Though I’ve known Andy all my life we were closest in high school and through the 90’s. Andy was an old school 60’s style hippie all the way through high school. Which was kind of ballsy when you consider that that kind of stuff was pretty passé in the late 80’s. It was the golden age of the mullet but Andy was not having that. Full locks. He would drag us to see the Dead and he never wore deodorant. My god that kid stank. He taught me Friend of the Devil and Ripple on the guitar and I can still play those tunes.
In the nineties we spent a lot of time hanging around Brooklyn when he first moved there and the Manhattan theater scene. We met lots of awesome women and drank lots of beer. It was great. He was getting into film editing and I was doing lots of off-off-Broadway. The Upright Citizens Brigade was a new thing and we took their improv classes. He was much better than me.
Andy loved the hedonism of hippie life but it was also about fierce idealism. As everyone’s been noting, Andy was a dyed in the wool liberal that would go to the wall for anybody he thought had gotten a raw deal. That went for all sorts of oppressed groups but also for friends. I never had a better friend. He’d do anything for you. He was always there and he never judged me. I remember many time being amazed at the depth of the generosity and empathy (sometimes I just thought he was foolish). I never told him that. Probably because would only have made some kind of joke and told me to lighten up. 😀
Anyway I will miss Andy terribly as we all will. Thanks for this chance to remember him.
Keith Doherty