Brianland

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

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The New Kamalot

July 31st, 2024 · 4 Comments · Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy, Politics

The events of Sunday July 21st 2024 into Monday the 22nd then all the days that followed reminded me and most of us politicos of the political ‘birth’ of Barack Obama in early 2008.  Whether you experienced that on January 3rd when he won the Iowa caucus, or on the February 3rd Super Bowl weekend […]

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Trump’s Losing his Mind

January 31st, 2024 · No Comments · Politics

. I hope everyone’s enjoying the heck out of the theater of the absurd that’s playing out on the national stage in the U.S. Diaper Don is losing his mind . . . and the cameras are rolling.  We’re all going to witness over the next nine months [and beyond] this guy spinning more and […]

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Why I Love Joe Biden

December 31st, 2023 · 35 Comments · Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy, Politics

  First of all, he’s an Irish leprechaun, and I’m very pro Irish leprechaun. Second — he’s also an empath . . . as opposed to a sociopath. As he likes to say in his Irish way — “Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.” He’s smart, hard working, Gets Things […]

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The Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa

April 30th, 2023 · 5 Comments · Music, Real-life Adventure Tales

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 […]

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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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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 […]

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Brian Hassett – Adventures in Print

January 26th, 2020 · 21 Comments · Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy, Kerouac and The Beats, Politics, Real-life Adventure Tales, Weird Things About Me

40 YEARS IN PRINT . A CHRONOLOGY OF THE PUBLISHED REAL-LIFE ADVENTURE TALES . . 1977 – May — writing a song with Guess Who founder Chad Allen – not in print as of yet, but it is on my website here. 1980 – April — John Anderson in San Diego – Blissfully Ravaged in […]

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Al Franken “Giant of The Senate” book review

December 27th, 2017 · 9 Comments · Politics

. Al Franken is a great writer of our times.  When you read even just the first chapter of this book — “Why I’m A Democrat” — it’ll make you wanna throw every one of his sanctimonious accusatory quasi-republican Democrats off a cliff — not under a bus, like they did him. I really enjoyed […]

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Some Favorite Moments of the 2012 Campaign

November 3rd, 2012 · 11 Comments · Politics

Some Favorite Moments, Classic Quotes and Lasting Images of the 2012 Campaign, roughly in the order they happened …   — The ever-increasing availability we all have to unlimited polling data, particularly at RCP and 538. — The sharing of funny images and insightful articles on Facebook — like having your own customized clipping service […]

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Woodstock and Obama’s Inauguration

July 30th, 2011 · 12 Comments · Music, Politics, Real-life Adventure Tales, Weird Things About Me

Obama’s election night in New York City may have been my favorite single night / moment in 25+ years of living in Manhattan. (You can read about it here: https://brianhassett.com//2008/11/election-night-2008/ ) That feeling was extended to a week-long celebration in my second favorite city, Washington, D.C. — a home-game in the History League — And lo, […]

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