=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 07:19:46 -0400

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

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

From:         Marie Countryman <country@SOVER.NET>

Subject:      thanks, phil

In-Reply-To:  <2.2.32.19970525044430.006adf58@pop.tiac.net>

 

great story.

mc

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 07:19:50 -0400

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

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

From:         Marie Countryman <country@SOVER.NET>

Subject:      Re: Beat and Marriage

In-Reply-To:  <199705250743.DAA00985@mail.clark.net>

 

andrew wrote

>Is it possible to be beat and married?

@@@@@@@@@

hey andrew, i dont have an answer for you, but have to thank you for

question, and upon digging through all things beat, ijust found and re-read

corso's  pome 'marriage'

too long for me to type out.  here are a few salient quotes:

 

should i get married? should i be good?

astound the girl next door

with my velvet suit and faustus hood?...

........

O God and the wedding! all her family and her friends

and only a handful of mine all scroungy and bearded

just waiting to get at the drinks and food

.........

o but what about love? i forget love

not that i am incapable of love

it's just that i see love as odd as wearing shoes--

i never wanted to marry a girl who was like my mother

and ingrid bergman was always impossible

and there's maybe a girl now but she's already married

and i dont like men and--

but there's bound to be somebody!

because what if i'm 60 years old and not married,

all alone in a furnished room with pee stains on my underwear

and everybody else is married! all the universt married but me!

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 06:43:36 -0500

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

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

From:         RACE --- <race@MIDUSA.NET>

Subject:      Re: Beat and Marriage

 

Marie Countryman wrote:

>

> andrew wrote

> >Is it possible to be beat and married?

> @@@@@@@@@

> hey andrew, i dont have an answer for you, but have to thank you for

> question, and upon digging through all things beat, ijust found and re-read

> corso's  pome 'marriage'

> too long for me to type out.  here are a few salient quotes:

>

> should i get married? should i be good?

> astound the girl next door

> with my velvet suit and faustus hood?...

> ........

> O God and the wedding! all her family and her friends

> and only a handful of mine all scroungy and bearded

> just waiting to get at the drinks and food

> .........

> o but what about love? i forget love

> not that i am incapable of love

> it's just that i see love as odd as wearing shoes--

> i never wanted to marry a girl who was like my mother

> and ingrid bergman was always impossible

> and there's maybe a girl now but she's already married

> and i dont like men and--

> but there's bound to be somebody!

> because what if i'm 60 years old and not married,

> all alone in a furnished room with pee stains on my underwear

> and everybody else is married! all the universt married but me!

 

 

I just read this one recently in some collection.  at times it made my

bone marrow jerk a bit the identifications were so compleat.

 

Another morning and another wonderful day started by the notes from

sweet marie.  a true breath of fresh air.

 

david rhaesa

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 08:08:04 -0400

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

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

From:         Attila Gyenis <GYENIS@AOL.COM>

Subject:      Thanks for your support

 

In a message dated 97-05-24 20:35:06 EDT, Gerry Nicosia writes:

 

<<  In the short 3-year history of DHARMA BEAT, you have received

 numerous full-page ads from Viking/Penguin .....

         No other Kerouac publication ever got that kind of major advertising

>>

 

Dear Mr. Nicosiais:

 

If your publisher is interested in placing a full page ad, please have them

contact me. I'll see if I can ok it with the proper authorities.

 

Best,

Attila Gyenis

Editor

DHARMA beat

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 14:16:34 +0200

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

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

From:         Nils-Oivind Haagensen <Nils-Oivind.Haagensen@LILI.UIB.NO>

In-Reply-To:  <"noralf.uib.646:25.05.97.04.02.54"@uib.no>

 

Tra un fiore colto e l'altro donato

l'inesprimibile vanita

 

Fiore doppio

nato in grembo alla madonna

della gioia

 

Between a flower gathered and the other given/ the inexpressible vanity/ /

Double flower/ born of the womb of our lady/ of joy

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 09:25:12 -0400

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

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

From:         "R. Bentz Kirby" <bocelts@SCSN.NET>

Organization: Law Office of R. Bentz Kirby

Subject:      You go JO

 

However, if suits are filed, please inform the list.

 

j grant

____________________________

 

Jo:

 

I don't know if you were just serious, or if you also were poking fun at

our love of the morbidity of it all, but to me, LOL.  And as an

attorney, yeah let me know too! ;-)

 

Peace

 

--

Bentz

bocelts@scsn.net

 

http://www.scsn.net/users/sclaw

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 09:36:55 -0400

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

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

From:         "R. Bentz Kirby" <bocelts@SCSN.NET>

Organization: Law Office of R. Bentz Kirby

Subject:      Word games

 

I have always loved word games.  Even though I have always sucked at

crossword puzzles.  I always saw them like a haiku, and love Rexroths

One Hundred Poems from the Japanese and Snyders use of Japanese-Oriental

imagery.  Since someone else posted some cool stuff, I thought I would

risk the criticism of the beat world and post one of my little attempts

at irony things here.  Please excuse me.

 

Toxic Reins

 

The City and the Country

Are two places.

If my wife was not blind to Toxi-city,

My children could ride horses.

Like Bukowski.

 

May 25, 1997 9:34 AM

 

Since all the comments about Bukowski, I could not resist the allusion.

 

Peace,

 

Bentz

 

--

Bentz

bocelts@scsn.net

 

http://www.scsn.net/users/sclaw

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 09:39:39 -0400

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

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

From:         "R. Bentz Kirby" <bocelts@SCSN.NET>

Organization: Law Office of R. Bentz Kirby

Subject:      Re: Beat and Marriage

Comments: To: cosmic@clark.net

 

Cosmic Baseball Association wrote:

 

> >Well, Steve, I think that Barbara Bush is beat, George is pure skull

> and

> >cross bones.

> -snip-

> >me, yes, my wife, no

> >

> >--

> >Bentz

> >bocelts@scsn.net

>

> Is it possible to be beat and married?

>

> Regards,

> Andrew

> cosmic@clark.net

 

Andrew:

 

Is the CBA open?  I have not been able to get back in lately.  I was

trying to tell someone of your wonderful site and the the URL started

telling me that clark.net does not exist.

 

Thanks and oh yeah, probably it is a bumpy bumpy ride, because two beats

should not marry.  They would spin off into a morass of

ADD/hyperactivity.

 

Peace,

 

 

--

Bentz

bocelts@scsn.net

 

http://www.scsn.net/users/sclaw

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 10:50:24 -0400

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

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

From:         "R. Bentz Kirby" <bocelts@SCSN.NET>

Organization: Law Office of R. Bentz Kirby

Subject:      Corso on Kerouac

 

As I prepare for my trip to San Francisco, I have pulled all my City

Lights Pocket Poets off the shelf and begun to read and re-read them.  I

want to drink a coffee with Lawrence, and I want to feel the grass in

the park that is the child of the grass that Jack felt.  So, I started

today with Elegiac Feelings American (for the dear memory of John

Kerouac) by Gregory Corso.  I think parts are worth repeating, Yo, Race,

this can't be Marie, but it could be absolutely sweet:

 

1.

