beat list 1997

>to find anything in life positive enough to live for. And his sorrow

>and

>despair about the nature of human life was ingrained in his mind before

>On the Road was even published or he had any kind of popularity at all.

>Fame was at most an inconvenience, his attitudes about life were formed

>early on.

i think his "life is suffering" doctrine also was compounded by

his hopeful, romantic spirit, and the notion that his books would

awaken so many people to the wonders of beatitude, and on the whole

they didn't; or, they did, but not in the manner he expected. as a

boddhisatva he suffered terribly at how others suffered, and it

compounded his own misery. as he wrote, he even cries at bugs

upsdie-down in the street.

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 15:27:05 -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: Tyson Ouellette <Tyson_Ouellette@UMIT.MAINE.EDU>

Organization: University of Maine

Subject: Re: Kerouac in advertisement

MIME-Version: 1.0

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>> has a picture of the GAP ad with Kerouac

gap's using kerouac!!!!!! goddamnit, that's freaking blasphemy!

are they required to get permission from someone to use his image for

advertising purposes? and, if so, would that person be who I'm

thinking of. i dunno, maybe it's just my aversion to the gap

psychology.

i do, on the other hand, love the levis commercials they've been

running, the ones that all fit in sequence in a kind of tarantino-ish

order. there's one where the ice cream truck dud makes the kids answer

questions before they get their pops, like "Who's Jack Kerouac?" and

the kids whines "On the Road" and then he asks the next kid "Who's

Birdland named after?" and the kid whines "Cha-lie Pah-Ka" then the

guy asks if he was an alto or a tenor.... it's really great.

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 15:23:16 -0500

Reply-To: blackj@bigmagic.com

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

From: Al Aronowitz <blackj@BIGMAGIC.COM>

Subject: Re: ALLEN GINSBERG MEMORIAL IN CENTRAL PARK 7/3/98

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ANNE ELIZABETH SNEDDON wrote:

> Okay....I've been waiting to see which direction this thread is taking,

> but I think now is the time to get in on this. Since about 1989 or so,

> I've been obcessed with Postwar culture (call it Postwar Cool, call it

> Vintage, just don't call it Retro--I hate that word!! It's like "beatnik")

> which has sort of snowballed. It started with the Beat Generation, which

> got me interested in other 50's youth subcultures. This logically led me

> to Rockabilly, and the rest is history. I don't know how it happened, but

> there's something about this music that just makes sense. It moves you in

> ways that Nirvana just can't. Listen to "Love Me" by the Phantom and

> you'll see what I mean.

> I thrift-shop for our clothing, my husband and I drive a 1953 Chevy, we

> collect furniture from the 40's and 50's (some early 60's stuff...). It

> wasn't really planned and it's not a "prerequisite to be Rockabilly"--HA!!

> It's just that Heywood-Wakefield furniture is so much cooler and well-made

> compared to that chrome and lucite crap in the stores nowadays. Our car

> will last a thousand years if we take care of it, unlike some of those

> tennis-shoe shaped modern atrocities. When I wear an outfit to a show, I

> can be sure that I won't run into ten other women wearing the same thing

> because I bought it at the mall. And if we didn't buy this stuff, it would

> probably be in a landfill somewhere. IMHO, the 90's are completely void of

> soul. Is it any wonder that some people should look to the past for

> inspiration? Granted, my life is somewhat of an extreme example, but what

> can I say?? Thrift shopping and garage sales are addicting. Real Rock and

> Roll is addicting. Most of what popular American culture today has to

> offer couldn't get me up with a cannon and a drum.

> Anne Sneddon

> Now playing: "Pinball Millionaire" by Ray Campi

> On Tue, 18 Nov 1997, Nancy B Brodsky wrote:

> > Actually, I thought it was "The 90's are the 60's, upside down"

> >

> > On Tue, 18 Nov 1997, Timothy K. Gallaher wrote:

> >

> > > At 11:07 AM 11/18/97 MST/MDT, you wrote:

> > > >Date sent: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 08:37:45 -0500

> > > >Send reply to: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

> > > >From: "Hemenway . Mark" <MHemenway@DRC.COM>

> > > >Subject: Beat Fad

> > > >To: BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

> > > >

> > > >It's my theory that the 90's are a lot like the 50's- conservative,

> > > >security oriented, corporate, big government knows best- hence the

> > > >resonance beat literature is generating. It follows that the first

> > > >decade of the new millenium will be like the 60's all over again (only

> > > >more so this time). Anyone else thinking this way?

> > > >

> > > >Mark Hemenway

> > > >

> > > >absolutely: its inevitable:j.

> > > >

> > >

> > > Actually this is what they said in the 80's. They said the 90's would be

> > > like the 60's.

