FIRST WORDS......

Last updated June 24, 2009

To email Beat Scene kev (at) beatscene (dot) freeserve (dot) co (dot) uk

absolutely dedicated to the Beat Generation

We are a site dedicated to the Beat Generation and all the associated people and promoting the magazine BEAT SCENE (a real paper magazine) which is totally focused on them, concentrating on them historically and in a contemporary way with interviews, news, profiles, photos. The magazine has been published since 1988. Which of course makes it now twenty one years old. I don't plan on putting up articles here from the paper magazine. I get asked when I'm going to do this quite amazingly. My preference is always for a printed magazine. Something you can actually hold in your hands. I'm interested in playing a small part in keeping certain things alive.

               Ruth Weiss is 81 years old today. Wednesday, June 24. When I spoke to her on the phone yesterday she was bright and breezy, talking of her new partner, reading me poems and planning for forthcoming readings in Europe. She's an inspiration.

Readers of Gary Snyder might well be keen to see him being interviewed by Lew Sitzer on NCTV11. The filmed intervew is fractionally over an hour long. Don't expect a trip down memory lane. Snyder is firmly and mostly in the here and now. He is preoccupied with bio-regionalism. biodiversity, language, fire management where he lives and so on. Have a look at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7493184569903349861

  RecentlyTransit magazine, issue 21, was published. As the discerning among you will know, it is a little magazine devoted to all things Beat Generation. Measuring approximately 6" x 9" it includes poetry from Jack Hirschman, David Meltzer, Barry Gifford and Dan Fante. Plus there is a big essay on Leroi and Hettie Jones and their seminal 1950s magazine YUGEN.

     Charles Plymell, Zap, Robert Crumb, wanted to pass on this a little belatedly to you all. Click the link and away you go. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2008/nov/26/zap-comix-robert-crumb

A little five minute film of Herbert Huncke reminiscing at Cafe Nico in 1994. The film quality is good, the sound is good. Have a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3xMtnpZcfo

  Recently there was a little reading given by English writer Iain Sinclair www.iainsinclair.org.uk  at the library in central Coventry. My home town. I've had contact on and off with Iain since the mid 1970s when he was a bookseller and a key figure in promoting the then out of favour Beat Generation and their books. He supplied me with many difficult to find books. He was also a publisher with his Albion Press and a film maker (AH SUNFLOWER and a host of others) -  before he moved into a fulltime writing life. What a treat to see him in my town. Slightly surreal I have to say. The man who has written KODAK MANTRA DIARIES and a string of books, essays, poems, culminating in his most recent HACKNEY, THAT ROSE-RED EMPIRE. There in front of a little audience that included two mothers of two members of Coventry's famous Ska sons, The Specials. He's a tall man with a quiet presence, softly spoken but someone who projects his voice well. He's a good speaker, passionate about those things that concern him - though I suspect it doesn't sit easily with him. You imagine he'd rather be in one of his favourite London cafes, quietly plotting his next book or tramping through his beloved Hackney with his pals Mark Atkins and Renchi. Nowadays Iain is perhaps best known as a writer of alternative histories. Lost writers, churches, byways, districts, poets, the changing face of a London that the tourists never see. He brings into his work all kinds of elements and asides. Olson, Ed Dorn, Roland Camberton, Robert Westerby, Burroughs, Hawksmoor, Alan Moore, John Dee etc etc, etc. He champions obscure authors, rediscovers lost places. You can't pin him down. He is what they call a psychogeographer.

Good to see, if only briefly, Beat Scene subscribers Andrew Beck and Rod Warner and bookshop owner Peter Pleydon of Throckmorton bookstore, and to meet novelist Mez Packer. They all knew that Iain Sinclair really is something special as a writer, saying important things about our ways, our society, our culture and doing it such an enjoyable, often esoteric, unpredictable way.