 

How inseparable you and the America you saw yet was

    never there to see; you and America, like the

    tree and the ground, are one the same; yet how

    like a palm tree in the state of Oregon... dead

    ere it blossomed, like a snow polar loping the

    Miami--

How so that which you were and hoped to be, and the

    America not, the America you saw yet could

    not see

So like yet unlike the ground from which you stemmed;

    you stood upon America like a rootless

    flat-bottomed tree; to the squirrel there was no

    divorcement in its hop of ground to its climb of tree

 

......................

 

Was it not so much our finding America as it was America

    finding its voice in us; many spoke to America

    as though America by land-right was theirs by

    law-right legislatively acquired by materialistic

    coups of wealth and inheritance; like the citizen

    of society believes himself the owner of society.

    and what he makes of himself, he makes of

    America and thus when he speaks of America

    he speaks of himself, and quite often such a he

    is duly elected to represent what he represents...

    an infernal ego of an America

 

.........................

 

Alas Jack, seems I cannot requiem thee without

    requieming America, and that's one requiem

    I shall not presume, for as long as I live there'll

    be no requiems for me

 

................

 

Yours the eyes that saw, the heart that felt, the voice that

    sang and cried; and as long as America shall

    live, though ye old Kerouac body hath died,

    yet shall ye live... for indeed ours was a time

    of prophesy without death as a consequence...

    for indeed after us came the time of the assassins,

    and who'll doubt thy last words "After me...

    the deluge"

 

........................................

 

We came to announce the human spirit in the name of

    beauty and truth; and now this spirit cries out in

    nature's sake the horrnedous imbalance of all

    things natural... elusive nature caught! like a

    bird in hand, harnessed and engineered in the

    unevolutional ways of experiment and technique

 

What hope for the America so embodied in thee, O friend,

    when the very same alcohol that disembodied

    your brother redman of his America,

    disembodied ye-- A plot to grab their land, we

    know--yet what plot to grab the ungrabbable

    land of one's spirit? ....

 

............

 

[Then on to the end of Chapter 4 and this beautiful, tearful tribute to

John Kerouac and indictment of our country and world that still rings so

true with cloning, rain forest rape, genetic engineering, etc.  Thanks

Gregory]

 

....

 

And you were flashed upon the old and darkling day

    a Beat Christ-boy... bearing the gentle roundness of things

    insisting that the soul was not square

    And soon...behind thee

    there came a-following

    the children of flowers

 

By Gregory Corso, North Beach, San Francisco, 1969

 

This yet, brings tears to my eyes and chills to my whole body. What love

for Jack and his work, what truth of feelings spoken.  The honesty of

Jack's faults, that some would deny, what honesty about the treachery

that gave birth to this country, what passion for Jack's vision.  Can

there be any doubt as to the identity of Bob Dylan's Tambourine Man, no,

it is Jack Kerouac!  But, of course it is many others as well, but it is

Jack Kerouac, Tambourine Man to whom we all dance.  And yes the beats

were more, but without Jack, there were no more beats.

 

Hey! Mister Tambourine Man, play a song for me

I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.

Hey! Mister Tabourine Man, play a song for me,

In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you.

 

Peace, and don't forget to pray for Ti Jean, because we are now he.

 

That's my church for the day!

 

--

Bentz

bocelts@scsn.net

 

http://www.scsn.net/users/sclaw

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 11:07:53 -0400

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

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

From:         Pamela Beach Plymell <CVEditions@AOL.COM>

Subject:      Re: Beat and Marriage

 

Andrew:

Yes. 31 years.

Best,

Pamela Beach Plymell

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 11:45:45 -0400

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

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

From:         Michael Czarnecki <peent@SERVTECH.COM>

Subject:      Book info.

 

I have a book coming out June 4th, TWENTY DAYS ON ROUTE 20, a haibun

(condensed prose & haiku) account of a cross-country journey taken last

fall. If anyone's interested please E-mail me privately (don't think I

should take up any more list space than this for the book) and I'll E-mail

flyer/details.

 

Thanks,

Michael

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 17:45:28 +0200

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

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

From:         Rinaldo Rasa <rinaldo@GPNET.IT>

Subject:      Ungaretti.

In-Reply-To:  <Pine.SUN.3.96.970525141314.617A-100000@alfred.uib.no>

 

At 14.16 25/05/97 +0200, Nils-Oivind Haagensen wrote:

>Tra un fiore colto e l'altro donato

>l'inesprimibile vanita

>

>Fiore doppio

>nato in grembo alla madonna

>della gioia

>

>Between a flower gathered and the other given/ the inexpressible vanity/ /

>Double flower/ born of the womb of our lady/ of joy

>

>

Caro Nils-Oivind Haagensen, GRAZIE!,

grande citazione! UNGARETTI! il grande poeta italiano di questo

secolo, la poesia esattamente recita:

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

                                ETERNO

                        Tra un fiore colto e l'altro donato

                        l'inesprimibile nulla

 

--- Giuseppe Ungaretti, Ultime, Milano 1914-1915---------------

 

grazie e cari saluti e buona domenica da

Rinaldo Rasa.

 

 

 

NON GRIDATE PIU'        di Giuseppe Ungaretti, da "I Ricordi"

 

Cessate d'uccidere i morti,

Non gridate piu', non gridate

Se li volete ancora udire,

Se sperate di non perire.

 

Hanno l'impercettibile sussurro,

non fanno piu' rumore

Del crescere dell'erba,

Lieta dove passa l'uomo.

 

 

 

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 08:59:33 -0700

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

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

From:         Levi Asher <brooklyn@NETCOM.COM>

Subject:      Re: Beat and Marriage

In-Reply-To:  <3388411A.30565089@scsn.net> from "R. Bentz Kirby" at May 25,

              97 09:39:39 am

 

Bentz wrote:

> Thanks and oh yeah, probably it is a bumpy bumpy ride, because two beats

> should not marry.  They would spin off into a morass of ADD/hyperactivity.

 

I've been married seven years, and this has become a regular cycle by

now.  With some smart scheduling, we can make the hyperactivity wave

happen on weekends and the attention-deficit part on weekdays.  It

also helps me that my wife can't stand the Beats (keeps us balanced).

 

That Gregory Corso poem is the best, too ...

 

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

           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)

 

          ###################################

 

          "Tie yourself to a tree with roots"

                    -- Bob Dylan

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

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 13:32:25 -0400

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

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

From:         Jerry Cimino <Bigsurs4me@AOL.COM>

Subject:      Re: Beat and Marriage

 

Levi,

 

My wife couldn't stand the beats either when we first got married.  I think

it's got to do with that "he's gonna run off and sow his wild oats leaving me

stuck at home alone" female thing.  Can't imagine why any woman would think

that about people like Neal Cassady?

