Birdbrain! – Birdbrain! – Lars Movin provides footage of Allen reading in Denmark
in 1983, and some context:
“Th(is) clip was recorded on January 9, 1983, a few hours after Ginsberg’s arrival in Copenhagen by train from Amsterdam. (He) was supposed to give a concert at Huset, a community house in central Copenhagen, together with his two travel companions, Peter Orlovsky and Steven Taylor. But due to a general strike involving all cultural institutions in the Danish capitol, the audience was not allowed to enter the building where the concert was scheduled to take place. In an attempt to resolve the situation, Ginsberg went down to the courtyard where the audience was kept waiting and gave an impromptu performance of “Birdbrain”. To please the Danes he had translated the title of the poem to the Danish word “Tossehoved” (“Silly Head”). After the recitation, he tried to negotiate with those involved in the picket line to let the audience in, but to no avail. It was his first (and only) visit in Denmark. After the failed attempt to resolve the situation, he and his two companions performed at the venue inside Huset to a very limited audience. But fortunately it was possible to organize a new concert the following day when the strike was over.”
Two further extraordinary videos from the Danish tour – “America”. and “Father Death Blues” are provided here and here
Starting tomorrow and through this month, and into April, the October Gallery in London presents an expansive and informative William Burroughs celebration .
On show in the gallery (opening yesterday, and up till April 5th) “William S. Burroughs” –
“a solo exhibition of rarely seen works which features paintings and drawings created from a variety of materials. From spray paint, ink and acrylic to markers and gunshots”.
Visionary art. To quote Burroughs himself, “The pictures constantly change because you are drawn into time travel on a network of associations.”
(c) The Estate of William S. Burroughs
The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of live events (film screenings with Q & As and gallery talks), “presented by those who were influenced by his work or knew and collaborated with (him)”, beginning tomorrow (3.00 p.m- 4.30 p.m.(GMT) (10 a.m – 11.30 a.m. EST) with Oliver Harris and Kathelin Gray – “Oliver Harris, author, editor and Burroughs scholar and Kathelin Gray, curator, examine Burroughs’ art and literature” – see here
Upcoming events include Andrew Wilson and Barry Miles in conversation, a symposium “What’s Left of a Radical Vision When It’s All Come True?, and film showings of Burroughs-The Movie, William S Burroughs – The Man Within, Naked Lunch, and Queer. We’ll be noting those events in the coming weeks on The Allen Ginsberg Project.
Pat Thomas, Ginsberg curator, editor and compiler of the wonderful Material Wealth, has a new book coming out – Evergreen Review Magazine: Dispatches from the Literary Underground: Covers & Essays 1957-1973, set for release on May 30.
Another visually engaging riveting compendium.
“For the first time ever since their original print date, full color reproductions of all front covers of all 100 issues of the Evergreen Review, from 1957 to 1973, plus hundreds of pages from many of the issues.. reprinted exactly as they looked then – with all illustrations, photography, even the ads for other books, albums, letters to the editor, subscription offers, etc – left intact!”
Thomas interviewed 1960s era Evergreen staffers to get the inside scoop on the operation of the magazine, and those conversations join new essays looking at this golden era.”
Jack Kerouac‘s birthday next week and tomorrow (Saturday) Lowell Celebrates Kerouac begins the celebration – at lala books on Market Street- at 6 p.m. – “The event will feature readings by local poets and authors, a Jack Kerouac birthday cake, and light refreshments”
See also, earlier in the day, (2 p.m at the Pollard Library community room), “spectral-in-my-mind Bridge Street”, a special presentation, ” concerning the overlap between local Lowell photographer Annie Powell and Jack Kerouac from the years 1922 and 1936″. (The title is, if you didn’t realize it, a quotation from Kerouac’s Visions of Gerard
Read more on the Powell-Kerouac connection – here
Malakoff Kowalski‘s Songs With Words project continues – see here
Allen Ginsberg’s “An Eastern Ballad” paired with Chopin’s Prelude Op. 28/20, featuring Chilly Gonzales on piano – “I wake to see the world go wild” –
Leon Horton interviews Danny Shot on Simon Warner’s Rock and The Beat Generation this week
New York School poets – A new publication – Keep an eye out for Ron Padgett‘s memoir of Dick Gallup – just out this month from Cuneiform Press
and speaking of New York, we note here briefly the passing of the great, legendary, David Johansen
Here’s David playing James Alley Blues and remembering Harry Smith