On the Road is an Oscar contender?

The title of this ABC News piece says that On the Road is an Oscar contender, yet the body of the article doesn't mention it. I hope it's true: it can only be good news for book sales, Jack's and mine.

Kerouac hometown New Year's Eve happenings

If you're wondering what's going in Jack Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, MA, on New Year's Eve, click here. For example, two of Jack's favorite watering holes, Ricardo's (formerly Nicky's) and The Old Worthen are featuring live music. I wish it weren't 3 hours away (more if you hitchhike).

2013 Kerouac-olutions

Herewith are my Kerouac-olutions for 2013, starting with how I did on 2012's.

Update on 2011 Kerouac-olutions (click here for original post):
1. Read Dr. Sax.
Done.2. Read A Dance with Dragons (is this appropriate since I already started it?).
Done.
3. Read On The Road: The Original Scroll (again, already started).
Done.
4. Buy Crystal flowers at least once a month.
Done (I think).
5. See the glass half full more often.
To report on this would defy it.
6. Travel somewhere new.
Greenville, Moosehead Lake, Chain of Ponds, Rangeley.
7. Figure out what my next book will be about and actually start it.
May have figured out the first half.
8. Sell one of my banjos and get a better guitar.
Gave away one of my banjos (to my son, Jason) and spend a bunch of money getting my guitar re-set.
9. Take advantage of the On The Road movie hype to advertise and sell The Beat Handbook.
I'm lousy at such things, but maybe the San Francisco event will help.
10. Learn to love my job or find a new one.
Tried and failed. On both counts.

So, I achieved about 65% of my 2011 Kerouac-olutions. Now it's time to make some for the approaching new year.

2013 Kerouac-olutions:
1. Read Visions of Kerouac: The Life of Jack Kerouac by Charles E. Jarvis.
2. Read Surviving on the Streets: How to Go Down Without Going Out by Ace Backwords.
3. Read Neil Young's autobiography, Waging Heavy Peace.
4. Read The Voice Is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac by Joyce Johnson.
5. Read Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, The Beat Generation, and America by Dennis McNally.
6. Read Beat Generation: Glory Days in Greenwich Village by Fred and Gloria McDarrah.
7. Buy Crystal flowers once a month.
8. Start a second book.
9. Write 12 poems.
10. Visit Pennsylvania.

Happy New Year!

A Kerouac cartoon

The below cartoon was recently posted on the Jack Kerouac Facebook page. The poster couldn't identify the cartoonist - maybe a Daily Beat reader can help - and said he found it tucked inside Tom Clark's Kerouac biography.

It's not too flattering to our hero, but I thought Daily Beat readers would find it of interest. Kerouac fans know that you have to be larger than life to deserve such a lampooning, and we can take it in stride.

Hobos, Dilbert, & Jack Kerouac

Because of my obsession with all things Kerouacian, I have determined that it is a requirement to share here on The Daily Beat all references to hobos that I happen upon in the media. To wit, I offer today's entry from my Dilbert calendar.

LA Times calls On the Road "achingly romantic"

Click here for the LA Times review of On the Road. It's a good review, and I agree with it for the most part. They call the film "a poetic, sensitive, achingly romantic version of the Kerouac book that captures the evanescence of its characters' existence and the purity of their rebellious hunger for the essence of life." The review concludes as follows:

One of the hallmarks of Salles and Rivera's perspective is that even though these characters can be heedless in search of their pleasures, whether it be through sex or drugs, the film never loses sight of how young everyone is, and by implication, how innocent. How long they can live on "the edge of sanity and experience" before a reckoning looms down the road is the question everyone wants to avoid but, finally, no one can.

Another Kerouac Christmas!

Thanks to Crystal and Jason and Adri, my Christmas was very Kerouacian! THANKS!