1907-2007

Sábado, 1 de Dezembro, 22 horas

"Flyer" para a festa de Sábado: design de Tó Trips

Festa de encerramento: Sábado, 1 de Dezembro, a partir das 22 horas. Entrada: 3 euros. Espaço Avenida, Avenida da Liberdade, 211, Lisboa.

CONCERTO: Tó Trips (Dead Combo, ex-Lulu Blind) apresenta Memory Strings e convida Tiago Gomes.

Catálogo

Capa do catálogo da exposição On the Road: Remembering Kerouac, design e paginação de José Pedro Cortes

O catálogo da exposição já está disponível: pode ser descarregado (download), em formato "pdf" (3,3 MB), a partir do "site" de Mariana Viegas. No Sábado, dia 1 de Dezembro, há festa de encerramento.

Click to download the exhibition catalog (3.3 MB)

Viagens

Teatro do Vestido, Carta-Oceano, de 31 de Outubro a 01 de Dezembro de 2007, de quarta a sá�bados, 22h, Pavilhã�o 27 - Hospital Jú�lio de Matos,� Av. do Brasil nº� 53

"Carta-Oceano, a partir da vida e obra do poeta Blaise Cendrars, �um manifesto, de quem parte e de quem n�ão vai a lado nenhum. �Uma celebraçã��o da viagem e do estar �à espera, do tempo que passou, das cartas que n�ão chegam no mundo que se tornou espesso demais para transitar".


Joana Craveiro estará, até dia 1 de Dezembro, no Pavilhão 27 do Hospital Júlio de Matos (Lisboa), com o Teatro do Vestido.

Paulo Brighenti expõe na Galeria Pedro Oliveira, no Porto, até 15 de Dezembro.

João Paulo Serafim apresenta a sua "Colecção de Fragmentos", até 20 de Dezembro, no Atelier EA+, em Ponta Delgada, Açores.

André Almeida e Sousa expõe na galeria Alecrim 50, Rua do Alecrim, 48-50, Lisboa. Até 28 de Dezembro.

algumas fotografias

Victor d'Andrade, Richard Zenith e as suas preciosas colaborações. A Joana Craveiro também contribuiu para um belo fim de tarde, mas não tenho imagens.

24 de Novembro

Richard Zenith. Poeta


Victor d'Andrade. Actor

Não consegui desenhar a Joana Craveiro, actriz e encenadora. Foi pena porque gostei muito.
www.diariografico.com

Pelas estradas fora

Fernando Pessoa em 1908


ON THE ROAD

Here we go while morning life hums
In the sunlight’s golden ocean,
And upon our faces a freshness comes,
A freshness whose soul is motion.

Up the hills, up! Down to the vales!
Now in the plains more slow!
Now in swift turns the shaken cart reels.
Soundless in sand now we go!

But we must come to some village or town,
And our eyes show sorrow at it.
Could we for ever and ever go on
In the sun and air that we hit;

On an infinite road, at a mighty pace,
With endless and free commotion,
With the sun ever round us and on our face
A freshness whose soul is motion!

26-10-1908

Alexander Search (Fernando Pessoa) in Richard Zenith (org.), Fernando Pessoa - Poesia Inglesa, Lisboa, Assírio & Alvim, 2007, volume VI da colecção "Obra Essencial de Fernando Pessoa", onde o poema tem tradução de Luísa Freire


Fernando Pessoa no Chiado



No Sábado, dia 24 de Novembro, o Projecto On the Road recebeu, no Espaço Avenida, Richard Zenith, Victor d'Andrade e Joana Craveiro.

Richard Zenith (poeta), leu e contextualizou excertos de The Road (1907), de Jack London e de On the Road (1957), de Jack Kerouac e o poema de Fernando Pessoa (sob o pré-heterónimo Alexander Search) On the Road (1908). Leituras em inglês, entre as fotografias de carcaças de automóveis, de Manuel Duarte.

Victor d'Andrade (actor) leu e encenou, na sala ocupada pelos trabalhos de João Paulo Serafim, textos de Allen Ginsberg: permanecem os vestígios do seu percurso pelo poema Death to Van Gogh's Ear (1957), ditado pela voz gravada de Ginsberg.

Sob os trabalhos de Paulo Brighenti, Joana Craveiro (encenadora e actriz), leu e encenou excertos de Off the Road: My Years With Cassady, Kerouac, and Ginsberg (1990), de Carolyn Cassady.

Em breve, serão colocadas "online" imagens das leituras de Sábado.

Sábado, 24 Novembro, 17 horas

Mark Beebe, A Vision of Kerouac as The Shadow, 1989



Jack Kerouac, "The bottoms of my shoes..."


LEITURA DE TEXTOS DA BEAT GENERATION
24 de NOVEMBRO às 17H | ESPAÇO AVENIDA, Avenida da Liberdade, 211, 1º - Lisboa

JOANA CRAVEIRO (encenadora, actriz)
VICTOR D'ANDRADE (actor)
RICHARD ZENITH (poeta)


project on the road: remembering kerouac

"Road Movies" na Cinemateca (Dezembro)

Robert Frank e Alfred Leslie, Pull My Daisy, 1959

"Pull my daisy / tip my cup / all my doors are open / Cut my thoughts / for coconuts / all my eggs are broken / Jack my Arden / gate my shades / woe my road is spoken / Silk my garden / rose my days / now my prayers awaken"

Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Pull My Daisy (19??)



ROAD MOVIES: LEMBRANDO JACK KEROUAC
Dezembro, na Cinemateca Portuguesa - Museu do Cinema,
Rua Barata Salgueiro, 39, Lisboa
(Colaboração entre o Projecto On the Road: Remembering Jack Kerouac e a Cinemateca Portuguesa - Museu do Cinema)


Pull My Daisy, 1959

REAL.: Robert Frank e Alfred Leslie

4-12-07 19:30


Candy Mountain, 1988

REAL.: Robert Frank e Rudy Wurlitzer

4-12-07 19:30


Sans Toit ni Loi, 1985

REAL.: Agnès Varda

17-12-07 22:00


Route One USA, 1989

REAL.: Robert Kramer

18-12-07 19:30


My Own Private Idaho, 1991

REAL.: Gus Van Saint

18-12-07 21:30


Continuação do ciclo iniciado em Novembro .

Unscroll

Jack Kerouac's On The Road scroll manuscript unroll at the Boott Cotton Mills Musuem, June 15, 2007

Rodando

Jack Kerouac, "manuscrito" (120 pés de comprimento) de On the Road

Um único e magnífico parágrafo, de vários quarteirões, rodando, como a própria estrada.

Allen Ginsberg

somewherover

José António Leitão, somewherover, 2007, 8:03 minutos

Av. da Liberdade, 211, 1º - Lisboa

Gilbert Millstein, "Books of The Times", New York Times, Sep 5, 1957, pg. 27

Off the road

John Chamberlain, Dolores James, 1962, welded and painted steel, 72 1/2 x 101 1/2 x 46 1/4 inches, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

"...but this could never be like Kansas"

National Geographic Road Maps from 1956 (Kansas)


True cross-country interstates like Interstate 80 did not yet exist when Kerouac made the trek he describes in On The Road in the 1950s. National Geographic Road Maps from 1956 reveal the complex and intricate system of roads Kerouac navigated.

Bridget Scott, The Tenor of the Times - Jack Kerouac and the Era of the 1960s. Os "links" não fazem parte do texto original

Mapa

Este mapa é, aparentemente, do Diário pessoal de Jack Kerouac e mostra o itinerário da sua viagem de Julho a Outubro de 1947. Serviu mais tarde de referência para a escrita do livro “On the Road” . Ver mais aqui.