 

Now she's involved in a business where she's talking beat everyday.  She

really focused in on the women writers, Hettie Jones, Joyce Johnson, Diane

DiPrima, Carolyn etc and it turned her around.  She especially enjoyed the

new Women & the BG recently released.

 

Jerry Cimino

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 10:32:54 -0700

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

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

From:         Gerald Nicosia <gnicosia@EARTHLINK.NET>

Subject:      Re: Tony's Story and Gerry's....

 

>Gerry,

>

>        Is there an easy way to tell whether you actually did tape Tony

>telling that story?     ...and is it part of the holdings of your archive at

>Lowell? Thanks Gerry.

>

>                Antoine

> Voice contact at  (514) 933-4956 in Montreal

>

>     "An anarchist is someone who doesn't need a cop to tell him what to do!"

>                        -- Norman Navrotsky and Utah Phillips

>

 

Dear Antoine,    May 25, 1997

 

        Yes, I checked my 48 page catalogue of what I put on deposit at U

Mass, Lowell, and THERE WAS A TAPED INTERVIEW OF TONY CHAPUT INCLUDED IN THE

COLLECTION.  I'm sure that's the story.

        Now we'll need a signed letter from Tony in California to Martha

Mayo at the Special Collections, Mogan Center, U Mass, Lowell, 40 French

St., Lowell, Mass, telling Ms. Mayo's it's okay for people to listen to the

tape and to read the transcription.

        That's if the Chaput tape and transcription are not among the many

missing items from the collection.  And I'm also not 100% sure Ms. Mayo

won't come up with yet another excuse to keep Tony's interview off limits,

but it would be interesting if Tony sent in a permission letter to see if

people could actually get access to it.

        However, you see the difficulty of chipping one little stone free at

a time, from a wall (collection) that is built of thousands of stones.  I

need a legal action to free the entire collection at one time.

        I was getting my master's at U of I, Chicago, in 1972, when I was

prodded into reading Kerouac by my officemate (we were teaching assistants

together), a hip Jewish kid named John Simon from Harvard. Until then I'd

been forced to read all the academic standards of modern American fiction,

Roth, Bellow, Mailer, Updike, et al.  But on my own I had read Thoreau and

Whitman and Jack London, so I was tremendously receptive when I read the

first 5 pages of THE DHARMA BUMS and found all this spirituality,

compassion, and concern for the common, workingclass people.  You see, my

father was a socialist from Chicago, who had read most of Jack London when

young --he had even hitchhiked to California at the age of 17 in 1927 and

had told me many of his own "road tales" while I was growing up.  My father

also used to read to me from London's THE IRON HEEL, to teach me about the

oppression of the poor by the rich, so when I read Kerouac I knew

immediately I had found a brother soul.  (We'd both been raised ethnic

Catholic to boot, me Italian Catholic, Jack of course French Catholic.)

        Best, Gerry Nicosia

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 10:43:17 -0700

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

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

From:         Gerald Nicosia <gnicosia@EARTHLINK.NET>

Subject:      Re: Thanks for your support

 

At 08:08 AM 5/25/97 -0400, you wrote:

>In a message dated 97-05-24 20:35:06 EDT, Gerry Nicosia writes:

>

><<  In the short 3-year history of DHARMA BEAT, you have received

> numerous full-page ads from Viking/Penguin .....

>         No other Kerouac publication ever got that kind of major advertising

>>>

>

>Dear Mr. Nicosiais:

>

>If your publisher is interested in placing a full page ad, please have them

>contact me. I'll see if I can ok it with the proper authorities.

>

>Best,

>Attila Gyenis

>Editor

>DHARMA beat

>

>

Dear Attila,   May 25, 1997

 

        Levi says you're my friend, but you seem to have forgotten how to

spell my name.

        Since you're my friend, I was expecting at least the first ad for free.

        Thanks.

        Best, Gerry Nicosia

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 12:58:33 -0600

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

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

From:         John Mitchell <mitchell@AUGSBURG.EDU>

Subject:      Garb for Holy Goof

 

Well in 15 minutes I'm off to my 29th commencement at this institute of

higher learning wearing my Master's Degree (in English!) garb, which looks

like the skin of a wet bat dangling from my arms, my legs sore from yam yum

in the 4th circle of hell, but yesterday my wife and I went to the Mall of

America Memorial Day 50% off plus 20% sale, and--get ready for this--bought

my first pair of grown-up pants in years (with cuffs!)--and a Gerry Garcia

tie (not on sale)!  I look great!  (You're only as old as you look!)  Good

enough for litigation, if not as good as Allen Ginsberg in white shirt and

tie reading HOWL! for the first time.  May the Great Speckled Bird be with

you all for the weekend. // Gratefully dead, John M.

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 14:03:14 -0400

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

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

From:         Jerry Cimino <Bigsurs4me@AOL.COM>

Subject:      Re: Tony's Story and Gerry's....

 

What a fascinating storyline here.  And it's kind of ironic too.  We've

actually learned something kind of major through calm discussion.

 

Phil Chuput tells a story about his brother Tony.  It's a first person

account and we're all touched by it to one degree or another and others say

Tony ought to type it up and preserve it.  Phil says he's been after Tony to

do it for years and thinks he may do it soon.

 

Gerry Nicosia says he taped that same story directly from Tony's lips and in

fact the audio tape is sitting in Lowell in a collection that no one has

access to on an old tape that is probably rotting away.

 

Kind of makes you wonder how far honest dialogue and discourse can take us.

 

 

Jerry Cimino

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 14:36:14 -0400

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

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

From:         Antoine Maloney <stratis@ODYSSEE.NET>

Subject:      Re: Tony's Story and Gerry's....

 

        ....and me, Irish Catholic! In 1970 I and a friend hitched back and

forth across the United states and Canada. You can't do that without

developing a huge store of stories, so I can only imagine the kind of

stories your Dad had to tell. Did he ever talk about whether his Italianess

(word?) was recognized and what kinds of reactions he got? And what kinds of

travelling times must he have been talking about - no freeways and I guess

nothing like the long haul trucking that you have now...although we never

had any luck in having truckers stop to pick us up with all the regulations

they have to live under now.

 

        Chicago was one of the few major places that we never ended up in -

along with Los Angeles - and it wasn't until five or six years ago that I

got to the windy city for far too short a visit! At least got to fulfill my

dream of visiting the filed Museum.

 

        Was all your father's travelling on the road or did he ride the

rails as well? Was he going to California to work or just to go?

 

        Antoine

 Voice contact at  (514) 933-4956 in Montreal

 

     "An anarchist is someone who doesn't need a cop to tell him what to do!"

                        -- Norman Navrotsky and Utah Phillips

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 14:42:50 -0400

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

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

From:         Attila Gyenis <GYENIS@AOL.COM>

Subject:      Lies, Money, and other non important matters.

