Ed's First Blog

The First Podcast

2009-07-31T09:14:00.001-04:00

It's Up!

2009-07-29T22:15:00.002-04:00

My first podcast! Yep, after so many rehearsals, I still sound stiff. Oh well:

http://www.greenwichlibrary.org/blog/eds_blog/2009/07/science-fiction-fantasy-horror-the-1000-eyes-of-dr-mabuse.html

Tomorrow's Podcast

2009-07-29T09:02:00.006-04:00

If all goes well, I'll be reviewing the low budget 1960 classic thriller The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse.

If all goes well. -Ed

(The podcast will be at Ed's Blog: http://www.greenwichlibrary.org/blog/eds_blog/

I'm Blogging In The TTC This Monday!

2009-07-24T11:05:00.002-04:00

Details here . Stop by if you're in the neighborhood. I'll be using Blogger to show how anybody can start their own blog, with downloadable links, pictures, video, etc. -Ed

So Much Work, So Little Time...

2009-07-22T13:13:00.004-04:00

Poor me...

Tomorrow's "Ed's Blog" Posting

2009-07-22T11:12:00.006-04:00

I'll be reviewing Other Earths by Gevers & Lake.

Yesterday's post is here.

And I did a review at the "Staff Picks" blog on The Who Sell Out here.

-Ed

Shadows Over Baker Street Review Up At Ed's Blog

2009-07-16T11:03:00.001-04:00

Go here. -Ed

Upcoming At Ed's Blog

2009-07-12T15:59:00.004-04:00

I'll be reviewing this collection of Sherlock Holmes stories influenced by H.P. Lovecraft in this Thursday's Ed's Blog post. So far the stories are good, but they're more Conan Doyle than Lovecraft, as far as style goes. -Ed

H.P. Lovecraft Memorial

2009-07-10T16:19:00.000-04:00

(Taken a few weeks back when I was in Providence, RI. -Ed)

Blogger vs. Facebook

2009-07-09T12:33:00.002-04:00

Like, what's the deal?

It's Alive! Ed's First Blog Returns (Sort Of)!

2009-07-08T09:48:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. That's on account of other matters (including finally getting a blog set up for the library. However, for the time being, I've resurrected "Ed's First Blog" just to test out stuff that may be used by the library in the foreseeable future. Right now, we're checking out the merits of Twitter on this blog, and down the line, I'll probably find a way to link up with Facebook. Updates to follow.

Hey Film Buffs! Look What Turner Classic Movies Is Offering!

2008-10-29T11:42:00.004-04:00

My colleague Catherine Tynes pointed out this terrific site offered by the cable station Turner Classic Movies . Basically, TCM has a collection of downloadable film clips and original "coming attraction" trailers of most of the classic movies they carry in their catalogue. You can "pick your video" and watch on your email, blog, etc. (Please note: As Catherine pointed out to me, there's a hidden code that allows you to embed the video clips on the link. If you hover your mouse on the right side of the screen, you can see how to copy or embed the link you want to watch and/or share.)

The site also carries a widget where you can download clips and photos. It can be found here.

Now, in honor of TCM's upcoming "48 Hours Of Horror" marathon, beginning Thursday, October 30 and continuing through Halloween(the posted schedule of films to be shown those days can be seen here ), and because I'm a perverse son-of-a-gun, here's an embedded trailer for 1963's The Haunted Palace , starring Vincent Price and directed by Roger Corman . It's supposedly based on a work by Edgar Allan Poe , but takes only its' title (and a few lines) from one of the author's poems. (The film is actually based on H.P.Lovecraft's novella, "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", a neat little shocker.) But the film, while not quite up to its source material, is still entertaining. (Price's outrageously hammy performance carries the film, especially when he's required to play two different characters!) Anyway, here's the trailer:

Happy Halloween! -Ed

The Single By R.E.M. That Came Out This Year & Should've Been A Hit!

2008-10-29T11:35:00.002-04:00

'Nuff said! -Ed

The "New" Novel By Burroughs and Kerouac!

2008-10-24T15:25:00.006-04:00

In August, 1944, Lucien Carr, a young Columbia University student, murdered David Kammerer, a older man who had been stalking him, due to circumstances still being debated. (Self-defense? Premeditated murder?) Somehow, as recounted here, Carr managed to involve both Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs in helping him try (unsuccessfully) to cover up the killing. (More details here .) (It should be noted that Carr was instrumental in introducing Kerouac, Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, the three principal figures of the "Beat Movement", to each other.)

(Burroughs and Kerouac.)

A year later, Burroughs & Kerouac, having (barely) escaped prison for their part in the killing, decided to collaborate on a mystery novel loosely based on the Carr-Kemmerer incident. For various reasons, the book was never published during the principals' lifetimes. Now however, as noted in this article, the novel, And The Hippos Were Broiled In Their Tanks will finally be published on November 1st. An excerpt of it can be read here . Should be interesting. -Ed

(And how did Burroughs & Kerouac come up with that bizarre title? Wikipedia explains all.)

Reading (Braille) Is Fundamental!

2008-10-24T14:51:00.012-04:00

Some well meaning advocates for the disabled recently informed me that seeing-impaired persons really don't need to read braille books since they can just listen to them on audiocassette and/or compact disc. They meant well, but, as I'm looking into getting some braille books (novels & non-fiction)for the collection, I don't agree. And neither does William M. Raeder, former president of the National Braille Press :

Braille is the only means by which blind people can truly read the written language. It is certainly true that for easy reading materials such as novels, audio intake using the recorded human voice, or the electronically synthesized mimicking of the human voice, is not only satisfactory but sometimes preferred by blind people, just as it is by sighted people. By the same token, just as sighted people have by no means given up the written language in favor of audio only, so blind people should not be expected to give up their written language.

You can read Mr. Raeder's compelling arguement (which can also be cited for recommending reading to sighted people) further here . The NBR makes a good case too.

(A student using Braille.)

-Ed

Related links: How Useful is Braille? ; Why Is Braille Important?

"Ginsberg & Beat Fellows" & Gordon Ball

2008-10-08T14:44:00.006-04:00

(Gordon Ball at the library's Meeting Room on Tuesday, October 7th.)