Below is a link to an article Iain had in the English daily The Guardian about the recently reopened Whitechapel Gallery

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/apr/18/whitechapel-boys-exhibition-gallery

   As a postscript to above. A recently released DVD has Iain Sinclair's pal Chris Petit's 1979 film RADIO ON reissued. Filmed in black and white and sometimes tagged as as English road movie of sorts. The movie is far more than that. Part funded and assisted by Vim Wenders, RADIO ON lingers on the state of the country in 1979. With an eye for little details, lit streets at night, shop doorways, the English countryside, petrol pumps Hopperesque in the twilight. Scenes from a moving car on near deserted motorways, Kraftwerk and Bowie and Wreckless Eric aiding the eloquent drift of the film. It is a little gem. With an extended interview with both director and producer and a 'Radio On Remix.' The trip from London to Bristol like never before. Unusual and uplifting. The film is released by The British Film Institute. (BFIVD6899)

Beat Scene 58 is out in recent times.  I sent out an email to all SUBSCRIBERS asking if they would take an extra copy for a friend at a preferential price. Thank you so much to the fourteen subscribers who took up the offer.  Big feature on Joan Vollmer, see two photos below. I'm busy on the follow up, which has filled up very quickly. That one should be out late July.

If you would like to order Beat Scene and you live in the UK click the button below. Copies in the UK are £6.95

For a copy of BEAT SCENE 58 overseas, scroll down just a little and you'll find a button to click. 

For an overseas copy of BEAT SCENE 58, click here.

check out the revised and expanded edition of Diane di Prima's REVOLUTIONARY LETTERS from http://www.lastgasp.com/

Have a look at John Tranter's excellent literary site for a little review by yours truly on a republished book by Clive Matson (originally published by Diane di Prima.) I'd strongly suggest you investigate Tranter's Jacket site, it is a treasure trove. See http://jacketmagazine.com/37/r-matson-rb-ring.shtml it is part of the current issue in construction.

Out from the Beat Scene Press is CARL WEISSNER, CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S SECRET AGENT. An edition of one hundred numbered copies. It is number 20 in the Beat Scene Press Pocket Book series. It is £6 including postage. Click here to buy a copy.

Speaking to Heidi Benson of The San Francisco Chronicle in recent times, Gary Snyder said of The Selected Letters of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder (Counterpoint Press), "I have a naturally skeptical attitude. So when this book was suggested, I thought, who'd want to read that? In some of the letters I come off like some kind of old Buddhist schoolteacher. The book covers 35 years. It's a testament to a friendship, a prickly, mutually respectful and totally asexual relationship. Allen never bugged me about that, he said I was a hopeless case."

Not many people this side of the pond will have heard that Bukowski's photographer, Michael Montfort, died late last year. Montfort gave us many striking images of Bukowski. Being a man who liked his privacy it was somehow surprising that Bukowski allowed Montfort in. But the two got on and for many years Montfort kept snapping. You'll see his pictures in books such as SHAKESPEARE NEVER DID THIS. But in many more besides. There will be a special feature on Michael Montfort in Beat Scene.

A recent Beat Scene Press Pocketbook is Barry Gifford's NEW POEMS. It is number 19 in the series. It is a signed and numbered edition of 125 copies. You may know Barry Gifford as the co-author with the late Lawrence Lee of the biography of Jack Kerouac JACK'S BOOK. Many years ago Gifford also penned KEROUAC'S TOWN. Since those days he has become an acclaimed writer. WILD AT HEART, THE IMAGINATION OF THE HEART, PORT TROPIQUE and many others. Get in touch if you would like a copy, these little brown books prove very popular.