> > >

> > > Remember that movie Flashback with Dennis Hopper and Kiefer Suthurland?

> > > That was the catch phrase, something like: the 90's are going to make the

> > > 60's look like the 50's.

> > >

> > > To me it's all hype and advertising all round.

> > >

> > > "life is pretty cheap/it's sold a decade at a time" --Flipper (remember

> them?)

> > >

> >

> > The Absence of Sound, Clear and Pure, The Silence Now Heard In Heaven For

> > Sure-JK

> >

Just wanna let everyone know that the NYC Parks Department has just

confirmed our ALLEN GINSBERG MEMORIAL in Central Park on June 3, 1998,

Allen's 72d birthday. Following is a copy of the recruitment letter we

have been sending out to those recommended (by those who are already

members) for membership in the ALLEN GINSBERG MEMORIAL COMMITTEE. Big

plans are in the works for a global convocation of contemporaneity's

"Best Minds." --Al Aronowitz, secretary, THE ALLEN GINSBERG MEMORIAL

COMMITTEE.

On the drive to Allen Ginsberg's funeral, poet/activist Amiri Baraka

kept bemoaning the probability that the services were going to take

place in a Buddhist meditation room too small to hold all those who

wanted to attend.

"But Allen's secretary [Bob Rosenthal] told me the funeral is going to

be private," I commented.

"You'll see," Amiri said.

In the Buddhist meditation room, some were sitting in chairs, some were

sitting on the floor, some were sitting on radiators. The room was

jam-packed. To watch the proceedings, some were forced to crowd into

the room's doorway, blocking it. Some tried to hear what was going on

from the adjoining room. Some were in the corridor. Some were on the

sidewalk below.

Nor was St. Mark's Church accommodating enough to hold the crowd trying

to attend the Poetry Project's Memorial for Allen a week later. Nor did

the Veteran Wadsworth Theater provide room enough for all those who

wanted to attend the memorial for Allen in Los Angeles a few weeks

afterwards. There were memorials for Allen all around the country,

including Brooklyn, and my understanding is that the preponderance of

these memorials were in venues not large enough to accommodate all those

who wanted to attend. In fact, more memorials for Allen are planned

throughout the globe. A giant of our times has died and not all those

who wish to honor his memory have been given the opportunity to do so.

Which is one reason why Amiri and I, both of whom had known Allen for

some 40 years, decided to form an ad hoc organization known as THE ALLEN

GINSBERG MEMORIAL COMMITTEE, enlisting the best minds of our times to

form a world-wide alliance of poets, writers, painters, musicians,

actors, photographers, filmmakers, educators and others prominent in the

intellectual community, the arts and allied fields. Plus a lot of

people who just knew Allen or who felt any kind of kinship with

him. The purpose of this committee is to honor the late Allen with a

memorial befitting such a giant: a gigantic International tribute

to be held in Central Park, a venue which ought to be large enough to

accommodate everyone who wants to be there. Amiri, a New Jersey native

like Allen and like me, is also planning a second tribute in his home

town of Newark. It is our intention that both these tributes represent

a gathering of some of the best minds of our times.

The membership of our committee keeps snowballing, with more names being

added every day from all parts of the world. So far, the membership

includes such notables as Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic;

actors Johnny Depp, Peter Coyote and Dennis Hopper; playwright Sam

Shepard; musicians David Amram, Pete Seeger, Kinky Friedman and Country

Joe McDonald; authors Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins, George

Plimpton, Ken Kesey, Dr. Maya Angelou, Hunter Thompson and E.L.

Doctorow; photographer Robert Frank; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

songwriter Gerry Goffin; legendary music producers Ahmet Ertegun and

Jerry Wexler and on and on, plus Andrei Voznesensky, Lawrence

Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure amd former U. S. Poet laureate Rita F.

Dove heading a list of poets from around the globe.

And we keep seeking others to join our committee. It is our hope that

our snowballing membership will turn into a movement in support of

Allen's worthiest causes and he championed many. Who was it who said

that poets are the legislators of humankind? Really, Allen was out to

save the world. Isn't that a good cause? His foremost message? The

Devil is threatening our planet! It's as if a meteor is hurtling toward

us and is about to impact on us all. The Devil? The Devil lives in all

of us, deep in our hearts. The Devil has another name. The Devil is

also called Greed. Blinded by this Devil, we keep raping the earth,

ensuring that the earth inevitably will be rendered uninhabitable and

our species will become extinct. Are we no more intelligent than the

dinosaurs?

As everybody knows, we can never beat the Devil but we MUST keep the

Devil at bay. We'd like this movement to fight the Devil and we

encourage more memorial committees to stage tributes to Allen all around

the world.