Beat historian, underground filmmaker and author Gordon Ball came to speak at the Greenwich Library on Tuesday night, October 7th, in the Meeting Room. Mr. Ball, who currently teaches English at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, read from his memoirs '66 Frames (1999), Dark Hill (2006) and Scenes From East Hill Farm: Seasons With Allen Ginsberg (2007), and showed a slide presentation of his program on the Beats, Ginsberg & Beat Fellows: Writings & Photographs by Gordon Ball , coincidentally the title of that night's program.

Mr. Ball read from his books about his first meeting with Ginsberg, how the poet talked him into overseeing his farm in upstate New York and how he met such Beat (and Beat-related figures) as Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Creeley , Peter Oslosky and Anne Waldman . Ginsberg had hoped the farm he bought in 1968 would be a haven for his fellow artists to "cleanse" themselves (like Corso and Oslosky, who had major chemical dependence problems) and held out the ultimately futile dream that old friend Jack Kerouac (already a full-blown alcoholic by that time)would come by for that purpose. Needless to say, that never happened.

(Gordon Ball and friends at Ginsberg's East Hill Farm, appx. 1969.)

Below is a picture from Mr. Ball's Beat Fellows presentation: a picture he took of Ginsberg and fellow Beat (and all-around scary guy) Herbert Huncke :

More of Mr. Ball's pictures can be found on his web site here . If you click on a photo, you'll see both a larger image and a description of the picture and what led up to that particular moment. (Lots of good stuff!) This picture below taken by Mr. Ball is a favorite of mine:

Mr. Ball graciously gave us a copy of his '66 Frames memoir and expressed hope that a longer version of Scenes From East Hill Farm (which he's completed) will see the light of day soon. -Ed

See also: Bill Morgan's I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg (which can be found here and Mr. Morgan's collection, The Letters of Allen Ginsberg .

The 2008 HOWL! Festival (Part Two)

2008-09-12T14:11:00.004-04:00

Above, you can see the "temperance" arch where festival personnel encoraged people attending to partake in giving "spontaneous" poems and commentaries. Nearly every one I heard dealt with the joys of alcolhol. ("Oh Miller! Oh Budweiser! Oh Heiniken!" ). Go figure. -Ed

Related link: www.slamchops.com (one of the festival vendors)

The 2008 HOWL! Festival (Part One)

2008-09-12T14:06:00.003-04:00

I managed to attend the 2008 HOWL Festival last Sunday (09/07/08) in Tompkins Square Park. Above, you can see people watching one of the bands that were playing that day. -Ed

Related links: howlfestival.com

Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan Are Related To Each Other?!? (No, Really!)

2008-08-22T16:00:00.015-04:00

When I first read Philip Jose Farmer's Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (a "biography" of Doc, based on the 181 pulp novels by "Kenneth Robeson"/Lester Dent) in 1975, there was a chapter and family tree linking Doc to "cousins" like Sherlock Holmes, Fu Manchu (the family "black sheep" ?), Philip Marlowe, The Shadow, Captain Nemo and James Bond 007, among others.

Farmer had originally posited this idea in his similar "fictional biography", 1972's Tarzan Alive (yes, Tarzan, AKA Lord Greystoke, is a member). In a nutshell, a meteor crashed in Wold Newton, England, in 1795, and its radiation somehow affected the people and their eventual descendants genetically. The descendants of the people of Wold Newton (according to Farmer) developed various above-average intellect and skills and the drive to do good (or evil) deeds.

Here's Farmer discussing how he "met" the real Tarzan when doing research for Tarzan Alive :

It's a goofy idea, but a fun one. Farmer himself wrote some short stories & novels such as 1976's The Adventures of the Peerless Peer, which teamed up Holmes & Tarzan (here called "Lord Greystoke" to keep the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate licenseholders happy) in 1916 Africa, and 1991's Escape To Loki, a WWI-set "prequel" to the Doc Savage novels, in which he continued to link all these characters to each other.

PJF fan and writer Win Scott Eckert took it upon himself to expand upon Farmer's "family tree" of fictional adventure characters and began a site devoted to the "Wold Newton Universe", which you can find here . Well, Eckert published a collection of essays by him, Farmer & others in 2005 called Myths For The Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe, which I just got via the library & will start reading ASAP.

In addition to the aformentioned characters, Eckert, Farmer & others link other fictional icons (like Zorro, Charlie Chan and even Henry Higgins -!- from Pygmalion/My Fair Lady) to said "family". Looks like a good read. Can I find 'em or what? -Ed

Related links: The Secret History of the Wold Newton Universe ; The Lester Dent Museum ; The Official Tarzan Web Site

The Stamford Advocate Touts The Kurzweil

2008-07-30T12:06:00.003-04:00

Actually they just reprinted last week's Greenwich Time article. But anything that helps get the word out is okay by me! -Ed

Greenwich Time Covers The Kurzweil 3000!

2008-07-22T15:32:00.003-04:00

You can find the article here . Many thanks to Kate Petrov! -Ed

Coming To Greenwich Library July 23rd: Free TV

2008-07-21T17:09:00.004-04:00

Well, it's kinda free. Courtesy of AOL, the In2TV site offers episodes of various classic television shows (and Godzilla movies!) with about 2 minutes of commericials. But considering some of these programs are either not being shown or are otherwise unavailable on DVD, In2TV is a great source for catching shows like The Adventures of Superman, F Troop , I Spy and (choke) Gilligan's Island . There are also animated cartoons and some really obscure stuff as well.

Below is an episode of F Troop in its entirety (appx. 25 minutes):

On Wednesday, July 23 at 11 a.m., I'll be giving a session in the Technology Training Center on how people can download and enjoy In2TV. It'll be open to the public and staff.

Remember when I mentioned the obscure stuff that IN2TV carries? Here's an episode of the (deservedly) short-lived 1966-67 Girl From U.N.C.L.E. (fifty minutes):

(And for equal time, here's an installment of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with some surprising guest stars from 1964. Here's a hint: two of the said guest stars went on to co-star together in a still-popular science fiction series that began in 1966 and spawned several films and spin-offs.)

-Ed

(And in case you thought I was kidding about Godzilla, click here . )

July Is Disability Pride Month

2008-07-16T10:12:00.005-04:00

(Above: Last year's Disability Pride Parade in Michigan.)

