DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS
My Fellow Americans, Life is actually just a microscopic, deluded moment in time, so let's cut to the freakin' chase. One look at our impending election debacle can solidify my case. It has been my contention since birth, that the answer to every difficulty we encounter on this sacred yet demented Stone, can be revealed with ultimate clarity through the ultra neurotic engagements of Music, Art, Literature, Film, Poetry and a good Pastrami sandwich. Why would any sane human spend so must time on a film set (Do you know how long you gotta wait until your 8 second deliverance of an edited beyond repair line gets a chance to become a professional embarrassment etched in time forever? ) or expend so much energy in a recording studio, piecing together another ode to a man or woman who could not care less how much love existed within your digestive tract? It's all about hymns and prayers and a quest for mercy and forgiveness and silence and faith. We were blessed with Charles Bukowski, Gene Chandler, Lenny Bruce, Mitch Ryder and a legion of creative explorers whose influences provided the air we breathe. So Let's Dance! This site shall explore the reaper, find a way to disarm the stench of injustice, discover some true loves and talk it all over before it's all over. So what's the worst that our desires could produce? Failure? So sue me. I'm going to require your assistance in making as much trouble for the grown-ups as possible. Let the record show that my childish heart yearns to disrupt the madness. Join me Ladies and Germs!
With Gratitude For Gena Rowlands, Nancy Sinatra, Jerry Quarry, Leo Gorcey, Arthur Alexander and Joey Heatherton, Your Splendid Bohemian, Rich Buckland.
DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS
THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT "THE BEAT GOES ON"- EPISODE 3- JACK KEROUAC-"SUBTERRANEAN HOMEGROWN BLUES"- THIS NEW SERIES CAPTURES A LITERARY MOVEMENT GUIDED BY INDIVIDUALISM, LUNACY, INGENUITY AND THE SWITCHBLADE OF BE BOP NOTION
THE KEROUAC PROJECT: https://www.kerouacproject.org/
JACK KEROUAC SCHOOL OF DISEMBODIED POETICS: https://www.naropa.edu/academics/schools-centers/jack-kerouac-school-of-disembodied-poetics/
The thread of Jack Kerouac’s literary and personal life in the American imagination might be unwound succinctly in the following terms: ambitious and fun-loving young man leaves behind his small-town upbringing to chase heroes and dreams in the American West, finding along the way new paths to enlightenment while blazing a trail for generations of seekers to follow.
It is a theme familiar to most of us, because more than a few of our favorite novels embrace it. It is also, in the case of Kerouac, almost entirely a fiction. The man most associated with the peripatetic Beat Generation spent more than half his life in his hometown of Lowell, Mass., living with his mother. This master of the postwar American idiom grew up speaking the French dialect of his Canadian immigrant parents and actually attempted an early draft of On The Road (the book was eventually published in 1957) in the dialect of his Franco-American community. Despite the image of a modern spiritual seeker who eventually found a home in Buddhism, Kerouac was born and died a self-identified Catholic; and despite his iconic status as a chronicler of the road, the most prominent theme in Kerouac’s novels is a mysticism of place.
Kerouac’s mystical visions had another specific theme—the crucifixion. In Maggie Cassidy, Christ speaks to him from a crucifix after confession:
“My child, you find yourself in the world of mystery and pain not understandable—I know, angel—it is for your good, we shall save you, because we find your soul as important as the soul of the others in the world—but you must suffer for that, in effect my child, you must die, you must die in pain, with cries, frights, despairs—the ambiguities! the terrors!”
The Autobiographical Novels of Jack Kerouac
Visions of Gerard (written 1956, published 1963)
About Kerouac's saintly older brother, who died as a child.
Doctor Sax (written 1952, published 1959)
Maggie Cassidy (written 1953, published 1959)
Youthful porchlight romancing in Lowell.
The Town and the City (written 1946-49, published 1950)
Vanity of Duluoz (written and published 1968)
Kerouac's last published novel, a memoir of early days.
On The Road (written 1948-56, published 1957)
Visions of Cody (written 1951-52, published 1972)
More about Neal Cassady.
The Subterraneans (written 1953, published 1958)
Kerouac's pathetic love story about a black girl who dumps him for Gregory Corso.
Tristessa (written 1955-56, published 1960)
Junkie prostitute girlfriend in Mexico.
The Dharma Bums (written 1957, published 1958)
Big Sur (written 1961, published 1962)
Desolation Angels (written 1956-61, published 1965)
Satori in Paris (written 1965, published 1966)
