In his New Yorker story about on a family tugboat pilots, Burkhard Bilger, among other things, profiles a sweet kinship between Allen, Peter Orlovsky and the boat pilot, Latham Smith. Their digital edition even features a fun little super-8 film of them taking the boat out for a spin. Thanks again to Steve Silberman for catching this one! We’re trying to locate Orlovsky’s poem in the following reference, but so far no luck. Doesn’t seem to be in Clean Asshole Poems… maybe lost?
“In a Super 8 film of the sea trial, Allen Ginsberg is along for the ride, the wind tossing his already tousled hair. He and his partner, Peter Orlovsky, had become fascinated by the tug—Orlovsky had even written a poem about it—and Latham, for all his suspicions of Eastern intellectuals, had taken to Ginsberg as well… For more on this obscure little episode – see here
Elsewhere, in other matters, here’s James Franco discussing his practice, memorizing “Howl” for the Howl film.
I watched the opening to the Sundance Film Festival and watched him read part of "Howl". He seemed to embody much of what Allen Ginsberg stands for and how he was during his reading. I have not yet seen the movie but I would like to see it just because I feel like James can portray what Allen was. He seems to portray real life people well (James Dean, as well as in Milk). The movie is centered around the obscenity trial faced after his publication of "Howl" and from what I have researched this trial was finally won by Jake Ehrlich and supported by the American Civil Liberties Union. It was censored because of many references to illicit drugs but more important hetero and homo sexual ideas. I feel as though this poem embodies almost all that Allen believed in (I.e. during the counter-culture movement) and am glad that they made a movie portraying this time and case.