Oops! I missed a day! Sorry, I've been Christmas shopping and cleaning up the house for the holiday when my whole little family'll be together under one roof again.
I'm still working a little bit at a time on my two beatnik posts (samples above and below). I've also been reading some interesting stuff which I can't wait to tell you about.
I'll be back tomorrow!
Speaking as one who witnessed the Beat scene firsthand, albeit as a naive youth, I'm looking forward to your take on it. In my case, it was at that veritable Mecca, perhaps even origin, of beatnikdom, Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Books in San Francisco's North Beach, c.1960. I was around 14, and often accompanied my older brother on shopping sprees to The City, which usually included a visit to City Lights. My brother wasn't a Beat, but was definitely attuned to the avant garde of music, poetry art and literature of the time. I, on the other hand, was attuned to cartoons, cowboys and Laurel & Hardy comedies on TV, fascinated by giant cars with tail fins and lived week to week in anticipation of a visit with Uncle Walt every Wednesday evening at 7:30. Thus it was through rather bemused and confused eyes that I observed the scene in the basement of City Lights, which had it all: the espresso, the bongos, the berets, goatees, black turtlenecks, the shelves lined with Ginsburg's Howl and all the rest. It was crazy, man, crazy.
ReplyDeletePaul: You actually saw this stuff!? I'm envious! Please tell me if I get anything wrong!
ReplyDeleteActually I have two beatnik stories to tell, one written by me, and one written by a guy who might be a big name writer. I'll do mine first, then I'll do his. I think I can use some of the same photos in both stories.