 

In a message dated 97-05-24 23:54:09 EDT, Gerry Nicosia writes:

 

<< I would have to be a fool  >>

 

Dear Gerry,

 

If I thought that I have to respond to your charges, I would.

 

best, Attila

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 15:04:42 -0400

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

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

From:         Marie Countryman <country@SOVER.NET>

Subject:      Re: Garb for Holy Goof

In-Reply-To:  <l03020900afae3a217417@[141.224.144.84]>

 

may jerry send you numerous blessings, safe as he is in heaven with AG, JK

and the rest of the heavenly choir

mc

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 14:36:29 -0500

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

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

From:         jo grant <jgrant@BOOKZEN.COM>

Subject:      Re: Thanks for your support

In-Reply-To:  <970525080803_371706416@emout11.mail.aol.com>

 

>In a message dated 97-05-24 20:35:06 EDT, Gerry Nicosia writes:

>

><<  In the short 3-year history of DHARMA BEAT, you have received

> numerous full-page ads from Viking/Penguin .....

>         No other Kerouac publication ever got that kind of major advertising

>>>

>

>Dear Mr. Nicosiais:

>

>If your publisher is interested in placing a full page ad, please have them

>contact me. I'll see if I can ok it with the proper authorities.

>

>Best,

>Attila Gyenis

>Editor

>DHARMA beat

 

Am I missing something? "Nicosiais" rather than Nicosia?  Play on a word?

Perhaps miffed after an enlightening rundown on your ad sales?

 

Would have enjoyed a response that was a bit more substantial.

 

j grant

 

 

 

                BE ON THE WATCH

for items stolen from the Keroauc Collection

        O'Leary Library, U Mass, Lowell

http://www.bookzen.com/kerouac.theft.html

 

Academic & Small Press Authors & publishers

                display books free at

           <http://www.bookzen.com>

     302,443  visitors since July 1, 1996

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 16:31:43 -0400

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

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

From:         Marie Countryman <country@SOVER.NET>

Subject:      the tragedy of it all (to nicosia, chaput et al.)

In-Reply-To:  <9704248645.AA864508671@Mail.ff.cc.mn.us>

 

hello fellows,

i do believe this may be the first direct response of mine regarding the

continuing shit storm.

so today i set down to scan _memory babe_ again,

 looking for the voice of gerald nicosia which has been missing in all of

the words written in this lengthy word war..

when

i came across the photo

of jan kerouac

taken in 1978,

her head held proudly,

hair riffling back in the breeze.

and i said out loud, all to myself,

'my god, this woman is a beauty!'

by which i meant you could see the beauty

in her eyes, the pain and the knowledge

gained at great cost,

as i gazed at her generously beautiful features

i thought, yes, she was her father's daughter.

and i wept.

for the pain of jack

which led,  in part, to the pain

inflicted on his daughter,

and how the estate wars

with the shrill fear in which

voices raised 'gainst one another here

--however amusing or informative to some.

sorry guys,

but i mostly feel sad over this whole emotional/legal mess...

may jan be dead and safe in heaven

mc

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 16:45:22 -0400

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

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

From:         Julie Hulvey <JHulvey@AOL.COM>

Subject:      Fwd: RE: Hello

 

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

Forwarded message:

From:   chatfield@voyager.net (chatfield residence)

To:     jhulvey@aol.com

Date: 97-05-25 16:14:34 EDT

 

julie:

thank you for your answers to my question. i will check out the CD-ROM if i

can. it sounds like it would be cool, even if it doesn't help me with my

research paper.

if you get a chance, would you send a mail to the list saying how grateful

i am for everyone's suggestions? i have to unsub because of the volume of

mail. i can only check my mail once or twice a day, and i can't handle

having 60-70 messages to read. i just don't have the time.

i think this list is a great idea and if i have any questions i may be

re-joining, asking them, and then unsubbing, like the commitment ducker

that i am. :)

thanks for the ideas!

--amy jean

 

 

 

 

"hold me down, catching my throat, make me pray, say, love's confined."

-r.e.m.

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 23:57:12 +0200

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

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

From:         Rinaldo Rasa <rinaldo@GPNET.IT>

Subject:      hipster talk

In-Reply-To:  <Pine.SUN.3.96.970525141314.617A-100000@alfred.uib.no>

 

\\

.clonkk\

\

        \\boff

blip\bleep

        \       bop

        beep\   \

clink\biff\

.

kerouac.

.       described

                .       the velocity life of the 20th century\\\

the not music .

                by john cage ../

                                caught the sound of the environment.

//.

clink\\

        beeep

        \\      bleep

        bop\\

bliiip\\\\

\\

\

yrs

rinaldo

 

-Rust Never Sleeps-

*

There's more the picture

Than meets the eye

*

(Neil Young & Jeff Blackburn)

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 23:30:25 +0200

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

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

From:         Rinaldo Rasa <rinaldo@GPNET.IT>

Subject:      AH I

In-Reply-To:  <Pine.SUN.3.96.970525141314.617A-100000@alfred.uib.no>

 

        "There's just something about it which

        allows me to write a certain way, like an actual language style

        which happens to be inspired as much by the South as it by

        Shakespeare or The Bible or whatever. But it allows me to

        write in the first person, and I felt this way. And I write

        'Ah' instead of 'I'"

 

        Nick Cave.

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 23:29:47 +0200

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

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

From:         Rinaldo Rasa <rinaldo@GPNET.IT>

Subject:      the twister haiku

In-Reply-To:  <Pine.SUN.3.96.970525141314.617A-100000@alfred.uib.no>

 

\\                      \\

        i \\\\

        have\

a \

        \\      life\

        but \

\       i \

can't \\        use \

        it\\

\\\             \\\

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 18:08:01 EDT

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

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

From:         Bill Gargan <WXGBC@CUNYVM.BITNET>

Subject:      Re: Memory Babe Archive

In-Reply-To:  Message of Sat, 24 May 1997 19:55:16 -0700 from

              <gnicosia@EARTHLINK.NET>

 

Gerry, how many of the 300 people you interviewed do you still have addresses f

or?  Why not write a form letter and try to get their permission to open their

letters and tapes now?  Maybe all of us at Beat-l could help you contact people

 who are hard to find?  We maight not locate everyone but we sure could make a

dent and open up a huge chunk of the archive.  Seems to me to be a better alter

native than another law suit.

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 18:24:35 EDT

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

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

From:         Bill Gargan <WXGBC@CUNYVM.BITNET>

Subject:      Re: Beat and Marriage

In-Reply-To:  Message of Sun, 25 May 1997 03:43:37 -0400 from <cosmic@CLARK.NET>

 

On Sun, 25 May 1997 03:43:37 -0400 Cosmic Baseball Association said:

>>Well, Steve, I think that Barbara Bush is beat, George is pure skull and

>>cross bones.

>-snip-

>>me, yes, my wife, no

>>

>>--

>>Bentz

>>bocelts@scsn.net

>

>Is it possible to be beat and married?