Kathi Wolfe notes that this month is Disability Pride Month and that those with disabilitiies have something to celebrate, namely the ADA Amendments Act. Read all about it here .

-Ed

William S. Burroughs Meets Joy Division

2008-07-10T09:42:00.010-04:00

(Joy Division , with Ian Curtis , second from right . Click on the picture to learn more about the band.)

Writer Jon Savage has an interesting article on the literary influences of the late Ian Curtis (1956-1980), the creative force behind the legendary band Joy Division at the Guardian . Among Curtis' heroes (which included J.G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick ) was William S. Burroughs and the two actually got to meet. Very briefly.

(William S. Burroughs .)

The whole sad tale is recounted here . Curtis died in 1980 and his life was recently the focus of a very good film, Control , released last year, that may interest people. -Ed

Jack Kerouac: King Of The Beats

2008-07-08T14:40:00.003-04:00

From Google Video. A 72 minute podcast of a documentary on the author of On The Road . Enjoy. -Ed

From CNN: Charities Feel Gas Pinch

2008-07-08T12:57:00.005-04:00

(Meals On Wheels: The latest charity to be hit by increasing gas prices.)

A follow up to recent posts I've done on how the gas crunch has affected services to the elderly can be found, with video, at CNN. -Ed

Update: Looks like rising gas prices are causing other problems, according to MSNBC:

CT Parking Permits For The Disabled

2008-07-07T16:35:00.006-04:00

Looks like abuses of parking permits for the disabled in Connecticut may result in some changes, according to the New York Times. -Ed

Classic Science Fiction Just Out On DVD: The Invaders and Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun

2008-07-05T15:17:00.012-04:00

(Right: Roy Thinnes on the run from The Invaders ; cover art for the just released first season DVD set.)

Actor Roy Thinnes was quite the busy actor when it came to science fiction television and movies in 1967-69. First he starred in the cult classic series The Invaders , which ran on ABC from January '67 to August '68. This series, about an archtect who discovers that the Earth has been invaded by aliens from a dying planet but can't get anybody to believe him, was created by Larry Cohen (writer/director of such quirky cult films as It's Alive ; God Told Me To ; The Stuff ) and produced by Quinn Martin (The Untouchables; The Fugitive ; Cannon and too many other well-known television programs to mention here). It ran for 43 episodes before getting cancelled due to low ratings, but the majority of episodes were taunt, suspenseful thrillers that were masterpieces of paranoia. Thinnes's David Vincent never knew who he could trust and although he'd always managed to thwart the aliens' various plots (kidnapping scientists; assassinating & replacing political leaders; attempted biological warfare), often wound up right back where he started from at story's end. Here's the opening of one particular episode that sets up the show's premise.

(Ad from the 1960's promoting The Invaders .)

Now CBS Paramount has put out the first season episodes (seventeen in all, plus an expanded version of the pilot episode and an interview with the still-active Thinnes) on a five disc DVD set. Though most of the shows hold up dramatically -boy, could Thinnes's Vincent really get into people's faces when he had to- , one or two look like they were taken from dupey elements. The DVD Talk site, while going in more detail about the disc quality, gives an otherwise positive review of the DVD set. Having remembered watching the show as a kid (plus building & owning the cool Aurora model of the aliens' spaceship), I'm glad to report that the series still delivers the goods.

(Cover of the DVD release of 1969's Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun , also starring Roy Thinnes .)

Just after The Invaders ceased production in 1968, Roy Thinnes went on to star in the 1969 British SF film Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun , also just released on DVD (from Universal). Produced by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson (both created/produced such classic British TV shows as Stingray ; Thunderbirds ; Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons ; Joe 90 ; UFO and -whew!- Space:1999 )from their original story and directed by Robert Parrish , the film was completed in late 1968, but released a year later in October, 1969, just three months after man landed on the Moon. Set in the year 2069 (although "Cape Kennedy" is mentioned as still being in existance), the film revolves around the discovery of another planet located on the other side of the Sun and Earth's attempts to reach it. Thinnes leads a strong cast and the special effects and overall production values (set design, etc.) are terrific, but the story's big reveal (which I won't give away here; see DVD Talk's review for a hint and more background of the film itself) left me wanting a little more meat on my plate. (And hey, Universal: what's with not offering chapter selection options on the DVD menu screen? Bad enough there aren't any extras on the disc like trailers and interviews with the still living Andersons and Thinnes...) -Ed

(Roy Thinnes rescues fellow astronaut Ian Hendry after they crash land from their Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun .)

Update: Here's a good online article on the making of The Invaders by Stephen Bowie.

How The Gas Price Crisis Is Affecting The Elderly

2008-07-05T15:12:00.002-04:00

Homebound and disabled elderly citizens are also feeling the heat by higher gas prices. See this article from the New York Times for details. -Ed

Here's Another Demo Video On The Kurzweil 3000

2008-06-19T18:31:00.002-04:00

Courtesy of YouTube:

And here's the previous video I put up in a post last week:

These should assist staffers in using the Kurzweil 3000 software. -Ed

From The Stamford Advocate: The Avon Theatre's Cult Classics Film Series

2008-06-15T16:18:00.006-04:00

The Avon Theatre in Stamford will be running a series devoted to offbeat "cult" films called Cult Classics every Thursday night this summer. The Stamford Advocate discusses the series here . More info can be found at the theatre's web site there .

This is the one I want to see. (It's playing in August.) -Ed

(Thanks to Kate Petrow for letting me know about this.)

Dario Argento's Mother Of Tears!

2008-06-15T15:05:00.008-04:00

Italian thriller director Dario Argento came through again with his latest release, Mother of Tears , the very belated sequel to his previous films, Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980). I saw the film last Thursday night in Soho's Sunshine Landmark Cinema (where the surrounding neighborhood at night looks just like the kind you'd find in an Argento movie) at the 8:20 showing, just before the movie gets "bumped" to "midnight showing only" status. AND I LOVED IT!!!!

(Star Asia Argento goes through a lot for her father's film.)

