The Setting: The new Bob Center is in Tulsa Oklahoma because the Woody Guthrie Center is there, and because both were paid for by the OK billionaire philanthropist George Kaiser. Tulsa is remarkably like the midwestern town of Winnipeg I grew up in — flat farmland, low-rise, about a half-million people — and both with […]
Entries Tagged as 'Real-life Adventure Tales'
The Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa
April 30th, 2023 · 5 Comments · Music, Real-life Adventure Tales
Tags: Barack Obama·Bob Dylan·George Harrison·Jack Kerouac·Lenny Bruce·Neil Young·Oklahoma·Pete Seeger·Ralph Gleason·Tom Wilson·Tulsa·Woody Guthrie
David Amram & Brian Hassett On-Stage Collaborations
November 30th, 2022 · 6 Comments · Brian on YouTube etc., Kerouac and The Beats, Real-life Adventure Tales
David Amram and I have been performing together since we first started hanging in 1994 after an introduction by Teri McLuhan, Marshall’s daughter. It was the big NYU Beat conference — I write about it in Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy — I first saw him unloading his congas from his Farm Aid jeep on opening night, […]
Tags: Dave Amram·George Walker·Holy Cats! Dream-Catching at Woodstock·How The Beats Begat The Pranksters·Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!·On The Road with Cassadys·Teri McCluhan·The Hitchhiker's Guide to Jack Kerouac
Lowell Celebrates Kerouac (LCK) – Videos, Stories & Photos – 2015–2022
October 30th, 2022 · 7 Comments · Kerouac and The Beats, Real-life Adventure Tales
Stories, videos and photos from the annual Kerouac hometown festival over the last several years I’ve been going. Edie Parker-Kerouac called and told me about the the initial commemorative dedication in July 1988 — which birthed LCK — saying that she, Henri Cru and “Big Tim” Moran were driving up for it, and that […]
Tags: Andy Clausen·Beat Angel·David Amram·Edie Kerouac·Frankie Edie Kerouac Parker·George Walker·Henri Cru·How The Beats Begat The Pranksters·Jack Kerouac·John Allen Cassady·Kerouac Centennial·Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!·Merry Pranksters·Michael McClure·St. Mark's Church·The Hitchhiker's Guide to Jack Kerouac·Vincent Balstri·Wireless Mike Flynn
The Chad Allan Story
April 30th, 2022 · 26 Comments · Music, Poetry, Real-life Adventure Tales
The Chad Allan Story . When I was in grade 7 at St. John’s Ravenscourt school, a teacher, Bernie Beare, told me I could write well. I didn’t know what-the-hell good that was gonna be, but apparently it was something I could do. So I started to focus on it, and pay attention in English […]
Tags: Bob McMullin·Burton Cummings·Chad Allan·Enid Hassett·Jim Kale·Randy Bachman·River Heights·songwriting·The Guess Who·Winnipeg
Kerouac’s 100th birthday celebration in Lowell
March 20th, 2022 · 25 Comments · Kerouac and The Beats, Real-life Adventure Tales
. Everybody’s known for ages that Jack Kerouac’s 100th birthday was coming up on March 12th, 2022, but it was still the dark Covid times, and I hadn’t been On The Road in over two years — not since the New Hampshire Democratic primaries in February 2020 — plus I was really in no mood […]
Tags: Al Aronowitz·Anne Waldman·Ben Woitena·Brett Sigurdson·Dave Olson·David Stanford·Dennis McNally·Erin Weber·George Walker·Gilbert Millstein·historiography·Holly George-Warren·Jack Kerouac·Jerry Bisantz·Jerry Garcia·Jim Sampas·John Kruth·Kurt Hemmer·Lowell·Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!·Matt Williamson·Mike Flynn·Old Angel Midnight·Oliver Trager·Paul Marion·Ren Grevatt·Roger Brunelle·Rolling Thunder·Scarlett Sabet·Schae Koteles·Sylvia Cunha·Todd Tietchen·Willie "Loco" Alexander
Bill Clinton Election Night in New York City 1996
October 23rd, 2021 · No Comments · Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy, Politics, Real-life Adventure Tales
When The Good Guys Win — Head To The Skyscraper Rooftop . A wee rooftop Adventure excerpt from Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy . . . The Democratic Party victory party at the Sheraton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan in 1996 . . . New York City is a very liberal and a very Democratic town. […]
Tags: Bill Clinton·Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy·Chuck Schumer·Daniel Patrick Moynihan·Democratic Primary·election 1996·Mario Cuomo·Sheraton in New York
Stopping and Staying Stopped Smoking
May 31st, 2021 · 12 Comments · Real-life Adventure Tales
Stay Stopped Smoking . For all my friends who struggle . . . These are the handwritten notes I’d read any time I was feeling an urge: Whatever’s bothering you will NOT be made better by drawing smoke into your tender living lungs. Drawing smoke into your lungs doesn’t make anything better. Don’t die for […]
Tags: tricks to staying quit smoking
The Play’s The Thing
April 30th, 2021 · 2 Comments · New York City, Real-life Adventure Tales
The Play’s The Thing 113 different Playbills that survived. An approximate history of my life in theater audiences . . . Some of the highlights . . . which you can see the Playbills of in chronological order starting at the top . . . Mousetrap — London — 1972 — the longest running play […]
Tags: Alan Cumming·Alec Baldwin·Amy Wright·Arthur Miller·Bill Irwin·Bob Dylan·Cabaret·David Mamet·Dustin Hoffman·Eddie Izzard·Eric Bogosian·Eugene O'Neill·Gary Cole·Gary Sinise·Green Gold·Hair·Harvey Keitel·James Joyce·James Stewart·John Malkovich·Ken Kesey·La Mama·Laurie Metcalf·Marisa Tomei·Mike Nichols·Minetta Lane Theatre·Mort Sahl·Paul Simon·Radio City Music Hall·Red Roses·Robert De Niro·Robin Williams·Sam Shepard·Shakespeare·Shakespeare's Globe·Steppenwolf·Steve Zahn·Tim Curry·True West·Twyla Tharp·Uta Hagen·Waiting For Godot
Brian Meets Biden
December 31st, 2020 · 10 Comments · Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy, Politics, Real-life Adventure Tales
From Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy: Adventures in Politics 1980 – 2020 From the chapter — “Fun & Loving on the Campaign Trail 2020 — A Prankster’s Primary”. . The next day — Tuesday, February 4th, the day following the night of the Iowa caucus vote-counting debacle — I pulled off three rallies: Biden, Tulsi […]
Tags: Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy·Joe Biden·Joe Biden and Brian Hassett·New Hampshire primary 2020·Steve Schmidt
Obama Election Night NYC 2008
June 29th, 2020 · 1 Comment · Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy, New York City, Politics, Real-life Adventure Tales
Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy I spent the afternoon getting all gussied up in my black velvet tails and Ben Franklin knickers with knee-high socks topped off with a top hat, accented with colorful Obama buttons, and everything underneath my waving homemade Obama pennant flag with a little red & white Canadian one on top. All […]
Tags: Barack Obama