Brian Graham Interview – part 2

August 7, 2018Simon Pettet

[Allen Ginsberg in his kitchen, New York City, 1988 – photo: Brian Graham]

Brian Graham on Allen Ginsberg’s photography – continues

JS: I’m interested in Allen and his photographic “eye” – did he know what he was looking for when he was looking at a contact sheet and what he’d want printed?

BG: Robert had a lot of influence over Allen (when it came to deciding what photos to print). But Allen took the pictures, so he knew what he was after. And there are a lot of good ones.He had a quirky kind of sensibility. Like the picture of … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 364

May 4, 2018Simon Pettet

Allen Ginsberg

[Allen Ginsberg – Photograph by Allan Tannenbaum]

Continuing today in New York, the inaugural St Mark’s Poetry Project Allen Ginsberg Symposium – For more on that (proposed annual event) – see here

On public television this week, (presented by WGBH Boston and distributed by American Public Television) the beginning of a new tv series and multi-platform digital initiative, Poetry In America.  Allen’s poems (“Hymmnn” (from “Kaddish“)  and “Hum Bom!” are featured in the opening program

From the program credits:

“Although we think of a poem as something read from a book, poet Allen Ginsberg knew that poetry’s power … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 356

March 9, 2018Simon Pettet

Beyond Beat, the five-day Los Angeles Beat  convention continues. Among the highlights tonight, a group reading of “Howl” (also a performance of Gregory Corso’s “Bomb”, and a poetry reading by Neeli Cherkovski and Paul Vangelisti). Tomorrow (Saturday) will include a “Punk and Beat” panel  (with V. Vale, Jerry Casale, and S.A.Griffin), a panel on Bob Kaufman, and a showing of Billy Woodberry‘s documentary on Kaufman, And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead.  Sunday includes Steve Silberman (on the Legacy of “Howl”), a “Howl” panel (with Steve Silberman, Marc Olmsted, and … Read More

Jim Carroll Workshop Q & A – 9 ( Lou Reed) – (Conclusion)

September 5, 2016admin
Jim Carroll (1949-2009)
 
We’ve been running these past week’s transcription of Jim Carroll’s 1986 Naropa workshop  (see most recently here and here) . We continue today and conclude with the second part of the Q & A
 
Student: Another question here
Jim Carroll:  Yeah, Oh, great
Student: Do you still worry about a regular rhyme-scheme?
Anne Waldman:  Louder!
JC: He just asked me how much I worry about a regular rhyme-scheme – I do think about rhymes because.. whereas I don’t in poems. I think I use.. In Living At The Movies, I, like,
… Read More

Jim Carroll Workshop – 2

August 14, 2016admin

continuing from yesterday – Jim Carroll’s workshop 

JC: Well, I’m going to play a song that was a great..  one of my favorites… ..Actually, I’m going to play this early Velvet Underground song and then I’m going to play a Phil Ochs song. For some reason, Phil Ochs and The Velvet Underground have this weird connection for me. I mean. they got me into poetry as much as Bob.. well more than Bob Dylan, and as much as Frank O’Hara
[Student/technical assistant plays The Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning” – JC: “Yeah go ahead..just turn it up here” – Student: The … Read More

New Years Eve (Looking Back on 2013 & Forward to 2014)

December 31, 2013admin

[“Buddhist (and one non-Buddhist) Action Figures” Photograph by Reverend Danny Fisher 2013]

Last posting of 2013, we thought we’d list a few of our “greatest hits” from the past year – January – Nanao Sakaki and Allen Ginsberg singing “Birdbrain” in Osaka, Japan, February – William Burroughs’ 99th (next year will be Burroughs centennial), March – (speaking of nonagenarians) Ferlinghetti was 94, April – the Beats and the rock muse – “Text and Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll, May – our Bob Dylan birthday posting, (this year – “The Night Bob Came Around” (and the night… Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 151

November 8, 2013admin

Allen Ginsberg – Bloodsong – (edited by James Grauerolz) – Italian paperback, published by il Saggiatore, 2013]

Continuing from last week, (we can’t seem to leave it alone!) Kill Your Darlings (see earlier digests here and here) continues to garner reviews (mostly positive ones) – Michael O’Sullivan in The Washington Post takes up the debate over the blurring of fiction and fact (in particular, the presentation of Lucien Carr – wait a minute, “the Lucian Carr character”) – “You’d better like it complicated”, he writes, “The film is awash in delicious and difficult ambiguities”.  These “delicious and … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 150

November 1, 2013admin

[Lucien Carr and Allen Ginsberg at Lucien’s wedding, January 4, 1952]

Kill Your Darlings – We mentioned last week the dissenting position, eloquently voiced by Bob Rosenthal in his post from last February – here. – “The film takes its..title too seriously”, he wrote then. “The large fabrications in the film are not so worrisome as the small ones. In any case, when the truth is stepped on and the nuance of truth is denied, the message becomes moribund”. Both Marc Olmsted in Sensitive Skin  and Brian Hassett in Brianland have taken up the cudgels and gone, perhaps, … Read More

Lou Reed (1942-2013)

October 27, 2013admin

 

[Lou Reed 1942-2013]

The news just reaches us that Lou Reed (only recently featured on these pages), has died, aged 71, from, what the AP wire service is reporting as, “a liver-related ailment” (Reed underwent a liver transplant in May at the Cleveland Clinic . “I am a triumph of modern medicine, physics and chemistry”, he confidently boasted on his web-site, following surgery, on June the 1st. “I look forward to being on stage, performing, and writing more songs to connect with your hearts and your spirits and the universe well into the future.” But, as the … Read More

Lou Reed

October 21, 2013admin
 
[Lou Reed – photographed by Allen Ginsberg – Allen Ginsberg caption: “Lou Reed Poet-musician Green Room makeup table Public Theater, New York, September 1984, invited by impresario Rose Lesniak above to be Master of Ceremonies, Premier of Poetry-Music Video clips by Anne Waldman (Oh! Oh! Plutonium) and myself (Father Death Blues)” – Copyright The Estate of Allen Ginsberg]

 
 

Lou Reed, Allen’s iconic backstage image, juxtaposing the brooding rock star with an equally brooding Samuel Beckett leads off an Allen and rock n roll week here on the Allen Ginsberg blog. It may be worth remembering the time when Allen

… Read More