This film is totally over the top. There are so many bizarre but grandly (and bloody; this is NOT a film for children) staged scenes of killings and other acts of violence that a viewer is liable to feel dizzy in a punch-drunk way afterwards. The photography and direction is first rate, and the cast, led by the director's daughter Asia Argento (Land of the Dead; Marie Antoinette), more than make up for the script's various plot holes. (At one point -read the links I put on this post for an explaination why- Asia's character discovers her parents were good witches and she inherited their powers. Trying to elude the cops, she discovers she can make herself invisible, right in front of people, just like Lamont Cranston.) And of course, it wouldn't be an Argento film without some awkwardly written translated-into-English lines ("There's more here than meets the eye", one cop says after finding the brutally murdered body of a colleague), but the dubbing is otherwise quite good. It's not for all tastes, but Mother Of Tears is entertaining and NEVER dull!

Reviews and plot summaries can be found at Movies.com , the New York Times ,Entertainment Weekly , Filmcritic.com and even Wikipedia , which goes into the background of the film's gestation. The DVD Planet website has a September 23rd release date for the film's Region One DVD. You BET I'm going to see it again!

-Ed

Stuff I'll Be Looking At On My Vacation

2008-06-14T12:20:00.023-04:00

(Left: Philip Jose Farmer's Venus On The Half- Shell and Others collection.)

One of my favorite science fiction writers, Philip Jose Farmer, has just gotten his 1975 sf spoof novel Venus On The Half-Shell republished, along with other humorous takeoffs in a new collection from Subterranean Press, the details of which can be found here . This is one of the items I'll be looking at during my vacation. (You have your way to relax, I have mine.) Yep, I'll be ordering a copy for the library.

Another book I'll be checking out, from Fatagraphics Press , is Blake Bell's Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko , which officially comes out later this month, but I managed to get my greedy little hands on a pre-publication copy. The book can be ordered here and the author, who has his own site on Ditko , is interviewed here . Mr. Ditko is perhaps best known as the co-creator of the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man .

Tim Lucas, the editor of Video Watchdog , spent thirty years researching the life and career of Italian horror director Mario Bava (1914-1980), and the magnificient result of his efforts can be found in his self-published Mario Bava: All The Colors Of The Dark , which I got for half price quite a while ago. The tome, which is over a thousand pages, also discusses Bava's various films, including the 1960 Gothic classic Black Sunday . Lucas's blog on the book can be found here . And here's the coming attractions trailer for Black Sunday . (Yep, we carry Bava's films! )

In 1975, to promote his then-latest solo album, No Other , former Byrds member Gene Clark (1944-1991), with his hastily-put together backing band, embarked on a grueling concert tour. Highlights from one of those shows can be found on the Silverado '75-Live and Unreleased CD, from Collector's Choice Music . Here's a clip of Clark performing one of the songs from his set.

Finally, I'm going to be checking out a DVD collection of four 1960s Hammer films, three of which star Christopher Lee , called Icons Of Adventure, put out by Sony. DVD Talk has a pretty good review of it posted.

These should keep me out of the pool halls for the next two weeks.

-Ed

GET SMART!!!!

2008-06-12T15:33:00.009-04:00

(The late Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Secret Agent 86 for CONTROL, from the classic 1965-70 TV series Get Smart .)

One of the all-time best TV comedies ever devised was the 1965-70 series Get Smart , created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry . Starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, CONTROL agent 86, plus Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 and Edward C. Platt as "The Chief" , the show was a hilarious takeoff on the 60's James Bond Spy Craze . Every week, Max & 99 would foil some nutty scheme by the rival spy organization KAOS to conquer the world.

Nearly two years ago, Time Life put out the entire five season run on DVD, which you can order from here . (Visitors to this blog may remember another classic 60s spy series available on DVD from Time Life.) Below is a scene from a 1965 episode:

I'm focusing on Get Smart due to the upcoming new movie version which opens June 20 in theatres. Here's a trailer for the new film. I'll reserve comment on the new film until when (more likely if ) I see it. -Ed

(Don Adams and Barbara Feldon as Max & 99 with their classic shoe phones, although I don't remember 99 having one in the series....)

Update: Here's an online site devoted to the original show, complete with episode guide and interviews!

Here Comes The NEW, IMPROVED Kurzweil 3000!

2008-06-12T14:07:00.008-04:00

(Above: The Kurzweil 3000 in action.)

I'm very happy to announce that, thanks to the Tech Department, Greenwich Library now has available the new, updated (and much improved) Kurzweil 3000 software for the visually and hearing impaired community. Computers with the software can be located on the first and third floors.

The software allows patrons to read from the computer screen using audio options and screen magnification when wanting to read a hard copy or online document. Attached to the computer is a scanner that can scan (in color now!) books, documents and flyers, allowing them to be shown on the computer screen to be read (or, using the audio function, "reads" them out loud) by the patron. Instructions to operate the K3000 can be found here .

What's great about the new software is that, unlike the previous Kurzweil 1000 that we had, the K3000 offers better picture and sound clarity, as well as less disorientating magnification options. (The old ZoomText function on the K1000 had a tendency to make the viewer dizzy and sometimes even nauseous.)

Here's a nice instructional video highlighting the K3000's functions. It runs for about six minutes. For any further questions, feel free to contact me at (203) 622-7918 or at emorrissey@greenwichlibrary.org .

-Ed

The Jack Kirby Museum

2008-06-06T12:03:00.005-04:00

(Cover to Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133, October, 1970; Kirby's first issue of the title.)

(Jack Kirby)

An online site to the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center devoted to the classic comics artist and visionary can be found here .

-Ed

Followup: Puppies Behind Bars

2008-06-06T12:00:00.001-04:00

Here's a link to the "Puppies Behind Bars" site. I had mentioned the program in my last post. -Ed

FOUR Recent Articles of Interest From Last Sunday's NY Times

2008-06-04T15:15:00.012-04:00

The Arts Section of last Sunday's New York Times (June 1st, 2008) featured two articles of interest. On page 19, there was a full page piece on Italian movie thriller director Dario Argento , whose long awaited Mother of Tears (the belated sequel to two of his previous films, 1977's Suspiria , and 1980's Inferno ) will be premiering this week in New York. I've been a big fan of Argento's, and I'm glad his latest work is getting such attention. His directorial style has influenced dozens of current American films & TV shows (like CSI and its spinoffs) and I hope this'll mean more recognition from the critics. (The library carries several of his films; I recommend the aforementioned Suspiria and especially 1982's Tenebrae .)

