Nowhere To Go But Everywhere
“Happiness consists in realizing it is all a great strange dream”― Jack Kerouac
Tomorrow would have been Jack Kerouac’s 100th birthday…and while numbers are just things that we put together to make some sense out of our reality, his 100th birthday seems a good a time as any to think about the legacy of the most famous of the Beats. TO BE HONEST: I come to this conversation having never been able to finish On The Road. There is something about that novel, barring the episode where the main characters hit a bar and watch a Slim Gaillard performance, that I have always found….un-enticing (Jon Blaufarb: I did enjoy flipping through the version you gave me, the recently released unedited “scroll” version). And then there is the Kerouac persona, a tough one where the author came off as a difficult person in interviews…especially during his later years, when his drunken debaucherous ways were no longer hep, zi-iki-ree and grar-sa but more ke-no-say. If you get my jive.
So what was it about Kerouac that made him so iconic? I think a big part of it is WHAT he represented and how his generation was crying out for the lifestyle and philosophy baked into On The Road, looking for that defining voice, similar to how Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius or (in a completely different way) Brett Easton Ellis’ Less Than Zero was that voice for Generation Xers. The post World War II experience that Kerouac represented…always moving to a cool jazz beat while roaming around the country Route 66 staying up all night writing feverishly on rolls of toilet paper digging uppers compensating with downers thinking of the new sentimentalizing the old ditching the staid exploring the sexual condemning the puritanical inventing language reinventing America: that was where many of his generation was at and he became all of that embodied.
Kerouac had rhythm…a rhythm of his moment, a rhythm with his words. His records, like Blues and Haikus, are hugely influential (to this day) as to how poets publicly read poetry and the power of rhythm, meter and beat when taking ideas and throwing them into the public space, into the smokey clubs and dancehalls, weaving in key instrumentation for exciting results. One of my favorite Jack Kerouac moments is his reading on the Steve Allen show, with Allen so so sweetly dueting on the piano keys to Kerouac’s spoken words. When Kerouac was living his highest moment, he delivered on the Beatnik offerings that his generation were gathering around, the dreams of the lifestyle and philosophies flowing through the streets of Northbeach and beyond. He might not have been the poet that Bob Kaufman or Allen Ginsberg was or the writer that JD Salinger was (ok…he was not associated with the Beats, but needs to be included in these kind of conversations) but he embodied the movement like no one else.
Happy 100th Birthday Jack Kerouac.
Afghan Whigs’ ‘I’ll Make You See God’ Could Deliver on Its Titular Promise
On a recent hang in San Louis Obispo, after walking around town a little and grabbing a bite, my friend Greg Dulli and I ended up back at the hotel, where Greg pulled out a portable speaker and asked if I wanted to hear some music he was working on. Greg pressed play as the sun was just beginning to go down and a sonic thunder came out of the speakers that almost blew me off the couch, into the evening. The relentlessly powerful guitar-driven onslaught was a new song from the Afghan Whigs, “I’ll Make You See God.” Featuring Greg and Whig original John Curley (birthday on Monday) on bass, it was released a few weeks ago with some upcoming tour dates and a groovy video. The first song released in five years, the first tour in a long time, for a new world.
I heard more that day….the best work from the band in their long career (how do they do it???)…but we will save talking about that for another day. Let’s just say: 2022 is gonna be a historic music year.
Veteran Music Publicist Cary Baker to Retire After 42 Years
Holy crap, one of the good ones is leaving his perch. Cary Baker has had a career filled with the greatest music. When he insinuated he was retiring as we were working together on the Jeremiah Lockwood Chanukah record, he said that he couldn’t stop until he got to oversee the release of unheard Son House sessions. Sounds like a killer curtain call…and then he even put an exclamation mark on the period by working the recent Hank Williams release. Thanks for helping get the music out into the world, Cary!!!
At the Outsider Art Fair, artist Fred Tomaselli highlights the influence of psychedelic art
The outsider art fair is turning 30 this year and looked to be a pretty amazing experience…especially for those of us who are interested in all things psychedelic. I so wish I could have been there. For those in the same boat, Juxtapoz Magazine published a video about it, along with this great article from the Arts Newspaper.
An epic conversation with JANE LAPINER and DAVID SIMPSON of the San Francisco Diggers
Jay Babcock, the writer behind Arthur Magazine and now the influential newsletter Landline, has done the hero’s job of tracking down the mysterious, oft secretive members of The Diggers. He has been able to get the stories out of them that help us understand their corner of the 60s counterculture, tales that are blueprints for how we can make a difference…even today. The conversation with Jane Lapiner and David Simpson is my favorite thus far, not only because of those tales from yesteryear, but just to get a glimpse into their inspirational life that they are still currently evolving. This is a long long read…and what else would you wanna do with your weekend????
Banana Louie Is Selling Dr Johnny Fever’s LP Collection
Howard Hesseman, of WKRP (in Cincinnati) and KMPX (in San Francisco) fame, passed away earlier this year, and his record collection (which looks stellar I may add) is being sold in pieces on ebay. I currently have a bid in on one item…and there is more coming.
What Happens When an Élite Public School Becomes Open to All?
Out of all of the many horrible missteps of San Francisco’s Board of Education over the past few years was robbing Lowell High School of its admissions policy. As someone who grew up in the city…and got to experience the greatness of Lowell, which included the teachers that taught there and the students who went there, the only hope right now is hope Lowell is able to revert back to taking the best of the best students, as it has so many decades. This New Yorker article is an interesting one…definitely showing the national interest of this very local story. I do not agree with all of it, but am glad there is a very public viewing of this issue. Thanks Mom for sending it to me this morning!
WEEKEND LISTEN: POETRY FOR THE BEAT GENERATION by Jack Kerouac and Steve Allen
As discussed above, my favorite Jack Kerouac moments are found in his recordings, especially those that fold in sweet musical accompaniment. Kerouac’s work with pianist Steve Allen is just so damn cool…and this record sounds as fresh now as it did when it was released.
The Cardinal Reminds Me
BY: ANDREA POTOS
It sweeps and arcs across my path
almost every day on my walk to the cafe,
under sun or cloud, its red
seeming lit from inside, a brightness
bold as the lipstick my mother wore
no matter the day or the time,
no matter how close to the end
she got, even two days before the last,
the young dark-haired nurse applying it
for her while I sat nearby, my own
lips trembling, from fear or hope
I could not tell, I could not separate anything,
and can’t now either — the bright flame of this bird
recalling me to loss, or to joy.