Gregory Corso

 

Allen Ginsberg

 

Jack Kerouac

 

Jack (Kerouac)

 

( Herbert Huncke and Allen Ginsberg )

William S. Burroughs in his room at the legendary "Beat Hotel" in Paris (1958-1960) where he put together and completed The Naked Lunch.

Beat Hotel 

 

William S. Burroughs

Literary Outlaw

 

Allen Ginsberg (1926 - 1997)

Allen

Farewell Lawrence RIP

Goodbye to Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet, publisher, political activist, godfather of the beat generation and owner of San Francisco's legendary City Lights Bookshop. He was 101.

Ginsberg's The Fall of America tribute

Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart, Yo La Tengo, Angelique Kidjo, Ed Sanders, Sonic Youth's bandmates Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, Bill Frisell and Devendra Banhart are among the musicians that pay tribute to beat poet  Allen Ginsberg on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Ginsberg's The Fall of America: Poems of These States (1965 - 1971)

The album includes musical interpretations of poems from Ginsberg's 1971 book, with some tracks featuring the late poet reciting his lyrics accompanied by the new music.

The collection (in digital, CD or vynil format) can be ordered here

Adios Dr. John

Dr. John, a great musician and legendary  New Orleans folk hero, passed away yesterday June 6 at 77 years.
A talented piano player and songwriter, he began his long career in the late 1950s, recorded more than 20 albums , jammed with the most preminent blues, rock and jazz musicians and was the winner of six Grammy Awards.
Dr. John's family announced that he died of a heart attack at break of day and "He created a unique blend of music which carried his home town, New Orleans, at his heart, as it was always in his heart."
RIP Doctor
Dr. john

Allen

Allen Ginsberg 

WSB (1914 - 1997) 

The Lives & Arts of Brion Gysin

Surrealist, painter,calligraphist, writer, psychonaut, esoterist, traveller and a dozen of other things, Brion Gysin (1916-1986) was the inspirator of the famous William Burroughs' "cut-up" technique and the inventor of the "Dream Machine", a strboscopic flicker device that produces  strong visual stimuli and altered states of consciousness.
He crossed paths with people like Brian Jones, Paul Bowles, Timothy Leary, Iggy Pop,Ira Cohen, Francis Bacon and beat icons like Ginsberg and Kerouac. With his good friend Burroughs he co-wrote "Minutes to Go" (1960) and published - among other books -  "The Third Mind" (1978) and "Here to Go: Planet R-101" (1982).
"Here to Go and Back Again: The Lives and Arts of Brion Gysin", an interesting and rather exhaustive article about Gysin  written by Matthew Levi Stevens was recently published on the always cool Reality Sandwich

"If Brion Gysin had not existed, it probably would have been necessary to invent him, as the saying goes. Pre-eminent multimedia psychedelic shaman of the latter-half of the Twentieth Century, Gysin was something of a jack-of-all-trades: artist, calligrapher, entrepreneur, kinetic sculptor, novelist, performance artist, photographer, poet, raconteur, restaurateur, and traveller in this-and-other worlds. Brion did it All. And even a brief list of the names he crossed paths with sounds like a veritable who’s who: Laurie Anderson, Francis Bacon, David Bowie, Paul Bowles, Ira Cohen, Ornette Coleman, Max Ernst, Marianne Faithfull, Leonor Fini, Jean Genet, Keith Haring, Billie Holliday, Brian Jones, Timothy Leary, Iggy Pop, Genesis P-Orridge, Patti Smith, Gore Vidal – and, of course, his long-term friend and collaborator, William Burroughs – are among the friends, fellow-travellers and sometimes collaborators that have spoken of their admiration for the Man and his Work..."
(continue reading) 

Is Everybody In ?

William S. Burroughs reads  Jim Morrison's poetry "Is Everybody In?" on Doors' tribute album "Stoned Immaculate" (2000). The Doors give the musical  brilliant background....

Counterculture Literature on auction

A very nice collection of   first/and/or autographed editions of beat and counterculture books (and even a bottle of methadone prescribed to William Burroughs filled with rocks and dirt from the author's grave...!) is up for auction at collectors weekly  

The Neal Cassidy Day

February 1st sees the fourth annual 'Neal Cassidy Birthday Bash' held at The Mercury Cafe in Cassidy's hometown of Denver,Colorado. This year Mayor Hancock has designated the first of the month as 'Neal Cassidy Day'.
Less well-known than other members of the Beat generation, Cassidy's only literari work,The First Third, was published posthumously as an unfinished manuscript. However, it was Cassidy's spontaneous and free-flowing letter-writing that inspired Kerouac's own style.
(more on Reality Sandwich)

The Beats as They Were

Disappointed by On the Road movie? Don't worry, you're not alone. Luckily, NYU's Grey Art Gallery is offering a far superior option for those in search of an inside glimpse at how the Beat Generation lived. Beginning January 15, New Yorkers can visit the gallery's Beat Memories: the Photographs of Allen Ginsberg to peruse a selection of 110 photos taken (and often captioned by hand) by none other than Allen Ginsberg...
Read and see more photos here

Ira Cohen 1935 - 2011

Ira Cohen was an American poet, publisher, filmaker, photographer and a countercultural icon. In the '60s and '70s he traveled extensively around the world, in particular in India, Nepal and Maroc (he lived in Tangier for 4 years, in the early 1960s.)
In 1981 he returned in New York, but continued to travel, making trips to Ethiopia, Japan and back to India, where he filmed the Kumbha Mela, the greatest spiritual gathering of the world.
Deeply inspired by Hindu and Islamic philosophy and spirituality, Ira was also an expert and a joyous user of hashish in its various forms, in particular the majoon, a powerful Moroccan confection made of cannabis resin, honey, dates, spices and other ingredients. In 1966 he published The Hashish Cookbook.
Get more info about Ira Cohen here

A memorial event for Ira Cohen will be held in New York City on Sunday, Febr. 5th, 2012, 6 pm - 10 pm at the Living Theatre, 21 Clinton Street, NYC
For more details please visit Ira Cohen's website