Harking back to the topic of a previous post on this blog, the NYT Arts Section, beginning on page one, ran a pretty good story on the new James Bond 007 novel Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks , as well as offering a critical overview of the original Ian Fleming novels and, of course, the long-running (forty six years!) movie series. Of course, you can find these books & films here at the library also. (BTW That shot of Roger Moore in the gun barrel sight is actually from 1973's Live And Let Die . Who says I don't know my Bond?)

AND The NYT Book Review contained this nice article by The Daily Show 's John Hodgman on the influence that the late comic book illustrator Jack Kirby (1917-1994) had on the genre. (My review of Mark Evanier's Kirby: King of Comics , which we also carry, of course, can be found here .)

FINALLY, the Times' Connecticut Section had this informative and touching article on "Puppies Behind Bars" (yes, that's actually what it's called!), a program at several prisons in the Tri-State area where inmates train dogs to assist the disabled.

All of these articles can be found in hard copy form from our Periodicals section or online via the New York Times (in case you don't want to register for an online subscription).

-Ed

Double Feature (Sort Of) On Monday, June 2

2008-05-30T15:42:00.010-04:00

(Entry from the online Biography Resource Center.)

Yours Truly will be presenting two programs this upcoming Monday, June 2. At 2:00 pm in the Technology Training Center, I'll be giving a half-hour session to the public (and staff) on the online Biography Resource Center . Info about this program can be found here . I've found the site quite useful and I intend to demostrate the great advantages of this resource.

(Number Six (Patrick McGooohan) runs for office in "Free For All" a 1967 episode of The Prisoner. )

Then, later that evening at 7:00 pm, as part of the library's Classic & Cult Television program, I'll be running one or more episodes of the British Tv series, The Prisoner , which first aired in England in the Fall of 1967 and made its American debut (as a summer replacement series for The Jackie Gleason Show ) on CBS 40 years ago this June 1st! The show was created, produced, written & directed (most of the time) by Patrick McGoohan (Secret Agent) and was a brillant mix of the espionage and science fiction (by way of George Orwell) genres. Information on this still powerful series can be found here and at Wikipedia and the fan sites Six Of One and The Unmutual . And here's the opening credit sequence from the first episode that sets up the show's premise (an agent resigns from British Intelligence and gets kidnapped and taken to "The Village" because he knows too much):

As they say in the Village: "Be Seeing You!" -Ed

A New James Bond Novel!

2008-05-28T15:53:00.005-04:00

Ignoring the novels written by John Gardner and Raymond Benson from 1981-2001 (not to mention Kingsley Amis' Colonel Sun book from 1968), author Sebastian Faulks has written a new James Bond 007 novel, Devil May Care . The new tome has just been released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Bond creator Ian Fleming's birth. Reviews and news of the book can be found at The Times (UK) , USA Today and The Guardian .

(Sebastian Faulks )

The novel's set in 1967, keeping Bond in the Cold War atmosphere he came from (although things were less tense between the East and the West at that time than in Bond's literary heyday of the fifties). Faulks (credited as "writing as Ian Fleming") says this'll be a one shot, but you never know.

Meanwhile, a new 007 film is due this November in theatres. Here's a (slightly frothy) BBC TV News report from earlier this year on the film:

-Ed

Recent DVD Releases (The First in a Series)

2008-05-20T19:42:00.015-04:00

Here are two recent DVD releases that might be of interest to the public. Particularly if you're into exploitation films made after 1960.

(DVD cover of 1964's The Secret Invasion .)

The Secret Invasion (1964; Fox/MGM.) Infamous tight-fisted (with a budget) director Roger Corman (The Fall of the House of Usher; The Intruder .) came up with the idea for a World War II adventure film while at his dentist's office. Shot on location in and around Croatia and the former Yugoslavia, the film revolves around a British Major (Stewart Granger )and the six convicts (including Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, Henry Silva and Mickey Rooney )he leads to rescue a Italian General in 1943 from the Nazis, but unforseen events confront them at every turn. Though the acting is fine, Corman's direction is somewhat draggy and there's a plot twist involving Silva's character (who's ultimately redeemed) that may turn some viewers off. Note that the similar, bigger-budgeted Dirty Dozen would come out three years later. (95 min./Color)

Navajo Joe (1966;Fox/MGM.) For years, star Burt Reynolds put down this film, claiming at various times it was the worst movie he'd ever made. (This from the guy who starred in such classics as Hustle , Stroker Ace and Cop and a Half .) Don't believe him.

Directed by Sergio Corbucci (Django ; The Hellbenders ), Navajo Joe has a involving plot, some great stunts (many by Reynolds himself), a strong supporting performance by spaghetti western vet Aldo Sambrell as the Indian scalping head villain and a pace that never lets up. Plus there's a typically rousing music score by Ennio Morricone (billed as "Leo Nichols") that adds to the tone of the movie. The ending may be seen as a little downbeat to some, but the response of the audience I saw this with at NYC's Film Forum over a year ago was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Take that Burt! (92 min./Color)

Here's the trailer for Navajo Joe. Note the lack of dialogue scenes:

Update: Here are online reviews of Secret Invasion and Navajo Joe that go more in depth.
-Ed

David Amram at Greenwich Library - 05/12/08

2008-05-12T17:27:00.004-04:00

(David Amram at the library's Cole Auditorium on May 12.)

We got fifteen people to attend Mr. Amram's program on May 12. This was probably one of the best (and certainly the happiest) "Beat Generation" program I've done. No small thanks to Mr. Amram, who's still full of enthusiasm about his life and work after all these years!

-Ed

Some Interesting Bookstores To Look Up

2008-04-27T16:07:00.001-04:00

Here's an article on nine interesting bookstores in the US. -Ed

Classic and Cult Television Presents The Odd Couple

2008-04-23T20:35:00.003-04:00

Thursday night, April 24, Greenwich Library's Classic and Cult Television Program will present two episodes of the 1970-75 comedy series The Odd Couple , starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman . Here's a sample of what will be shown that evening:

The program starts at 7:00 pm in the second floor Meeting Room. -Ed

The Arc of the United States

2008-04-18T11:20:00.002-04:00

Here's a site for a national organization set up to assist families of children with developmental disabilities: The Arc . Connecticut chapters can be accessed here .

