This past week’s celebration of Material Wealth in New York. Pat Thomas and Peter Hale were joined by Holly George-Warren and Sylvia Reed and a reprise from Milo Martin telling his Allen at Candlestick Park baseball tale.
Next stop Europe – Look out for readings in the UK and Ireland in the Spring
Ken Kesey and the Acid Tests. We featured here last year Stephan Bornstein’s first-hand memories. Here’s further thoughts and recollections from Antonio Pineda courtesy of Simon Warner’s Rock and The Beat Generation Substack
Gregory Corso news – We note with pleasure the recent publication (from Athens publishers Εκδόσεις Bibliotheque (Editions Bibliotheque)) – Gregory in Greek
Yannis Livadas has translated Corso’s play “In This Hung Up Age,” accompanying it with a poem that first appeared in Unmuzzled Ox – “Dear Villon, Dear Milarepa”
Sad news from Athens too. We heard last week of the death of Beat poet, Spyros Meimaris
Raymond Foye writes: “Spyros saw Gregory Corso walking down the street in Athens and followed him to a cafe, then sat at the next table and struck up a conversation, and a lifelong friendship. He took Allen and Gregory to the rembetika clubs in Piraeus where the musicians recognized them as kindred spirits. Spyros and his friends lived for many years under a military dictatorship, so their way of life, as artists and poets, was not a safe or easy existence.”
For more on Spyiros and on the influence of the Beats in Greece – see here and here
We’ll end today with a pensive moment, Marc Ribot‘s “Sometime I Lay Down My Wrath”, his rendition of Allen’s 1949 poem “Sometime Jailhouse Blues” – “Sometime I’ll lay down my wrath/As I lay my body down/Between the ache of breath and breath/Golden slumber in the bone”.
So sad to hear of Spyros Meimaris passing away. When I was writing about Gregory Corso’s adventures in Greece, Spyros gave me some great insights and wonderful anecdotes about their friendship.