But that was only one of the messages which ennobled Allen as one of the

world's great messengers. And in his role as one of the world's great

messengers, Allen's greatest tool was "the word." "The word," in fact,

is the basic tool of all the best minds of our times who will be on both

sides of the stage at our international Central Park tribute.

Consequently, we thought it only fitting that we should look to the

word-processing industry to sponsor and underwrite the costs of the

event. After all, where would we be without the word-processing

industry and where would the word-processing industry be without us?

On behalf of the committee, I wrote a preliminary letter to feel out

Microsoft's William Gates, saying "We lack one important ingredient:

funding. We will need a stage, sound amplification, lighting and a

crew. Also, I imagine that the New York City Parks Department will

require insurance and police. In addition, we will have to pay for

airline tickets and hotel rooms for those who we feel must appear at the

event but who are unable to pay their own expenses. Plus, I'd like to

be reimbursed for the few hundred dollars I've already spent out of my

own pocket for postage, telephone and other necessities incident to

organizing the committee."

No dice, came the reply in a form letter from one of Mr. Gates'

spear-carriers. But then there are other CEOs in the word-processing

industry who might be more sensitive to the wishes of that industry's

clientele. We might also bombard Mr. Gates and the word-processing

industry with a letter-writing campaign. We will also consider any

other corporate sponsors who might wish to underwrite our Central Park

tribute. Perhaps even the tobacco industry. Allen would enjoy that.

Our original intention was to hold the Central Park event in late August

of 1997 but when New York City Parks and Recreation Commissioner Henry

Stern ignored first one letter and then a second and then a third and

then a fourth and then a fifth, we had to keep postponing our target

date until the warm months of 1998, by which time we hope to have

persuaded Parks Commissioner Stern to take us seriously. By then also,

Mr. Gates might be persuaded to have second thoughts. A good date for

the event might be June 3, Allen's 72nd birthday, which we can celebrate

in his absence.

So far, the membership of THE ALLEN GINSBERG MEMORIAL COMMITTEE consists

of upwards of 125 names, including the following:

Amiri Baraka, Chairman

Eugene Brooks, Honorary Member

Connie Brooks, Honorary Member

Ann Brooks, Honorary Member

Edith Ginsberg, Honorary Member

David Amram, Robert Frank, Michael McClure, George Plimpton, Aram

Saroyan, Charlie Rothchild, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Amina Baraka, Jim

