Anniversary today of the death of the great Jonas Mekas. For more on Jonas on the Allen Ginsberg Project – see here here and here
also, eight years on, from the death of Nicanor Parra. (Jonas made it to 96, he (Nicanor) made it to the grand old age of 103, you will recall!)
Further obituary notices – We record with sadness the death of Neal Cassady‘s middle daughter, Jami Cassady Ratto – Read her brother, John Allen’s sweet eulogy and watch Jami reflecting on her father and his legacy – here
Allen Ginsberg Interviewed – Don’t miss John Feins‘ illuminating 1991 interview.
The interview, originally published in Emergency Horse magazine, is republished – here.
Too much to summarize here (the two cover a lot of ground), but recommended, well worth your attention – and prescient – One is struck by the prescience.
Here’s Allen, looking back on his early awareness:
“..But I was thinking in terms of the fifties, in terms of the development of a military police state, as a possibility, as this happened to some extent (sic), a war economy, and the growth of the Pentagon, which I wrote about in 1958-59, talking about fifty billion a year to the Pentagon, and also secret police. And the dope thing .. a repression of individuality and individual consciousness, the mechanization of consciousness, and I realized...that the roof had caved in on civilization that it was cyclical, and that it wasn’t the American century forever..”
He goes on:
“That there would be a cultural amnesia like there was in Germany or Russia. And that if somebody wanted to document what happened and how fascism came, how to avoid it next time, that I’d better keep a record of everything related to the Beat Generation and narcotics and police peddling dope and military and ecology and what not…
and, writing in 1991, no less (words that sadly hold the same truth):
“It’s the cuts in education that are stupefying the populace. There is the polarization of wealth, so that there are more poor people than before, and a few more rich. The polarization of the races and polarization of the comfort and richness of the races..”
“yeah, and.. another thing that’s really knocking everybody down in the major cities, in art centers, is the housing crisis..”
1991, and it’s like he’s writing it yesterday.
Prescience – and for further evidence of Allen’s prescience, take a look at Ipek S Burnett‘s commentary and updating, observations on Allen’s classic poem “America” – see here
and our friend, David S Wills reminds us of this:
from 1973, San Francisco Examiner review of The Fall of America (sic):
“The poet Allen Ginsberg is mad. He’s mad at the mercurial rise of pollutants upon this planet. He is mad at napalm manufacturers, B-52 bombers and war-profiteers. He is mad at congressmen, senators and presidents, big spendings only yielding grotesque waste. He is mad that the standard of living is one of quantity rather than quality. He is mad at low-lying bigotries and high-flying overlords, mad at this mis-rule by those with only monotonous mercenary motivations.”
Back in June 2023, we reported on Benjamen Walker‘s tenacious research tracking down the alleged “lost footage” from cultural critic Kenneth Tynan‘s pioneering 1960 British television documentary. “We Dissent” (and in particular, the contributions (alongside a contribution by Allen) of three key San Francisco poet-luminaries – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Philip Lamantia and Bob Kaufman)
Here’s the vintage footage, the latter two, all these years later:
Jonah Raskin reviews the re-print of Jan Kerouac’s Baby Driver – here. (See also the reviews of the book here and here)
Alan Ansen, a forgotten but important part of the Beat constellation, was born on this day.