Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 67

Another Ginsberg “tat” (we know how you love these!) to lead off – a “strophe” (or part of a strophe) from “Howl” (did you know that “Howl” was originally called “Strophes”?) – “America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe”..”I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his automobiles more so they’re all different sexes”.

& here‘s a tattoo from that poem – Ginsberg’s “America”.

Tom Sturridge, oh Tom Sturridge! We have to confess we were a little underwhelmed when they released the Tom-Sturridge-as-Allen On The Road poster. After all that Daniel Radcliffe hoo-hah – (but we’re still, like you all, eagerly anticipating the upcoming release of the film, scheduled for release in France, May 23, almost certainly debuting at Cannes, a week or so earlier)

Allen’s posthumous fame as a movie character! – who would have thunk? (well, who would have thunk so soon?)

“In. The streets look for Allen, Frank, or me. Allen/is a movie..” (Ted Berrigan, from his poem “Red Shift”, composed circa 1976)

“The Many Cinematic Faces of Allen Ginsberg” – Emily Temple surveys the phenomena over on Flavorwire (unaccountably omitting consideration of the afore-mentioned Tom Sturridge) – “we’re still pretty fascinated by any portrayal of Ginsberg on screen, however flawed it may be”.

Not forgetting documentaries (most especially, not forgetting documentaries!)

The OMC Gallery for Contemporary Arts in Huntington Beach, California, is currently showing “The Beat Hotel and Other Images Made From The Future by Harold Chapman, Selected Vintage and Period Photographs from 1947 to 2012″. Most of these images are being presented for the first time in the United States. Meantime, on the East Coast (premiering today!), Alan Govenar’s documentary, The Beat Hotel (featuring Harold as the focal point and Scottish artist, Elliot Rudie) opens – “British photographer Harold Chapman’s iconic photos and Scottish artist Elliot Rudie’s animated drawings capturing Ginsberg, Orlovsky, Corso, Burroughs, Gysin, (Ian) Sommerville and (Harold) Norse just as they were beginning to establish themselves on the international scene, bring The Beat Hotel to life on the screen. The memories of Chapman and Rudie interweave with the first-hand accounts of French artist Jean Jacques Lebel, British book dealer Cyclops Lester, and (the then) 95 year old George Whitman (patron of Shakespeare & Co. bookstore, who passed away earlier this year). Together with the insights of authors Barry Miles, Oliver Harris, Regina Weinrich, and Eddie Woods, among others, they evoke a time and place where Chapman, mentored by Cartier-Bresson, roamed around Paris photographing nuns, bums, and the idiosyncracies of street life (and) Corso took scissors to Marcel Duchamp‘s tie in a Dadaist statement, while Ginsberg kissed his knees…” A trailer for the film can be viewed here. Sandra Bertrand’s preview/review in GALO magazine is available here

Another trailer for a documentary – Melanie LaRosa’s “The Poetry Deal: A Film With Diane Di Prima”  has just been made available here.

oh and Jack Kerouac’s The Sea Is My Brother, which we wrote about some months back, is finally being published in America. You can read David Ulin’s even-handed review (from the LA Times) here.