964 (no catalogue number given) and on the right was Isabel Eberstadt from 1964 (ST85).
