beat list 1996

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Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 11:37:24 -0800

Reply-To: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.BITNET>

Sender: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.BITNET>

From: Levi Asher <brooklyn@NETCOM.COM>

Subject: Re: Birth of the Beat Generation

In-Reply-To: <951231201656_81734192@emout06.mail.aol.com> from "W. Luther

Jett" at Dec 31, 95 08:16:56 pm

> Today's Washington Post carries a very favourable review of a new book, "The

> Birth of the Beat Generation: Visionaries, Rebels, and Hipsters 1844-1960",

> by Steven Watson (Pantheon). I quote, in part, from the review:

> "An elegant coffee-table book, 'The Birth of the Beat Generation' juxtaposes

> arresting, seldom-seen photographs with a lively, engaging, bare-bones

> narrative. It also juxtaposes maps both geographic and interrelational with

> assorted marginalia: quips, booklists and beat argot. . . . Not since

> Lawrence Lipson's 'Holy Barbarians' of 1959 has there been a book of the Beat

> experience whole, even though various biographies have in varying degree

> mined the details. . . . Oddly, what is wanting, a true assessment, does not

> diminish this book's achievement . . . ."

> So, has anyone seen the book? How accurate is the reviewer's assessment?

I pretty much agree. The book is very nicely designed and has a lot of

illustrations. The text seems accurate. More of a sense of spontaneity and

random connections than in other, more traditional books of this type.

One thing I haven't seen yet is Voyager's new Beat Experience CD-Rom, or

whatever it's called. Not the Kerouac one (from Viking) but the one that

ties into the Whitney exhibit (I think). Any reports on it?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Levi Asher = brooklyn@netcom.com

Literary Kicks: http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/

(the beat literature web site)

Queensboro Ballads: http://www.levity.com/brooklyn/

(my fantasy folk-rock album)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Some people like to go out dancing,

but other people like us, they gotta work

And there's even some evil mothers

who'll tell you life is just made out of dirt

That women never really faint

that villains always blink their eyes

That children are the only ones who blush

and that life is just a dive"

-- Velvet Underground, "Sweet Jane"

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Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 09:41:20 -0500

Reply-To: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.BITNET>

Sender: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.BITNET>

From: Howard Park <Hpark4@AOL.COM>

Subject: Re: Birth of the Beat Generation

The reviewer, Regina Weinreich, is a real beat fan and author of "The

Spontanious Prose of Jack Kerouac", so it's not surprising that she wrote a

favorable review of the "Brith of the Beat Generation." I don't mean to

discount it. It's an excellent book. Part group biography, part scrapbook.

It's more than a "coffeetable book".

Howard Park

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Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 09:41:21 -0500

Reply-To: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.BITNET>

Sender: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.BITNET>

From: Howard Park <Hpark4@AOL.COM>

Subject: Re: Whitney Show

I wrote a sort of review of thw Whitney show awhile back. I enjoyed and was

captivated by it, but I don't think I would make a special trip to New York

for it alone. It will travel to Minneapolis and San Francisco later this

year. The highlight of the show for me was the original rolled up manuscript

of On The Road and the Dharma Bums.

H. Park

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Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 12:08:11 -0600

Reply-To: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.BITNET>

Sender: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.BITNET>

From: Nick Weir-Williams <nweir-w@NWU.EDU>

Subject: Re: BEAT-L Digest - 30 Dec 1995 to 31 Dec 1995

Have just got back from a week in NYC with 2500 philosophers, and got to see

the Whitney exhibit. For me, there was some great stuff there - a lot of

JK's original artwork, the teletype roll of OTR, a bunch of his notebooks,

sketchpads etc, and a lot of photos of NYC and Beats around there, including

quite a few I'd never seen in books. I can see why the art critics were down

on the exhibit though, because the link between the big pieces on display

and the Beats seemed tentative to say the least, i.e. the Jackson Pollock

painting and some of the other art - nice stuff in its own right (most of

it) but out of kilter with the rest of the exhibit. Still, there was so much

of the real thing there I didn't mind. A most interesting video on show

(plus for sale, a copy of which I got) with all sorts of

JK/Ginsberg/Burroughs clips, weird art montages and some really cool jazz

from the period with Miles and Coltrane and so on. And a great audio track

which you could listen to at the exhibit (but I couldn't see for sale) with

readings, jazz, etc.

So I think you have to be a True Fan, but then I guess most all of us on

this list are ... it was well worth the trip and the $$$ to see the artefacts.

N W-W

>I have heard about and read a little about the current exhibit at the

>Whitney Museum in New York. Has this exhibit been discussed by fellows

>on the net? What is of particular interest? What special performances

>have been included, who has seen them, and what reports can be given?

>I've ordered the catalog from the museum and have a standing order for

>the CD-ROM. I hope that I have made the right choice in getting these

>items. I would like to fly into New York and see the actual exhibit, but

>time and $ weigh on my mind and wallet, making me choose the lest costly,

>more ordinary alternatives.

>So let me know. Who has seen the show? Whither goest thou, Whitney, in thy

>shiny black car in the night?

>Bill of the North Woods

>------------------------------

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Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 10:56:55 -0800

Reply-To: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.BITNET>

Sender: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.BITNET>

From: "Timothy K. Gallaher" <gallaher@HSC.USC.EDU>

Subject: Re: Birth of the Beat Generation

>The reviewer, Regina Weinreich, is a real beat fan and author of "The

>Spontanious Prose of Jack Kerouac", so it's not surprising that she wrote a

>favorable review of the "Brith of the Beat Generation." I don't mean to

>discount it. It's an excellent book. Part group biography, part scrapbook.

> It's more than a "coffeetable book".

>Howard Park

The book is actually called

The Spontaneous Poetics of Jack Kerouac. Poetics, not prose--I say this

only if someone goes out looking for it and tries to order it at a

bookstore or something.

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Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 20:10:50 GMT

Reply-To: Dan_Barth@RedwoodFN.org

Sender: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.BITNET>

From: Dan Barth <Dan_Barth@REDWOODFN.ORG>

Organization: Redwood Free-Net

Subject: Re: Birth of the Beat Generation

Hi Everybody and HAPPY NEW YEAR. I've seen *Birth of the BG* in the bookstores

and was first of all struck by the similarity in layout to *Generation X*. I

notice that Herbert Huncke is deemd an "icon" as is Ginsberg's buddy from the

mental hospital, Carl Solomon. To me these guys are minor characters and the

real icons are Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Cassady. Quibble, quibble. I

still would like a copy of the book but at $27.50 I'll have to wait. I did

receive *Big Sky Mind: Buddhism and the BG* for a Chritmas present. I'm happy

with it, reading the Kerouac section at the moment, though again I have a few

quibbles with the Introduction by a professor of philosophy who does not have

me convinced about his knowledge of the Beats.

Best to you all.

Dan B.