So the Todd Aydelotte Ginsberg marathon “Ultra-Run” that we profiled here last week took place on Monday under extraordinarily challenging, impossibly challenging, conditions – rain and snow and ice, a dangerous ice-sheet covering the roads. Todd managed heroically to make it 42 miles in (just under half of the way), (to West Caldwell, New Jersey), before, reluctantly, but realistically, having to abort the run (something he’s never ever done before in his life!). An eight-mile stretch to Paterson with no sidewalks, and in those, quite literally, life-threatening conditions – it was just not going to be possible. He’s going to give it another try on another day (there has to be and will be more amenable weather conditions! ), but it wasn’t going to happen on Monday.
Meantime, over in Rome last week, Ginsberg is celebrated. We particularly like the newspaper headline – “Allen Ginsberg torna in vita a Roma grazie a Vita Accardi ” (“Allen Ginsberg comes back to life in Rome thanks to Vita Accardi“). Accardi directed and performed (with the assistance from Massimo Bartolini and Luigi Ontani – and with music by Alvin Curran) an experimental theatrical piece based on Allen’s Indian Journals (Diario Indiano). Performances took place in the impressive location of the Octagonal Hall (Planetarium) located at the western corner of the Baths of Diocletian, an area not usually accessible to the general public. Corriere Della Sera‘s review of the show may be read here. A further review – here – “un connubio perfettamente coordinato di elementi spesso contraddittori” (“a perfectly coordinated combination of often contradictory moments”).
Allen Ginsberg in Cuba – For those of our Spanish readers, don’t miss this over-view of an important episode in Allen’s life (in Cuba News) – “La breve eternidad de Allen Ginsberg en La Habana” (“Allen Ginsberg’s brief eternity in Havana”).
And more Beat news in Spanish (via Mexico) – here.
Remembering Big Table magazine and the Chicago Review and the attendant controversy. The current Chicago Review presents a special feature- Chicago Review, the Beats and Big Table, 60 years on” – don’t miss it!
and don’t miss Ronald K L Collins‘ intriguing note in the Washington Post on Gilbert Millstein and “The accidental book review that made Jack Kerouac famous“.
Chris Felver, author of The Late Great Allen Ginsberg (2002) is profiled in Hyperallergic.
Raymond Foye on Bob Dylan live is in the current Brooklyn Rail.