Horizontalidade

Carl Andre, Venus Forge, 1980, steel and copper plates, displayed: 5 x 1200 x 15550 mm, Tate Modern, London

Scrolls

Jack Kerouac, "manuscrito" (120 pés de comprimento) de On the Road

Hans Namuth, Pollock Painting, 1950, fotografia (gelatina e prata), National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Publicada na "Life", em 1951





Hans Namuth e Paul Falkenberg, Jackson Pollock, 1951 ( excerto , em loop; som não síncrono)




Jack Kerouac, "manuscrito" de On the Road (excerto inicial)

Steve Ditko, Amazing Spider-Man, 34, pág. 7

Dentro de uma hora, Dean e eu chegávamos ao novo apartamento da minha tia em Long Island, e ela achava-se em complicadas negociações com uns pintores que eram amigos da família, discutindo o preço, enquanto nós subíamos as escadas vindos de São Francisco.
- Sal, o Dean pode cá ficar alguns dias e depois tem de ir-se embora, compreendes? - preveniu-me a minha tia.
Terminara a viagem. À noite, Dean e eu fomos dar um passeio por entre os gasómetros e pontes férreas e luzes de nevoeiro de Long Island. Lembro-me dele debaixo de um candeeiro de rua.
- Quando passámos pelo outro candeeiro eu ia dizer-te mais uma coisa, Sal, mas agora vou continuar entre parêntesis com um novo raciocínio e, quando passarmos ao seguinte, eu regresso ao assunto original, concordas?
Certamente que concordava. Estávamos tão habituados a viajar que tínhamos de andar por toda Long Island, mas não havia mais terra, só o oceano Atlântico, e era esse o nosso limite. Demos as mãos e concordámos que seríamos amigos para sempre.

Jack Kerouac, Pela Estrada Fora, Lisboa, Relógio d'Água, 1999, pág. 323

Road movie #1

Victor Fleming, The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Ray Bolger, Judy Garland

Uma viagem de autoconhecimento, sob o efeito alucinatório de um tornado. O regresso a casa da tia Em é definitivo ("And I'm not going to leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all!"): a viagem é só um episódio.

PROJECTO On the Road. Remembering Kerouac. http://rememberingjackkerouac.blogspot.com/

CONCEITO O passado dia 5 de Setembro marcou 50 anos desde que foi publicado On the Road, o mais famoso livro de Jack Kerouac. A efeméride juntou 13 artistas portugueses que apresentam uma exposição conjunta. A proposta dos artistas percorre várias disciplinas do desenho à fotografia, do video ao som, com cada artista a propor uma leitura sobre o livro, o universo de Kerouac e/ou de toda a beat generation, deixando em aberto possíveis leituras para outras zonas da criação.

ACTIVIDADES PARALELAS - Ciclo de cinema na Cinemateca : "Road Movie" de 5 a 30 de Novembro - Leituras de textos da Beat Generation no Espaço da exposição: data a confirmar- Concerto de encerramento a 1 de Dezembro com Tó Trips (Dead Combo, ex-Lulu Blind)

LOCAIS Avenida da Liberdade, n.º 211, 2º Andar, em Lisboa. (EXPOSIÇÃO) Rua Barata Salgueiro, nº 39. (CINEMATECA)

DATA Inauguração: 9 de Novembro. Encerramento: 1 de Dezembro.

HORÁRIO De quarta a sexta das 17h às 20h, Sábado das 15h às 20h.

ARTISTAS PARTICIPANTES
André Almeida e Sousa
Nasceu em S.Miguel em 1974. Vive em Lisboa. Concluiu o curso completo de Pintura no Arco onde é Professor. Expõe individualmente desde 2000 em Lisboa, Braga e São Miguel, Açores. Prémio Artca em 2006. A sua obra está representada entre outras nas colecções do Arco e do Museu Carlos Machado, em São Miguel.

Bruno Sequeira
Lisboa, 1966. Curso Avançado de Fotografia Maumaus entre 93-95. Bolseiro da Fundação Oriente em 97. Entre 1994 e 2005 foi professor de fotografia na Escolas: Maumaus, António Arroio e Ar.Co, em 2006 fundou o Atelier deLisboa. Expõe individualmente desde 96. Presente nas colecções PLMJ, Museu da Imagem e CPF entre outras.

Eduardo Salavisa.
Nasceu em Lisboa onde vive e trabalha. Licenciou-se em 1980 em Design de Equipamento na Escola de Belas Artes de Lisboa. As suas pinturas e desenhos foram expostos em diversas ocasiões. Desde há algum tempo que vem desenvolvendo o seu projecto pessoal Diários Gráficos. É ainda professor no ensino secundário na Escola Secundária Pedro Nunes, em Lisboa.

João Grama
Lisboa, 1975. Frequenta o último ano do curso avançado de Fotografia do Arco. Fotografa e escreve regularmente para a imprensa, destacando as colaborações actuais com o Expresso, Publico e com o extinto suplemento DNA.

João Paulo Serafim
Paris, 1974. Vive em Lisboa. Estudou Artes Plásticas no Arco, tendo igualmente aí completado o plano de estudos de fotografia. Em 2005 participou na Master Class do programa Gulbenkian Criatividade e Criação Artística. Expõe regularmente desde 1998. A sua obra está representada nas colecções do BES, do CAM, do Banco Privado entre outras.

José António Leitão
Luanda, 1962. Vive e trabalha em Parede. Mestre em História da Arte (F.C.S.H.-U.N.L., 1990). Professor do Departamento de História e Teoria da Arte do Ar.Co-Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual, desde 1992. Leccionou História da Arte nos Maumaus-Centro de Contaminação Visual (1995-96) e no Museu Nacional do Azulejo (1998-99). Publicou diversos textos sobre Lisboa, em periódicos e obras colectivas.

José Pedro Cortes
Porto, 1976. Vive e trabalha em Lisboa. Frequentou o Ar.co, realizou o Master of Arts Photography no Kent Institut of Art & Design (UK) e Master Class do Programa Gulbenkian de Criatividade e Criação Artística. Exposições individuais no Museu da Imagem, Centro Português de Fotografia, White Space Gallery (Londres) e muito recentemente em Lisboa, na Jorge Shirley. Em 2006 publicou o seu primeiro livro "Silence" pela Pierre Von Kleist Editions.

Manuel Duarte
Nasceu em Lisboa em 1971. Frequentou o Curso intensivo de Fotografia na ETIC e no IADE, tendo sido um dos participantes na Master Class do programa Gulbenkian Criatividade e Criação Artística.

Margarida Gouveia
Torres Vedras, 1977. Iniciou a sua formação artística na Academia de Artes Visuais de Macau. Em 2000 licenciou-se em Design Visual pelo Instituto de Arte e Design em Lisboa e entrou para o Curso Básico de Fotografia no Ar.Co.. Como bolseira da Kodak, frequentou o curso Avançado que concluiu em 2004. Foi bolseira da Fundação Oriente em 2003.

Mariana Viegas
Lisboa 1969. Estudos de Fotografia e Artes Plásticas no Ar.Co em Lisboa. Em 2005/06 foi bolseira da Fundação Gulbenkian e da Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento no Location One, em Nova Iorque. Participou em diversas exposições em Portugal, Paris e Nova Iorque. A sua última exposição individual, Fuga, foi apresentada recentemente na Agencia de Arte Vera Cortes em Lisboa.

Martim Dias Ramos
Lisboa, 1983. Frequentou o curso básico de Fotografia no Arco. Estagiou no Jornal Público em 2006. Desde Janeiro de 2007 é fotógrafo freelance do colectivo Kameraphoto.

Paulo Brighenti
Lisboa, 1968. Frequentou o curso de Pintura e de Artes Plásticas do Arco, onde é professor. Realizou variadíssimas exposições individuais e colectivas em Lisboa, Porto e Londres. A sua obra está presente nas colecções da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Arpad-Szenes, Museu do Chiado, entre outras. Em 2002 recebeu o prémio revelação da Fundação Arpad-Szenes.