>

>Regards,

>Andrew

>cosmic@clark.net

 

 Ask Gregory Corso!

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 19:46:31 -0400

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

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

From:         "R. Bentz Kirby" <bocelts@SCSN.NET>

Organization: Law Office of R. Bentz Kirby

Subject:      Re: Memory Babe Archive

 

Bill Gargan wrote:

 

> Gerry, how many of the 300 people you interviewed do you still have

> addresses f

> or?  Why not write a form letter and try to get their permission to

> open their

> letters and tapes now?  Maybe all of us at Beat-l could help you

> contact people

>  who are hard to find?  We maight not locate everyone but we sure

> could make a

> dent and open up a huge chunk of the archive.  Seems to me to be a

> better alter

> native than another law suit.

 

 Bill:

 

Is there a valid restriction.  The little bit that I read is that UMASS

at Lowell just has a school policy and it is not based upon law.  If

someone on the list is aware of any actual statutes that apply, I would

be interested.

 

Peace,

 

--

Bentz

bocelts@scsn.net

 

http://www.scsn.net/users/sclaw

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 20:51:22 -0700

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

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

From:         Diane Carter <dcarter@TOGETHER.NET>

Subject:      Re: the tragedy of it all (to nicosia, chaput et al.)

 

Marie Countryman wrote:

>

> hello fellows,

> i do believe this may be the first direct response of mine regarding the

> continuing shit storm.

> so today i set down to scan _memory babe_ again,

>  looking for the voice of gerald nicosia which has been missing in all of

> the words written in this lengthy word war..

> when

> i came across the photo

> of jan kerouac

> taken in 1978,

> her head held proudly,

> hair riffling back in the breeze.

> and i said out loud, all to myself,

> 'my god, this woman is a beauty!'

> by which i meant you could see the beauty

> in her eyes, the pain and the knowledge

> gained at great cost,

> as i gazed at her generously beautiful features

> i thought, yes, she was her father's daughter.

> and i wept.

> for the pain of jack

> which led,  in part, to the pain

> inflicted on his daughter,

> and how the estate wars

> with the shrill fear in which

> voices raised 'gainst one another here

> --however amusing or informative to some.

> sorry guys,

> but i mostly feel sad over this whole emotional/legal mess...

> may jan be dead and safe in heaven

> mc

 

 

I think you hit the nail on the head when you speak of all of the pain

involved in this family relationship, maybe in all family relationships.

 I have read all of the posts about the estate war since this whole thing

began on the list several weeks ago.  I think Mr. Nicosia speaks from a

very personal perspective of watching someone he cared greatly about die,

and then feeling that he must continue to try and carry out her wishes.

I think what he is trying to do for Jan is commendable.  I also think

that when you are feeling that kind of pain on a personal level and then

you have to battle several legal issues, emotions are bound to erupt.

But here on the list we are only hearing the same accusations over and

over.  Rarely is a new idea brought up.  Today, the talk about Jack

rather than the same old war was refreshing.  Maybe through conversations

about the words and people, the war can slip into the background.  I

think all of the people writing about the estate problems should count

backwards from 500 to 1 before responding to each others posts.  I, for

one, would like to hear more stories about Jack (and his daughter) from

people who knew them and were involved in their lives.

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 23:56:01 -0400

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

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

From:         Phil Chaput <philzi@TIAC.NET>

Subject:      Lowell author-Jay Pendergast

 

May 25,1997

Lowell author and friend of Jack Kerouac, Jay Pendergast died unexpectedly

this afternoon. Jay had just written a story about Jack in Paul Maher's

premiere issue of the "Kerouac Quarterly" his painting that Jack had given

him personally what I called "Beatnik Jesus" was on the cover. He was an

educator that taught English, Irish and American Literature as well as

History, Writing and Anthropology courses. Jay held his Ph.D. in Irish

Literature and held his Masters degree in English Literature. He was an

author who had written two books about early Lowell "The Bend in the River"

and "Life along the Merrimack" he had also completed a book of photos of

Lowell and one of Dracut and was working on a second book of Lowell photos.

His first Lowell photo book had a wonderful picture of Jack Kerouac at an

early age performing in a play. Jay was also an archeologist and had

completed several archaeological excavations in Newfoundland, Ireland and

along the banks of the Merrimack River. Jay was a very close friend of mine

who loved Jack Kerouac and Lowell. This passage appeared in his first book.

 

If at night a man goes out to the woods surrounding Galloway, and stands on

a hill, he can see it all there before him in broad panorama: the river

coursing slowly in an arc, the mills with their long rows of windows all

aglow, the factory stacks rising higher than the church steeples. But he

knows that this is not the true Galloway. Something in the invisible

brooding landscape surrounding the town, something in the bright stars

nodding close to a hillside where the old cemetery sleeps, something in the

soft swishing treeleaves over the fields and stone walls tells him a

different story.

 

Jack Kerouac- The Town and the City

 

 

Here's one for you Jay, I'm going to miss you.

 

 

Ever see a tired

   ba by

Cryin to sleep

   in its mother's arms

Wailin all night long

   while the locamotive

Wails on back

A cry for a cry

In the smoke and the lamp

Of the hard ass night

 

That's how I

     fee-

           eel---

   That's how

            I fee---eel!

That's how

                 I feel---

What a deal!

Yes I'm goin ho

                o

                  ome

 

Jack Kerouac- Book of Blues-38th Chorus

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 21:08:02 -0700

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

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

From:         Levi Asher <brooklyn@NETCOM.COM>

Subject:      Re: Beat and Marriage

In-Reply-To:  <970525133225_453294080@emout12.mail.aol.com> from "Jerry Cimino"

              at May 25, 97 01:32:25 pm

 

Jerry Cimino wrote:

> My wife couldn't stand the beats either when we first got married.  I think

> it's got to do with that "he's gonna run off and sow his wild oats leaving me

> stuck at home alone" female thing.  Can't imagine why any woman would think

> that about people like Neal Cassady?

>

> Now she's involved in a business where she's talking beat everyday.  She

> really focused in on the women writers, Hettie Jones, Joyce Johnson, Diane

> DiPrima, Carolyn etc and it turned her around.  She especially enjoyed the

> new Women & the BG recently released.

 

Mine is coming around bit by bit too.  She really likes listening

to "Kicks Joy Darkness" (that new Rykodisk CD) for instance, whereas

I was lukewarm.  But that's just because Patti Smith is on it, I

think ...

 

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

           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)

 

          ###################################

 

          "Tie yourself to a tree with roots"

                    -- Bob Dylan

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

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 21:33:36 -0700

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

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

From:         Gerald Nicosia <gnicosia@EARTHLINK.NET>

Subject:      Re: Memory Babe Archive

 

At 06:08 PM 5/25/97 EDT, you wrote:

>Gerry, how many of the 300 people you interviewed do you still have addresses f

>or?  Why not write a form letter and try to get their permission to open their

>letters and tapes now?  Maybe all of us at Beat-l could help you contact people

> who are hard to find?  We maight not locate everyone but we sure could make a

>dent and open up a huge chunk of the archive.  Seems to me to be a better alter

>native than another law suit.

