Steven Taylor – 2

February 18, 2018Simon Pettet

[Steven Taylor, Allen Ginsberg & Lawrence Ferlinghetti,  New York City, 1985. Photo: Hank O’Neal]

Continuing from yesterday – a Steven Taylor weekend. What a range of music to hear!

False Prophet – Field Notes From The Punk Underground  (a must-read) is still very much in print

“From 1988 through 1993, guitarist/vocalist Steven Taylor toured the U.S. and Europe with the alternative rock group False Prophets, keeping a detailed journal with the intent of documenting the role of musicians in the international anarchist youth movement. His field notes form the core of the book, accounting with honesty and aplomb the sometimes … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 300

January 27, 2017Simon Pettet

[“Ground Zero for the Beat Generation” – Unidentified Woman reading from “Howl” inside the 7 Arts Coffee Gallery in New York City, c.1957 – Photograph by Dave Heath]

No Friday-Round Up last week, so a little catch up today, starting with Sean Elder’s Gary Snyder interview, “National Treasure,” in Lion’s Roar.

 [Gary Snyder at the Center For Interfaith Relations’ 2014 Festival of Faiths: Sacred Earth, Sacred Self]

GS: “The first time I met Allen Ginsberg was at Rexroth’s house—Allen had just come up from Mexico. The first time I saw  Kerouac was when Allen brought him to … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 175

May 2, 2014admin

[Allen Ginsberg throwing out the first ball at the San Francisco Giants game at Candlestick Park, June 2, 1994 – Photo courtesy Steve Silberman]

Our friend, Chris Funkhouser has a must-read piece (part of a 4-part series) in Jacket 2 on his experiences with audio recording (and in this case, in particular, the recording of Allen Ginsberg). “I studied with Allen..at Naropa in 1986”, he writes. “He was my teacher and friend from then onward. There’s no question my sense that poetry could (if not should) be an electrified-multimedia performance came from (him). With so many years of practice … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 169

March 21, 2014admin

Neal Cassady Collected Letters

March 21, in case you didn’t know it, has been officially declared by the UN (by UNESCO) “World Poetry Day” Fanny Wallendorf‘s wonderful translations into the French of Neal Cassady‘s Letters (“Un truc tres beau qui contient tout”)  (“It’s a beautiful thing, with everything in it”) –  (the title, taken from Neal’s 1948 letter to his pal, Bill Tomson) have just been (just this past month) published.  See here and here. ( note – texte en francais) We should point out that the book only covers the years 1944-1950 (a second, concluding, volume is due … Read More

Friday ‘s Weekly Round-Up – 162

January 24, 2014admin

Allen Ginsberg, el poeta beat visitó Córdoba hace veinte años

For all our Spanish-speaking readers, Luis Costa Palacios’ piece, in Diaro Cordoba, recalling, twenty years ago, Allen’s visit to that city, is well worth a read. He came, as part of a delegation to the XVII Congreso Internacional de Aedean [Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo Norteamericanos], and his appearance, in Palacios’  words, “suscitó una enorme expectación” (sparked a huge buzz), “fue sorprendente” (was surprising) – “su producción poética, una de las más poderosas e influyentes de los últimos cincuenta años, es magnífica y variada, como se puso de manifiesto en aquel recital. Había en su tono y actitud algo grandioso, … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 161

January 17, 2014admin

Thirteen years ago today since Gregory Nunzio Corso passed away. We certainly won’t forget him. Here’s the opening track from the album, “Not In My Back Yard” by the Southern Italian band, Nimby – “Thin Lines Among Them”, dedicated to him, and scored to footage from Matteo Scarfo‘s upcoming movie “Bomb! Burning Fantasy”, a meditation on Gregory’s poetry and life, (which will feature Nick Mancuso in the daunting role of.. Gregory). 
Corso is all over The Allen Ginsberg Project. How about here, here, here, here, here, here and here? and how … Read More

Allen Ginsberg on John Wieners – part one

January 4, 2014admin

 

[Michael McClure, Philip Lamantia, John Wieners, and David Meltzer in North Beach, San Francisco, 1958 – Photograph by Gui de Angulo (included in “Literary San Francisco – A Pictorial History from its Beginnings to the Present Day” (edited by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Nancy J Peters), 1980]

Today, from 1982 and Allen’s “Literary History of the Beat Generation” Naropa class, Allen on John Wieners (tho’ he begins with a somewhat lengthy background-setting, Frank O’Hara, the Cedar Bar, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Yugen.. Given the length of this piece, we’ve decided to (somewhat arbitrarily) split in … Read More

Investigative Poetics – 9 (Smoking Typewriters – 2 – “The Sixties”)

November 13, 2013admin

[National Guardsmen wielding rifles with bayonets advanced along Springfield Avenue in Newark on July 14 1967 – Photograph Don Hogan Charles for The New York Times]

AG: “Investigative Poetics, I think, at this point, would have to go into the whole cultural and social and political and artistic history of the “Sixties, (which was quite a vast, traumatic, revolutionary time), and re-investigate a great many things that happened of an intellectual-symbolic nature, to find out what was the story behind it. Because a great deal more of it was manipulated than we realize” and one of the major … Read More

Investigative Poetics 8 – (Smoking Typewriters – 1 – “Racial Matters”)

November 12, 2013admin

 

 

[SAC Albany, August 25, 1967] – FBI COINTELPRO Against Black Liberation Movement]

         

AG: So now I’d like to move on to some samples of prose by the Intelligence Agencies. These are documents (retrieved) under the Freedom of Information Act. As background to this, I should say that, in 1960,or (19)62, I don’t know what the proper citation is, J.Edgar Hoover got up at, I think the Republican Convention, and said that the three biggest threats to America were “the Communists, the Beatniks, and the egg-heads” (He actually said that – “the egg-heads”)   Student: Who are the egg-heads, specifically? … Read More

Sunflower Sutra – Mekas Vintage Footage (1959 at the Living Theater)

November 6, 2013admin

Yesterday, posted on You Tube was remarkable footage (by Jonas Mekas) of Allen, Amiri Baraka (then LeRoi Jones) Ray Bremser, and Frank O’Hara, famously reading together, in 1959, in New York City, at the Living Theatre, at a benefit for Yugen magazine  (you’re perhaps familiar with  Fred McDarrah’s iconic photo taken on that same occasion (see below)  The footage is silent, but Jonas added a soundtrack, a recording he made of Allen the following year, 1960, reading from his classic “Sunflower Sutra” – “..my sunflower, O my soul, I loved you then!..” [2014 update – Regrettably, … Read More