Big Sur: The Movie?

This article caught me by surprise. Or I had forgotten a film version of Big Sur was in the works. It really is an amazing novel, and I'll be interested to see the end result. Here's another link if you're interested.

According to IMDB, Kate Bosworth plays Billie, Josh Lucas plays Neal Cassady, Anthony Edwards plays Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Jean-Marc Barr plays our hero, Jack. Here's a pick of Jean-Marc. I suspect he wore a wig for the film.



Do not confuse this with One Fast Move Or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur, an excellent documentary released a couple of years ago.

More news on THE FILM

Click here for some news on the roles Viggo Mortensen and Amy Adams play in THE FILM (Old Bull Lee - William S. Burroughs - and his wife, Amy - Joan Vollmer - who Burroughs killed in a William Tell replay gone bad).

More new pics from "the film"

From now on, I'll be referring to Walter Salles' upcoming film version of On The Road as "THE FILM."

Click here to see some newly released stills from THE FILM.

Short film about Kerouac upcoming on PBS

FYI, PBS will be airing a short Kerouac film, "Jack Kerouac Slept Here," as part of an upcoming fall series about Florida's cultural history. Click here for information.

Blowing my own horn

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, an elder of mine (not a relation) - who often offered unsolicited advice about this and that - proffered that my bluegrass band was not as busy as it could be because we did not "blow our own horn" enough. I guess self-promotion must run against some of the values my parents instilled in me, because whenever I do it, some sort of guilty creepy feeling trickles down the back of my neck and deposits itself in my guts. I know for a fact that avoidance of that feeling kept me from capitalizing on many opportunities to sell my book. On the other hand, ignoring it brought me some wonderful opportunities. I would never have traded books with David Amram had I paid attention to my conditioning. Instead, I did the opposite (just like George Constanza in that brilliant Seinfeld episode) in a few instances and reaped some interesting rewards.

I was just checking my Sitemeter stats and realized that The Daily Beat is approaching 20,000 visitors (I started tracking visitors on October 25, 2008). That's pretty cool, I think. I haven't been posting of late as often as I did for the first year after my book came out, but I've been trying to average a post a week or even more. I noticed the other day that someone from Norway spent 24 minutes on The Daily Beat, and someone from the Tulane University server spent a few minutes as well. Perhaps they opened the page and went and made coffee (or got rid of coffee), but I can fantasize.

Anyway, I am wondering what kind of celebration might be in order for hitting 20,000. If you think of something cool, let me know.

On The Road unlikely to debut at Cannes in May

According to this article, the film version of On The Road is unlikely to makes its debut in May at Cannes this year. The article also contains some additional information of interest to fans. For example, contrary to early expectations, it will not be in black-and-white (good choice by director Salles). It features a great supporting cast (Viggo Mortensen, Steve Buscemi, Amy Adams, Alice Braga, to mention a few). They brought in some beat generation writings (Ginsberg, Burroughs) that weren't in Jack's novel. And, they tried to create 3-dimensional women characters (more kudos to Salles for that).

I, for one, cannot wait.

A poem for our "Governor"

Jack being a poet, I thought I'd share this poem I wrote today.

A Poem for “Governor” Paul LePage
by Rick Dale

To our petulant pompously presumptuous postulant potentate
Who perniciously proposes Presidential perdition
Who prevented poetic participation in his political pomp
Whose predecessor now appears profusely polished
Who prattles about his plutocratic pursuits
Who prefers people press lips to his portly posterior
Who pines to poison preschoolers with plastic
Who perpetuates patriarchy
Who pilfers paintings to piss off the populace, then plays in paradise
Who proffers preferential privileges for the presently prosperous

Pardon my peevishness
But I pray and plead:
Promptly part from your political position
Please!