Ragan, Alfred Leslie, Ed Adler, Robert Creeley, Anne Waldman, Gary

Snyder, Yoko Ono, Ed Sanders, Ann Charters, Robert Viscusi, Bob Fass,

Eric Drooker, Tuli Kupferberg, Larry Sloman, St. Clair Bourne, Kinky

Friedman, John Tytell, Chris Felver, Joseph Grant, John Perry Barlow,

Andrei Voznesensky, Richard Cammarieri, Jonathan Lim, Fred McDarrah,

Kurt Vonnegut, Rosebud Pettet, John Zacherle, Barry Feinstein, David

Stanford, Levi Asher, Lillian Davis, Pete Hamill, David Greenberg, Danny

Schechter, Robert A. Sobieszek, Gerry Goffin, Barney Rosset, Hettie

Jones, Jerry Wexler, Jerome Rothenberg, Danny Shot, Arnold Weinstein,

Janine Vega, Robert Lavigne, Joel Dorn, Bill Gargan, Jimmy Lyons, Quincy

Troupe, Charley Plymell, Pamela Beach Plymell, Ed Dorn, Ellis Paul,

Brigid Murnaghan, Hiro Yamagata, Kevin Moore, George Reed, Latif

(William) Harris, Dennis Hopper, Johnny Depp, Joyce Johnson, Brett

Aronowitz Luke, Ray Bremser, Brenda (Bonnie Bremser) Fraser, Jules

Feiffer, Leonard Cohen, Oscar Janiger, Kathleen Delaney Janiger, Paul

Krassner, Arthur Perley. Attila Gyenis, Morris Dickstein, Taylor Mead,

Diane DiPrima, John Sampas, Gerald Nicosia, Steve Cannon, John Sinclair,

Ted Joans, Art D'Lugoff, Ahmet Ertegun, Fernando Rendon, Gloria Cavatal,

Marcus Williamson, Kenneth Koch, Birgitta Jonsdottir, Hayes Greenfield,

Merilene Murphy, Peter Hale, Pavel Grushko, Kirill P. Grushko, Toni

Morrison, John Ashbery, Sam Shepard, Michael Dean Odin Pollock, Mary

Rudge, Gozo Yoshimasu, Ken Kesey, Ken Babbs, Jonas Mekas, Peter Coyote,

Ide Hintze, George Krevsky, Dennis Gould, Bernard Kops, Irving

Rosenthal, Paul Nelson, George Aguilar, Krishna Fells, Lucas Gutierrez,

Andrew Matovich, Heather Haley, Jean Portante, E. Ethelbert Miller,

Andrea Thompson, Ken Sherman, Dave and Ana Christy, Barbara Read,

Theodore Wilentz, David Gascoyne, Regina Weinrich, Kevin Ring, Robin

Blaser, Carl Hanni, Ron Whitehead, Pi-Oh, Philip Salom, Dr. Maya

Angelou, Sharon Levy, Kathy Acker, Gordon Ball, Bob Holman, Bill

Berkson, Philip Whalen, Michael Scammell, Karen Kennerly, Charles Potts,

Scott Preston, Barry Gifford, Galway Kinnell, Robert Peters, Larry

Fagin, Robert Bove, Theo Dorgan, John Reeves, Vincent Farnsworth, Gloria

Frym, Gary David, Rita Dove, Larry Winfield, Natalie Goldberg, Steve

Sanfield, Douglas Brinkley, Vaclav Havel, Aaron Yamaguchi, Eithne

Strong, Joe McDonald, Kurt Heintz, Natalie Goldberg, Robert Lax, Andrei

Codrescu, Lee Ranaldo, Pete Seeger, Hunter Thompson, Clark Coolidge,

Jack Micheline, Joe Napora, Tom Robbins, David Hershkovits, John Brandi,

Barry Miles, Jonathan Williams, E.L. Doctorow.

Still awaiting positive responses from the following, all of whom have

been contacted:

Bob Dylan, John Eastman, Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Neil Aspinall,

Ron Delsener, George Harrison, John Wieners, Ishmael Reed, Bruce

Springsteen, Lew Lapham, Howard Stern, Don Imus, Tom Friedman, Frank

Rich, Sally Grossman, Liz Smith, Richard Goldstein, Joanne Kyger, Sara

Dylan, Richie Havens, Joel Siegal, Andrew Wylie, Ted Koppel, Cecil

Taylor, Scott Muni, Sterling Lord, Brian Hamill, Miguel Agarin, Brice

Marden, Jack Newfield, Henry Stern, Carolyn Cassady, Norman Mailer, Lisa

Phillips, Richard Gere, James Grauerholz, Jim Dickson, Ornette Coleman,

George Soros, Lita Hornick, Felipe Feliciano, Don Allen, Lew Welch,

Daisy Aldan, Barbara Guest, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ntozake Shange, Larry

Rivers, Archie Shepp, Odetta Gordon, Jaap Blonk, Michael Horovitz,

Miriam Patchen, Grace Paley, Peter Orlovsky, Howard Hart, Patti Smith,

Ani Di Franco, Megas, Dirk Gortler, Bill Morgan, Bono, Rand Ragusa, Lou

Reed, George Herms, Jack Hirschman, Alan Kaufman, Duncan McNaughton,

Holiness Dalai Lama, Jim Carroll, Michael Stipe, Lenny Kaye, Seamus

Heaney, Cathal O'Searcaigh, Peter Sirr, John Giorno, John Updike, Maggie

Estep, Thom Gunn, Annie Liebowitz, Beverly Smith, James Laughlin, Robert

Hunter, Brother Patrick Hart, Ron Seitz. Christopher Underwood, Jan

Pinkow, Marco Cassini, Hersch Silverman, Jordan Green, Michael Andre,

Reetika Vazirani, Ann Hollander, Ann Douglas, Valery Oisteanu, Matthew

Smith, Jerry Poynton, Jack Hirschman, Ron Padgett, Ellen Gilchrist,

Lionel Ziprin, Gelek Rintoche, Jan Pinkow, Steve Ben Israel, Robert

Pinsky, Nanao Sakaki, Carol Merrill.

Still to be contacted:

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Jose Angel Figueroa, Sarah Wright, Marion Brown,

John Giorno, Gil Sorentino, Hubert Selby, Mrs. Bob Kaufman, Michael

Horovitz, Esteban Moore, Gonzalo Rojas, Ersi Sotiropoulou, Haroldo de

Campos, Tony Harrison, Mazisi Kunene, Lauri Anderson, Rickie Lee Jones,

Tom Waits, Joe Strummer, J. D. Salinger.

If you can provide addresses for any of the above or think of anyone

else who should be contacted, please let me know. And if you have any

Email addresses you think I could use, please let me know that, too.

We wish to invite you to join our committee. We seek to honor Allen

with all the recognition he strove so hard to gain for himself. Allen

had started out with the goal of altering America's consciousness and he

not only achieved that goal but he also left his mark on the

consciousness of the entire world. He was truly one of America's

heroes. In soliciting your membership in this committee, Amiri and I

want to make it clear that your membership does not require your

appearance at or participation in this event. What we ask is simply the

prestige of your name. Whether or not you appear at this tribute is

entirely up to you.