Paulo Pascoal
Lisboa, 1969. Participou em várias exposições colectivas, como na Colecção da FLAD, na Fundação de Serralves, e realizou ainda várias exposições individuais. Foi o vencedor da V Bienal de Fotografia de Vila Franca de Xira. Em 2003 participou da Exposição "Sem Limites" na CAV em Coimbra. As suas obras fazem parte das colecções da Ar.Co, Lisboa, da Câmara Municipal de Vila Franca de Xira, da FLAD e da PLMJ - Sociedade de Advogados em Lisboa.

chicagotribune.com
BOOK TOUR
Revisiting sites from 'On the Road'
50 years later, could Sal and Dean find their haunts?
By Christopher Reynolds
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Jack Kerouac slept where?Fifty years ago, the Beat Generation
writer's novel, "On the Road," hit bookstores, its story told in
breathless, jazz-inflected cadences, its plot lifted from the author's
life. The plot follows two friends and their assorted pals on four
cross-country road trips, their adventures packed with enough fast
chatter to make Aaron Sorkin's head spin, enough drink and drugs
and casual sex to satisfy a platoon of rock stars, enough discovery and
enthusiasm and motion and exclamation points and careening overloaded
sentences to give any reader a pang of wanderlust.But have you looked at
those pages lately? If you do and you're over 30, Sal Paradise and Dean
Moriarty (Kerouac's names for himself and his mercurial friend Neal Cassady)
may seem more desperate and doomed than you remember. And the North
America they're exploring may seem far away indeed. (For details, consult
the blog, littourature.blogspot.com.)As you check this 21st-century charting
of Sal's travels, remember that it was 1948 and 1949 when Kerouac and
Cassady made the trips that dominate "On the Road," 1951 when Kerouac
wrote the bulk of the book and 1957 when Viking published it. Cassady died
at 41 in 1968, Kerouac at 47 in 1969. In both deaths, alcohol was implicated.
As for the road then and the road now:• In 1957, Greyhound ruled the roads,
and the interstate highway system was in its infancy. There were 40 McDonald's
restaurants, fewer than 75 Holiday Inns, and there was one San Francisco bookshop
called City Lights, run by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti.Now, Greyhound and its
parent company have been through bankruptcy twice in the last 20 years.
The interstate highway system has grown to more than 45,000 miles, allowing
for faster trips and less local color. There are more than 30,000 McDonald's
locations and 1,384 Holiday Inns worldwide. There's still one City Lights, now
54 years old, on Columbus Avenue, still run by Ferlinghetti.• In the book,
Moriarty takes a girlfriend to Hector's, a cafeteria near 50th Street in
Manhattan's Times Square, for "beautiful big glazed cakes and cream puffs,"
and Paradise adds that Hector's "has always been a big symbol of New York
for Dean." Later, Sal and Dean dig the jazz at Birdland, a club on Broadway
near 52nd Street. Later still, Sal and Dean eat franks and beans in a Riker's
coffee shop on Seventh Avenue.Now, Hector's is no more. Birdland closed in
1965 (although another club with that name does business now on West 44th
Street). Riker's is gone, too. (But the company behind that chain, Restaurant
Associates Corp., has endured and evolved.)• In the book, Sal Paradise takes
a bus to Chicago and gets a room at the Y.Now, the Chicago YMCA doesn't
accept short-term overnight guests and hasn't for at least a decade, a
spokeswoman says. The YMCA's Lawson House, which goes back to 1931
in central Chicago, houses about 600 residents, most of them working poor,
formerly homeless and the mentally ill, who pay $375 a month and up.• In
the book, Sal reaches Cheyenne, Wyo., during Wild West Week, is appalled by
the sight of fat businessmen in boots and 10-gallon hats, their wives outfitted
as cowgirls. "In my first shot at the West I was seeing to what absurd devices
it had fallen to keep its proud tradition," he says. He winds up sleeping in the
bus station.Now, Cheyenne still throws its annual party. But for 111 years it
has been called Frontier Days. This year's bill in July included a rodeo, art and
air shows, pancake breakfasts, a carnival and concerts by Bon Jovi and Reba
McEntire. The old bus station has been leveled, and the old train depot next
door is a museum.• In the book, Sal stays with friends in Denver, decides not
to take a job hauling produce at the Camargo market and gets cornered into
attending an opera (Beethoven's "Fidelio") in nearby Central City. The rest
of the time, he knocks around bars and pool halls on Larimer Street and Lower
Downtown, including the Windsor Hotel, "once Denver's great Gold Rush hotel,"
says Sal; it's said to have historic bullet holes in the walls.Now, Larimer and LoDo
have been renovated. The Denargo Market, a 29-acre area north of downtown, has
been proposed for redevelopment. In Central City, the 1878 opera house is up to four productions every summer. The Windsor was leveled in 1959. Meanwhile, a Denver
developer has put up Jack Kerouac Lofts (60 units on Huron Street near Union
Station, most priced at $300,000 to $400,000).• In the book, Sal and his Bay
Area friend, Remi, spend an outlandish $50 on a disastrous dinner for five at
"a swank restaurant" called Alfred's in San Francisco's North Beach. Now, Alfred's
has moved a few blocks from Broadway to 659 Merchant St. A 30-ounce
porterhouse costs $40.• In the book, Sausalito is a "little fishing village." Now, just
try to find a room on a Saturday night for less than $150.• In the book, • Sal and
his girlfriend, Terry, meet on the way to Los Angeles and eat "in a cafeteria downtown
which was decorated to look like a grotto, with metal tits spurting everywhere and
great impersonal stone buttockses belonging to deities and soapy Neptune. People
ate lugubrious meals around the waterfalls, their faces green with marine sorrow.
"Now, one Clifton's Cafeteria remains, the Brookdale at 648 S. Broadway, and it did
have a 20-foot waterfall, along with a faux redwood forest and chapel that are still there. But Sal was probably talking about another Clifton's -- the late, lamented Pacific Seas at 618 S. Olive St., which had 12 waterfalls and all manner of Polynesian flourishes. It closed in June 1960.• In the book, Sal and Dean wander Mexico City "in a frenzy and a dream. We ate beautiful steaks for forty-eight cents in a strange tiled Mexican cafeteria with generations of marimba musicians."Sal never mentions a name for that eatery, but it sounds a lot like Sanborns' La Casa de los Azulejos, a city landmark (and cafeteria and department store) that dates to the 16th century. Famed for its tile work and murals, the building has included a restaurant since about 1919.• In 1957, "On the Road" (hardcover edition, $3.95) was released in the first week of September to a rapturous review from The New York Times. That same week, Ford rolled out the Edsel, priced at about $2,500 and up. No rapture.Now, Kerouac's original 120-foot-long typescript scroll for the book is on tour, having sold at auction in 2001 for $2.4 million. Lately, rare-book dealers have been offering first-edition copies of "On the Road" for as much as $8,000. You sometimes can buy an Edsel for less.

Op-Ed Columnist
Sal Paradise at 50
'Over the past few weeks critics have taken another look at Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and this time their descriptions of it are very different.

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: October 2, 2007
A few decades ago, before TV commercials became obsessively concerned with prostate problems, Jack Kerouac wrote a book called “On the Road.” It was greeted rapturously by many as a burst of rollicking, joyous American energy. People quoted the famous lines: “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn.”

In the Times review that launched the book, Gilbert Millstein raved that “On the Road” was a frenzied search for affirmation, a book that rejected the ennui, pessimism and cynicism of the Lost Generation. The heroes of the book savored everything, enjoyed everything, took pleasure in everything.
But, of course, all this was before the great geriatric pall settled over the world, before it became illegal to be cheerful.

“On the Road” turned 50 last month, and over the past few weeks a line of critics have taken another look at the book, and this time their descriptions of it, whether they like it or not, are very different.

“Above all else, the story is about loss,” George Mouratidis, one of the editors of a new edition, told The Age in Melbourne.

“It’s a book about death and the search for something meaningful to hold on to — the famous search for ‘IT,’ a truth larger than the self, which, of course, is never found,” wrote Meghan O’Rourke in Slate.

“Kerouac was this deep, lonely, melancholy man,” Hilary Holladay of the University of Massachusetts told The Philadelphia Inquirer. ”And if you read the book closely, you see that sense of loss and sorrow swelling on every page.”

