Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 459

Hal Willner and Allen Ginsberg, New York City, 1987 – photo: Brian Graham

We remain stunned by the news of the death of our friend, record-producer Hal Willner, earlier this week. Here‘s his obituary in The New York Times .  Here’s his obituary in The Guardian. Here‘s his obituary in (local boy) The Philadelphia Enquirer. Heres the LA Times notice. Here’s Elvis Costello’s appreciation of Hal. Here’s a selection of tributes that appeared on Brooklyn Vegan – (and more here on The Wrap – and here on the music mag, NME).  

International response (a few selections) – herehere, here and here

Remembering (from back in 2012) Hal’s Kaddish:

from 2015,  “Howl’s 60th”

and a shout-out again to the extraordinary “Holy Soul, Jelly Roll” and “Lion For Real”  

 

Some years back we reported on a newly-discovered photo of Rimbaud  (there aren’t too many images of him) . That one turned out to be a hoax. However, last month, a new contender, courtesy poet and Rimbaud scholar, Aidan Andrew Dun, emerged.  “Two mindblowing portraits of Arthur Rimbaud have been hiding in plain sight for more than a century”, he writes (referring to his discovery of a “theophanic surfacing” – images taken by documentary photographer Bruno Braquehais, in May 1871, at the height of the Paris Commune, prominently showing three figures, one of whom appears distinctly to resemble the poet, posed next to a fallen statue (Napoleon) in the epicenter, Place Vendome).  “If they are genuine they are possibly the most dramatic visual study of any poet in the history of the West”, he writes.  He makes a compelling case (and has been making a compelling case). See (judge for yourself) – here

 

 

Jack Kerouac wrote the introduction (quite a coup!) for Little Poems and Musings, a recent collection from Dashwood Books by Lois Sorrells Beckwith. Back in 1963, Kerouac writes:”I commend the attention of serious students of poetry to these collected poems of Lois Sorrells, 26, whose maiden name was Milemore. Her poems are usually very short, little things passing by that you do a doubletake looking back at….she is really a somber poet who is likely to reach an extremely mysterious middle age and write mysterious shroudy verse about moors and miles of moors in her mind. Anyway, she happened.”  Cover illustration is by Wendy McNaughton – see here 

More Gregory Corso treasures from Ragged Lion Press – see here & here, here, and here (“Bomb”)
Some selections from Hal Willner’s recordings of Gregory can be heard here

Barry Gifford lays out the essence of the Beat Generation for the Beat Museum

 

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

William Wordsworth‘s 250th anniversary last Tuesday – see Allen on William Wordsworth here and here and here

We assume you’ve all heard this by now, but wanted to place on this web-site, Bob Dylan‘s most recent contribution to the zeitgeist and the culture

Stay strong everybody, these difficult days, the pandemic continuing.. We will survive..

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