Friday’s Weekly Round-Up -346

December 15, 2017Simon Pettet

[Allen Ginsberg in the studio, recording William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience”]

Amanda Petrusich, writing in The New Yorker

“The membrane between poetry and“song,” as we think of it in 2017, has always been flimsy and permeable; once all poems were songs. Ginsberg’s weird, wobbly singing [in “The Complete Songs of Innocence and Experience” CD] is sometimes dissonant, but it gets at something essential to Blake’s work. It’s as good a narration of the phases of a life as I can think of..”

Might we recommend, as a holiday gift, this holiday…?

The re-release of Allen’s William Blake … Read More

Friday’s Weekly Round-Up – 287

September 30, 2016admin

Kristen Stewart [Marylou (LuAnne Henderson) in Walter Salles’  On The Road photographed in Los Angeles September, 2016 © Cousart/JFX images  WENN.com

 

Wait Till I’m Dead, Allen Ginsberg’s recently-published collection of uncollected posthumous poems, (which has not had anything like the notices that it should have), recently received an attentive and intelligent review in Empty Mirror from poet-scholar Marc Olmsted  (“What we come away with is wanting more..”) – see hereDrawing attemtion to Andrzej’s Pietrasz‘s Allen Ginsberg in Poland (Andrzej’s just back from a visit to the Beats show in Paris and he brought his camera)

Jeff Nightbyrd,

… Read More

Diane Di Prima’s 80th Birthday

August 6, 2014admin

 [Diane Di Prima with poet Ted Joans, at The Poetry Project, St Mark’s Church, New York City, 1994 – Photograph by Allen Ginsberg c. Allen Ginsberg Estate] 

[Diane di Prima and Allen Ginsberg]

The great poet-activist-wise-woman-scholar, Diane Di Prima is 80 years old today!  –  Happy Birthday Diane! She, in the past year, has been teaching a course (at the Bay Area Public School) – “The Dream of Pre-History” From her catalog note: “This class explores the beginnings of what we call “human” – the fall of Neanderthal and the rise of Cro-Magnon culture – the beginnings, dominance, … Read More