-Ed

The New York Comic Con: April 18-20, 2008

2008-04-12T15:24:00.024-04:00

(Last year's Comic Con.)

For Those Interested In Such Things: Beginning this Friday, April 18th, the third annual New York Comic Con rolls back into town. Actually, as it has the past two years, it'll be held at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC , and if you can get in, more power to you. Over the last decade or two, comic book conventions have become less a chance to pick up old out-of-print novels (ranging from science fiction, pulps, mysteries, movie tie-ins, plus actual literature like stuff by Kerouac and Kesey, etc.), music sountrack CDs and bootleg (shh!) videos of old movies and TV shows, as well as back issues of old comics, and more a place for publishers AND MOVIE STUDIOS to promote their latest wares.

(One of the currently out-of-print books I've been looking to find a copy of: Philip Jose Farmer's 1990 adventure novel Escape From Loki , a "prequel" to the once popular Doc Savage pulp adventues from the 1930s & 1940s. Maybe at this year's convention...?)

If you go to the convention's site here , you'll see the schedule of events and speakers that will appear. The list of guests includes not only various comic book professionals but actual film and TV celebrities as well. (Be sure to scroll down the list, as you may miss somebody you might find interesting.) That's because several years back, studios caught on to the PR value of promoting their new products (especially if they're comic or fantasy based ones) to attendees. And the more stars attend, the more the public attends, resulting in a win-win situation for all. (The studios get people to see their films when they come out and the fans get to meet the stars of said films.)

Based on my experiences the previous two years, I'm gun shy about attending this one. Long lines, lots of waiting and lots and lots of bodies crammed into one building (the annual Auto Show never gets this many attendees) are usually the norm. (As far as parking goes, well, I've heard stories...) Also, dealers actually selling hardcover and paperback books from previous decades seem to get fewer and fewer in number at these shows. But if you're interested in going (or know somebody who is), check it out & have fun! -Ed

(And maybe this year I'll finally find a copy of Harry Harrison's classic -and currently also out-of-print- 1966 novel, Make Room! Make Room! , parts of which were used for the slightly half baked but reasonably entertaining 1973 film Soylent Green.)

Allen Ginsberg in India

2008-04-10T10:21:00.007-04:00

(Allen Ginsberg in the late 50's.)

There's a brand new book on the Beats -specifically Allen Ginsberg and his travels to India in the early 60s that I just heard about: A Blue Hand: The Beats in India by Deborah Baker. Here's a review.

-Ed

Update: Here's a review from the Associated Press on the book.

NYC's Film Forum Salutes United Artists

2008-04-07T12:01:00.007-04:00

Lower Manhattan's Film Forum is in the middle of a five week salute to the films produced by the legendary United Artists studio. Currently run by Tom Cruise, the studio (independent till the 1980s) was the place for filmmakers (such as Martin Scorsese and Robert Altman ) who could make movies without any creative interference. The Film Forum series is scheduled to run until May and you can pull up their schedule here . I've seen some of the movies being shown and can testify that the film quality is terrific.

Below, I've included trailers (thank you YouTube) for some of the films that are or have been shown in this series. These films infuenced a whole generation of moviemakers and their effect is still being felt today. (Note how several of the movies still hold up decades later!) Enjoy.

-Ed

Related links: The United Artists Lot , the official studio site.

New Hybrid Contact Lens

2008-04-04T15:15:00.003-04:00

Somebody I know may be getting one of these. Another eye condition this lens can make easier to deal with is keratoconus. To see what this lens is, go here . -Ed

Update: David Amram Appearance Rescheduled for May 12th

2008-03-26T16:17:00.006-04:00

Due to unforseen circumstances, the April 4th appearance of musician and Beat figure David Amram has been postponed. Mr. Amram will now speak at Greenwich Library on May 12th at 3:00 pm in the second floor Meeting Room. I'll be sending updates as the May date nears.

To give you a taste of his upcoming appearance, here's a brief, 3 1/2 minute video of Mr. Amram at his farm playing one of the many instruments from his collection:

-Ed

Related link: David Amram's Home Page

Disability Etiquette For Librarians

2008-03-25T14:57:00.002-04:00

Here from the Missouri State Library and the Missouri Department of Mental Health is a feature on how to help and respond to patrons with disabilities:

For further inforamtion, you can go to the Librarian411 site. -Ed

I Spy: Home To Judgement

2008-03-14T14:10:00.003-04:00

This is the I Spy episode (written by star Robert Culp) we'll be playing on March 19th's Classic and Cult Television program. For more details, go here -Ed

Jazz Composer & Beat Figure David Amram to appear at Greenwich Library April 4th

2008-03-14T11:26:00.008-04:00

After a short hiatus, Greenwich Library's Beat Generation Discussion Series returns Friday, April 4th at 2:00 pm, with special guest speaker David Amram. Mr. Amram is an accomplished Jazz and Classical musician/composer who's worked with the likes of Leonard Bernstein and Charles Mingus. He also composed the title song and theme music for the 1959 experimental film Pull My Daisy written by and starring Beat author Jack Kerouac . Mr. Amram is also the author of three books about his life and career, the most recent of which is Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical Cat (Paradigm; 2007), that he'll read from.

Below is a video of a 2002 performance of Mr. Amram and his band:

Mr. Amram has his own web site, which you can find here . He will also discuss his work 50 years ago with Jack Kerouac when they created the first jazz poetry readings ever presented in New York City in 1957, as well as reading from his second book Offbeat: Collaborating with Jack Kerouac (Thunders' Mouth Press; 2002). Mr. Amram will also demonstrate some of the instruments from around the world which he has learned to play.

The program will begin at 2:00 pm in the Meeting Room, open to all.

-Ed

New Mental and Physical Health Coverage Bill Passed

2008-03-06T12:41:00.003-05:00

Some good news from the Washington Post for the emotionally and physically disabled. -Ed

Related link: Coverage FAQs

In Order to Cover Stuff the Library Doesn't Have Access To....

2008-03-05T16:47:00.002-05:00

...I've begun a new blog. One I can use to cover (in a non-litigious way, I hope) items not carried or handled by the library, like out-of-print books & video. The first posting is here.

