It’s Charles Reznikoff’s birthday today. We’ve been featuring him recently, see here, here, here and here.. and our last year’s birthday celebration here . Allen presents here [2018 update. no longer available] his NAROPA notes, “Suggestions for Readings in Charles Reznikoff…according to hardness, objectivity, vividness – selected epiphanies.”
September 4th, Tuesday! (only 4 days away!) – Countdown to the first release on Ginsberg Recordings! “Ashes and Blues”, the first release from a digitalized “Holy Soul Jelly Roll”, will be ready and available on that date. More information, more releases, to follow.
The Harry Smith Conference, taking place in London on September 15, never too early to alert you to that date, a celebration of the legendary Anthology of American Folk Music (and check out Richard Clayton’s illuminating article on Harry, in (of all places?) the Financial Times.
The perennial (and necessary) debate about the Beats and sexism – Stephanie Nikolopoulos’ recent piece in The Millions, “On The Highway of Love, Jack Kerouac Divides Men and Women”, recently re-opened that particular can o’ worms, and was followed, only a few days later, by Danny Lanzetta in The Huffington Post (“In Defence of Jack Kerouac and Other Flawed Literature”) – both articles, very definitely, worth reading, (and both, of course, equally pertinent to Allen).
Kill Your Darlings – Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg – the date for that comes ever-closer. Radcliffe’s co-star, Dane DeHaan (playing the Lucien Carr role) has been giving some interviews, declaring Radcliffe’s Allen to be first-rate, that he’s “earned his stripes”. It was Carr, DeHaan points out, who “inspires (inspired) Ginsberg to be who people know Ginsberg as today”, and so,”the film is really about Ginsberg becoming Ginsberg through the catalyst of Lucien Carr..”
First reviews of Steve Finbow’s new Ginsberg biography, just out – and positive – “Resolutely straight-shooting” – “As any good biographer, Finbow, demystifies rather than promulgates romantic notions about his subject…Finbow’s uncompromisingly lucid and thoughtful book evinces great insight..” For more of the review, and more on this recent, useful, addition to the ever-expanding A.G. bibliography, see here.