Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 344

December 1, 2017Simon Pettet

We promised we’d have word for you, and now it’s finally out! A definitive Chinese edition of the Collected Poems 1947-1997, from Chinese publishing house Shanghai 99  has just hit stores in China – a stunning three-volume set, with translations by Hui Ming.   More details on the publisher’s Chinese language web-site- here.  (and more details from us in the weeks ahead)

More news (Beat Generation news) :

[Two (undated) images by Jack Kerouac – “Untitled” and “Raven” – from the upcoming MA*GA Museum, “Beat Painting” show – courtesy ANSA]

Jack Kerouac’s Beat Painting show opens on Sunday at The … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 337

October 13, 2017Simon Pettet

[Herbert Huncke and Louis Cartwright, at Indian restaurant banquet for Hanuman Press, November, 1989 Photograph by Allen Ginsberg, (c) The Estate of Allen Ginsberg]

This coming Wednesday, next Wednesday, October 18th, at The Beat Museum,  “Huncke and Louis” – A Film Screening with Laki Vazakas, a rare chance to see Vazakas’ tender and intimate documentary on the legendary Herbert Huncke  and his longtime friend and companion Louis Cartwright.  Tate Swindell will be on hand, joining Laki in a discussion of the film, after the event, and meditating on Huncke’s remarkable life and work.

Kerouac Celebrations last weekend in Lowell… Read More

Herbert Huncke

August 8, 2017Simon Pettet

From Ann Douglas’ recent New York Times review of  The Best Minds of My Generation

“Ginsberg also makes room for Herbert Huncke, whom he calls the “originator” of Beatness. An addict, gay hustler and petty thief, seeking, in his words, the freedom “to become more obscure,” Huncke introduced Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs to the mid-1940s underworld of Times Square. In a bold stroke of canon-stretching, Ginsberg pronounces his sketches of the lower depths, published almost by accident and innocent of literary allusion, “classics.” In celebrating the unlettered Huncke, Ginsberg was suggesting that professionals may have more to learn from … Read More

Herbert Huncke’s Birthday

January 9, 2017Simon Pettet

Celebrating Herbert Huncke‘s birthday today. “Godfather of the Beats”, he would have been one-hundred-and-two! – See here for our posting on the occasion of his Centennial. Today, courtesy of our friend Laki Vazakas , footage of the great story-teller, raconteur, recorded in New York, at the Chelsea Hotel,  February 7, 1994. Evoking the notion of “the invisible body”, Huncke recounts and recalls his time in India, witnessing the burning ghats.

HH: Well, it’s sort of strange, you know, one is always I think intrigued by the idea of the invisible body at a funeral (I’ve always felt that … Read More

Sunday April 5 – Allen Ginsberg Parinirvana

April 5, 2015admin

[Allen Ginsberg performs “Father Death Blues”]

It’s Allen Ginsberg’s parinirvana today, the (eighteenth) anniversary of his passing. Here’s Herbert Huncke, “godfather of  The Beats”, on “the invisible body” – on witnessing funerals (“I’m inclined to think it was Hindu, but I’m not sure”) – burning ghats, Indian ritual (Huncke footage, courtesy documentarian, Laki Vazakas)  

[Herbert Huncke at the Chelsea Hotel]

Here’s Allen on the burning ghats (from an interview, 1994, with Suranjan Ganguly)

“SG: What was your experience of the burning ghats [of Benaras/Varanasi] ? AG: I went there several time a week … Read More

Herbert Huncke Centennial

January 9, 2015admin

[(“Old-timer & survivor, Herbert E Huncke, Beat Literary Pioneer, early decades thief, who introduced Burroughs, Kerouac & me to floating population hustling & drug scene Times Square 1945. From ’48 on, he penned remarkable musings, Collected as autobiographical vignettes, anecdotes & storyteller’s tales in the classic The Evening Sun Turned Crimson (Cherry Valley, 1970) and later Guilty of Everything. Here age 78 in basement back-yard, his apartment East 7th Street, near Avenue D, New York, May 18, 1993)” – (Photograph and Inscription by Allen Ginsberg)]

January 9 1915, the birthday of Herbert Huncke, original Beat – yes, today marks the … Read More

Herbert Huncke’s Birthday

January 9, 2013admin

[Herbert Huncke reading at Cafe Nico, New York, March 12, 1994 – video by Laki Vazakas]

Herbert Huncke – “American hipster” – hustler and saint, poet and story-teller, central source for the Beats, “the man who turned on William Burroughs” –  Today would have been (he made it to his 81st) Huncke’s 98th birthday.

Our 2011 post with comprehensive Huncke links is here.

We’ve featured it before but here again is a link to Francois Bernardi’s film, Original Beats, from 1996 (featuring footage of two quintessential Beat scallywags – Herbert Huncke and Gregory Corso).

and … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round Up – 48

November 4, 2011admin

This week’s Friday Round-Up begins once again in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Here’s Eric Drooker‘s on-site slide presentation (and a spirited recital of the Moloch section of Howl). Andy Laties is on saxophone, Eric Blitz is on percussion (“playing a piece of foam-core because the cops shut down his drums”). Filming is by Rebecca Migdal.
For earlier (sunnier! – tho’ no less impassioned) on-site Zuccotti footage we recommend here, Laki Vazakas‘ impressionistic portrait of October 17 2011.
Johnny Depp fans? Johnny’s been doing the rounds (well, doing a little press) for his Hunter S Thompson … Read More

Happy Birthday Herbert Huncke

January 10, 2011admin

Remembering Huncke

Herbert E Huncke, “the original Beat”, “Elmer Hassel” of On The Road, who died August 1996 (despite a life of excess, he lived to the ripe old age of 81) would have been 96 today.

Sadly, Ben Schafer’s 1997 compendium The Herbert Huncke Reader is out of print (tho’ second-hand copies are still available and well worth tracking down). More immediately available are a series of recordings he made towards the end of his life, reading some of his deceptively simple first-person prose recollections, From Dream to Dream (available in its entirety on Ubuweb).

Among the pieces … Read More