Brianland

Storming the Bastilles with Lungs Full of Nectar . Pamela Twining, Andy Clausen, & Brian Hassett — photo by Shiv Mirabito, at the Woodstock Shivastan Poetry Ashram, 2016 Two new books in poignant prose by poets of the streets just came out from insiders looking at the life and times of the Beat Generation — […]

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How The Beats Begat The Pranksters . Beat Carolyn & Prankster Babbs, Boulder ’82 . It all started on September 5th, 1957 when a certain book got published . . . Or no . . . it all started in April 1951 when a guy sat down at a typewriter with a long scroll of […]

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When Conflict Television Was Born or . . . “I’ll sock you in your goddamn face.” . . 1968  — The year so much changed . . . Martin and Bobby . . .  North Vietnam’s Tet Offensive galvanizing Americans’ opposition to the war . . .  The Beatles open their Apple Core . . […]

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Then Along Comes Kesey . .  Excerpted from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jack Kerouac” available now.   I was well into Jack — and this whole conference kicked that up a few dozen notches — like it did everybody else — but The Chief and The Boys (the Grateful Dead) — those were the magic […]

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Kaddish in Canada   We Are Continually Exposed To The Flashbulb Of Death The Allen Ginsberg Photo Exhibit University of Toronto Art Centre Sept. 2nd – Dec. 6th, 2014 . So, here’s a weird trip! I’ve been going to Beat gatherings for 30 years — and even at the very first one — the Kerouac […]

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Some of Jack’s oldest & dearest friends Edie, Henri and Allen    Edie and I in her living room in Grosse Pointe with her Jack paintings. . 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 […]

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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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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  (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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Beat Movie Guide (dramatizations  —  not documentaries) Last Updated:  Feb 19th, 2023 With not one, not two, but three movies based on Jack Kerouac books coming out this year (2013) it makes sense to make sense of the world of cinematic dramatizations based on Beat works. Since real people are given different fictional names in […]

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