Some topics MAY overlap, however. For example, I will be reviewing two of Italian director Segio Corbucchi's "spaghetti westerns", 1966's Django and 1967's The Hellbenders , both of which the library carries on DVD, on my own blog.

Meanwhile, I'll keep this blog going to inform readers of upcoming library-related events & items of interest. -Ed

Sixties' Garage Bands From Connecticut (No, Really!)

2008-03-03T12:36:00.018-05:00

(Right: The Shags.)

In the mid-1960s, the state of Connecticut actually did have popular garage rock bands on the radio. Local groups influenced by such bands as The Beatles, The Byrds, The Rascals, Them and others, ruled, for a brief time, the Connecticut airwaves. Now, Sundazed Music has put together a nice CD (& vinyl LP!) collection of these bands, Don't Press Your Luck! The In Sounds of 60s Connecticut. The album features choice cuts from 1966-68 of such bands as The Shags, the Bram Rigg Set, the Wildweeds (who formed the foundation for the later NRBQ) and the Lively Ones. All these groups' singles were local hits heard between New Haven and Hartford, and beyond. This article from the NY Times gives a little bit of background on some of the groups, as well as Walliford-based producer Thomas "Doc" Cavalier.

Yep, I've ordered this for the library. Despite some rough production, the CD provides a good showcase for these bands that never were able to break through nationally but became, for a brief time, local heroes to the kids. The performers themselves were mostly high school & college kids, whose bands broke up due to outside realities, like school/college graduation and the draft, among other factors. But the sense of fun and enthusiasm these guys had in their prime becomes totally infectious with each listen. -Ed

Links: From 1967: The Wildweeds on YouTube

Blind Man Regains His Sight With Artificial Cornea

2008-02-28T12:17:00.005-05:00

Here's an interesting story on a little known surgical procedure called Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis (OOKP) that can restore people's eyesight. The method used sounds strange, but it works. -Ed

Classic and Cult Television presents: I Spy on March 19th

2008-02-26T15:24:00.008-05:00

Robert Culp & Bill Cosby

Next month, Greenwich Library's Classic and Cult Television program will be presenting an episode (in color) of one of the coolest TV shows I ever watched from the 1960s: I Spy , starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby . The show ran from 1965 to 1968 on NBC and was notable for a number of things, which authors Marc Cushman and Linda J. LaRosa explain in greater detail than I could in their 2007 book on the show, I Spy: A History and Episode Guide to the Groundbreaking Television Series . (Yes, Greenwich Library does carry it.)

Here's the "Staff Picks" review of the book I did a while back:

I Spy: A History and Episode Guide to the Groundbreaking Television Series (791.4572 CUSHM): Authors Marc Cushman and Linda J. LaRosa chart the production history of the popular 1965-68 NBC television series “I Spy” which starred Robert Culp and then-newcomer-to-dramatic-acting Bill Cosby as undercover American agents Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott in a fascinating way. Beginning with showing how the show originated (both Culp, also a writer, and producer Sheldon Leonard came up with a similar idea to do a series with a globetrotting hero filmed in actual foreign locations), the authors cover such items as the selection of Cosby, then best known for his comedy monologues on TV and record albums, the back-end deals Leonard made with the network and foreign governments to fund the series, creative conflicts between the stars and the producers (both Culp & Cosby liked to depart from the script during filming, especially when they didn’t care for the writing), Culp’s rocky personal life, his feud with Leonard, & his struggles to write for the series, and the never-before-revealed reason why “I Spy” was cancelled after three successful seasons. There are also amusing stories about working with guest stars like Martin Landau, Jim Brown, Boris Karloff, Nancy Wilson, Greg Morris, Godfrey Cambridge and Peter Lawford, on-set pranks, a hilarious tracking of the number of times the leads were always held in locked rooms in certain episodes, and the experiences of working in foreign lands & how unpredictable things could be. (While filming in Greece in April, 1967 for example, Culp, Cosby, Leonard & the production crew wound up in the middle of the Greek military’s infamous overthrow of that country’s government. For awhile, it seemed as though the stars might never be allowed to leave the country.) Actual locations where the show was filmed included Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Greece (just barely), and in the USA, San Francisco and Las Vegas.

But aside from being a belated, albeit well-written (with several rare photos and production stills), & researched history of the series with critical reviews of the show’s individual episodes (of which Culp wrote seven, as well as directing one of them) included, the authors also point out the social and political significance of “I Spy”. It was the first hour-long dramatic series with an African-American actor as one of the leads. Cosby’s Scott is an equal (and sometimes superior to) Culp’s Robinson, with the two often acting more like brothers than partners. (None of that “opposites attract”-type stuff, where the leads childishly bicker with each other to Show They Really Care, made famous by the “Lethal Weapon” films, that’s still a lazy storytelling device used to derive cheap laughs in movies & TV today, appears in “I Spy”.) Both men are depicted equally as quick-witted, resourceful and, most importantly, steadfastly loyal to each other, even under overwhelming odds. This was especially notable in the mid-60s when the Civil Rights Movement was beginning to make great strides for African-Americans and other minorities, and where the idea of equality for all, regardless of race, could be achieved . (In fact, several NBC stations, fearing backlash from bigoted viewers, actually refused to air the program in their markets.) Even more importantly, Bill Cosby, thanks to his genuine talent, professionalism & overall charisma, was able to become one of the biggest stars television helped develop, as well as helping provide opportunities for other minority performers in the medium. That might not have been possible had Sheldon Leonard and Robert Culp hadn’t stood up for Cosby. (NBC was originally very skittish about airing the series, even going so far as pushing for Cosby’s dismissal after the first episode was filmed, but thanks to Leonard & Culp’s tenaciousness and Cosby’s subsequent rising popularity, backed down.)

As both a chronicle of a still-fondly remembered television series and as a document of the social & political period “I Spy” was created and produced in (yes, there’s also good show-biz gossip) , Cushman and LaRosa’s I Spy: A History and Episode Guide to the Groundbreaking Television Series (with a foreword by Culp) is essential reading.

