Tag Archives: lit

Beat Sushi, Records

Beat Sushi: Jack Kerouac spins for “Brian Land”

Video

From a kura barn in provincial Japan, DaveO kicks off “Beat Sushi” by sending greetings to Beat / Deadhead / Prankster / Political fixer(?) Brian Hassett with a meandering answer to a simple question about a Jack Kerouac vinyl box set.

Along with spinning Velvet Underground and Jack’s “Western Movies” with Al Cohn and Zoot Sims from “The Last Word” disc, your rambling host talks about:

  • * JK’s recent centenary & events in Lowell, Mass etc
  • * a phone call from Lowell with Brian and Thomas the German architect
  • * plus namechecks for: Beat Museum’s event in San Francisco; Jim Irsay and Mr. Canary’s sc/rol etc adventures in LA and beyond
  • * bit of SxSW flashback (missing pals & hi/jinks)
  • * and a look around the Giggling Piglet Studio with records, books, typewriters, flags, ephemera and whatnot

Dig Jack Kerouac festivities in Lowell roundup riff at Brian Land: https://brianhassett.com/2022/03/kerouacs-100th-birthday-celebration-in-lowell/

Much more Beat & counter-culture literary goodness, fill yer boots!

Helpful Quests, Libraries / Museums / Archives

Support: The Beat Museum

+ Beat Support +

Many of you likely noticed the campaign to help the venerable San Francisco institution City Lights bookstore “keep the lights on” and hooray, they rocketed past the $300,000 goal thanks to many small donations from around the world. Now, there’s a few other neighbours in the North Beach area to shine a light on, specifically “the Beat Museum” – an eclectic grassroots archive of artifacts from Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and well… dozens of other luminaries who have influenced counter-culture, literature and music.

THE NORTH BEACH OF THE BEAT GENERATION IS IN GRAVE DANGER

To pitch in, you can buy a membership – especially handy if you live in the San Francisco area as it offers unlimited admission – those of us *anywhere else* can dig discounts on purchases (including mail order), exclusive content/interviews/events, and a membership card – I’m a sucker for membership cards!

Did you see a big North Beach neighbourhood round-up diary post I shared recently? Included a photo essay of many items on display including Allen Ginsberg’s typewriter (along with many other typewriters), Jack Kerouac’s jacket, Gary Snyder’s bits and pieces from Japan and so much more.

+ Their bookstore has a variety of rare additions, one-offs, special treats (I picked up a first edition of Allen Ginsberg’s Indian Journal on my visit).

So to recap, do one or several of the following:

* Go check out their website to see their mission and the big hearted folks running the show

* Purchase a membership (various levels/prices)

* Maybe buy yourself a little something nice, or a gift for someone else

* Kick them down some extra cash

* Sign up for their newsletter for campaigns & updates

* Spread the word to keep the goodness rolling

You got any questions or thoughts? Let me know.

And of course if you’re seeking unique Beat literature related content, I have dozens of podcasts, various essays, scrapbooks, maps, and so on for you to peruse.

Fondly, dave

PS shared respectfully knowing lots of folks are in tough financial situations and there’s lots of requests rolling around for various dire situations – in spirit of solidarity, safety, and abundance.

Writing Life

Beat film, narrated by JK, “unadulterated half-hour chunk of Pull My Daisy”

Video

Sure, you could experience the Beat sensibility on film by watching The Beat Generation. But why settle for that high-gloss Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature treatment when you can get an unadulterated half-hour chunk of the real thing above, in Pull My Daisy? Both films came out in 1959, but only the latter comes from the lens of photographer Robert Frank, he of the famous photobook The Americans. And only the latter features the unconventional performing talents of Allen Ginsberg, David Amram,Delphine Seyrig, and Jack Kerouac.

That Kerouac himself provides all the narration assures us we’re watching a movie fully committed to the Beat mindset. “Early morning in the universe,” he says to set the opening scene. “The wife is gettin’ up, openin’ up the windows, in this loft that’s in the Bowery of the Lower East Side of New York. She’s a painter, and her husband’s a railroad brakeman, and he’s comin’ home in a couple hours, about five hours, from the local.”