>

>

Bill,     May 25, 1997

 

        What you suggest is a lot easier said than done.  A large no. of the

people (after 20 years) are no longer where they were when I interviewed

them.  Of the 100 who are dead, I know the whereabouts of the heirs of only

a handful.

        Even with those that remain, if I get a letter to them, I can

guarantee you that 50% would not answer.  This is just standard with any

mailing.  A lot of people won't sign their name to anything, even if they

gave me an interview with full cooperation 20 years ago.

        What you must understand is that at any other library, these tapes

would be listenable to, as they are right now.

        There is also the matter that Lowell is refusing to duplicate the

tapes, to put them on fresh tape stock, and of course they won't digitalize

them.  So the tapes, if kept at Lowell, will be deteriorated too badly to

even listen to in another five to fifteen years (some tapes will last

longer, some are almost gone already).

        Then there is the matter of the 2,000 xeroxed Kerouac letters, which

also would be fully available at any other library.  Bancroft, Texas, etc.,

show Kerouac's letters every day to scholars without Sampas's permission,

despite his attempts at interference.

        And U Mass, Lowell, itself, made the MEMORY BABE archive fully

available to scholars till 1995, when Mr. Sampas brought his complaint to them.

        There is the further concern of materials disappearing every year

from the MEMORY BABE archive.

        In light of all that, I don't see that I have any choice but a lawsuit.

        If you have further thoughts, let me know.

        Best always, Gerry Nicosia

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 21:35:47 -0700

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

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

From:         Levi Asher <brooklyn@NETCOM.COM>

Subject:      Re: Lies, Money, and VIdeotape

In-Reply-To:  <Pine.PTX.3.91.970524203852.6190A-100000@odin.cc.pdx.edu> from

              "Steve Smith a.k.a. Whiskey Wordsmith" at May 24, 97 08:58:31 pm

 

Steve Smith wrote:

> levi and friends: "start going with the flow"???? bullshit. that's the

> rap weasels the world over use. it's a cop-out. it's the kind of thing

> that's said when people are sitting on the lawn, way far out there away

> from passion and the "real" world, if you will. there is no question that i

 

Hah, as if it were that easy to be away from passion and the real

world.  Show me the way to free myself of passion and the real world ...

That's why I do yoga -- if only I could succeed ...

 

> zero in on nicosia as the "bad" guy. levi, you say some very wise things

> a lot of the time--and you have a boffo web site--but quit the whining

> about nicosia.  if you hate the back and forth poison re: the estate

 

Thanks for the compliments, and okay, whatever.

 

> battle, why not get on anstee and chaput, too??? the couple of times i've

> read posts reZ: the estate thing, you've been on nicosia's case. perhaps

> i am being a bit simplistic here, but ....

 

Nicosia has an awesome reputation as a world-class scholar to uphold.

Obviously, I hold him to higher standards.  That's the way *I* show

my respect.  If I'm being too harsh, well, he said he was here to

answer questions, so I asked some!

 

> anything he wants. if we can think lisa rabey's rap on cocksucking is

> okay for the list, why whip out the cattleprods when nicosia et al go

> back and forth on the estate thing?

 

Cause it was funny!  Hey, if some of you were really enjoying this

battle, sorry for the interruption.  I didn't realize it was

such a thrilling match.  I remember an old line in a National

Lampoon article in the 70's, after David Bowie and Lou Reed were

photographed fist-fighting in a nightclub -- the writer of this

article claimed that he was there, and said that despite reports

of the fight being like Ali-vs.-Frazier, it was more like

watching "two old ladies patting out fires on each other's

bellies".  For whatever that image is worth ...

 

I'm outta here for the night ... happy Memorial Day

everybody.

 

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

           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)

 

          ###################################

 

          "Tie yourself to a tree with roots"

                    -- Bob Dylan

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

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 21:50:27 -0700

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

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

From:         Levi Asher <brooklyn@NETCOM.COM>

Subject:      Re: Who was that guy?

In-Reply-To:  <3385FBFD.B6F115E4@scsn.net> from "R. Bentz Kirby" at May 23,

              97 04:20:13 pm

 

Bentz wrote (a few days ago):

> Who was the guy who did a comic strip/book, Never Eat Anything Bigger

> Than Your Head?

 

B. Kliban.  Famous for drawing cartoons of cats.  Died a few years

ago.  Not sure if Beat or not, probably so.

 

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

           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)

 

          ###################################

 

          "Tie yourself to a tree with roots"

                    -- Bob Dylan

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

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 26 May 1997 00:51:22 -0400

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

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

From:         "R. Bentz Kirby" <bocelts@SCSN.NET>

Organization: Law Office of R. Bentz Kirby

Subject:      Re: Memory Babe Archive

 

Gerry:

 

If the letters etc of Jack's were mailed, wouldn't the person who

received the letters have control of them.  Even though I am a lawyer, I

am a little confused by all of this and would like to get it straight.

If the letters were mailed, and then given to you and then to the

library, it seems to me that Sampas would have nothing to say about any

of this at all.  And, does anyone out there know if and how letters are

covered by copyright.  What gets them out of the control of someone and

into the right of fair use.

 

Just curious.

 

Peace,

 

Gerald Nicosia wrote:

 

> At 06:08 PM 5/25/97 EDT, you wrote:

> >Gerry, how many of the 300 people you interviewed do you still have

> addresses f

> >or?  Why not write a form letter and try to get their permission to

> open their

> >letters and tapes now?  Maybe all of us at Beat-l could help you

> contact people

> > who are hard to find?  We maight not locate everyone but we sure

> could make a

> >dent and open up a huge chunk of the archive.  Seems to me to be a

> better alter

> >native than another law suit.

> >

> >

> Bill,     May 25, 1997

>

>         What you suggest is a lot easier said than done.  A large no.

> of the

> people (after 20 years) are no longer where they were when I

> interviewed

> them.  Of the 100 who are dead, I know the whereabouts of the heirs of

> only

> a handful.

>         Even with those that remain, if I get a letter to them, I can

> guarantee you that 50% would not answer.  This is just standard with

> any

> mailing.  A lot of people won't sign their name to anything, even if

> they

> gave me an interview with full cooperation 20 years ago.

>         What you must understand is that at any other library, these

> tapes

> would be listenable to, as they are right now.

>         There is also the matter that Lowell is refusing to duplicate

> the

> tapes, to put them on fresh tape stock, and of course they won't

> digitalize

> them.  So the tapes, if kept at Lowell, will be deteriorated too badly

> to

> even listen to in another five to fifteen years (some tapes will last

> longer, some are almost gone already).

