Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 330

August 25, 2017Simon Pettet

Allen Ginsberg on tv, May 7 1968 on Firing Line With William Buckley

from the Letters column in last weekend’s New York Times Book Review

“Reading Ann Douglas’s review of Allen Ginsberg’s “The Best Minds of My Generation” (Aug. 6) reminded me of a chance meeting with Ginsberg in the early ’60s. After a performance of Genet’s “The Blacks” at a small theater in the East Village, I waited in front for my then-fiancée. Also standing there was Allen Ginsberg. I mentioned a poem by his father, Louis Ginsberg, that appeared in the textbook I used to teach … Read More

Tom Raworth (1938-2017)

February 9, 2017Simon Pettet

photo-23

[Tom Raworth – Photograph by Allen Ginsberg]

Sad news to announce, the passing of one the great voices of poetry, and one of our dearest friends, Tom Raworth died today, after a long and protracted illness, aged 78.

From the Poetry Foundation website – “Writer, artist, teacher, and publisher Tom Raworth was born in South London. He attended the University of Essex; in 1970, he earned an MA in the theory and practice of literary translation. As founder of Matrix Press and co-founder of Goliard Press, Raworth was instrumental in bringing an entire tradition of American poetry to English … Read More

Allen and Louis Ginsberg – Alan Ziegler’s 1976 Visit

June 6, 2015admin

 

 

 We were intending to run (re-run) this – Alan Ziegler‘s extraordinary account of visiting with Allen, and  Louis, shortly before his father’s death, (first published in The Village Voice in July of 1976), but were “pipped at the post” (not that there’s any competition involved) by our good friends at the estimable Best American Poetry blog. We trust there’s no harm in the duplication/dissemination.  

Ziegler begins his account with a brief (2015) introduction, followed by (unchanged, save for the correcting of “a few typos”) the full “4,500 word article”.  My Visit with Allen Ginsberg and

… Read More

Colin Still – Optic Nerve

May 2, 2015admin

 

 [Colin Still]

Colin Still and Optic Nerve‘s poetic documentation and extraordinary achievement needs to be sung. So we’re singing it today here.

By now, perhaps, many of you will have already seen, and be familiar with, this footage (Colin’s footage) – the legendary pairing – Allen Ginsberg accompanied by Paul McCartney, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in October of 1995 – “The Ballad of The Skeletons” From the same occasion – “After Lalon” but that event and that footage, extraordinary though it is, is only the very tip of the iceberg. Colin has shot full-length
… Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 212

March 13, 2015admin

Recently surfaced, Allen Ginsberg and the Clash – Ghetto Defendant – an extended version which originally appeared on the bootleg “Rat Patrol from Fort Bragg”

[Allen Ginsberg with Mick Jones, and with Joe Strummer, of  The Clash at Electric Lady Studios in New York, December 1981 at the recording sessions for Combat Rock – Photographs by Bob Gruen]

This coming Monday at the Presentation House Gallery in Vancouver (in conjunction with the on-going Ginsberg photos show), Nude Ghosts, a lecture by Jonathan D Katz Yet another of Michael Limnios’ extraordinary Beat-related interviews – this time … Read More

Allen Ginsberg’s Birthday

June 3, 2014admin

[Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)]

Irwin Allen Ginsberg in Newark, New Jersey, June 3, 1926, Allen would have been 88 years old today. Happy Birthday, Allen!  Happy Allen Ginsberg’s Birthday, everyone. In celebration of an extraordinary life (and an exemplary death), we feature today Colin Still‘s masterly 1997 documentary No More To Say & Nothing To Weep For, originally commissioned by Channel 4 in England, and originally intended as a wider, more substantial profile (it was tragically cut short, or rather, re-envisioned, by Allen’s diagnosis of liver cancer, an event that took place just as the crew had arrived in … Read More

Allen Ginsberg’s Parinirvana

April 5, 2011admin

14 years ago today Allen died (in his recently-purchased New York City (East Village) loft, surrounded by a select circle of family and friends. Here’s Rosebud Pettet’s lucid description of that occasion Here’s Colin Still’s and Jonas Mekas’ documentary footage. Here’s Gelek Rinpoche’s first hand account- [this link is no longer available but see –  here]
“I wrote my own funeral poem”.,. Allen told him, shall I read it to you?
[“Gone Gone Gone” Collected Poems 1947-1997 NY, Harper Perennial 2006]

Allen, of course, is far from gone, his spirit lives on with the flowering

… Read More