[“Allen Ginsberg, utility man S.S John Blair first trip back from Galveston-Dakar Doldrums trip. I handed my camera to the radio man on the ship’s fantail, smoking what? in New York harbor, 1947”]
Beat Photos in London
For those of you in London (it was “for those of you in Paris..” last weekend!), Angelheaded Hipsters , the exhibition of Allen’s photographs at the National Theater, Southbank, is now up and running, and will remain up until mid-March. Don’t miss it! Beat Memories, Allen’s groundbreaking show at the National Gallery in Washington DC, we’ve already extensively noted (here here here – and here)
In connection with the show there will be a few events of definite interest in the upcoming weeks, including one, notto be missed on February 19, entitled Angelheaded Hipsters: Discovering the Beat Movement, featuring Allen’s first biographer Barry Miles, writer & journalist John Harris Dunning, poet Michael Horowitz and musician Paul Higgs.
More notes on Angelheaded Hipsters – here, here and here
Also in London (note: link here is to a PDF file) Maggs Bros Rare Books have a couple of interesting items – William Burroughs photos of London, and William Burroughs Shoots Boys/Miles Shoots Burroughs, both taken from his time there in the early ‘70’s, two sequences of hand-made prints, produced a few years ago, taken from the original negatives, and currently being offered for sale (the link take you to a short but descriptive scratch catalog) [2012 update – needless to say, this link is now dead, but we draw your attention to Maggs Bros Burroughs materials, notably this catalog of Gysin-Burroughs here]
Ken Kesey at Sundance.
Alex Gibney’s documentary, Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search For A Kool Place , premiers this weekend at Sundance, and will hopefully soon be on wider release. A long time in the making, Jay Meehan, writing in the Utah Park Record gives some of the background:
“..First, with Kesey having passed away in 2001, there were the negotiations with the estate for access and rights to his archives… then, once the footage and audio recordings and photographs made by Kesey and the Pranksters on their iconic LSD-fueled “trip” had been unearthed, there was the time it took the UCLA Film Archives to restore the 40-some-year old print, followed by an editing process that had to work around Gibney’s availability, which, at best, due to his other film projects, was rare..”
Variety gives an early review of the film here
Howl Theatre and Amram
Meanwhile in Austin, Texas – Boulder’s award-winning Square Product Theatre presents “the world premiere of a new theatrical adaptation of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl”
(adapted and performed by Teresa Harrison) as part of the 2011 Frontera Fest, taking place at Austin’s Blue Theater while in New York City, down at the Bowery Poetry Club, long-time Beat collaborator and our friend David Amram will be celebrating this weekend “his Lower East Side roots and his 80th birthday”.
Renaldo and Clara on DVD…
Our “Streaming Video” links here (hush, hush, it’s still up!) for a little taste – but, the exciting news, Bob Dylan’s legendary 1978 movie Renaldo and Clara (featuring Allen and the whole Rolling Thunder touring party), is about to be released, finally, as a DVD! [2012 update –alas! – jumping the gun – still no official plans for the release of the Renaldo and Clara DVD]
And more Dylan news (tho’ we’d hand you over to the incomparable Expecting Rain site for anything in this arena), Dylan, it’s understood, has just signed a six-book deal with New York publishers Simon & Schuster (including two sequels to his already justly-praised 2004 book, Chronicles).