“In truth, ‘On the Road’ is a book of broken dreams and failed plans,” wrote Ted Gioia in The Weekly Standard.

In Book Forum, David Ulin noted that “even the most frantic of Kerouac’s writings were really the sagas of a solitary seeker: poor, sad Jack, adrift in a world without mercy when he’d rather be ‘safe in Heaven dead.’ ”

According to these and other essays, “On the Road” is the book you want to read if you find Sylvia Plath too upbeat.

And of course they’re not wrong. There was a traditionalist, darker side to Kerouac, as John Leland emphasizes in his book “Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of On the Road (They’re Not What You Think).”

But reading through the anniversary commemorations, you feel the gravitational pull of the great Boomer Narcissus. All cultural artifacts have to be interpreted through whatever experiences the Baby Boomer generation is going through at that moment.

So a book formerly known for its youthful exuberance now becomes a book of gloomy middle-aged disillusion. (In 20 years, “The Cat in the Hat” will be read as a commentary on unreliable home health care workers.)

And there’s something else going on, something to do with the great taming professionalism of American culture. “On the Road” has been semi-incorporated into modern culture, but only parts have survived.

Students are taught “On the Road” in class, then must write tightly organized, double-spaced term papers on it, and if they don’t get an A, it hurts their admissions prospects. The book is still talked about, but often by professional intellectuals in panel discussions and career-building journal articles.

The effect is that some of the book comes through fine — the longing, the nostalgia for home, the darker pessimism.

But the real secret of the book was its discharge of youthful energy, the stupid, reckless energy that saves “On the Road” from being a dreadful novel. The delightful, moronic, unreflective fizz appears whenever the characters are happiest, when they are chasing girls or urinating from a swerving flatbed truck while going 70 miles an hour.

Those parts haven’t survived. They run afoul of the new gentility, the rules laid down by the health experts, childcare experts, guidance counselors, safety advisers, admissions officers, virtuecrats and employers to regulate the lives of the young. They seem dangerous, childish and embarrassing in the world of professionalized adolescence and professionalized intellect.

If Sal Paradise were alive today, he’d be a product of the new rules. He’d be a grad student with an interest in power yoga, on the road to the M.L.A. convention with a documentary about a politically engaged Manitoban dance troupe that he hopes will win a MacArthur grant. He’d be driving a Prius, going a conscientious 55, wearing a seat belt and calling Mom from the Comfort Inns.

The only thing we know for sure is that this ethos won’t last. Someday some hypermanic kid will produce a moronically maxed-out adventure odyssey that will spark the overdue rebellion among all the over-pressured SAT grinds, and us grumpy midlife critics will get to witness a new Kerouac, and the greatest pent-up young-life crisis in the history of the world.

THE LAST TIME I
COMITTED SUICIDE. 1997.

filme inspirado numa carta enviado por Neal Cassady
a Jack Kerouac. Mais informações em
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119502/

video experimental sobre Kerouac.
http://blip.tv/file/396586

Jack Kerouac Exhibition at The New York Public Library Coincides with 50th Anniversary of On the Road

Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road on View from November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008; Includes Famous Scroll Manuscript Typed on 120 Feet of Paper

Entry for September 21, 1939; page 1 from: Jack Kerouac, “:--Journal--: Fall, 1939.” Holograph manuscript, signed, September 21-25, 1939. The New York Public Library, Berg Collection, Jack Kerouac Archive. © and reproduced courtesy of John G. Sampas, legal representative of the estates of Jack and Stella Kerouac.

Diaries, manuscripts, snapshots, and personal items of Jack Kerouac, the visionary author whose pioneering work helped to established the Beat Movement in the United States, will be on display in Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road, an exhibition on view at The New York Public Library November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008. The exhibition coincides with the 50th anniversary of Kerouac's landmark novel, On the Road, which has captured the imagination of several generations and established its author as a major figure in American literature. The exhibition will be drawn almost exclusively from the contents of the Jack Kerouac Archive, housed in the Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, and will display many unpublished Kerouac materials as well as typescript and manuscript drafts of On the Road. A major highlight of the exhibition will be the famous "scroll" typescript, on loan from James Irsay, owner of the National Football League's Indianapolis Colts, of which the first sixty feet will be unrolled in a specially-designed set of interlocking display cases. The scroll itself will be on display from November 9, 2007 through February 22, 2008; the exhibition continues through March 16, 2008. The exhibition will be located in the D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Admission is free.

A host of literary and physical artifacts displayed in the exhibition will bring to life Kerouac's career as a writer, from his earliest journals to typescript and manuscript drafts of his novels, short stories, essays, and poetry to diaries, journals and correspondence. Kerouac was an assiduous diarist and journal keeper. In a 1939 journal entry, recorded upon arriving in New York to attend the Horace Mann School for Boys, he wrote, "I wish to say that this journal is a continual refreshing resource for my castle, which surrounds me; it keeps me aloof from teeming humanity; it keeps me in contact with myself. By that I mean that a continual flow of ideas from my turbulent mind find their way into these pages invariably." His journals, diaries, and correspondence reveal a mind consumed with the goal of finding a way to give his experience of life on and off the road its most effective creative expression, and the drafts of his fiction, poetry, and essays record the history of those efforts. Kerouac's minutely detailed fantasy baseball and horse racing materials, which he created as a boy and played with throughout his life, will also be on display. In addition, the exhibition will include photographs of Kerouac, his family and friends, as well as objects that Kerouac treasured throughout his life, such as the crutches he used following a football injury while playing for Columbia University, and items memorably described in his writings, such as his harmonicas, his Buddhist bells, and his railroad track lantern.

Other sections of the exhibition will be devoted to Kerouac's youth and passion for sports; his early literary influences, such as William Blake, Charles Dickens, Walt Whitman, and Thomas Wolfe, illustrated by the Berg's rare editions and manuscripts, as well as by books from Kerouac's library; and his spirituality, which drew from both Buddhism and Roman Catholicism. Most of Kerouac's principal novels, such as The Town and the City (1950), On the Road (1957), Maggie Cassidy (1959), and Big Sur (1962), will be displayed in early drafts or rare editions, as will a representative sampling of his unpublished poetry. The richness of the Beat movement will be documented in a major section that will display a few selections from the Berg Collection's newly acquired William S. Burroughs Archive, as well as manuscripts, rare publications, and drawings by and photographs of Gregory Corso, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and other Beat notables. This section will also include a few examples of the media-driven "Beatnik" phenomenon, through the lurid cover art of pulp paperbacks.

A companion volume to the exhibition, written by curator Isaac Gewirtz, will look at Kerouac's life and works through the lens of the journals, diaries, and other materials in the Kerouac Archive, much of which has not previously been available to scholars. This hardcover book will be extensively illustrated in 4-color with items from the archive, including not only manuscripts and typescripts, but also Kerouac's paintings and drawings and selected items relating to his fantasy baseball games. In addition, the Donnell Library Center will organize a complementary film series.

Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road is on view November 9, 2007 through March 16, 2008 in the D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall at The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library, located at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan. Exhibition hours are Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sundays, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. beginning September 9; closed Mondays; Sunday, November 11; Thursday, November 22; Sunday, December 9; Tuesday, December 25; and Tuesday, January 1. Admission is free. For more information, call 212-869-8089 or visit http://www.nypl.org/.

Support for The New York Public Library's Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Mahnaz I. and Adam Bartos, Jonathan Altman, and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III.
About The New York Public Library The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers - The Humanities and Social Sciences Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library - and 86 Branch Libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items, including materials for the visually impaired. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The New York Public Library serves over 15 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 21 million users internationally, who access collections and services through the NYPL website, http://www.nypl.org/.

About the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature was assembled and presented to The New York Public Library by Dr. Albert A. Berg, famous New York surgeon and trustee of the Library, in memory of his brother, Dr. Henry W. Berg. Both men found relaxation from their medical careers in collecting the works and memorabilia of English and American writers. The original collection, which numbered 3,500 items, has grown through acquisitions and gifts to include some 35,000 printed items and 115,000 manuscripts, covering the entire range of English and American literature.