Click below if you would like a copy

Beat Scene came out just before Christmas. Number 57. I was very pleased with it, especially the lovely cover photo of Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, which was taken by Gordon Ball. I've been very busy mailing out subscriber and store copies, both for England and overseas. (Like an idiot I actually spent Boxing day morning doing this!) - I'm sending out copies to everyone in reinforced envelopes these days. It is very time consuming and more expensive doing this but I figure it helps to get the issue to you in a decent shape it is worth the time and money. I did subscribe to the English music monthly MOJO in recent years but when my first subscriber copy came through the mail in a flimsy plastic bag - all dog eared and unloved - I cancelled my sub with them and went back to buying it off the shelf. And I thought I don't want the same thing happening to your copies. I know a lot of you store your copies carefully and would like to get them in neat shape. So this should do the trick. Hands up those that leave them down the back of the sofa with a coffee cup ring on the front cover!?

If you live in UK you can click on box below to order a copy.

For Overseas - please scroll down a little to get a copy

  Beat Scene 57 OVERSEAS ......If you live in America, Australia, Japan, anywhere outside UK, click this box below to get a copy.

Below, two photos of poet Anne Waldman in Beijing in October 2008. Photos taken by Ron Padgett. The Beats at Naropa Anthology will appear shortly.

      Whilst doing a little research I stumbled across this extensive interview with Patti Smith and wanted to share it with those of you who might be interested - go to - http://www.kaapeli.fi/aiu/ps/auguries.html

During October there was a Beat Generation Symposium held in Chicago. Joanne Kyger and Michael McClure were there. Also there was Liz Von Vogt who recently had 681 LEXINGTON AVENUE: A BEAT EDUCATION IN NEW YORK CITY 1947-1954 published. In that book she recalls her young life mixing with her brother John Clellon Holmes and his friends such as Jack Kerouac. You can hear Liz speak and read from her book if you click the link here. http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=29934

A review of THE HIPPOS WERE BOILED IN THEIR TANKS has appeared in the Washington Post, don't expect Gilbert Milstein at all. The praise is so faint it isn't really there. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110603201.html?hpid=sec-artsliving

  A recent issue of Transit magazine, number 20, is out. It features an extended essay on the interview Jack Kerouac did with The Paris Review a year before his death. Plus an interview with Joanne Kyger, poetry from Michael McClure and Barry Gifford, Jim Burns on William Wantling and a little feature on Anne Waldman's new recording. Copies are £4 in the UK. If you live in the UK and would like to order, click the box below.

Issue 56 is out NOW. SEE BELOW. 

If you would like to order a copy of Beat Scene 56 and you live in the UK- click on the button below

A recent book in the Beat Scene Press Pocket Book series is a signed and numbered story by Dan Fante.  Not many of this one left.

If you would like a copy - Click here

  A few of you might know I publish another Beat influenced magazine. Transit. No 19 is now ready. In fact it is almost sold out. Featuring poetry from David Meltzer, Diane di Prima, Barry Gifford and Jack Foley with an essay on Charles Olson and Projective Verse. A single issue in the UK is £4 including post. Either by cheque payable to M.Ring ( I much prefer that) - OR by paypal to the Beat Scene email address. To the USA it is $12 cash OR by paypal. Europe is 10 Euros OR by paypal - FOR UK only click below.

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Beat Scene is on Facebook shock! Thanks to my youngest brother Loz. Beat Scene has a presence on this current site. I know and understand nothing about it but welcome the publicity. Cheers Loz. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=896055703

COOL KEROUAC, by Jim Burns - number 17 in the Pocket Books series, out now. Signed and numbered.

There is an entry on my magazine Beat Scene on the Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_Scene

Check out this site for an unusual William Burroughs link. http://realitystudio.org/bookmarks/cut-outs-and-cut-ups-hans-christian-andersen-and-william-seward-burroughs/

REMEMBERING JACK KEROUAC by John Clellon Holmes is number 16 in the Beat Scene Press Pocket Book series. 125 numbered copies. Click below for a copy IN THE UK ONLY (Overseas please email me).

BEAT SCENE 55 is still available. Copies in the UK are £6.50. Click below for A UK copy only.      Overseas please send me an email.

http://www.kerouacfilms.com/ Check out this little trailer for a new film about Jack Kerouac. ONE FAST MOVE AND I'M GONE

Recently LETTERS TO BEAT SCENE from Charles Bukowski became number 15 in the Pocket Books series. 125 numbered copies. Click below for a copy.

