The "Friday Weekly Round-Up", a miscellany of Ginsberg and Beat-related news, a regular feature here on the Allen Ginsberg Project (absent these past few weeks) reaches its two-hundred-and-fiftieth today (Out with the birthday cake!)
Our Allen, another essential site for Ginsberg enthusiasts, has been monitoring and keeping track.
Randy Roark has been posting. For example (on Allen's response to Jerry Aronson's definitive The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg movie) - "He saw a working copy at one point and after it was over said, "So that's who I am?"
Raymond Foye chimes in - "I watched this film with Allen on tape a few days before he died, just the two of us, sitting on his hospital bed at the loft on 14th Street. It was kind of heavy and also kind of amusing - Allen so true to form, watching a film documentary on himself on his deathbed, essentially"
Jerry Aronson himself responds - "WOW! Actually, I showed Allen the finished film in 1992 when it was really done and he had not watched much of it and I was anxious waiting for his response. When it was over he said: So that's Allen Ginsberg? And I nervously said, Well? He responded "OK" thank goodness....A year later I was invited to Thanksgiving at Eugene's house (his brother) in Long Island with the whole family. They had not seen the film so Allen had me bring a copy. To them it was a home movie and they were laughing and talking about how cute they looked. Allen glanced at me and gave me the OK sign. That's when I knew it was REALLY finished.
More cinema news -
On American Cinematographer, the cinematographer Edward Lachmanspeaks with Iain Stasukevich about his work on the 2010 movie version of Howl
On Monday, this coming Monday, (at REDCAT, CalArt's Downtown Center for Contemporary Arts) the eagerly-awaited US premiere of "And When I Die I Won't Stay Dead", Billy Woodberry's documentary on the life and times of the greatBob Kaufman
The William Burroughs DVD (We've already featuredLuc Sante's accompanying notes) - A further review (by Clayton Dillard on Slant magazine) may be accessed here
Speaking of Burroughs, did we mention this? - Josef Rauvolf's two-hour special on Czech radio tomorrow, starting at 9.15 AM (Czech time) - Vitava - That can be listened to here.
Popular (world-renowned) novelist Haruki Murakami (alongside essayist-translator Motoyuki Shibata) will participate in a unique international collaboration during
Patti Smith and Philip Glass's June 4th 2016 performance(s) of their hommage to Allen, "The Poet Speaks", when it takes place at Tokyo's Sumida Triphony Hall this summer.
"Lorsque ce spectacle est présenté en dehors d'une zone anglophone" ("When this show is presented outside an English-speaking region"), the organizers told AFP, "les paroles sont traduites sur grand écran"("the lyrics are translated on the big screen"), cette fois, il s'agira d'une traduction entièrement nouvelle réalisée spécialement par MM. Murakami et Shibata"("this time it will be an entirely new translation especially made by Mr. Murakani and Shibata")
June 22nd (till October the 3rd) - looking forward to the big Beat Generation exhibition, scheduled for the Centre Pompidouin Paris.
And continuing the Paris news - Just two more days of Ugo Rondinone's I ♥ JOHN GIORNO show at the Palais de Tokyo.
Jean-Jacques Lebel can be seen interviewing John Giornohere
The appalling Ashraf Fayadh case that we reported on here continues to be an issue of the gravest concern. There has been a call, for next Thursday, January 14, for a worldwide reading of selected poems and other texts, in support of Ashraf Fayadh. Learn more about that action here
