“He comes home to be fed – Allen Ginsberg’s parents speak” – another vintage (1965) discovery, (this, from The Morning Call, from Paterson, Allen’s home town). This quaint article has been resurrected and is featured on Beatdom this week
Some choice quotes:
Edith – “He arrived about 9 P.M., for 6 o’clock dinner. He had a bad cough because he smokes too much. And I scolded him”.
Louis – “When Allen came home from his long trip to India, I said come on, Allen,- I’ll buy you a new suit. ‘I could feed my friends,’ he said. Shoes, Allen, at least a pair of shoes. Sandals we don’t need in the winter in this country.”
Loving, kvetching, bemused and concerned – they both do and don’t understand.
but these are just snippets. Read the whole article.
Beat Scene – A new belated issue of the magazine (#111) and Jack Kerouac takes the cover. Kerouac is also featured in a new (bigger-format) Beat Scene Press chapbook, Jack Kerouac – Beat Traveller by noted Kerouac biographer and scholar Paul Maher Jr. (a limited edition, as all these remarkable chapbooks tend to be, limited to a mere 150 copies, so hurry up and snap this one up, order directly from the publisher)
more on Luca Guadagnino film adaptation of William Burroughs’ Queer
The reviews keep coming in. How about this one by David Reddish for sheer unabashed enthusiasm – “Daniel Craig Excels In This Near-Perfect Surreal and Erotic Movie” – or, by contrast, this, less-than-impressed, overview – “Queer burrows in to the Burroughs Mindset” – The reviewer, Mark Burger, regretfully concluding:
“It’s impossible to dismiss the film as an outright failure, because Guadagnino is such a talented filmmaker – even a visionary one. Queer is dotted with points of interest throughout, and although it’s occasionally a frustrating film it’s always an intriguing and controlled one. Its seamy ambiance and empathy for its lead character (well-played by Craig) rank high in its favor..There’s nothing wrong with a film that strays from the mainstream – indeed, it’s often refreshing – but Queer doesn’t satisfy itself, even on its own terms.”
Justin Kuritzkes’ screenplay stays close, but also makes a couple of significant departures from Burroughs’ original novella. To read the full screenplay – see here
See also Kuritzkes, Guadagnino, Craig, and others, discussing the film following its screening at the New York Film Festival – here
See Craig (William Lee) and Drew Starkey (Eugene Allerton) with further discussion – here
Oliver Harris, “the dean of William Burroughs studies” is interviewed about the book and the film, and all things Burroughs – here (We featured a couple of weeks back his thoughts and observations)
and speaking of holidays and the movies, there’s also this
opening on Christmas. Timothee Chalamet plays Bob Dylan
and, looking forward next year to this – and this! (the original Dylan-on-Ginsberg blurb !)
T.Bone Burnett’s disc and Al Aronowitz‘s archive will be sold January 18 in Nashville at auction
Saturday, tomorrow, is, don’t forget it, Midwinter Day – celebrating, as we do every year, remembering Bernadette Mayer‘s book-length poem Midwinter Day.
See our posting on that from last year – here – And this year?
starting at 1 pm, Midwinter Day – A Marathon Reading at the Poetry State Forest, East Nassau, Bernadette’s old home (soon to be opened as a research and study center)
and, as the calendar turns, (Zodiac sign – Sagittarius, soon to be followed by Capricorn), wishing a Happy Birthday to our good friend, poet and provocateur, Andrei Codrescu