Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 297

December 23, 2016Simon Pettet

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[Daniel Radcliffe as the young Allen Ginsberg in “Kill Your Darlings (2013)”]

Film Friday -Remember Daniel Radcliffe‘s portrayal of Allen Ginsberg in John Krokidas‘ 2013 film, Kill Your Darlings – Krokidas’ revelations about Radcliffe’s Allen and playing a “sex scene” have been getting a bit of traction.

Krokidas:

“Growing up with queer films, there was always some sort of stigma attached to gay characters or gay sexuality, and I didn’t want the sex scene to feel like that in any way. I wanted the arc of the scene to go from nervousness to a place of pure enjoyment … Read More

Meditation and Poetics – 44 (Q & A)

February 9, 2015admin

[Lama Tsultrim Allione (Tsultrim Kloppenburg)]

AG: We were  doing some sitting. I wonder. We haven’t talked too much about it. I’ve sort of left it up to you to adapt. We did finally get some rugs to make it easier. If you want, you can bring in zafus (if you know what a zafu is – it’s a little round pillow that you can prop yourself under your butt and get a more solid seat) . If there’s any question about sitting, you can ask me sooner or later, or you can always go over to Naropa and check … Read More

Gerd Stern 3 (Gerd Stern Remembers Harry Smith)

October 21, 2014admin

[Harry Smith with his mural, “Jimbo’s Bop City”, San Francisco, 1950 – Photograph by Hy Hirsch]

Gerd Stern: “It was a great success. The auditorium was always full; everybody paid except Harry Smith. Harry Smith was someone who was a spectacular creative being who died recently [1991]. I first met Harry–I think the first time I came to San Francisco he was working as a photographer for the Examiner, and he was living in a black hotel–he was pale white–in the Fillmore. He had done these way-ahead-of-their-time murals at Jimbo’s Bop City—which was just like it

… Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 179

June 13, 2014admin

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[Allen Ginsberg’s signed copy of his Collected Poems 1947-1980) to the Living Theatre (Julian Beck and Judith Malina) – “On With the Show of Eternity!” –  from the Living Theatre Archives – courtesy The Boo-Hooray Gallery, NYC]

Here’s a sweet little snippet of grainy video – Allen Ginsberg, in 1976, in Larry Rivers‘ loft in Manhattan, improvising a twelve-bar blues, recollecting the life-changing experience that he’d had the previous months (specifically, an extended Vajrayana meditation retreat, with his teacher Chogyam Trungpa and students, at a hastily-convened seminary at Land O’Lakes, in Northern Wisconsin)   – “I haven’t been … Read More

Ginsberg-Ram Dass Weekend – 1

June 7, 2014admin

Ram Dass and Allen in conversation in the early 1980’s discuss the ‘Sixties and lessons learnt – the dangers of polarization, the challenges in breaking out from social norms. This transcript will be presented (via seven short videos) in two parts. The first today, the second, concluding part, tomorrow. 

AG: I did get a reputation of being a wild-eyed Beatnik, so I thought it would be funny to just (put on a suit)
RD: But I think you were a wild-eyed Beatnik, even from your intellect, even then
AG: Why, thank you!
Well I don’t know if you should … Read More