All the above-listed members have received a printout of my BLACKLISTED

JOURNALIST Column 21, which reports the details of Allen's death and

which also begins a serialization of THE BEAT PAPERS OF AL ARONOWITZ,

based on my original Beat Generation series published in 1960 in the New

York Post, almost 40 years ago. Or else those plugged into the Internet

have been directed to my website [ http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj

], where they might find THE BEAT PAPERS OF AL ARONOWITZ, an expansion

of the New York Post series which still remains unpublished. Column 21,

available at http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj/column21.html ,

includes an introduction concerning Allen's death and also includes

Chapter One of THE BEAT PAPERS, "BEAT," explaining the origins of the

use of "beat." Chapter Two, "ST. JACK," [

http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj/column22.html] features an

interview with Jack Kerouac which Jack annotated himself. Jack also

annotated an interview with Neal Cassady in San Quentin Prison, which

comprises Chapter Three [

http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj/column23.html ] Chapter Four, A

Certain Party, tells about the very first "Beat" party I attended in

the apartment of Joyce Johnson, who was then Joyce Glassman [

http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj/column24.html ]. If you would like

printouts, please let me know.

Best,

Al Aronowitz

1380 North Ave. #201

Elizabeth, NJ 07208

(908) 289 8776

blackj@bigmagic.com

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

Al Aronowitz THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST

http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 13:44:19 -0700

Reply-To: saras@sisna.com

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

From: Sara Straw <saras@SISNA.COM>

Organization: SaraGRAPHICS

Subject: Re: Beat Fad

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hey, you're into 50's and 60's memorabilia, that's GREAT. But don't say

the 90's don't have any soul... it just doesn't happen to be the *soul*

you are into collecting.

Yours truly,

the Rural Recluse

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 13:18:38 -0800

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

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

From: ANNE ELIZABETH SNEDDON <sneddon@NEVADA.EDU>

Subject: 90's Soul (was Re: Beat Fad)

Comments: To: Sara Straw <saras@sisna.com>

In-Reply-To: <3471FE23.6A4A@sisna.com>

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

That may be my warped Las Vegas perspective on the world. I am surrounded

by people who think of their cell phones and beepers as status symbols. I

think I heard somewhere that we lead the country in breast implant

surgeries, which means that the amount of plastic in some Vegas women

rivals the amount of plastic in their wallets. Our "founding fathers" are

knocking down all the original casinos to build their version of

Disneyland, and knocking down anything old to build strip malls. The

Forum Shops at Caesar's palace (with Versace, Armani boutiques etc..) is a

popular teen hangout. I'm quite sure that there is *spirituality* in this

world, but from where I'm sitting, there is no "soul."

Anne Sneddon

On Tue, 18 Nov 1997, Sara Straw wrote:

> Hey, you're into 50's and 60's memorabilia, that's GREAT. But don't say

> the 90's don't have any soul... it just doesn't happen to be the *soul*

> you are into collecting.

> Yours truly,

> the Rural Recluse

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 22:17:09 +0100

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: Aquila poems

In-Reply-To: <199711182005.PAA06764@pike.sover.net>

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The Dark Elves

We walk on trails of darkness-

Exploring the hidden corners of the mind-

We dance among the neurons-

Playing tag with fleeting memories-

We dwell in the mind-

Creating dreams and nightmares-

We gaurd the dark secrets-

Those that you hide from yourself-

Those you will not let yourself come to know-

Those that you will not let yourself see-

Those that terrify you-

Terrify you because they are the truth-

We are deep secrets-

We are forgotten memories-

We are lost dreams-

And we are with you always-

Lurking, hiding always from your concious-

Dwelling only in the shadows-

Deep in the sub-concious-

http://www.rain.org/aqpoem.html

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 14:27:45 MST/MDT

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

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

From: "j." <NIEL1000@BADGER.SNOW.EDU>

Subject: Re: Beat Fad

Date sent: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 10:28:28 -0800

Send reply to: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

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

Subject: Re: Beat Fad

To: BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

At 11:07 AM 11/18/97 MST/MDT, you wrote:

>Date sent: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 08:37:45 -0500

>Send reply to: "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

>From: "Hemenway . Mark" <MHemenway@DRC.COM>

>Subject: Beat Fad

>To: BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

a lot of this is due to capitalism: exploitation of previous

generations repackaged and sold to todays youth: old values in a new

box i suppose: but history as well as fashion and music repeats

itself: but the nineties seem to be a conglomeration of the past 30

years: there isnt much intellect circulating out there: this beat-l

thing is sweet for its esthetic qualities(which i hate to speak of):

i see more resurge of the 1960s and 1970s with more responsibilty

tagged on in todays generation than i do of the 50s and the beats: my

peers are all making statements but they dont know why: feeding

the american monster i guess: the beats

knew what was up: the hippies just wanted an excuse for drug use and

promiscuous sex: and the 70's: sheesh:

anyway: j.

