. 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 […]
Kerouac’s 100th birthday celebration in Lowell
March 20th, 2022 · 25 Comments · Kerouac and The Beats, Real-life Adventure Tales
Tags: Al Aronowitz·Anne Waldman·Ben Woitena·Brett Sigurdson·Dan Bacon·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
Beatles post Get Back Lessons and Reflections
January 30th, 2022 · 3 Comments · Movies, Music
Some reflections on The Beatles post Peter Jackson’s masterpiece, and some fun facts picked up along the way . . . It was so much the blending of the four compatible yet different personalities that was key to their creativity and longevity. And that there were four different individuals for people to identify with and […]
Tags: Albert Maysles·Alice Cooper·Billy Preston·Brian Epstein·Derek Taylor·Elvis Costello·George Harrison·George Martin·Jack Kerouac·Jerry Garcia·John Lennon·Malcolm Gladwell·Maysles brothers·Paul McCartney·Peter Jackson·Ringo Starr·Robert Frank·The Beatles Get Back·The Grateful Dead·Tommy Hilfiger·Will Hodgson
Holly George-Warren Jack Kerouac biography
June 9th, 2021 · 14 Comments · Interviews, Kerouac and The Beats
In some of the best news in Beatlandia in many a year — it’s just been announced that (A) the Kerouac estate has signed the inimitable Holly George-Warren to be the official biographer of Jack — a role originally filled by Doug Brinkley back in the ’90s until he got lured away by some other […]
Tags: Gordon Ball·Holly George-Warren·Jack Kerouac·Janis Joplin·Rolling Stone Book of The Beats·Viking Press
Beat Versus Beatnik
March 3rd, 2021 · 28 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 […]
Tags: Abbie Hoffman·Allen Ginsberg·Anne Waldman·Barack Obama·beatniks·Bob Denver·Brad Pitt·City Lights Books·Dobie Gillis·Elvis Mitchell·hippies·Howl·Jack Kerouac·Janis Joplin·Jerry Garcia·Jonah Raskin·Ken Kesey·Lawrence Ferlinghetti·Merry Pranksters·Neal Cassady·Quentin Tarantino·Route 66·S.A. Griffin·The Beat Generation·The Beat Museum·William Burroughs
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 […]
Tags: Barack Obama·Beat Shindig·Bernie Sanders·Big Sur·Bill Clinton·Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy·Carolyn Cassady·Gary Hart·George Walker·Grateful Dead·How The Beats Begat The Pranksters·Howard Dean and Al Franken·Jack Kerouac·Ken Kesey·On The Road·Paul Tsongas·Phil Lesh·The Hitchhiker's Guide to Jack Kerouac·Walter Salles·Woodstock
Kerouac in Provincetown
December 4th, 2019 · 31 Comments · Kerouac and The Beats
How History Could Have Been Different Kerouac’s and Otherwise . It was a quiet day in Facelandia when my Beat / Deadhead friend Steve Silberman posted: “Social media is amazing sometimes. In response to my posting a Cape Cod Times article about Kerouac’s time there, a woman posted a previously unseen photo of Kerouac working […]
Tags: Allen Ginsberg·Big Sur·Bill Cannastra·Bixby Canyon·Blues & Haikus·Burt Goldblatt·Cape Cod·Carolyn Cassady·Dharma Bums·Frankie Edie Kerouac Parker·Fred DeWitt·Fred McDarrah·Gerald Nicosia·Greenwich Village·Hazel Hawthorne·Heart Beat movie·Helen Parker·Hettie Jones·Inka Leisma·Jack Kerouac·Jacky Gibson·Jan Kerouac·Jerry Bauer·Jerry Ciminio·Jerry Seinfeld·Joan Haverty·John Clellon Holmes·John Dos Passos·Joyce Johnson·Ken Kesey·Larry David·Lawrence Ferlinghetti·Lew Welch·Liza Williams·Lucien Carr·Merry Pranksters·Mount Hozomeen·Nancy Ufford·Neal Cassady·On The Road·Peaked Hill Bar·Provincetown·Ramblin' Jack Elliott·Robert Frank·Sara Yokley·Saving Provincetown shacks·Thalassa shack·The Subterraneans·The Town and The City·Visions of Cody·Walter Salles·William Burroughs
Ode to Neal
October 31st, 2019 · 14 Comments · Kerouac and The Beats
. Neal Cassady — by Carolyn Cassady (courtesy of the Cassady fam) . From Dean Moriarty . . . to Dead immortality, The street-kid who read . . . was a legend in bed, But more than the lays . . . he inspired a blaze In the hearths of the writers . . . […]
Tags: Allen Ginsberg·Bob Dylan·Carolyn Cassady·Grateful Dead·Jack Kerouac·Jerry Garcia·Ken Kesey·Merry Pranksters·Neal Cassady
Ode to Jack
September 30th, 2019 · 11 Comments · Kerouac and The Beats
. . Jack fights back from off the Beaten track still alive at 95 with 55 books in print after his track star sprint — through the pages of history, seeing around corners like Neal at the wheel, knockin over grammar cops and blowin past the door stops to hidden darkened jazz joints puffin on […]
Tags: Allen Ginsberg·Bill Cannastra·David Amram·Jack Kerouac·Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!·Malcolm Cowley·Mezz Mezzrow·Neal Cassady
Paul Krassner 1932 – 2019
July 22nd, 2019 · 9 Comments · Hitchhiker's Guide to Jack Kerouac, Merry Pranksters, Real-life Adventure Tales
. Here’s the chapter on the now late great Paul Krassner from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jack Kerouac about the time I met him and a buncha his croanies at the big Kerouac summit in 1982. I sent him this chapter when I was finishing up the book and he gave it his thumbs-up. . ch. 23 […]
Tags: Abbie Hoffman·Jack Kerouac·Ken Kesey·Paul Krassner
Brian Hassett Set Lists
May 31st, 2019 · 12 Comments · Hitchhiker's Guide to Jack Kerouac, Kerouac and The Beats, Merry Pranksters, Weird Things About Me, Woodstock
Midwest Tour — May 2019 . Thomas O’Shea House Party — Berea, outside Cleveland Ohio – Friday, May 10th, 2029 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jack Kerouac – the Marin Epiphany – from ch 26 – The Airplane Hanger in Marin The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jack Kerouac – ch. 3 – Dancin’ to The Boulder Boogie – Who […]
Tags: George Walker·Jack Kerouac·Merry Pranksters·Neal Cassady·On The Road·Rolling Stone Book of The Beats·The Beat Museum