Howl in England
Following up from our notices last week, here’s more English press coverage related to this Friday (today’s) UK opening of Howl. Mick Brown, in the Telegraph, gives the basic background in “How I Scribbled Magic Lines From My Real Mind”. Andrew Lowry, in the blog for the same paper, (regrettably no longer available) provocatively heads his report “The Beats Were Self-Indulgent Poseurs But The New Ginsberg Film Is Definitely Worth Seeing”
John Patterson in The Guardian points out that The Beats Have Had A Bad Rap But Howl Lets Their Words Speak For Themselves” “Howl, first the poem, now the movie, gives back all power to the words themselves; made to be spoken, scatted, screamed, intoned or sung”. And here’s Tom Huddleston in Time Out – ” There’s no denying that this is a bold, inspiring piece of work, putting experimental techniques in the service of a heartfelt, insightful and surprisingly audience-friendly work of art” Interviews with the film-makers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman about the film can be found and here .
Janine Pommy Vega
We noted in passing and with sadness, this past December, the death of the great poet/bard Janine Pommy Vega and drew your attention to the Woodstock Times obit and to Anne Waldman’s memoir (and here’s a couple of other obituaries (Ken Hunt, writing in The Independent , and an unsigned one from (London’s) Daily Telegraph .
This past Sunday friends gathered at the Colony Cafe in Woodstock to salute and pay respects to her, and this coming Sunday (the 27th), it will happen again, this time in New York. The Bowery Poetry Club and The St Mark’s Poetry Project are co-sponsoring “A Praise-Day for Janine Pommy Vega”. The reading/tribute (featuring Andy Clausen, Bob Holman, John Giorno, Anne Waldman, Hettie Jones, and others) will take place at the Bowery Poetry Club, starting at 1 o’clock. As with last weekend, the event will also include a video presentation – a screening of Kurt Hemmer’s “As We Cover The Streets” featuring mesmerizing performance footage of Janine.
Speaking of mesmerizing footage, here’s Janine’s long-time friend and companion Andy Clausen in their home in Willow, New York, remembering her and reading her poem “Wartime Kitchen”