We at The Allen Ginsberg Project, we love our “Ginsberg tattoos” – they’re among the most popular posts, curiously – or maybe not so curiously. So here‘s another – “I wake to see the world go wild” – the line is from “An Eastern Ballad”. “Lauralemon” explains: “My obsession with and love for Allen Ginsberg began when I was thirteen years old and picked up an anthology of modern American poetry from a garage sale. I read “America” and immediately became obsessed…and here I am six years later, finally bearing a small tribute to my favorite poet… Getting this line (tattoo-ed) made sense to me in so many ways, but mostly I like the idea of young Allen Ginsberg writing this beautiful poem with absolute(ly) no idea who he was
and who he would become…just a young kid, basically.”
“Citylightslover” (so what’s all this with nom de plumes?!), over on The Daily Kos, writes about “Books That Changed My Life: “Howl by Allen Ginsberg” – “(T)hemes from “Howl” and the battle of (for) free artistic and academic expression”, she notes, “still resonate 57 years after its ground-breaking first public reading… Every once in a while, when I need a spiritual and mental pick-me-up, I’ll read “Howl” out loud to myself. Allen Ginsberg left this life in April 1997, but “Howl” still is, & will always be, with us to, hopefully, educate and inspire…”
Another encomium for Allen – Jenn Weinshenker’s delightful story of his re-imagination of the game,”Risk” -“Why don’t we play it so nobody takes over the world, and nobody loses?”
NAROPA memories from Boulder, here’s some more recent ones, not of Allen this time, but Thurston Moore (he’ll be back and teaching in the Summer Writing Program this year), a student remembers his last year’s classes.
Flavorpill recently posted a portfolio of Gordon Ball Beat photos – Intimate Photos of Allen Ginsberg and Other Beat Fellows. Here he is (Allen), rather strangely, observing his painted image (the portrait is by Mary Beach).
On The Road news – Well, have we mentioned before Gerald Nicosia’s important new book, One and Only: The Untold Story of On The Road re-evaluating “Marylou” (real name, Lu Anne Henderson), the glue between Jack and Neal, and, arguably, the real inspiration of the book). Seems like before we’ve always seen that relationship through Carolyn Cassady‘s eyes, this time, in the film, it’s going to be more from a Lu Anne Henderson perspective
Kill Your Darlings news, more news – and not Daniel Radcliffe-related this time. Internet Movie Database (IMBD) has “Dexter”, Michael C Hall, listed and up for a part in the movie. That would surely be the David Kammerer part? So Michael gets to play another “psycho-killer”? (all you Beat-o-philes, tho’ it’s “loosely-based on”, a screenplay, etc, it behooves you to check out, if you’re not familiar with it already, the background story).