>It's my theory that the 90's are a lot like the 50's- conservative,

>security oriented, corporate, big government knows best- hence the

>resonance beat literature is generating. It follows that the first

>decade of the new millenium will be like the 60's all over again (only

>more so this time). Anyone else thinking this way?

>Mark Hemenway

>absolutely: its inevitable:j.

Actually this is what they said in the 80's. They said the 90's would be

like the 60's.

Remember that movie Flashback with Dennis Hopper and Kiefer Suthurland?

That was the catch phrase, something like: the 90's are going to make the

60's look like the 50's.

To me it's all hype and advertising all round.

"life is pretty cheap/it's sold a decade at a time" --Flipper (remember them?)

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

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 22:19:32 UT

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

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

From: Sherri <love_singing@CLASSIC.MSN.COM>

Subject: Re: Ode to Crazy Bull Caffe' in Piazzale Candiani

Bravissimo Rinaldo!! mille grazie per la sua poesia!

arrivaderla, sherri

----------

From: BEAT-L: Beat Generation List on behalf of Rinaldo Rasa

Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 1997 11:04 AM

To: BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

Subject: Ode to Crazy Bull Caffe' in Piazzale Candiani

marie wrote:

>a toast to jack

>may our livers meet safe in heaven

>mc

it's windy

(early in the morning)

it's sunny

(in the morning)

people didn't like

being called for free

(before midday)

dear Sir! DEAR SIR!

sorry

for the disturbance!

hoax

blots

HOAX 99% OF THE TIME,

now

(in the evening)

dear Lord! sorry SORRY!

we are A BUNCH OF boxers

and of course god,

yep GOD,

god is a punch-drunk boxer.

---

Rinaldo

18th nov 1997

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Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 16:38:11 -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: Mike Rice <mrice@CENTURYINTER.NET>

Subject: Re: 90's Soul (was Re: Beat Fad)

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At 01:18 PM 11/18/97 -0800, you wrote:

>That may be my warped Las Vegas perspective on the world. I am surrounded

>by people who think of their cell phones and beepers as status symbols. I

>think I heard somewhere that we lead the country in breast implant

>surgeries, which means that the amount of plastic in some Vegas women

>rivals the amount of plastic in their wallets. Our "founding fathers" are

>knocking down all the original casinos to build their version of

>Disneyland, and knocking down anything old to build strip malls. The

>Forum Shops at Caesar's palace (with Versace, Armani boutiques etc..) is a

>popular teen hangout. I'm quite sure that there is *spirituality* in this

>world, but from where I'm sitting, there is no "soul."

>Anne Sneddon

>On Tue, 18 Nov 1997, Sara Straw wrote:

>> Hey, you're into 50's and 60's memorabilia, that's GREAT. But don't say

>> the 90's don't have any soul... it just doesn't happen to be the *soul*

>> you are into collecting.

>> Yours truly,

>> the Rural Recluse

I've been thinking for some years now that its madness.

Everything you read in a newspaper is theatre of the

absurd. We're post something these days. Marching up

to the millenium without a clue. Its ridiculous, its

even somewhat fun. I don't know what's going to happen.

I hate to say it, but its a great time to be alive.

Mike Rice

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Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 16:44:57 -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: jo grant <jgrant@BOOKZEN.COM>

Subject: Re: Kerouac in advertisement

In-Reply-To: <msg1247782.thr-3ff78936.55d4a82@umit.maine.edu>

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Tyson Ouellette wrote:

> gap's using kerouac!!!!!! goddamnit, that's freaking blasphemy!

>are they required to get permission from someone to use his image for

>advertising purposes? and, if so, would that person be who I'm

>thinking of. i dunno, maybe it's just my aversion to the gap

>psychology.

> i do, on the other hand, love the levis commercials they've been

>running, the ones that all fit in sequence in a kind of tarantino-ish

>order. there's one where the ice cream truck dud makes the kids answer

>questions before they get their pops, like "Who's Jack Kerouac?" and

>the kids whines "On the Road" and then he asks the next kid "Who's

>Birdland named after?" and the kid whines "Cha-lie Pah-Ka" then the

>guy asks if he was an alto or a tenor.... it's really great.

Tyson,

Permission to use Jack Kerouac in that GAP ad came from John Sampas, the

executor of the Keroauc Estate.