  I've just taken delivery of a box of the latest Dan Fante book, KISSED BY A FAT WAITRESS. A USA paperback, published with the usual class by Al Berlinski. If you live in UK or Europe and would like a copy click on the button below. It is £12.95

For something special on Allen Ginsberg  - you can go to http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/winter2008/features/the_beats/and hear the earliest known recording of Allen Ginsberg reading major parts of HOWL, recorded at Reed College in Oregon prior to his first public reading at the Six Gallery. The recording was co-discovered by John Suiter who is writing a biography of Gary Snyder.

"1963. On the way to Bolinas we stopped for gas and I borrowed Ginsberg's camera after taking that photo from backseat of Neal under torn headliner in his '39 Pontiac." (Charles Plymell from Neal and Anne at Gough Street.)"

The Beat Scene Press has published NEAL AND ANNE AT GOUGH STREET by Charles Plymell. Number 14 in the pocket book series, it is numbered in an edition of 125 copies and signed by Charles Plymell. Copies in the UK are £5.95 ...........OVERSEAS - please email for price.

There have been some nice comments from subscribers to Beat Scene in the past few months. It is so heartening to read an encouraging letter or email from places around the world. Bless you all. A link to a site that recently posted some lovely supportive sentiments is placed here. The Australian site run by writer Lachlan Jobbins is well worth investigating. http://www.control-edit.com/?p=78

BEAT SCENE 54 OUT NOW. Scroll down a little to buy a copy in the UK. Overseas please email.

  A recent issue of my other little Beat Generation magazine, Transit, is out now. Number 18 is given over to an essay on Gary Snyder. Copies are £3.50 in the UK. Overseas please ask.

Sad to report the passing of ace photographer Fred McDarrah, a man who captured the Beat Generation in New York during the 1950s. Read this review from the New York Times. Above is one of his pictures, Corso, Ginsberg, Burroughs & Maretta Greer in NYC, 1967.

photo by Janie Eisenberg

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/arts/design/08mcdarrah.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Was Charles Bukowski a fan of Hitler? This unlikely scenario is being played out around the run down shell of his former home at De Longpre Avenue, see http://www.laweekly.com/la-vida/a-considerable-town/bukowskis-ruin/17756/?page=1

Longtime Beat Scene subscriber Paul Hillery sent me this Kerouac link. A brilliant few minutes in a troubled world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IU0yHycuz0

See this link here for some famous people talking about Jack on a day that marked 50 years of ON THE ROAD. Though of course we all know that it was published in Heaven years before that

 http://www.slate.com/id/2173279/nav/tap1

NOW OUT in the continuing Beat Scene Press Pocket Book series is REXROTH, BUKOWSKI AND THE POLITICS OF LITERATURE by Ben Pleasants. 125 signed and numbered copies, out NOW. £5.95

  Beat Scene 53 . Articles include interviews with both Joyce Johnson and Hettie Jones, big stuff on Burroughs, Yugen magazine, Jack Kerouac & more besides. Copies are £5.95 in the UK. Overseas please scroll down the page just past this image of Jack Kerouac

USA copies of BEAT SCENE 53 here, click on the button below for a copy to be airmailed ...

