More stills from On The Road

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Stills from On The Road

Here are a couple of still photos of Garrett Hedlund playing Neal Cassidy in the upcoming film version of On The Road.

For the "Damn, why didn't I think of that?" file

This was just sent to me from my friend, Kerri, who is visiting Colorado. Nice.

I think I know what my next personalized plate in Maine is going to be (if it's available).

Timothy Leary & Allen Ginsberg: Upcoming Review

Out of the clear blue California sky, a package arrived this past week. It was a book-sized package, and the return address was City Lights in San Francisco, which readers of The Daily Beat know is the premier beat generation bookstore on the planet. I had not ordered anything from City Lights, which could only mean one thing: they had again, as with Helen Weaver's book (see link on the right and my review here) The Awakener, entrusted me with a review copy of a new publication.

Indeed, I am now in possession of White Hand Society: The Psychedelic Partnership of Timothy Leary & Allen Ginsberg by Peter Conners. I have promised my contact at City Lights - who e-mailed me subsequently - a review, so stay tuned.

With chapter titles like "Enter LSD, Exit Harvard" and "Human Be-In," it promises to be an interesting read.

On The Bro'd?

I am speechless that 1) someone would write something so blatantly stupid as On The Bro'd: Every Sentence of Jack Kerouac's On The Road, Retold for Bros.", and 2) that New York Press would review this drivel.

Talk about trying to capitalize on Jack's fame, which I've been accused of, but at least my book was an homage to Jack, albeit tongue-in-cheek in part.

Here's a sample from On The Bro'd:

But then they strutted down the streets like total pimps, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after bros who interest me, because the only bros for me are the awesome ones, the ones who are mad to chug, mad to party, mad to bone, mad to get hammered, desirous of all the chicks at Buffalo Wild Wings, the ones who never turn down a Bud Light Lime, but chug, chug, chug like fucking awesome players exploding like spiders across an Ed Hardy shirt and in the middle you see the silver skull pop and everybody goes “Awww!”

In case you don't know what a "bro" is, here you go: Urban Dictionary.

Connecting the beats with bros is a travesty of the first order. Jack is rolling in his grave, and I am wondering what it would take to get the New York Press to review The Beat Handbook. Oh, wait. I forgot. It's not nearly stupid enough.

6 Degrees of Jack Kerouac

We haven't played 6 Degrees of Jack Kerouac lately, and this isn't exactly that, but I do have an interesting connection to make.

My great friend, Keith, introduced me to Jack Kerouac's writing around 2002 or so. As you no doubt have ascertained by now, I became a bit obsessed with Jack, evidenced by my having written a book as an homage to him, not to mention my maintaining this Kerouac-focused blog, attending Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, visiting Kerouac destinations (his grave, San Francisco, Big Sur), etc.

Another hero of Keith's is Aron Ralston, the guy who got his arm trapped under a boulder out west and cut it off (his arm, not the boulder) in order to free himself. Aron's grim adventure is detailed in a new movie, 127 Hours.

127 Hours was reviewed by Regina Weinreich on The Huffington Post on Nov. 5. In that same article - available here - she mentions a new documentary, Practice of the Wild, which features Gary Snyder, who was the inspiration for the characters Japhy Ryder in Kerouac's The Dharma Bums.

So, Keith, Ms. Weinreich mentioned Jack Kerouac and Aron Ralston in the same article. How's that for connections?

Perpetuating the On The Road myth

This article from The Independent - which made signing in to leave a comment quite painful - perpetuates the myth that Jack wrote On The Road in 3 weeks. Indeed, he typed it in 3 weeks, but he was writing it for years.

See my December 9, 2008 post for some pretty strong evidence supporting my position. Indeed, as The Independent article states, he kept copious notes, but he also began writing sections of it long before his famous 3-week caffeine-fueled scroll typing session.