Brianland

the Best in Kerouac & the Beats, Adventure, Politics, Music, Movies, Poetry & other Lifejoys

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Taylor Swift, the Grateful Dead and The Beat Generation

November 30th, 2023 · 28 Comments · Grateful Dead, Kerouac and The Beats, Music

. Why this Deadhead Beatnik Beatlemaniac loves Pop’s Princess   I’ve been into Taylor Swift since a New York Times profile in 2008 talked about her confessional songwriting and use of social media — at the time, MySpace.  (!)  Her second album Fearless was set to come out (and would go on to win Album […]

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“Jack on Film” sample

September 29th, 2022 · 5 Comments · Kerouac and The Beats, Movies

Here’s a little taste . . . My “script” notes for the first dramatic portrayal of Jack . . . . Pull My Daisy (released Nov. 1959) One of the Big Five to focus on MY THESIS HOW THIS IS THE GREATEST BEAT GEN CREATION. Filmed in their prime . . . . Kerouac’s best […]

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Beat Versus Beatnik

March 3rd, 2021 · 29 Comments · Kerouac and The Beats

21st Century Beatniks versus Hieroglyphic Caricatures . There’s long been a debate about the word “beatnik” — originally coined by a sensationalist San Francisco gossip columnist in 1958, playing on the Yiddish suffix “nik” and the first Russian satellite launched in September ’57, colloquially known as “Sputnik.”  Jack and Allen & company hated the word […]

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Lawrence Ferlinghetti is Dead, Long Live Lawrence Ferlinghetti!

February 28th, 2021 · No Comments · Kerouac and The Beats, Poetry

(collage and poem by S.A. Griffin)   Lawrence Ferlinghetti is Dead, Long Live Lawrence Ferlinghetti!   Howling Allen Ginsberggot shot out of history’s atomic canonand never stopped flyingFerlinghetti prints the poem as news hysterical nakedand gets busted for publishing obscene odes the law fought the poem and the poem won without this greeting at such […]

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Hitchhiker Reactions

July 26th, 2015 · 8 Comments · Hitchhiker's Guide to Jack Kerouac, Kerouac and The Beats, Real-life Adventure Tales, Weird Things About Me

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jack Kerouac  . Reviews, feedback, and other buzzes over the transom . . . . Brian Hassett had the presence of mind to pack a good old cassette recorder in his rucksack back in 1982 when he was alerted to the Jack Kerouac Conference being staged in Boulder, Colorado.  The real […]

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Who-all was there — Boulder ’82

June 18th, 2013 · 19 Comments · Hitchhiker's Guide to Jack Kerouac, Kerouac and The Beats, Real-life Adventure Tales

An excerpt from  “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jack Kerouac” The Adventure of the Boulder ’82 On The Road Conference — Finding Kerouac, Kesey and The Grateful Dead Alive & Rockin’ in the Rockies     I guess I haven’t mentioned who all was here yet . . .  This was the biggest gathering of Beats […]

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Meeting Your Heroes 101

April 27th, 2013 · 32 Comments · Hitchhiker's Guide to Jack Kerouac, Kerouac and The Beats, Real-life Adventure Tales

chapter 4 — Meeting Your Heroes 101 An excerpt from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jack Kerouac” The Adventure of the Boulder ’82 On The Road Conference — Finding Kerouac, Kesey and The Grateful Dead Alive & Rockin’ in the Rockies .   One of the first and forever impressions I had was — being on […]

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Wailin’ at The Whitney

January 26th, 2013 · 12 Comments · Kerouac and The Beats, New York City

Wailin’ at The Whitney  (a feature story from 1995 on the historic Whitney Museum show)   Communities of creative minds exchanging ideas has been a dream of artists from the moment they first walked away from the other apes and got back to the land to set their soul free.  The Lost Generation café klatch […]

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