Allen Ginsberg - Died 1997

I met Allen Ginsberg years ago outside a pub in Lowell in Massachusetts. June 1988. He had done a reading and my diary tells me he had been signing copies of his new book of photographs, something that took over more and more of his time later in his life. He was talking to a lot of people outside the bar, it was a cold and windy night and I recall him kindly saying to me that my young son shouldn't be out so late at night, it was around midnight. My son Nathan was eight. I agreed and said I didn't have much option as we were on holiday together alone. We talked about John Clellon Holmes who had died around that time. Allen spoke of one or two ailments of his own. It was late and yet he seemed keen to talk to everybody despite the hour and that it had been a long day for him, beginning at The Whistler Museum early in the day. I had just started Beat Scene by then and he encouraged me to use his photos in it. I was impressed by his generosity. He wrote me a couple of brief letters afterwards and then years later sent a postcard or two asking about the magazine. I always sent him copies but whether he always saw them I don't know, as he was always moving around. A few days earlier I had been sitting in Brighams ice cream shop in Kearney Square in Lowell, having a chocolate milk shake with Ben Woitena, the creator of the terrific Kerouac park in Lowell. Ben was from Texas and told me all about the work on the big monolith type slabs he'd created with Kerouac's words carved into each one. He loved an American band The Sir Douglas Quintet, probably because they too were from Texas. He seemed pleased when I said I had heard them. I'm certainly the right age. A lovely man. Sitting in the next booth were Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg. Not sure whether they were having a milkshake. We walked down to the Kerouac park with Ben, pouring with rain and looked and admired them. In the late afternoon I went into a council office in the centre of Lowell and got to see Kerouac's typewriter and to try on his rucksack. I almost sank to my knees. Even later that day we were at the Pawtucketville Social Club, quite a gathering there. Allen, Lawrence, Henri Cru, Edie Parker, lots of fans like me as well. There was an electrical sorm and the power was out and candles were lit. I recall going to a Greek restaurant with a few people, the friendly Henry Hefco and his wife, (my son was very impressed with Henry's gym), Dean Contover, Tony Sampas amongst them. I think Allen was there.

You can see images of Ben Woitena's work at http://www.benwoitenasculptor.com/

JACK KEROUAC - born March 12, 1922 - would've been 85 in 2007. The photo below on the right is one the English Sunday Times used for his obituary notice.

left here, JK on the Steve Allen TV show in 1959...Are you nervous Jack? Right, in The Kettle of Fish Bar in NYC, 1957

BEAT SCENE friend and subscriber Joe Lee attended a reading by Carolyn Cassady in San Francisco in recent times and sent in a few photos of the event. To start, from left to right - here's one of Joe Lee, Al Hinkle (Jack Kerouac's big buddy from late 1940s and 1950s and heavily featured in ON THE ROAD of course), Carolyn Cassady's daughter Cathy Cassady Sylvia and her husband George Sylvia. Thanks for sending them in Joe.

                                                               above, Carolyn Cassady with Joe Lee

Left, Joe Lee, Al Hinkle & Cathy Cassady

right above, here's another of Carolyn Cassady from a few years ago in Scotland when she attended a play about herself, Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac, the actors who played them are with her.

above, another photo sent in by arch snapper Joe Lee of John Cassady and Jami Cassady, two children of Carolyn and Neal Cassady. Photo taken 2006 in San Francisco.

and above, Carolyn Cassady in Florida in 1999 with film maker Judy Sharples.

above, Neal Cassady & the ill fated Natalie Jackson in SF, 1955.

In the early 1970s Iain Sinclair and his friends battled their way though the making of a film about Allen Ginsberg in London and efforts to interview him and others including William Burroughs. That filming developed into a book - THE KODAK MANTRA DIARIES. A distinctive spiral bound affair that quickly sold out. In it Sinclair captured something of the spirit of the times - both for Ginsberg and for London. Just before Christmas 2006 I published Iain's book once again in an edition of 500 copies.

I have copies of THE KODAK MANTRA DIARIES signed by Iain Sinclair. If you would like one of these they are £12 including post in the UK.

I think the fairly recent Beat Scene 51 (see below) issue is desirable simply because of the very special Jack Kerouac content alone. I guarantee it is something you won't have seen before. And people have commented on the big Bolinas content, I believe this is the biggest focus those times has received to date and hope it will push others into further research of the era and the poets who gathered there. I wanted to really investigate this late 1960s, early 1970s loose community of poets and so spoke to a number of them to get their recollections of the time. Writers included were David Meltzer, Joanne Kyger, Anne Waldman, Lewis Warsh, Larry Kearney, Duncan McNaughton, Tom and Angelica Clark, Alice Notley and others. I know of at least one writer who has been enthused enough to begin putting together a book about this community. On the cover are Lewis Warsh and Anne Waldman, over 35 years ago. Two poets who are still going strong. Copies of this issue are down to the last few boxes and my garage is emptying.