Sampas can do anything he wants with Jack Kerouac's image. How much they

paid Sampas is hard to tell, but I'd guess it was a substantial amount.

Maybe Sampas will provide that information to the Keroauc Scholars,

researchers, students, et al who frequent the Beat List and for the Kerouac

Underground Archive that grows and grows and grows, while the Keroauc

Literary Archive shrinks and shrinks and shrinks.

j grant

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Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 15:58:06 -0800

Reply-To: "Nancy J. Peters" <nancyp@wenet.net>

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

From: "Nancy J. Peters" <nancyp@WENET.NET>

Organization: CITY LIGHTS BOOKS

Subject: NEW BEAT GENERATION BOOKS FROM CITY LIGHTS

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------------------------------------------------------------=20

CHECK OUT TWO NEW BEAT GENERATION BOOKS FROM CITY LIGHTS PUBLISHERS, SAN

FRANCISCO:

> [To order please fax to (415) 362-4921 or call our mail order phone lin=

> at (415) 362-1041 or write to City Lights Mail Order 261 Columbus Ave.

> San Francisco, CA 94133. Add $2.50 per book for shipping.]

>=20

> NOW AVAILABLE FROM CITY LIGHTS PUBLISHERS:

> 1) THE BEAT GENERATION IN NEW YORK

> A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac's City

> by Bill Morgan

> $12.95

>=20

> Set off on the errant trail of the Beat experience in the city =

that

> inspired many of Jack Kerouac=92s best-loved novels including On the Ro=

ad,

> Vanity of Duluoz, The Town and the City, and Desolation Angels. This i=

> the ultimate guide to Kerouac=92s New York, packed with photos of the B=

eat

> Generation, and filled with undercover information and little-known

> anecdotes.

>=20

> Eight easy-to-follow walking tours guide you to:

> =95 Greenwich Village bars and caf=E9s where Kerouac and =

his friends Allen

> Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, William Burroughs, Diane di Prima, Gregory

> Corso, Hettie and LeRoi Jones, John Clellon Holmes, Joyce Johnson, and

> others read poetry, drank, turned-on, and talked all night long.

> =95 The Chelsea district apartment where Jack wrote On Th=

e Road.

> =95 Mid-town clubs where Beat poets mingled with artists =

Jackson Pollock

> and Willem de Kooning, and listened to jazz and blues greats Charlie

> Parker, Miles Davis, and Billie Holiday.

> =95 Times Square, a magnet for Kerouac and the Beats.

> =95 Columbia University, where the original Beats first met and

> began

> a revolution in American literature and culture.

>=20

> Each tour includes a map of the neighborhood, subway and bus

> information, and an insider=92s angle on Jack Kerouac=92s life in New Y=

ork.

> A must for Beat enthusiasts and critics.

>=20

> Bill Morgan is a painter and archival consultant working in New=

York

> City. His previous publications include The Works of Allen Ginsberg

> 1941-1994: A Descriptive Bibliography and Lawrence Ferlinghetti: A

> Comprehensive Bibliography. He has worked as an archivist for Allen

> Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman, and Timothy Leary.

>=20

> 2) NEW BEAT GENERATION BOOK FROM CITY LIGHTS PUBLISHERS:

> TRACKING THE SERPENT

> Journeys to Four Continents

> By Janine Pommy Vega

> $12.95

>=20

> Janine Pommy Vega is the author of twelve books of poetry and

> performance pieces. At the age of 15 she left home for New York where

> she joined the Beat Generation poets and artists. She is featured in

> the recent anthology, Women of the Beat Generation (Conari Press 1996)

> and A Different Beat: Writings by Women of the Beat Generation

> (Serpent=92s Tail 1997). For many years she has worked with Poets in t=

> Schools programs. A member of PEN=92s Prison Writing Committee, she ha=

> been the director of Incisions/Arts, an organization of writers working

> with people behind bars.

>=20

> From Israel to Paris, from England to the Amazon, from Peru=92s

> Cordillera Blanca to the Nepalese Himalayas: these are the locales of

> the true-life adventures of a woman who ranged over four continents in =

> search for excitement and knowledge.

> Recovering from an automobile accident, Vega makes a pilgrimage=

> ancient European sites of female power worship: Chartres Cathedral, the

> high hills of Ireland, and Southern England. An interview with a

> Canadian smuggler in Lima=92s Chorillos prison takes her to the Amazon,

> where she lives at a penal colony and visits people in the jungle who

> invite her to a yage ceremony. On a dangerous trek through the Peruvia=

> Andes she observes the wisdom and skills of her companions; and in the

> Himalayas, seeking remnants of a civilization built around female power=

> she discovers how complex myths illuminate the everyday realities of th=

> people of Nepal.

