Continuing with the Ginsberg-Corso tape transcription. Allen and Gregory discussing Allen’s photos – continuing from here
GC: That’s Gregory in an attic.
AG: You know (Bob) Dylan saw this picture and he said, “I want a picture like that done of me”. He liked that, Dylan. You’re looking out of the apartment. You’re looking out at the.. what?.. the..? You’re looking.. You’re lit up by the dormer window of the attic – what do you call that? – the “gable”!
GC: The attic.. dormer.. (the) gable!
AG: The gable of your Parisian attic.
GC: Gable, of course. And across the street is the.. what do you call those cone towers of Conciergerie, right? – that’s where Sainte-Chapelle, the chapel of Sainte-Chapelle..
AG: Well, across the Seine.
GC: Seine, the Seine, the Quai, the Quai, Saint Chapelle.
AG: What year was that? “57?
GC: (19)57, yeah.
AG: And what were you writing then?
GC: “Bomb” “Marriage” That’s my good year.
AG: And you were eating grapes (in this scene)
GC: Yeah, and who’ that? [points to image on wall, directly to Gtregory’s left]
AG: That looks like (Paul) Verlaine?
GC: Yeah you got it.
AG: That was an old postcard of Verlaine or a picture?
GC: Yeah, a picture of Verlaine, that’s right, ok.
AG: And what’s on the wall here, where you’re crouching like a magician with a..?
GC: Oh here. Alright, this is where the Saint-Sulpice is again, and up in the attic Here’s an angel of bronze [Gregory points to the right]
AG: Bronze? oh, I thought it was plastic?
GC: No, bronze. Here’s a ballerina [points to the left] One that you turn, right?, and music comes out and the ballerina turns.
AG: Oh, oh yeah, a little toy ballerina there.
GC: And here you can’t see and make it out, but here, we can see, is another angel.
AG: Oh, (and) that’s an Aladdin lamp [Allen points out the lamp in the photograph, in front of Gregory]
GC: Yeah. Alright, there’ the staff that came from Notre Dame that the sexton taps on the floor.
AG: Oh really? where… how did you get it?
GC: Piero Heliczer ripped it off, stole it and brought it to me. It’s beautiful, it’s a horn, made of horn.
AG: Wow!
GC: Right, and the top is gold and not of brass, right?
AG: So what happened to it?
GC: Brion Gysin saw it and said, “That’s a certain thing I was supposed to get!”[laughter]. It’s nice, huh?
AG: Gysin’s Catholic? Did he get anything?
GC: Was Brion a Catholic? No – You met his mother, didn’t you?
AG: I did, I visited his mother in Vancouver. Was he surprised when I did too!
GC: Is she still alive?, because, I’m going to Vancouver..
AG: No no. I don’t think she’s alive.
to be continued