The Jack Kerouac I Knew
In a forthcoming book, Jack Kerouac’s agent
reflects on the four years he spent shopping On the Road.

by Sterling Lord -- Publishers Weekly, 8/27/2007.


It was autumn of 1951, and I had been warned that Jack would be coming in.
Two weeks earlier, Bob Giroux, of Harcourt, Brace, had called me. Giroux had edited The Town and the City, Jack’s first and conventional novel. Jack had just been in to see him, and he needed a literary agent. Giroux thought I would be the right man. He added that Jack had a new manuscript typed on a 120-foot scroll of architectural tracing paper. That would be my problem to deal with.
When Jack did appear at my office—a below-ground-level room on East 36th Street just off Park Avenue—he had a manuscript wrapped in newspaper which he extracted from a weather-beaten rucksack. He called it The Beat Generation, and he had already taken Bob Giroux’s advice and retyped it on regular typing paper.
Jack was wearing a light-colored weather-resistant jacket with a lightweight checkered shirt underneath. He was handsome, striking-looking and unique in appearance—”diamond in the rough” was the phrase that came to mind. He was courteous, respectful, but we didn’t talk at length, and he was leaving the product of years of work (and three weeks of typing) in my hands. He told me Giroux had rejected it.
As we started working together, I came to respect him. I was impressed with Jack’s commitment to serious writing. I felt that his was a fresh, distinctive voice that should be heard. For more than four years I could not find an editor or a publisher who felt the same way. During that time, discouraged by my lack of success, Jack wrote me (it was June 28, 1955) that he wanted to “pull my manuscripts back and forget publishing.” I thought I knew Jack well, so I ignored his request and continued submitting. Twelve days later, he changed his mind and we went on merrily together.
The rejections of two editors both highly regarded and employed by major publishing houses with literary reputations were typical of the reactions. Surprisingly, each of these editors was approximately Jack’s age, which in my mind should have increased the likelihood of their responding positively to the manuscript. The most striking rejection was the following: “Kerouac does have enormous talent of a very special kind. But this is not a well made novel, nor a saleable one nor even, I think, a good one. His frenetic and scrambling prose perfectly expresses the feverish travels, geographically and mentally, of the Beat Generation. But is that enough? I don’t think so.”
That was six months after the following rejection came in from another publisher: “I know this will be discouraging news for you and Jack Kerouac, for you’ve both waited so long and patiently. Our response to Kerouac’s work was singular almost to a man, in that there was genuine admiration for his vigorous prose, his capacity to create a living sense of America, of life in this country, and the force and originality of his conception. But there were serious objections to the people and situations he writes about, whether they would be of compelling interest to many readers.... [A]ll I might suggest is that he should strive for a clearer vision of the novel itself.”
After almost four years of trying to sell Jack’s manuscript—now called On the Road—to a U.S. publisher, I sold a piece of his to the Paris Review. A few months later, I sold one piece of the manuscript, and then another, to New World Writing. Shortly after the second story appeared in New World Writing, I had a call from Keith Jennison, a young Viking editor. He, Malcolm Cowley and Tom Guinzburg were the strong Kerouac fans at Viking, and of course Malcolm Cowley had had the original scroll.
“Dammit, Sterling,” Keith said, “we can’t let that manuscript go unpublished any longer.” He made me an offer of $900 against royalties. I said no, and I got him up to $1,000 and closed the deal. Jack took the good news in stride. It was as if he knew it would eventually be published, and that it was happening now was merely a confirmation of his belief.
Shortly after the contract was signed, Helen Taylor, a fine senior editor, began working with Jack in editing the manuscript, while the lawyers expressed their concerns about names and likenesses of some of the book’s characters. Her editing was extremely sensitive: she made cuts and changes without in any way impeding the flow of Jack’s prose. This turned out to be the last time any manuscript of Jack’s was edited. I sold a subsequent novel, The Subterraneans, to another publisher, whose initial editing was totally insensitive. (We caught it before publication.) Thereafter, at Jack’s request, I would include in each contract the following clause: “The publisher may not change a word of the manuscript nor alter the punctuation” or some variation thereof.
A year later, during July and August 1957—the book had not yet been published—I began to feel the growing wave of enthusiasm for it. Half a dozen times, in early afternoon, I had calls from one publishing person after another, and they were all the same: “Sterling, I just had lunch with (blank) of Viking, and all he (or she) could talk about was the Kerouac novel.” It didn’t make any difference which Viking editor they had lunched with, the comment was the same. It was the book they were all excited about.
September 5, 1957, On the Road was published with an electrifying New York Times review by Gilbert Millstein, an extremely perceptive and talented writer himself and a man of great integrity. He was filling in for the regular New York Times reviewer, Orville Prescott, who was on vacation. The review had enormous impact.
I will never forget those days. The press wanted Jack in New York immediately. I phoned him in Florida and left word. He called back shortly asking if he could borrow $25 for a bus ticket back to New York. ( It was only years later that I learned he had also contacted his friend Joyce Glassman asking for $30.) At that time Joyce’s apartment was Jack’s headquarters when he came to New York. And using our money he managed to get to New York immediately.
Once the book was out, he was taken in hand by Pat McManus, Viking’s head publicist. But shortly after publication, around 11:15 one morning Viking phoned—“Where was Jack? He was about to miss appointments.” I thought I knew where. I hailed a taxi to take me to 65 W. 65th St., Joyce’s apartment. When I arrived, Jack was lying on his back on the living room floor. He was overwhelmed, shocked by the swift change from obscurity to smothering adulation. He couldn’t deal with it.
The shock of Jack’s sudden fame caused all sorts of problems for him. I felt he was basically shy, and any time he came to New York City, he had to fortify himself with drink. Initially I tried to help Jack battle his drinking problem, including taking him to a doctor who thought he could help. The doctor turned out to be totally ineffective.
But I began to realize that, fond as I was of him, I was only his literary agent, not his life agent.
Almost 12 years after On the Road was published, one night when I was sound asleep in my New York City apartment, the phone rang. It was 4:30 in the morning of October 21, 1969. The call was from Stella, Jack’s wife. She was choked up with emotion as she told me that Jack had just died. I expressed my sorrow and had the presence of mind to tell her I was in the process that very week of negotiating a film sale of On the Road to JGL Productions Inc. at Warner Brothers. It was too much for her to address and with a short gasp she hung up. But she was alert enough to call the St. Petersburg bank, who was the trustee of Jack’s estate, so that by the time I reached my office at 9:30 that morning, the bank was on the phone assuring me of my right to go ahead, in general, to continue functioning as Jack’s agent. And of course I told the bank that Jack had on his own initiative on March 4, 1958, signed a note appointing me his literary executor.
A few days later, I was on a plane to Boston en route to the funeral at Lowell, Mass. It was a Friday morning, and I wasn’t flying alone. The night before, my friend the writer Jimmy Breslin had phoned and hearing of my next day plans, he said, “No one should go alone to a funeral,” and he promptly arranged to fly with me. Since he didn’t know Kerouac, although they had by coincidence lived near each other in the Queens town of Richmond Hill, he asked me a good deal about Jack during the flight, including how he died at the young age of 47. As nearly as I knew, from what I had heard from family and friends, Jack had had nothing to eat—he drank constantly—for the last four or five days of his life, and I told Jimmy so.
“That’s impossible,” Jimmy said, speaking with the authority of a man who had seen it all, in that area at least. “You’ve got to eat something around 10 or 11 in the morning. You can’t avoid it.” And he promised to find out at the wake. He did; Jack had been taking bennies.
As the plane came on to its final approach at Logan Airport, Jimmy turned to ask me how I planned to get from Logan to Lowell. “Rent a car,” I said, but that wasn’t good enough for such an occasion, in Jimmy’s view.
At the time Jimmy was probably the best known journalist/columnist in the United States, and he certainly was well-known in the Irish community of Boston. So when we reached a phone booth in the airport, Jimmy thumbed through the yellow pages until he found the largest ad for a limousine service with an Irish proprietor. It was around 9 a.m., and the owner of that particular service was still in bed. But hearing it was really Jimmy Breslin on the phone, he jumped out of bed with no thought of assigning another driver for the trip and was at our disposal in twenty minutes. All that Irish brogue up and back between Jimmy and the owner/driver did a great deal to mollify the pain of Jack’s death for me.
I can still see the scene around the grave. The sunlight filtering through the trees, the leaves brown after shedding their fall colors. John Clellon Holmes, Allen Ginsberg full of sadness, Edie Parker (Jack’s first wife), members of the Sampas family and a group of working press, some of whom came up to Jimmy Breslin, who didn’t get out of the car we’d hired to bring us up from Boston. “No,” he said to the journalists who asked him questions, “it’s not my day, it’s his,” as he pointed to the fresh grave containing Jack’s body.
Long after all this had happened, I called Bob Giroux, then retired. “I did not reject On the Road,” Bob told me. “I never read it. I merely told him, 'Jack, don’t you realize that the way authors present manuscripts now, they put them on 8½×11-inch white paper.’ ” At that point, Bob rolled up the scroll and handed it back to Jack.
Today—2007—50 years after original publication, On the Road is still read, taught and assigned in high schools and colleges all over the U.S. It sells 100,000 copies each year in the United States and Canada. It has also been published successfully in 32 foreign countries.
Copyright © 2007 by Sterling Lord

