Philip Glass & Patti Smith

Philip Glass and Patti Smith have been collaborating on various tributes to Allen through the years and fine tuning it along the way. This one from Lyon, Les Nuits de Fourvière 2009, June 2009, performing "Wichita Vortex Sutra" interspersed with interviews

Patti Smith évoque Allen Ginsberg
by NuitsdeFourviere

Arthur Russell: Ballad of the Lights

Matt Wolf unearthed this track a few years ago while researching for his Arthur Russell documentary Wild Combination. None of us had any idea it was out there. It's an outtake from a Flying Hearts session in the late 70s, so we might assume that the lineup included ex-Modern Lovers Jerry Harrison, and Ernie Brooks among others, and was recorded by John Hammond. We're also guessing this is "Ballad of the Lights part II," since part one has been issued and is an entirely different track on the posthumously released Love is Overtaking Me. At any rate, now it's out floating around youtube for us all to hear..

Ben Gibbard & Jay Farrar

As we'd mentioned last week in one of our posts, Death Cab for Cutie & Postal Service's Ben Gibbard along with Son Volt's Jay Farrar, teamed up to write twelve original tracks based on Kerouac's words from his novel Big Sur, for the film One Fast Move or I'm Gone. If ya haven't got the cd yet, here are a few streams to break you in.

NPR Music (Benjamin Gibbard & Jay Farrar live at the 9:30 Club, Washington DC for All Songs Considered)

KCRW's Today's Top Tune: Breathe Our Iodine

and a little more press on the project and what it's all about....

"Jack Kerouac was a literary rock star, lionized by his fans. He was called the avatar of the Beat Movement, a new voice of his generation. But along with sudden fame and media hype came his unraveling. The new film, One Fast Move or I'm Gone- Kerouac's Big Sur, takes us back to the cabin he retreated to in the Big Sur woods. The story unfolds through Kerouac's prose, first-hand recollections from Kerouac's contemporaries, as well as writers, poets, actors and musicians who have been deeply influenced by Kerouac's unique gifts.Appearing in the film are Sam Shepard, Patti Smith, Tom Waits, S.E. Hinton, Donal Logue, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Hunter and many more. The stunning, High Definition visual imagery is set to original music composed and performed by recording artists Jay Farrar of Son Volt and Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.

Gibbard stayed in Big Sur to compose songs for his band's 2008 Grammy-nominated, #1 selling, album, Narrow Stairs. For many years, Jay Farrar's songwriting has been inspired and influenced by Kerouac's compositional style. Gibbard and Farrar, having never previously met, discovered a mutual kinship in their passion for Kerouac's work while recording several songs for the documentary, produced by Kerouac Films. After the initial San Francisco recording session in July 2007, they decided to develop the project further to create an album using Kerouac's own words from the book as the lyrics."

Looking In: Robert Frank's Americans at Metropolitan Museum of Art

There's still time to catch Robert Frank at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through January 3. Unfortunately the film series ended last week. We're hoping they'll have another series before the show comes down.

Zero Budget Festival Warsaw

....and if you just happen to be in Warsaw this coming week, check out the Zero Budget Festival hosted by the Grotowski Center Warsaw and organized by the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards (Italy). Workcenter will be performing two projects I am America and Electric Party Songs entirely based on Ginsberg's poems.

Check Zero Budget Festival's website for schedules. It's all in Polish, but pretty easy to figure out. As for the description, you might need this English version:

Based on the works of Allen Ginsberg, I Am America is a stream of dramatic structures featuring song, rhythm, dance, poetry and action. I Am America explores this terr
ain through the personification of America. She speaks of herself, of hope, of contradictions, desires and failures; she is a goddess with many faces. Her offspring are those who give body to her impulses, each one according to his or her own unpredictable paths. America is a mother with many children.

The Open Program team of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards presents Electric Party Songs, a flow of songs and actions based on the poetry of American poet Allen Ginsberg. The members of Open Program elaborated and composed all of the songs, approaching the meaning, rhythms and sounds of the spoken poetical texts as the seeds of musical and dramatic creation. Their varied backgrounds generate a stylistically diverse body of music, drawing inspiration from blues, rock, pop, opera, punk, and traditional sources.


Radio Wroclove talk on the events briefly, and amusingly aren't quite sure what to expect >>

Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Evolution of a Painter November 5, 2009 - December 19, 2009

For those of you in the San Francisco area, Lawrence Ferlinghetti's show opens at George Krevsky Gallery, 77 Geary Street, on November 5th & will be up through December 18. We highly recommend checking this one out, especially if you're only familiar with Ferlinghetti as a poet.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Edna St. Vincent Millay 2008

oil and silkscreen on canvas, 30 x 23 in.

Helen Weaver: The Awakener

Helen Weaver's book The Awakener: A Memoir of Kerouac and the 50s is now in stores, after nearly 20 years in the making. Weaver, whom Kerouac immortalized as Ruth Heaper in Desolation Angels, was one of the "two Helens" who awoke one snowy, cold December morning in 1956, to Allen, Peter and Jack freshly returned from Mexico with no place to stay. More details at City Lights online >>