>         Then there is the matter of the 2,000 xeroxed Kerouac letters,

> which

> also would be fully available at any other library.  Bancroft, Texas,

> etc.,

> show Kerouac's letters every day to scholars without Sampas's

> permission,

> despite his attempts at interference.

>         And U Mass, Lowell, itself, made the MEMORY BABE archive fully

>

> available to scholars till 1995, when Mr. Sampas brought his complaint

> to them.

>         There is the further concern of materials disappearing every

> year

> from the MEMORY BABE archive.

>         In light of all that, I don't see that I have any choice but a

> lawsuit.

>         If you have further thoughts, let me know.

>         Best always, Gerry Nicosia

 

 

 

--

Bentz

bocelts@scsn.net

 

http://www.scsn.net/users/sclaw

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 22:06:39 -0700

Reply-To:     david@cyberwarecom.com

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

From:         David McClusky <david@CYBERWARECOM.COM>

Organization: CyberWare Communications (http://www.cyberwarecom.com)

Subject:      Beat Generation

 

Hello everyone!

 

I am new to this group (and the Beat Generation) and I hope to get a

little more educated on the subject.

 

Right now, I am working on a school essay on the Beat Generation and the

counter-culture movement of the '50s.  Specifically, I am exploring the

following questions-- What were the specific causes of this movement?

How can "On the Road" be seen as a critique of 1950s American society?

Does this critique have any validity?

 

To anyone that can help with these questions-- thanks alot!

 

 

                        David McClusky

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 26 May 1997 01:14:31 -0400

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

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

From:         PAM <mapaul@PIPELINE.COM>

Subject:      Jay Pendergast

 

Jay was a historian in every way. Jay was a reader of Joyce. Jay was a

drinking buddy of Jack's. Jay supported and enthused my idea of a "Kerouac

Quarterly." I remember sitting with Jay sipping a beautiful blend of whiskey

as we discussed literature and art as the fires burned in his warm, cozy

house and the Merrimac River seeping in December in his backyard bobbing

with mallards. Jay told me that Kerouac had him play "Moon River about

thirty times" at Nicky's on the jukebox. Jay was the embodiment of what I

emulate to be...a reader, learner, writer, educator, and sincere friend. I

will miss him tremendously. On Friday...May 23rd he was happy that my first

issue of the Kerouac Quarterly was successful and that he wanted to

contribute more. He has contributed in more ways than one. His spirit, his

vigor, his sincere interest in what I was doing saw me through the

completion of my first publication.....your friend and fellow Lowellian,

Paul....

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 21:13:29 -0700

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

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

From:         Gerald Nicosia <gnicosia@EARTHLINK.NET>

Subject:      Re: Tony's Story and Gerry's

 

                                                                May 25, 1997

Antoine Maloney writes:

 

        "I can only imagine the kind of stories your Dad had to tell.  Did

he ever talk about whether his Italianess (word?) was recognized and what

kinds of reactions he got? ...Was all your father's traveling on the road or

did he ride the rails as well?  Was he going to California to work or just

to go?"

 

Dear Antoine:

 

        My father left Chicago at age 17 because he wanted to be like Jack

London.  He mostly hitchhiked, rode the rails only a little, mostly because

he didn't like the danger of it (Kerouac was afraid of train wheels too,

you'll recall), and later took a tramp steamer from San Francisco to Los

Angeles--after cutting up to Spokane, Washington, to pick apples, where he

hung out with Sad Slim Smith who owned Sad Slim Smith's Super Service

Station, Spokane (true story).

        Ironically, he made this trip with his fast-talking, womanizing

buddy (sound familiar?), another Italian from Chicago named Steve Ferrara.

        Eventually the magnet of home pulled him back to Illinois, and he

returned to his widowed mother (sound even more familiar?).

        As for his being and speaking Italian, it served him well in North

Beach, San Francisco, which in 1927 was just an Italian fishermen's village

at the northern tip of San Francisco.  It gives me great satisfaction to

think of my dad, a young man of 17, walking Grant Avenue in North Beach 20

years before Kerouac got there.  Of course in those days there were no Beat

coffeehouses, no "finger-poppin' daddies" (a la Lord Buckley), just real

Italian bars and cafes and spaghetti houses.

        He left me a couple of photo albums filled with snapshots from those

days in San Francisco, North Beach, the Barbary coast, and the sand dunes of

the Sunset District, where he and his friend boarded in the house of a widow

named Mrs. Miller.

        My favorite story of his from those times was how, when he first got

to San Francisco, he was almost broke and desperately needed work.  He

applied for a busboy job at the States Cafe, a very popular restaurant

downtown.  It had 48 booths, each one named for a state of the union.  He

had pulled his old trick from Chicago, of tearing up the "Help Wanted" sign

before going inside, but they told him that he could only work there if he

owned an all-white busboy's uniform.  Knowing he couldn't afford to buy one,

he was about to leave down-hearted, when a little Chinese guy, about my

dad's height and weight, walked up and made him an offer.

        The Chinese guy said he an extra busboy's uniform.  It was dirty

now, but if my dad would have it cleaned and starched, he could wear it till

he earned enough money to buy his own.

        And that was how my dad got his first job in San Francisco.  They

paid him thirty silver dollars a month, and at the end of the month he

bought his own uniform and returned the Chinese guy's uniform cleaned and

starched.  And they remained good friends for the rest of his stay in San

Francisco.

        All of which has touched me in a special way, since in 1995, long

after my dad's death, I went to An Hui Province in China to adopt an orphan

girl named Wu Ji.  Considering the strange karmic connections in this world,

I sometimes wonder if maybe Wu Ji is a distant relative of that Chinese

busboy who helped my dad.

        By the way, you always end with a quote from Utah Phillips.  He's a

buddy of mine (he performed at the big benefit concert for Jan Kerouac in

1995), and we both had the same mentor: a one-armed Spanish Civil War

veteran from Chicago named Eddy Balchowsky, who played the meanest one-armed

piano you've ever heard.   Utah wrote a great song about him, after hearing

Eddy play Beethoven's MOONLIGHT SONATA one-handed.  The song starts: "One

Hand on the Keyboard, and Moonlight Fills the Room...."

        All for now.  Best always, Gerry Nicosia

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 22:19:56 -0700

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

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

From:         Gerald Nicosia <gnicosia@EARTHLINK.NET>

Subject:      Re: a calm request

 

..., it has nothing to do with

>his archieves, its a damn pissing contest/whose got the bigger balls and

>the rest of the nonsense. Its pure bullshit. Get off your ego trip and

>realize  THAT truth.

>

>

>Lisa M. Rabey

>Internet and Computer Consultant

>San Francisco, California

>http://the.art.of.sekurity.org/simunye

>**************************************

>General man-hating bitchy "i know more than you" chick.