Tribute To Jack Kerouac
Memory Babe An artistic project by Arnaud Contreras
and Alain Dister

The 23 of september 2007, an artistic installation by Arnaud Contreras
will celebrate in Paris, France, the 50th year of publication of On the Road,
the mythical book by Jack Kerouac.

During the afternoon and all night long, we will organize Memory Babe,
A Tribute To Jack Kerouac, an artistic installation including films, music,
photography, films, lectures, text and...You Tube, Myspace, to enlight
this great american writer, at the Cabaret Pirate, in front of the
Bibliothèque Nationale de France

You can Participate to this Tribute to Jack Kerouac by:
- sending to Jack a postcard, a letter, a poem, a picture, from all around
the world ( adress: « To Jack Kerouac » / À 360 / 5, avenue Milleret de Brou / 75016 / Paris / France )
- filming a video on the road, where you're, everywhere in the world,
upload it on youtube (or any other site) and send us the adress of your video.
This video will be inclued in Jack's channel (http://www.youtube.com/tribute2kerouac)
and projected during the installation.

- adding Jack to your myspace friend
- sending a poem, a picture, a song, a mail to Jack : jackkerouac@a360.org
All your contributions, videos, mails, letters, will be displayed in the installation during the night and will be online.
More on : www.arnaudcontreras.com and on : http://myspace.com/tribute2kerouac

Russell Brand is to retrace beat generation author Jack Kerouac’s footsteps across America for a new BBC show.

The comic will recreate the road trip Kerouac took in his seminal autobiographical novel On The Road, the book that captured the new mood of free thinking among America’s youth in the Fifties, and is written in a stream-of-conscious style.

Now 32-year-old Brand wants to recapture that spirit when he recreates the journey with his Radio 2 co-host Matt Morgan.‘We'll go to places of significance, take long car journeys and, you know, just hang out,’ Brand said.

A film version of On The Road, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, is also in the pipeline, and is set to be released in 2009.

the life and times of allen ginsberg

Deluxe two-disc set containing the updated feature
and over six hours of extras. diversos excertos em
www.allenginsbergmovie.com

Kerouac Scroll Unrolled

Easy Rider: Road Trips through America
Yancey Richardson GalleryChelsea
535 West 22nd Street, 3rd Floor, 646-230-9610
July 11 - September 8, 2007
Opening: Wednesday, July 11, 6:00PM - 8:00PM
Web Site
Show Map
The Yancey Richardson Gallery is pleased to present
our summer exhibition Easy Rider: Road Trips through
America which pays homage to the tradition of road
trips in American photography. Highway culture has
long been a quintessential part of American identity.
Easy Rider explores the common themes of social
commentary, cultural geography and photographic
biography produced by the marriage between the road
and photography. Included are photographs and videos
dating from 1935 to 2006 by Jeff Brouws, Tim Davis,
William Eggleston, Mitch Epstein, Robert Frank, Lee
Friedlander, Allen Ginsberg, Frank Gohlke, Ernst Haas,
Todd Hido, Jodie Vicenta Jacobson, Lisa Kereszi, Justine
Kurland, William Lamson, Dorothea Lange, Danny Lyon,
Nathan Lyons, Christian Patterson, Mike Smith, Ed Ruscha,
Lise Sarfati, Vicki Sambunaris, Stephen Shore, Rosalind
Solomon, Alec Soth, Mark Steinmetz, Joel Sternfeld, and
Garry Winogrand and others.

The road allowed Farm Security Administration photographers
Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans to document the plight
of Americans suffering floods and dustbowls during the
Great Depression. Similarly bleak, Robert Frank's mid
1950s road trips yielded a portrait of the nation at odds
with the projected optimism of the era and culminated
in The Americans, a landmark publication, which influenced
generations of later photographers.

The open road as a symbol of freedom is exemplified in
Allen Ginsberg's 1964 shot of Neal Cassady at the wheel
of Ken Kesey's Merry Prankster bus; Cassady's incessant
cross-country journeys were a primary inspiration for Jack
Kerouac's definitive Beat generation novel On the Road.
Having spent four years riding with the motorcycle gang
the Outlaws, Danny Lyons produced the book The Bikeriders,
which emblazoned motorcycle counterculture onto the
American psyche and inspired the film Easy Rider.

Subsequent generations of photographers continued to take
to the road in order to explore the cultural landscape.
Traveling on a 1969 Guggenheim to study the effect of the
media on public events, Garry Winogrand recorded America's
restlessness through its political rallies, peace demonstrations
and space shuttle launches. In the 1970s Mitch Epstein looked
at recreation across America while Joel Sternfeld's wryly-funny
photographs often showed man at odds with nature. Alec Soth
followed the watery artery of the Mississippi River to make
pictures of the dreams; both lost and fiercely held, of those he
encountered. More recently, Tim Davis traveled the country to
seek out the presence of politics in today's life; in St. Louis he
found a wall mural of the United States depicted as one grotesquely
stretched red state.

Several photographers have looked closely at the details and
detritus of American culture for clues to its soul. William Eggleston's
photograph of an elegantly wallpapered restaurant wall plastered
over with the business cards of its patrons shows commercial
aspirations trumping style. On the bare chipboard walls of Reverend
and Margaret's Bedroom, Soth memorializes a moving display of
family photographs while Lisa Kereszi's discovery of a biker bar's
photographic collage of women flashing their breasts reveals the
misogynist underbelly of road-worshipping motorcycle culture.

Many photographers have constructed a kind of biography of
roads traveled, places visited and people encountered, often
including themselves and family m embers. In 1962, Ed Ruscha
photographed isolated gas stations along Route 66 filling half the
picture frame with the street at his feet. Lee Friedlander frequently
incorporated himself into his car images, staring into the camera
through the windshield or via the side view mirror. In his witty
series America and Me, recent Bard graduate William Lamson
photographed himself interacting with elements of the roadside
landscape, always hiding his face but freely revealing the shutter
release. Poolside at a roadside inn, Stephen Shore incorporated his
young wife Ginger into a minimalist composition of color and light.
Accustomed to working on the road, Justine Kurland adjusted to
motherhood by photographing her young son living with her in a
camper van on an extended road trip.

Jeff Brouws has made a career of photographing along highways,
evolving from cataloguing the relics of small town roadside architecture
to documenting the negative impact of thruways in the 21st century.
His 2004 image of a rusting red car upended in a field presents a
pessimistic view of contemporary road culture: the car as a dinosaur
on the road to nowhere.

