Brianland

Sans Sons —
a Song in Names Only

Jesus Christ
Isaac Newton
Plato
Mother Teresa
Florence Nightingale
Mary Magdalene
Joan of Arc
Lawrence of Arabia
Edward the Confessor
Betsy Ross
Rosa Parks
Bert Parks
Susan B. Anthony
Arthur C. Clarke
Ralph J. Gleason
the Dali Lama
the Pope
the Babe
Dr. John
Dr. Suess
Dr. Kellogg
Howard Hughes
Amelia Earhart
both the Wright brothers
Henry David Thoreau
Oliver Wendell Holmes
George Bernard Shaw
Beethoven
Tchaikovsky
Vivaldi
George Gershwin
George Balanchine
George Washington
Louie Armstrong
Lionel Hampton
Lillian Hellman
Billie Holiday
Bettye [...]

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Henri Cru (1921-1992) was a life-long friend of Jack Kerouac’s. They met when both were students at the Horace Mann prep school, New York, in 1939. Henri appears as “Remi Boncoeur” in Kerouac’s On the Road, and as “Deni Bleu” in Lonesome Traveler, Visions of Cody, and other books.
Original Author’s Note:
This was written in April [...]

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Torch  Song
The Olympic Torch was passin through Oakville yesterday, had to go.  It was down at the huge “creek” that created the center of town at the mouth of the massive Lake Ontario.  There’s one main bridge, and at end of it is the town’s central library and performance center.
Some guy from Oakville won Gold, [...]

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“Keep One Neal on The Wheel”
with a twinkling & loving nod to Neal Cassady . . .
Coming into Manhattan thru the Holland Tunnel, 6PM on the Friday of the Labor Day Long Weekend . . .
My first moments in Manhattan since Obama’s Election Night.
And on the exact anniversary of the very first day I first [...]

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A bunch of YouTubes of the Summit can be found here.  
 
The Grand Humanity Jam Continues
Summer Summit ‘09
The “We Made It This Far” Anniversary.
July 31st  –  August 9th, 2009 
An historically great crew reuniting . . .
A massive scene recreated . . . 
Look homeward, Angels.  
*     *     * 
Overview:  (July 31st thru [...]

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RAGING   GLORY
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The   D.C.  Dispatches
[Revised Edition]
*
1 – Jan. 14th -   Barackstock on Sunday
2 – Jan 17th –  We’re Gonna Sing
3 – Jan. 18th – The Baltimore Report
4 – Jan 19th –  Blissfully Ravaged In Democracy
5 – Jan 20th –  The Day That Could Never Happen
6 – Jan 21st – The [...]

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The  Rose  of  Hope
*
Election  Night  2008
by Brian Hassett
Early morning in the Universe  –  sunrise over a New America.
I arose from the floor of a Harlem hotspot dreaming of something way bigger than me.  And right off the mat, the Election Morning Ritual of tea & subtlety, pacing & breathing, and dreaming in the bright new light [...]

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I started thinking about this watching tonight’s “Civil Forum” with Obama and McCain and this paster Rick Warren.  Somebody mentioned that he wrote “The Purpose-Driven Life”, and I remembered that was the book that woman read to the escaped convict who kidnapped her in Atlanta back in about 2005.  (March)
I’d always remembered the way she [...]

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                                     The Prankster Meets The Penguin 

So, I went to the Ranger game last night at Madison Square Garden.  What a hoot!  Before the game, there was some rock band called Overtime or something playing out front on the plaza;  and there were these shooting gallery games like at the Hockey Hall of Fame where you shoot [...]

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                           The Grateful Dead Played My 30th Birthday
                                                                     Or
           Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned At A Grateful Dead Concert
            The weekend of my 30th birthday, four old friends drove from Winnipeg to New York to help celebrate it, and the Grateful Dead flew in from San Francisco to play.
            It’s a curious [...]

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THE ROCK PARTY  and  THE FALL OF NEW YORK
                                                                         * 
It was a really magic night!  Until the nightmare. 
Couldn’t sleep the night before  –  up at 6 AM watching the camera follow Don Imus into his polling station with a long line of people out the door waiting to vote, and him saying, “I’ve Never seen [...]

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The Secret Life of Winifred Mitty
With an affectionate nod to neologist and word-sculpting dreamer James Thurber.  

 
Flashbulbs were popping all around her.  Photographers called her name from every direction so she’d turn and look them in their camera eye. 
“Winnie, over here!” 
“Hey Winnie, loved you in Dark Gables!” 
“Winnie, you still going out with Clark Hudson?” 
“Yeah, Winnie, [...]

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Lights dimmed, room hushed, MC in silhouette at center stage blessing the packed room of book-reading edge-cutting hipsters from all over the world thanks to email and web sites and a collective unconscious that keeps them striving for the new, for where the heart pounds, the eyes twinkle, the women aren’t treated like girls, and [...]

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Be  Still  Here
(Subtle Streaks of Light)
 
for Vern Victor Hassett  (1912–2004)
 
Just so ya know, dad passed away this week. 
He was a good guy. 
If you’re around, you’re invited to a natural joyous Irish wake for him at the townhouse in Oakville this Saturday, March 6th.  Not an obligation, just an invitation. 
He passed away naturally, a long slow fade-to-black.  [...]

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as per John Grady’s request, i pulled this out of the basement . . .
The Al Franken Fracas
(Democracy in Action – Sunday!  Sunday!  Sunday!)
Manchester, NH –
Howard Dean’s Town Hall appearance 
High Noon, the Sunday just before Super Tuesday
Hundred year old theater, core heart downtown Manchester,
in a city & state completely consumed by the primary;
every corner [...]

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Finding  Casey   
 
So, mom & I are staying at this resort up on Georgian Bay.  We fall asleep around 11 that night — more of a late nap for us — and both woke up aboot 3 in the morning just rarin’ to go. 
 
As a dedicated Niagara Escarpment explorer and veteran waterfall collector, I knew [...]

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