>

Dear Lisa,     May 25, 1997

 

        I am here on the Beat-List only because of the need to preserve Jack

Kerouac's archives.  It has turned into a pissing contest because that is

what Mr. Chaput and Mr. Anstee wanted it to become.  They have effectively

killed the discussion of what Sampas is doing with the archives and why, if

he really intends to put them into a library, he has not signed even a

statement of intention in 6 years.  They don't want me talking about things

like that, so they call me names and accuse me of various crimes, and then I

answer them back, etc. etc.

        Well here's my deal, Lisa, I'll just quite answering their bullshit

charges, and just keep posting the truth as I see it.  Maybe some day

someone from "the other side" will appear to argue this thing out

rationally, and give us some hard facts about what Mr. Sampas is doing and

plans to do--rather than just calling me names and saying what a bad person

I am.

        By the way, Paul Maher's list from the NY Public Library shows that

they do not own all the versions of even one Kerouac book (published or

unpublished).  A scholar who analyzes a work needs everything from the first

notes thru first second and third drafts, and then the galleys.  Kerouac

typed several versions of every published book.  The NY Public has acquired

only early notebook drafts of some individual books, and they have not even

one complete version of Kerouac's seven most important books: ON THE ROAD,

THE DHARMA BUMS, DR. SAX, VISIONS OF GERARD, VISIONS OF CODY, VANITY OF

DULUOZ, and DESOLATION ANGELS.

        This is what we should be talking about.

        Best, Gerry Nicosia

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 25 May 1997 22:24:56 -0700

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

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

From:         Gerald Nicosia <gnicosia@EARTHLINK.NET>

Subject:      Re: a calm request

 

Dear Lisa,    May 25, 1997

 

        Excuse me, make that EIGHT of KEROUAC'S MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS that

the New York Public Library has NOT EVEN ONE COMPLETE DRAFT OF:

        I forgot to add: they don't have a scrap of THE SUBTERRANEANS either.

        Best, Gerry Nicosia

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 26 May 1997 05:50:03 -0400

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

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

From:         Marie Countryman <country@SOVER.NET>

Subject:      meesters chaput & nicosia

In-Reply-To:  <199705260413.VAA25745@norway.it.earthlink.net>

 

really appreciated yr memories shared. .

mc

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 26 May 1997 12:02:46 +0200

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

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

From:         Rinaldo Rasa <rinaldo@GPNET.IT>

Subject:      Frank O'Hara, a poetry.

In-Reply-To:  <Pine.SUN.3.96.970525141314.617A-100000@alfred.uib.no>

 

        "Why I Am Not A Painter"        by Frank O'Hara

 

        I am not a painter, I am a poet.

        Why? I think I would rather be

        a painter, but I am not. Well,

 

        for instance, Mike Goldberg

        is starting a painting. i drop

                in

        "Sit down and have a ddrink" he

        says. I drink; we drink. I look

        up. "You have SARDINES in it"

        "Yes, it needed sometime there"

        "Oh." I go and days go by

        and I drop in again. The painting

        is going on, and I go, and the

                days

        go by, I drop in. The painting is

        finished. "Where's SARDINES?"

        All that's left is just

        letters, "It was too much", Mike says.

 

        But me? One day I am thinking of

        a color: orange. I write a line

        about orange. Pretty soon it is a

        whole page of words, not lines.

        Then another page. There should

                be

        so much more, not of orange, of

        words, of how terrible orange is

        and life. Days go by. It is even

                in

        prose, I am a real poet. My poem

        is finished and I haven't

                mentioned

        orange yet. It's twelve poems, I

                call

        it ORANGES. And one day in a

                gallery

        I see Mike's painting, called

        SARDINES.

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 26 May 1997 05:33:57 -0500

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

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

From:         RACE --- <race@MIDUSA.NET>

Subject:      Re: Beat and Marriage

 

Levi Asher wrote:

>

> Jerry Cimino wrote:

> > My wife couldn't stand the beats either when we first got married.  I think

> > it's got to do with that "he's gonna run off and sow his wild oats leaving

 me

> > stuck at home alone" female thing.  Can't imagine why any woman would think

> > that about people like Neal Cassady?

> >

> > Now she's involved in a business where she's talking beat everyday.  She

> > really focused in on the women writers, Hettie Jones, Joyce Johnson, Diane

> > DiPrima, Carolyn etc and it turned her around.  She especially enjoyed the

> > new Women & the BG recently released.

>

> Mine is coming around bit by bit too.  She really likes listening

> to "Kicks Joy Darkness" (that new Rykodisk CD) for instance, whereas

> I was lukewarm.  But that's just because Patti Smith is on it, I

> think ...

>

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

>            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)

>

>           ###################################

>

>           "Tie yourself to a tree with roots"

>                     -- Bob Dylan

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

 

Is Star Treak Beat?

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 26 May 1997 05:37:55 -0500

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

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

From:         RACE --- <race@MIDUSA.NET>

Subject:      Re: Lies, Money, and VIdeotape

 

Levi Asher wrote:

>

> Steve Smith wrote:

> > levi and friends: "start going with the flow"???? bullshit. that's the

> > rap weasels the world over use. it's a cop-out. it's the kind of thing

> > that's said when people are sitting on the lawn, way far out there away

> > from passion and the "real" world, if you will. there is no question that i

>

> Hah, as if it were that easy to be away from passion and the real

> world.  Show me the way to free myself of passion and the real world ...

> That's why I do yoga -- if only I could succeed ...

>

 

Moving to Kansas is a decent attempt too!

 

Hope everyone Remembers the right things on Memorial Day.

 

david rhaesa

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 26 May 1997 06:49:22 -0400

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

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

From:         BeatRyder@AOL.COM

Subject:      Re: Lowell author-Jay Pendergast

 

In a message dated 97-05-26 00:01:30 EDT, you write:

 

> May 25,1997

>  Lowell author and friend of Jack Kerouac, Jay Pendergast died unexpectedly

>  this afternoon. Jay had just written a story about Jack in Paul Maher's

>  premiere issue of the "Kerouac Quarterly" his painting that Jack had given

>  him personally what I called "Beatnik Jesus" was on the cover. He was an

>  educator that taught English, Irish and American Literature as well as

>  History, Writing and Anthropology courses.

 

This is truly sad news, I took Jay's Speech Course last summer, and it had to

be one

of my best classes of all time.  We would listen Jay for whole class

sessions, telling

us about his time in Ireland, doing archaeological digs in the Merrimack

area, the

many famous people he has encountered in his amazing life - I remember

wanting to

rush out into my backyard and dig for bones!  He was one of the most

fascinating

people i've ever met.  Probably the greatest storyteller.  I'll always

remember, as long

as I live, how he encouraged me to write - enthusiastically explaining how

great it is,

just to write a book and have it published, and see people paying money to

read your

words - getting those small checks from the publisher, etc.  In fact, I

bought Jay's

book, "The Bend in the River" as a gift for my dad for father's day.   Jay

was truly an amazing man, and I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to

know him.

 

Jeff

 



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