> Vega writes, =93You do not need to know what you are looking fo=

r, only

> that you urgently need to find something. The urgency does the work,

> the readiness to receive finds the answers.=94

>=20

> MORE PRAISE FOR JANINE POMMY VEGA=92S

> TRACKING THE SERPENT:

>=20

> The Boston Phoenix: Vega=92s book is a quasi-anthropological outpouring=

> the order of Henry Miller=92s The Colossus of Maroussi, or anything by

> Lawrence Durrell. Her writing exudes the grit of trekking alone in the

> Annapurna mountains of Nepal, spending months in the Amazon jungle,

> braving rocky steeps and altitude sickness to climb the cordilleras of

> the Andes. Yet this is no mere chest-thumping record of adventure

> travel. Woven into Vega=92s travelogue is her compelling personal

> narrative... Fascinated by the survival of ancient, poetic faiths in

> remote agricultural regions across the globe, she becomes both scholar

> and mystic-- a Boddhisattva seeking an image of herself among the ruins.

>=20

> The Buffalo News: Tracking the Serpent focuses on self-realization

> through experience of the natural world. Vega continually challenges th=

> limits of her physical and psychological endurance, the expression of

> her own sexulaity, even her ability as a woman and writer to gain acces=

> to the varieties of experience she needs to interpret the myths and

> belief systems that purport to explain the natural world. The strength

> of this book lies in its ability to link narratives of natural

> experience to accounts of spiritual transformation. Vega=92s voice is

> never stronger than when her ego dissolves in the extremes of her

> worldly adventure.

>=20

> Booklist: Throughout the trips of this highly personal memoir, the

> spirits of goddesses seem to pull Vega, relentlessly searching for the

> female divinity, along disparate pathways long associated with ancient

> imagery depicting spirals and serpents. Vega does not shirk from

> exploring her own erotic urges, either; in detailing encounters with

> lovers, she portrays a questioning , sensual nature-- one that revels i=

> the spiritual as well as the corporal aspects of a passionately

> experienced existence.

>=20

> Jennifer Stone, KPFA, Berkeley, CA: In Tracking the Serpent there=92s=

> living language, a living human being. A renaissance woman, Vega goes

> to so many places. Like Henry Miller, she =93tears off a piece.=94

>=20

> [To order please fax to (415) 362-4921 or call our mail order phone lin=

> at (415) 362-1041 or write to City Lights Mail Order 261 Columbus Ave.

> San Francisco, CA 94133. Add $2.50 per book for shipping.]

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Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 19:24:33 -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: Nancy B Brodsky <nbb203@IS8.NYU.EDU>

Subject: Re: Kerouac in advertisement

In-Reply-To: <msg1247782.thr-3ff78936.55d4a82@umit.maine.edu>

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That gap ad is quite old....GAP has already been sued by the estate...

On Tue, 18 Nov 1997, Tyson Ouellette wrote:

> >> has a picture of the GAP ad with Kerouac

> gap's using kerouac!!!!!! goddamnit, that's freaking blasphemy!

> are they required to get permission from someone to use his image for

> advertising purposes? and, if so, would that person be who I'm

> thinking of. i dunno, maybe it's just my aversion to the gap

> psychology.

> i do, on the other hand, love the levis commercials they've been

> running, the ones that all fit in sequence in a kind of tarantino-ish

> order. there's one where the ice cream truck dud makes the kids answer

> questions before they get their pops, like "Who's Jack Kerouac?" and

> the kids whines "On the Road" and then he asks the next kid "Who's

> Birdland named after?" and the kid whines "Cha-lie Pah-Ka" then the

> guy asks if he was an alto or a tenor.... it's really great.

The Absence of Sound, Clear and Pure, The Silence Now Heard In Heaven For

Sure-JK

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Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 19:50:51 -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: "Paul A. Maher Jr." <mapaul@PIPELINE.COM>

Subject: Some of the Dharma Readings & Performances

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>Update on participants at the Some of the Dharma reading in New

York..(Willem Dafoe!) and all other pertinent info at The Kerouac Quarterly

Web Site.

Get your sample copy of The Kerouac Quarterly Vol. I, No. 1 there!

-or-

Hardcover Selected Letters: 1940-1956 1st Edition for $10.00 + free issue!

Latest news updates!

(Tom Waits to sing "Home I'll Never Be" with Jack Kerouac and Primus! on

Geffen Records in early 1998)

Go to:

http://www.freeyellow.com/members/upstartcrow/KerouacQuarterly.html

Thanks all! Paul...

"We cannot well do without our sins; they are the highway to our virtues."

Henry David Thoreau

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Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 17:32:26 MST/MDT

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

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

From: Theory <gros4389@BADGER.SNOW.EDU>

Subject: Re: Beat Fad

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