For Homer - (Gregory Corso)

Twelve years to the day since Gregory Corso passed away. We celebrate his autochthnic spirit! 

This footage (above) of Corso, reciting his poem "For Homer", with music by Nicholas Tremulis and featuring footage of Corso, Tremulis, and poet, Ira Cohen, dates from 1993.

and here's a photo of  Gregory's grave-site in Rome (buried close to his beloved Shelley)

Friday's Weekly Round-Up 27

Some up-dates and commentary.

More Lew Welch - Passing quietly, a few days back, the anniversary of Lew Welch's disappearance. Here's a thoughtful piece from the local papers.

More Ira Cohen - Here's Indra Tamang, Romy Ashby, and Nina Zivancevic, on their friend, Ira. Nina: "Ira had never liked Allen Ginsberg, whom I adored, because he acquired more fame than he (Ira) did, in many ways. Allen had fame but he had no children. The last time I saw the latter he said how much he envied Ira for having sons; I was on the verge of tears - I was expecting a baby".

More Bob Dylan (ok, just a little bit more!) - Rundangerously, on his website, unearths an old AG Dylan fan poem (Allen is also, posthumously, included in The Captain's Tower).

- and on Brittanica.com, Sean Wilentz gets to address the Dylan-Ginsberg, Ginsberg-Dylan connection explicitly: "Ginsberg helped Dylan loosen his poetic breath and his imagery; Dylan helped bring Ginsberg into the 1960s and alert him anew to the possibility of tighter, lyrical poetic modes.."

More on William Burroughs censorship (see last week's "Round-Up" for the original AP article) - Elik Shafak has further thoughts in The Guardian

Plutonian Poison (see this post). Fukushima (with all attendant nuclear horrors) seems to have dropped out of the news cycle of late - but, no, not really. Combine this story here and this story here, for example, and it's hard not to feel.. sad? angry? shamed? - all three.

Greenpeace has some specific details of the local pollution here (in the light of less than forthright information coming from the authorities). Here's a recent AP wire story on TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) mismanagement and current international intervention. Switzerland's historic decision, this past week, to phase out its nuclear program is clearly a step in the right direction, but, as James Kantor points out, in the New York Times, "The nuclear fuel meltdowns in Japan have prompted various reactions in other parts of Europe. France, which relies on nuclear power for about 80 percent of its electricity and is a major exporter of nuclear technology, has reaffirmed its commitment to the technology. Just across the border, however, the German government reversed a previous decision to extend the life of its nuclear plants and is working on a plan to accelerate the phase-out there".

Ai Weiwei (see this earlier post) remains detained by the authorities, or, rather, is presently "under residential surveillance", in anticipation of criminal prosecution - - 55 days (and still counting!) Visited by his wife Lu Qing for twenty minutes, a couple of weeks ago, but otherwise (still) hidden, intolerably hidden, from the world.

Angus MacLise

[Angus MacLise in Katmandu, Nepal c.1978 - photo by Ira Cohen]

Angus MacLise (1938-1979) was, as cultural historian/curator, Johan Kugelberg puts it, in an informative interactive feature, last week in the New York Times, on the occasion of a pioneering exhibition and series of events that he and Will Swofford Cameron have co-curated,

"a major poet, (a) major visual artist, legendary drummer, (a) composer, and one of those odd human-link documents who link different eras and different streams of thought and streams of art".

Often remembered solely on the grounds of being the original drummer for The Velvet Underground, MacLise was (as is increasingly becoming evident) so much more.

Kugelberg, in a presentation, entitled (by the paper, not by him, we're guessing), "Artist, Musician, Zelig" ("Zelig", after the Woody Allen ubiquitous chameleon character), attempts to break it all down - or, at least, attempts, (via an extraordinary "time-capsule", a suitcase that was left with composers LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela over thirty years ago, containing recordings, artwork, publications and manuscripts, and which forms the basis of the show), to preliminarily explore the terrain.

Kugelberg's multimedia talk and walk through the exhibit nicely compliments what remains essential reading, the main print article - Ben Sisario's piece, The Velvet Unknown, Now Emerging.

(For another, earlier, but still useful, over-view of MacLise's life and work, see Rene van der Voort's article, here)

Boo-Hooray/Dreamweapon have released a useful promo video for the show that may be viewed here. They've also released two limited edition LP's, previews of which can be viewed here and here

More MacLise recordings (including the soundtrack for Ira Cohen's 1968 "Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda") can be found here

and also here (in the 1971, Angus & Hetty MacLise edited, issue ("the psychedelic issue") of the magazine Aspen

Ira Cohen (1935-2011)

[Ira Cohen 1935-2011 - photo by Jeffrey Silverthorne]

"Working at the Buddha factory, I dreamt one day I would be free". Poet, publisher, photographer, film-maker, legendary "Beat" presence, Ira Cohen died last night in Manhattan. He was 76. For more on his considerable life-time achievement see here. For videos of him reading his poetry see here, here, and here. Nina Zivancevic's 2001 interview with him for Jacket magazine may be read here. R.I.P. Ira.