Kerouac "news"?

Click here for an example of what passes as Jack Kerouac "news" according to Google. I suppose everything old is new again when enough time passes, as I posted about this aspect of Jack a year ago (click here) and it was old news then. But I get it. Now every "news" source can rehash old Kerouac information by connecting it to the film version of On The Road. And maybe that's not a bad thing, especially if it helps create more authentic Kerouac fans.

Maybe I just need to learn how to capitalize and thus increase my blog traffic and book sales. I know. Here's some Kerouac news: I'm taking my two cats to the vet tomorrow. Jack Kerouac loved cats, and a film version of his book, On The Road, starring Kristen Stewart is going to be released in the U.S. on December 21.

Put that in your list of Kerouac news hits, Google.

Pictures of Jack Kerouac's hotel in San Luis Obispo

Gerald Nicosia, author of Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac, recently visited San Luis Obispo, CA, and tracked down a building where Jack Kerouac stayed during April 1953. Gerry took the below pictures and gave me permission to share them. He also provided me with most of the following information for context.

According to Gerry, Jack liked San Luis Obispo so much that he wrote to his mother about wanting to move her there. Now the building is home to a living community called "The Establishment" (click here for information - I think Jack might dig this place), but in Jack's time it was the Colonial Hotel. It was an ideal place for Jack: near the railyard, cheap ($6/week), and near a grocery store (he could cook in his room) and poolhall/bar. Plus, the Mission San Luis Obispo was three blocks away. Remember, Jack was mostly an unknown writer at the time and liked to live on the cheap, salting away what income he did earn (e.g., from the railroad) for future travels.

In Jack's time the address was 103 Santa Barbara Avenue, but they moved the street and did some renumbering. Now the building's address is 1703 Santa Barbara Street (you can find it on Google Maps and there's a street view, but I couldn't positively identify the building). Gerry said it has a new coat of mint green paint but is otherwise much like it was, including the overgrown stone path to the front door. We don't know for sure which window was Jack's, but he mentioned being able to see the Santa Lucia Mountains from his window and Gerry says the second story front windows are the ones with that view.

If, like Gerry and me, you thrill to stand where Jack stood, put this on your itinerary for your next trip to California.

(c) 2012 Gerald Nicosia
Former Colonial Hotel in San Luis Obispo, CA

(c) 2012 Gerald Nicosia
One of the second story windows was likely Jack Kerouac's room

(c) 2012 Gerald Nicosia
Another view of the second story

(c) 2012 Gerald Nicosia
Jack Kerouac's front door during April 1953

On The Road 4 Kerouac Project: Contribute Now!

We've posted about the On The Road 4 Kerouac Project several times here at The Daily Beat. It's an opportunity to pay tribute to Jack Kerouac by contributing to an effort to "reinvent the scroll" in 2012. It's easy to contribute: just click here.

No less than the famous Al Hinkle ("Big Ed Dunkel" in On The Road) has just contributed - click here to read his excellent remembrance of Jack.

You'll also see a tribute by Gerald Nicosia, author of Memory Babe.

And, of course, yours truly contributed!

What are you waiting for? Write up a tribute to Jack and send it in. The Project is presenting it to The Beat Museum on October 27, so speed is of the essence!

New On The Road trailer

Click here to see a new trailer for On The Road's release in the UK. It's similar to the trailer we've already seen, but different enough to be of interest.

Enjoy.

IFC Films lists specific On The Road U.S. release date as December 21, 2012

Thanks to my bitching here and on Twitter, I was pointed by KstewAngel to this Garrett Hedlund page saying On The Road is slated for a December 2012 release in the U.S.

That was helpful, but I wanted more specificity and a primary source. So, I went directly to IFC Films and found that they list the U. S. release date as December 21, 2012 (that's a Friday here in the U.S.).

Hallelujah! At least we don't have to wait until 2013. Hopefully, Railroad Square in Waterville, Maine will carry it (if not the big chains), so I can see it on the release date and report about it here on The Daily Beat.

Unless someone wants to front my trip to another country to see it sooner, of course.

On The Road U.S. release date?

Okay. Enough waiting around. I want to know when On The Road is being released in the U.S. and I want to know right now. I'm thinking of having a snit over it (can you tell?).

IMDB (click here) has the specific month for release dates everywhere except the U.S. The most "definite" thing I've read for a U.S. release was "the end of the year."

It really, really ought to be released in the U.S. in October. That would be fitting beyond description, and any true Kerouac fan knows why without my explaining the point.

Please, can't someone "in the know" give us Americans something tangible to look forward to?

Did Gore Vidal and Jack Kerouac hook up?

By now you've likely read that author and bon vivant Gore Vidal has died at the age of 86. We are interested in this beyond a passing Donne-ish fancy, because Vidal has long-claimed to have had sex with our hero, Jack Kerouac, and we wonder if it's true.

Stories vary depending on the source. At DHARMA beat you'll see this:

Quite a bit more detail is provided at The Last Bohemians blog (click here).

According to the Character Key To The Duluoz Legend compiled by Dave Moore, Vidal did have an "infamous one-night liaison with Kerouac in the Chelsea Hotel, New York, summer 1953." This gibes with The Last Bohemians description. Also, according to Moore, Vidal was portrayed in Jack's The Subterraneans as Arial Lavalina. Other on-line character keys confirm this.

Jack's character in The Subterraneans, Leo Percepied, did have some sort of horror-inducing relations (anal intercourse, fellatio, who knows - we're not getting Clintonesque here) with Lavalina in a hotel suite, and since Jack's novels were undeniably autobiographical (how much is open to debate), this liaison in the book lends credence to the possibility of a real-life liaison. Here's the segment from The Subterraneans:

According to Gerald Nicosia's Memory Babe (1994, University of California Press), "Jack proved impotent" that night in the Chelsea hotel (p. 444). So, it's hard to pin this down with certainty, but it looks to me like something happened. Not that there's anything wrong with that,* of course. It's no secret that Jack swung both ways sexually. We were just exploring the topic given Vidal's death . . .

. . . because, you know, around here everything connects back to Kerouac. Everything.



*Gratuitous modern TV cultural reference