Peter Orlovsky, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs
(photo by Allen Ginsberg)

Having taken meticulous notes and planned the novel duringhis cross-country travels, JACK KEROUAC wrote the first draftof On the Road in a three-week burst of creativity, tapingsheets of paper together so they could run through histypewriter uninterrupted. After a cross-country exhibitiontour, the original scroll has returned to Lowell’s BoottCotton Mills Museum, where its display will be part of "ONTHE ROAD IN LOWELL,” a festival of readings, musical performances,and art exhibits (see www.ontheroadinlowell.org) planned aroundthe 50th anniversary of On the Road. The Beat Generation isreborn at Lowell National Historical Park, 115 John St,Lowell June 15–September 14 [reception June 15: 6-9 pm]

Hogan's Beat Fever Jack Kerouac inspires outerwear
debut Thursday, May 24, 2007

Hogan's Jack Kerouac bomber jacket
(NEW YORK) Hogan will unveil its first-ever outerwear
piece on Tuesday, when the Tod’s Group-owned brand
debuts the Jack Kerouac Project, a capsule collection of
six leather goods pieces inspired by the Beat novelist, writer,
poet, and artist, which will be available exclusively at
Paris retailer Colette for one month. In addition to the
$1,590 bomber style jacket, the collection consists of two
styles of shoes (a $295 high top sneaker and a $475
working boot) and three bags (a travel bag, book bag, and
back pack priced from $950 to $1,290). Colette will celebrate
the launch by showcasing a series of photographs influenced
by Kerouac’s novel On the Road in its iconic rue Saint-Honoré
store windows. Following its debut at Colette, the collection
will be available in all Hogan stores worldwide beginning in July.

jack kerouac by robert frank

evento em Roma dedicado a Jack Kerouac, informação
recolhida na newsletter Le Cool de Roma.

Dal Vivo Bits Of Beat
Quest’anno cade il cinquantenario della pubblicazione di
“On the road” di Jack Kerouac, quale modo migliore per
omaggiarlo se non a suon di jazz? Questo è uno degli intenti
dei Bits Of Beat, progetto aperto che vede la partecipazione
di musicisti e poeti tutti felicemente intossicati dalla Beat
Generation, che tante menti ancora riesce ad influenzare.
In questo concerto assisteremo ad una sorta di reading della
leggendaria opera di Kerouac , e se sulla carta può sembrare
un’operazione nostalgica, beh leggetevi qualche pagina del
randagio per eccellenza e vi ricrederete. Inoltre, da Rinascita ,
c’è anche una caffetteria dove poter scegliere il giusto
accompagnamento “gustativo” alle musiche, per sentirsi,
finalmente, battuti e beati./ Italo Rizzo

DOVE
Libreria Rinascita Viale Agosta, 3606.25204819

QUANDO
21:30

COSTO
Gratis

The Subterraneans (1960)





Limited Edition of 3,000 Copies.
Composed by: Andre Previn

Released by Special Arrangement with Turner
Classic Movies Music The Subterraneans (1960)
was an attempt to package the Beat generation
for mainstream consumption. Based on the novel
by Jack Kerouac, the film was produced by the
legendary Arthur Freed and starred George
Peppard, Leslie Caron and Roddy McDowall. Its
reception was mixed but stellar in one key respect:
the progressive jazz soundtrack -- one of the all-time
best -- composed and conducted by Andre Previn.

Previn was the ideal composer to pull off such a
marriage: at once a classically trained musician
who scored a bevy of high-profile pictures for M-G-M
in the 1950s, he was also a talented jazz pianist
who soaked up the atmosphere of the West Coast
jazz movement -- all at 31 years of age.

Previn assembled a world-class roster of jazz artists:
Gerry Mulligan (who also acted in the film), Carmen
McRae, Shelly Manne, Red Mitchell, Buddy Clark,
Dave Bailey, Art Pepper, Russ Freeman, Bill Perkins,
Bob Enevoldsen, and Jack Sheldon. Previn himself
appeared on-screen performing with The Andre Previn
Trio. Previn composed an underscore that married his
jazz source cues with the romantic aesthetic of the
Hollywood symphonic style -- the venerated soloists
move in and out of Previn's romantic, often modernist
sound.

The Subterraneans was released on LP at the time
of the film, and in recent years several of the jazz source
selections were included on a Rhino compilation. This
CD presents the definitive Subterraneans soundtrack
running over 79 minutes: the original album program
followed a new program of bonus selections, containing
all of the previously released music and much more,
including the underscore. Unlike most FSM CDs, the
selections are not presented in film sequence, because
in this case the score -- with the jazz source cues --
would not play well in literal film order.

The music has been remixed and remastered in
stereo from the original 35mm three-track masters,
with the exception of certain source cues which were
recorded on monaural 17.5mm film. Liner notes are
by Jeff Eldridge and Lukas Kendall.

PATTI SMITH TALKS ABOUT
ALLEN GINSBERG'S DEATH

There 's a Patti Smith audio clip on her
myspace page that is pretty cool. It's
called "Don't Say Nothing" and after 2
or 3 minutes of singing Patti starts
talking about her experience at Allen
Ginsberg's apartment the night he died
in 1997. It's a pretty powerful clip. It's
9 minutes long all together, but worth
the investment. Click on the link below
and then click on the audio clip "Don't
Say Nothing". You'll know you found the
right clip when you see a picture or Allen
pop up.

http://www.myspace.com/pattismith

KEROUAC'S BIRTHPLACE AT 9 LUPINE
ROAD IS ON THE MARKET

The apartment Jack Kerouac was born
and lived in at 9 Lupine Road in Lowell, MA
is available for rent. And beyond that, the
owner intimates if someone makes the right
offer the place is available for purchase.
Seems to me some well heeled Beat Fan
ought to buy this baby for posterity.
The Beat Museum would like to participate
but our plate is full right now.

http://www.lowellsun.com/front/ci_5881618

The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg

Jerry Aronsen's The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg disc set is one organized documentary augmented by an extensive collection of film material, photos, interviews and other 'historical evidence' relating to the famed Beat Generation poet. The feature-length documentary bearing the disc's title was first released ten years ago and provides a fine introduction to the interior life of this entertaining and unique artist. Hailed as a poetic genius, Allen Ginsberg spent a productive life as both an inspiration and a guiding moral compass for the counterculture.

The documentary tells the story of Ginsberg's life through prime-source testimony from his associates and loved ones. Director Aronsen had the cooperation of Ginsberg's brother Eugene and stepmother, both of whom are in awe of Allen's accomplishments. We see family photos and home movies from the poet's childhood in the 1930s. He looks like a happy kid, playing at the beach with his cousins.

In reality, Ginsberg's home life was a nightmare of emotional hardship and tragedy. Allen's schoolteacher father was supportive but his mother suffered from acute paranoia and spent serious time in mental institutions. By the 1940s she was institutionalized on a near-permanent basis. The experience forced Ginsberg to take life seriously at an early age; when his later associates in art suffered problems with alcohol and drugs, Allen would be a stabilizing factor.

In New York in the middle 1940s Allen linked up with poets and writers like Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, the vanguard of "The Beat Generation." He also met writers like William Burroughs and discovered his personal homosexuality. Aronsen documents the artistic interactions and disagreements of this group. Then a famous 1955 poetry reading in San Francisco 'united' the West and East coast Beats, with Allen on top of the artistic heap with his groundbreaking poem Howl. Addressed to his friend Carl Solomon, the poem makes reference to many of Ginsberg's associates and their histories in the Beat movement.

Ginsberg returned to personal concerns with the poem Kaddish, a rumination about his late mother Naomi. Anything but a rebel, Allen is shown as close to his brother and father. He later encourages his father to publish his own poetry.

The docu doesn't say much about the Howl obscenity trial or any of Ginsberg's publicized problems. It instead shows his rise to the status of unofficial Beat poet laureate. We see excerpts of his guest spots on Dick Cavett and William F. Buckley's talk shows; even Buckley respects Ginsberg. A section of the film documents Ginsberg's activities as a fervent anti-war and anti-nuke protester, but one who openly discouraged angry demonstrations like the '68 Chicago debacle. When activists began preaching open defiance of the law and radicals pronounced declarations of revolution, Ginsberg spoke out against them. He'd later say that the polarizing effect of seeing longhairs battling the police only strengthened the Right, helping Nixon's election campaign, prolonging the war, and so forth.