Kerouac’s ambling words seem at first like one improvisational element of many. In fact, they provided the production’s only element of improvisation: Frank and company took pains to light, shoot, script, and rehearse with great deliberateness, albeit the kind of deliberateness meant to create the impression of thrown-together, ramshackle spontaneity. But if the kind of careful craft that made Pull My Daisy seems not to fit within the anarchic subcultural collective persona of the Beats, surely the premises of its story and the consequences thereof do. The aforementioned brakeman brings a bishop home for dinner, but his exuberantly low-living buddies decide they want in on the fun. Or if there’s no fun to be had, then, in keeping with what we might identify as Beat principles, they’ll create some of their own. Or at least they’ll create a disturbance, and where could a Beat possibly draw the line between disturbance and fun?

(Source: http://vimeo.com/)
Postcards fr. Gravelly Beach

Poetic Stories about Goalies – Postcard #62

Audio 1 Comment

Poetic Stories about Goalies

Poet Randall Maggs discusses his book “Night Work” about the troubled soul of legendary hockey goalie Terry Sawchuk plus the nuances of story-telling, conversations with goaltenders, Sawchuk’s Ukrainian heritage and convergence of history and hockey with host Dave Thorvald Olson at the Robson Square covered outdoor rink in Vancouver following a poetry reading promoted by publisher Brick Books.

Lace em up for Poetic Stories about Goalies – Postcard #62 (128k mp3, 36:02, 33MB, stereo)

Continue reading Poetic Stories about Goalies – Postcard #62 →

Postcards fr. Gravelly Beach, Remembering Remembrance

Vimy Ridge Diaries on Remembrance Day – Postcard #61

Audio 1 Comment

Vimy Rdge Diaires On Remembrance Day in sunny, brisk Vancouver, Ian Bell (fresh from a CBC appearance “On The Coast“) joins Dave to read from Grandpa Mark’s diaries written in the trenches in WW1 as a young Canadian. From the library steps with a flask of scotch, they reflect on the costs and motivations of war, importance of friendship and the ethereal experience of going “over the top” and facing the terror on the other side, plus anecdotes about capturing Germans soldiers and discourse on the importance of personal documentation to pass forward to generations.

Sit awhile for: Vimy Ridge Diaries on Remembrance Day – Postcard #61 (38:00, 32MB, 128k mp3) Continue reading Vimy Ridge Diaries on Remembrance Day – Postcard #61 →

Postcards fr. Gravelly Beach

Forests and Oceans Without End – Postcard #60

Audio

Forests and Oceans without end

From a forested pathway along the open Pacific between Tofino and Ucluelet, DaveO reads poetry from Gary Snyder’s Myths + Texts and Rip Rap plus essays about Wobblies, timber-jacks, logging camp culture, and giant trees from Beloved of the Sky then the words Siddhartha the Buddha spoke upon achieving enlightenment.

Strap on your boots for: Forests and Oceans Without End – Postcard #60 (128k mp3, 15:07, 14MB)

Continue reading Forests and Oceans Without End – Postcard #60 →

Postcards fr. Gravelly Beach

Owl Creek Limnology and Exploration – Postcard #59

Audio

Dave O spiels forth about the exploration of rivers and lakes, the impetus for ventures and motivations for trade ~ augmented by autoharp songs by Larry Harper dreaming of floating the Colorado River down Glen Canyon ~ then freeverse – mostly from stumbling around Europa in 1992 – thinking about connectedness, lifespans of mysteries and reasons for peeking into the unknown with Trauben and Funboy providing guitar stylings whilst camping alongside Owl Creek in the British Columbia highlands.

Pull up a stump for Owl Creek Limnology and Exploration – Postcard #59 (192k mp3, 17:15, 14MB)

Continue reading Owl Creek Limnology and Exploration – Postcard #59 →