Great interview with a Burroughs/Ginsberg contemporary

This is a killer interview with a guy who lives in Chaing-Mai (Thailand - it's a rough life but somebody has to do it) and used to trip with Burroughs and Ginsberg. This is stuff you won't read anywhere else, so it's must reading for beat aficionados. Is it true? Who knows? Is it plausible and entertaining? Check.

A quote from the article about Burroughs:

Burroughs spoke like an Oxford professor. It was only in his writing that he sounded so fucked. The stuff he spoke about was whacked out, but he spoke like a professor.

And one about Hunter S. Thompson:

He was a fun guy to know about and to observe but not to hang out with. He was way too intense. He shot a shark.

Howl film premieres tomorrow

The long-awaited Ginsberg biopic, Howl, opens tomorrow on opening night of the Sundance film festival. Click here to read an article from the Guardian about it. I blogged about this biopic back on November 10, 2009.

I absolutely cannot wait to see it!

NY Times review of Helen Weaver's The Awakener

Helen Weaver's The Awakener, reviewed here on November 11, was just reviewed by the New York Times and it's a (deservedly) stellar review!

Congratulations, Helen.

Read the review here.

Before Hippies There Were Beatniks?

This ill-informed article from the Tuscon Citizen - Before Hippies There Were Beatniks - won't fool regular readers of The Daily Beat, but casual visitors might stumble upon it and not realize that the article is way off base: it neglects to point out that the term "beatnik" was a perjorative term, coined by Herb Caen in the San Francisco Chronicle. The suffix -nik was an intentional reference to Russia (not so popular in the U.S. at the time - it was six months after Sputnik) to cast the beat generation writers as un-American.

Allen Ginsberg wrote to the New York Times to deplore "the foul word beatnik," commenting, "If beatniks and not illuminated Beat poets overrun this country, they will have been created not by Kerouac but by industries of mass communication which continue to brainwash man" (Source: Wikipedia).

Click here to read my lengthier treatise on the term from December 23, 2008.

Happy reading.

Winner of the Facebook 10,000 visitors book

Michael Gunin, of Russia, was the first to send me a friend request on Facebook, so he wins a free copy of The Beat Handbook.

Michael, thanks for being a faithful reader of The Daily Beat! I'll send your book along as soon as you send me your snail mail address. Use thebeathandbook@gmail.com or message me on Facebook.

I hope my book furthers your beat aspirations! Dig the ride!

10,000 visits by Jack Kerouac fans

The Daily Beat has now had over 10,000* visitors, and I'm going to assume each visit was by a Jack Kerouac fan somewhere on the planet. Or maybe even off-planet: I wouldn't rule out extra-terrestrials as being beat fans, and they're certainly surfing our Internet (lame as it is compared to their advanced technologies - ouch! - okay, I can't say any more because of the implants).

But I digress. In honor of reaching 10,000 visitors, we will be giving away a free copy of The Beat Handbook to the first reader of this blog (who hasn't already won a copy in a past contest) who sends me a friend request on Facebook. In your Facebook friend request, mention that you are asking to be my friend in order to win a copy of my book. You can find me on Facebook as Rick Dale. I'll announce the winner here as soon as we have one.

Let the games begin!



*The number 10,000 is significant for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the band 10,000 Maniacs, featuring Natalie Merchant, one of my all-time favorite singers and whose album, House Carpenter's Daughter, is a beat classic that deserves much wider recognition.

How to write like Jack Kerouac Part 2

On November 16, 2008, I posted a blog entry titled, "How to write like Jack Kerouac." Click here to read that particular post.

Jack himself gave writing advice. Click here for a document that contains writing advice written by Jack in his own inimitable style.