If you live in the UK click here for a copy of BEAT SCENE 51 for UK buyers ONLY below

USA, JAPAN & AUSTRALIA go to BACK ISSUES TO PURCHASE A COPY

TRANSIT magazine, our other little Beat Generation hued magazine continues. Number 17 is not long out. Includes poetry from Tom Clark, Alice Notley, David Meltzer, Anne Waldman, Lewis Warsh, Barry Gifford, Diane di Prima, Dharma Bum John Montgomery, Janine Pommy Vega, Joanne Kyger, Ruth Weiss, Beat archivist Arthur Winfield Knight. £4.25 including post in the UK.

BEAT SCENE 51 for EUROPEAN residents only, BUY HERE

If you live in Europe, USA/Australia, Japan click below for a copy of the Beat Scene Special issue THE KODAK MANTRA DIARIES. Cost is £7.50 inc post.

AND, Beat Scene Press published the fifth in the Beat Scene Pocket Books series, which is poet and biographer Tom Clark's LETTERS HOME FROM CAMBRIDGE 1963-65. Clark studied in Cambridge, England in that period and his letters are a snapshot of poetic life in the early 60s. Produced in an edition of 100 signed and numbered copies.  Strictly on a first come first served basis. Copies are £5.95 each including postage in the UK.

BEAT SCENE SUBSCRIPTION FOR USA, JAPAN, AUSTRALIA ---CLICK HERE

TRANSIT 16 is available, it features Barry Gifford, Tisa Walden, Michael McClure, Diane di Prima, David Meltzer, Tom Clark, Ted Joans, Jack Hirschman, Dan Fante, Arthur Winfield Knight, Janine Pommy Vega, Anne Waldman, Henry Denander, Ron Whitehead & Roger Taus on William Carlos Williams.. copies are £4.25 including post. Either by cheque in UK payable to M.Ring. OR BY CLICKING HERE BELOW

AND, SPEAKING OF TRANSIT, I'VE FINALLY FOUND THE BOX OF TRANSIT 3 FROM 1993. THIS IS THE KEROUAC SPECIAL ISSUE, A LONG ESSAY BY JIM BURNS ON KEROUAC AND JAZZ. A NUMBER OF PEOPLE HAVE ASKED ABOUT THIS ISSUE OVER THE YEARS. HERE'S YOUR CHANCE TO GET A COPY. BEFORE THEY GET LOST AGAIN.

TRANSIT No 15 is out now. It includes essays on Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac, poetry from Dan Fante, Diane di Prima, Tom Clark, David Meltzer, Arthur Winfield Knight, Charles Plymell, Anne Waldman, Neeli Cherkovski, Barry Gifford, Robert Creeley, Tisa Walden and Jim Burns You can buy a copy by clicking below.

OUR CHARLES BUKOWSKI SPECIAL ISSUE

In 2004 we decided to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Charles Bukowski (above). To mark the date Beat Scene magazine published an entire special issue devoted to the man.
We included interviews with his longtime friend and Black Sparrow Press publisher John Martin, a substantial interview with the man who photographed him over the decades, Michael Montfort. Girlfriends, he had a few, but Linda King was a significant woman in his life, we interview Linda. We look at Bukowski at the racetrack, his time with Jon and Lou Webb down in New Orleans being published by the Loujon Press. We investigate his longterm publishing history with Marvin Malone's Wormwood Review magazine and publish a photo of Marvin Malone, a rarity. There's an interview with his German translator Carl Weissner and much more. Full colour covers, including two striking portraits of Bukowski.
All this for £6.50 including post - either by cheque payable to M.Ring or by clicking below.