The seventies show Ginsberg relating to transcendental religions, developing his personal philosophy and continuing to write. The later years see him dealing with family setbacks and publishing more works, including books of his photography. Always candid, genial and thoughtful, Ginsberg is seen in many interviews from the late 1950s onward. The revised docu ends with a simple shot of his gravesite in 1997.


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New Yorker Video's 2-Disc DVD of The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg should be considered an audio-visual accompaniment to serious study of the poet, as the biographical scope of the docu does not pretend to penetrate into all corners of the man's life. But what is here is personal and authoritative, and highly useful to anyone seeking a full understanding of the man. The many extras encompass more poetry readings, incidental film of Ginsberg with William Burroughs and Neal Cassady and Ginsberg at an exhibition of his photography. An excerpt is included from Jonas Mekas' film Scenes from Allen Ginsberg's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit, along with odd bits like Ginsberg and Bob Dylan reading poetry at the grave of Jack Kerouac.

The bulk of the extras are filmed interviews with notables talking about Ginsberg, mostly uncut and ranging between a couple of minutes and a quarter of an hour in length: Joan Baez, Beck, Bono, Stan Brakhage, William Burroughs, Johnny Depp, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Philip Glass, Peter Hale, John Hammond, Jr., Abbie Hoffmann, Jack Johnson, Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, "The Living Theater" (Julian Beck and Judith Melina), Paul McCartney, Jonas Mekas, Thurston Moore, Yoko Ono, Lee Ranaldo, Gehiek Rimpoche, Bob Rosenthal, Ed Sanders, Patti Smith, Steven Taylor, Hunter S. Thompson, Bob Thurman, Anne Waldman, and Andy Warhol.

Photo galleries, a memorial tribute and a music video called Ballad of the Skeletons complete New Yorker's package. The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg is a major research item for any evaluation or study of the poet's life.

And for those who just can’t get enough of Kerouac,
NewWest.net reader Michael Hess wrote a comment
last week about the various map projects he’s been
working on to geo-locate the places Kerouac wrote
about. Hess is blogging as he maps.Aqui

Naropa University, the Boulder college founded by
Kerouac’s beat buddy Allen Ginsberg, is planning
to celebrate in a big way, and is gearing up for
its Kerouac festival to be held from June 30 to
July 1 this summer. In the meantime, Kerouac fans
can check out the festival’s blog, which includes
news, audio, and video on all things related to
Kerouac. Aqui

van morrison lê, slim gallaird toca
on the road.

jan kerouac, filha. mais detalhes aqui

fishing with guns
@ hunter s. thompson
c-type print
91.5 x 91.5 cm

mais imagens aqui

a brief introduction to the beat cinema
(click the image)

SAN FRANCISCO FILM FESTIVAL, 26 APRIL - 10 MAY, 2007




A half-century ago, in 1957, "crazy dumbsaint of the mind"
Jack Kerouac published the book that was to crack open
postwar American literature and society and become a blazing
iconic beacon of the Beat Generation and a light that never
goes out for playful, seeking dreamers everywhere, then and
since. Three generations have dug the passionate jazzbo
language of On the Road, stuffed a copy in a backpack and hit
the highway in search of enlightenment. No other contemporary
literary work can claim such an immediate and enduring impact.
After five decades, it still sells up to 130,000 copies a year. As
part of its own 50th anniversary celebration, SFIFF and
Litquake pay homage to Kerouac’s golden book with a
portmanteau program of readings, testimonials and images
honoring Sal Paradise, Dean Moriarty, Carlo Marx, Ed Dunkel,
the lost city of San Francisco and, of course, Kerouac himself,
the "writer-director of Earthly movies Sponsored and Angeled
in Heaven." Peter Coyote, Michael McClure and Diane DiPrima
will take part in this cultural celebration, with more Beat
Generation aficionados expected to join them.

Graham Leggat

FINDING MY KEROUAC

FINDING MY KEROUAC: On the Road at Mid-Life is an audio documentary
based on the spirit of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. The mostly autobiographical
novel is 50 years old this year - it was published in 1957 - and has been the
inspiration of road and life travelers since its debut.

In Finding My Kerouac, Kerouac's On the Road fuels two mid-life travelers
through a 4000 mile journey of reflection, contemplation, and rediscovery. The
documentary captures this through the spirit of Kerouac's travels.

http://findingmykerouac.com/

The Road To Discovery Begins At '30'

By Ted Scheid
cbs3.com Film Festival Coverage
PHILADELPHIA

The open road has beckoned storytellers for centuries with its seemingly endless opportunity for discovery. First-time filmmaker Curtis Pollock heeds the call in his new film 30, which premieres as a work in progress at the 16th Philadelphia Film Festival.

Writers and filmmakers alike, from Jack Kerouac to David Lynch, have been enamored with the idea of cutting loose and taking to the highways and byways of the United States.

Pennsylvania-native Curtis Pollock, 30, showcases one man’s fictional coast to coast journey in his first feature film 30.

“It’s about a 30 year old who wakes up on his 30th birthday and gets dumped by his girlfriend, has a bad night at the bar and decides to take his luck to Atlantic City,” Pollock said. “When he wins a little money, he finds a car, buys a car, sees Route 30 and takes it west.

“Each city that he goes to as he’s going west sort of propels him further and further into his little adventure, all the way to the west coast. It goes from Jersey to Oregon.”

Pollock, who currently lives in Austin, Texas, was well acquainted with the two lane wide highway while growing up in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

“Route 30 was our highway that took us into Pittsburgh,” he said. ‘Everybody thinks it’s the same local road that it just goes from one town to the next, but they don’t realize that it goes from one coast to the other.

“I was originally thinking of perhaps a documentary about Route 30 and then I started thinking about having a 30-year-old taking Route 30.”

While in Hoboken, New Jersey, Pollock reconnected with Chris Halleron, a friend he had previously bartended with several years back. After reading an article in a bi-weekly column authored by Halleron, Pollock realized he had found his wandering protagonist.

“He wrote an article about ‘Come out and celebrate his 30th birthday,’ and I thought, ‘Well here’s a 30-year-old who just got recently dumped by his girlfriend and he doesn’t enjoy his job bartending and he’d rather write,’ and I thought it was just the perfect casting call,” Pollock said.

Beginning in the summer of 2005, the cast and crew, comprised of mostly first-timers, geared up and hit the road with a donated Chevrolet Corvair.

“We did start in Atlantic City and then got in a car and just went west. About 24 days with 12 people,” Pollock said. “Along the way it’s very authentic. All the exteriors you’re seeing are on Route 30.”

A month of shooting brought with it a wealth of experiences, including an impromptu stop at a Corvair convention to obtain a spare transmission and a memorable moment.

“We got some unbelievable footage from very kind people that had no idea who we were and charged us absolutely no money, so I’m very appreciative to the Iowa Corvair enthusiasts,” Pollock said.

Generosity was the driving force of the film as Pollock said a majority of the cast was willing to forgo a payday in exchange for the opportunity.

Seasoned actors, like “Little Orphan Annie” star Aileen Quinn, joined those who had zero experience in front of the lens in the cinematic adventure.

“Basically everybody’s talents were free and that was the big gift,” Pollock said. “All along the way everybody was very helpful, very kind and took us in wherever we went, especially the further west we went.”

Keeping the wheels turning in 30 is a funky soundtrack written by New York jazz ensemble Second Movement. Pollock said a college friend introduced him to the group of talented musicians several years ago.

“They have a very good groove and I could hear that as we were driving. It was definitely important to me to have that kind of music that was helping to propel the visual images as we were going along,” he said.

After a month of shooting, approximately four months of editing and countless hours of post-production (with several still left), Pollock’s road trip opus 30 will have its sold-out premiere at the National Constitution Center on April 13 at 9:30 p.m.

30themovie