I'll have more to say about the show in an upcoming post. -Ed

Related links: Cinema Retro ; Spy Wise

Income Tax Information for the Disabled

2008-02-21T11:07:00.003-05:00

Here's a link to an online site which answers questions taxpayers with disabilities may have when filing their returns. -Ed

The Earliest Howl of Allen Ginsberg

2008-02-19T14:53:00.004-05:00

In the "Arts Briefly" column in the New York Times Arts section (compiled by Peter Edidin)for Saturday February 16, 2008, this item came up:

The earliest known recording of Allen Ginsberg reading from his epic poem “Howl” has been found at Reed College in Portland, Ore., the British newspaper The Guardian reported. It had been thought that Ginsberg, right, first recorded the work in Berkeley, Calif., in March 1956. But according to The Oregonian, the recently discovered recording was made several weeks earlier. Ginsberg, having hitchhiked to Portland with his fellow Beat poet Gary Snyder in the winter of 1956, gave a reading at a student hostel, the Anna Mann Cottage, that was recorded on a reel-to-reel machine on Feb. 14. The tape was found by John Suiter, a biographer of Mr. Snyder, in a box in the college archives labeled “Snyder Ginsberg 1956.” It contained a 35-minute tape of Ginsberg reading the first section of “Howl” and other poems. The recordings can be heard at reed.edu.

Allen Ginsberg

That link to the Ginsberg recording can be found here. -Ed

Links to Reviews of Kerouac's Works

2008-02-15T19:29:00.003-05:00

In my never ending quest to spread the wonderfulness of the works of Jack Kerouac, I've discovered some online links from such sources as the NY Times , as well as ones like Empty Mirror . There also a source for sites on Kerouac as well. -Ed

(Below: Kerouac's originally suggested layout design for the cover of On The Road)

Upcoming Film on Kerouac's Big Sur

2008-02-13T16:03:00.009-05:00

Big Sur (1962) is one of Jack Kerouac's most heartbreaking novels. Almost a cry for help from the author, the book chronicles Kerouac's literary alter ego Jack Duluoz & his attempt to recover from a nervous breakdown by retreating to the popular California mountain area. It's also the topic of a forthcoming documentary taken from a line in chapter three of the novel.

One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur is the title & this blog heard about the directly from the producers, www.kerouacfilms.com . Below is a description of the film from their site:

He was called the vibrant new voice of his generation -- the avatar of the Beat movement. In 1957, on the heels of the triumphant debut of his groundbreaking novel, On The Road, Jack Kerouac was a literary rock star, lionized by his fans and devotees. But along with sudden fame and media hype came his unraveling, and, by 1960, Kerouac was a jaded cynic, disaffected from the Beat culture he helped create and tortured by self-doubt, addiction and depression.

Desperate for spiritual salvation and solitude, as well as a place to dry out, he secretly retreats to Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s rustic cabin in the Big Sur woods. But his plan is foiled by his own inner demons, and what ensues that summer becomes the basis for Kerouac’s gritty, yet lyrically told, semi-autobiographical novel, Big Sur.

One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur, takes the viewer back to Ferlinghetti’s cabin and to the Beat haunts of San Francisco and New York City for an unflinching, cinematic look at the compelling events the book is based on. The story unfolds in several synchronous ways: through the narrative arc of Kerouac’s prose, told in voice-over by actor and Kerouac interpreter, John
Ventimiglia (of HBO’s The Sopranos); through first-hand accounts and recollections of Kerouac’s contemporaries, whom many of the characters in the book are based on such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carolyn Cassady, Joyce Johnson and Michael McClure; by the interpretations and reflections of writers, poets, actors and musicians who have been deeply influenced by

Kerouac’s unique gifts like Tom Waits, Sam Shepard, Robert Hunter, Patti Smith, Aram Saroyan, Donal Logue and S.E. Hinton; and by stunning, High Definition visual imagery set to original music composed and performed by recording artist, Jay Farrar of Son Volt, with additional performance by Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.

I'll see about getting more info on the film (release dates, etc.) and update this post shortly. -Ed

Report on Beats At Columbia University

2008-02-11T10:22:00.000-05:00

(Left: Philosophy Hall at Columbia University.)

Last Friday (2/8/08) afternoon, I managed to attend the fourth annual celebration of Columbia University's Beats, which were a series of events held at the campus under the umbrella title On The Road Turns 50! As the proceedings began late in the afternoon (after 3:30pm), I wasn't able to stay for all of them. But I did manage to get in two of the events.

After 3:30pm, in room 301 of Philosophy Hall (pictured above), a round table discussion, On the Road: Then and Now began. Scheduled speakers included Professor Regina Weinreich from the School of Visual Arts (whose Kerouac's Spontaneous Poetics is carried by the library), NY Times reporter John Leland (author of the recent Why Kerouac Matters, which we also carry in the library), jazz musician David Amram, and former Kerouac girlfriend and a noted author in her own right Joyce Johnson (Minor Characters and Door Wide Open are her two memoirs about her experiences with Kerouac and the Beats). The moderator was Penny Vlagopoulos from Columbia (see her profile here ) who worked on & wrote an introduction for last fall's publication of On the Road: The Original Scroll .

David Amram

John Leland

Books by Joyce Johnson

As expected, the discussion turned on the subject of how big an impact On the Road had at both its time of publication in 1957 and the present day. John Leland noted that Road is really about the character of Sal Paradise (Kerouac) not Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady) and how Sal, not Dean, changes by the book's end. Mr. Leland also noted that the Beats were the first generation of writers on television and the last generation not shaped by TV and/or popular culture. Both Mr. Leland and Ms. Johnson noted that by the time Road was published in 1957, Kerouac, who had finished the final draft six years before, felt it was an "old book" and that his voice was stronger in his later works (Doctor Sax; The Dharma Bums; Big Sur) , but that the publishers wanted another Road novel instead.

Regina Weinreich

Regina Weinreich noted that the book was basically "Huck Finn in a car", with the characters' reacting to events as they drove along the country and David Amram pointed out that Kerouac had a great ear for conversation which he was able to repeat in his books and that Kerouac always encourged other writers & artists as well.

Afterwards, I got to attend the exhibit The Author as Artist which showed drawings of the Beats as they saw themselves. Not bad.

Overall, a terrific program. Thanks to Wynnkie Delmhorst for telling me about this event. -Ed

Beats At Columbia University

2008-02-07T10:14:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow (Friday, February 8), Columbia University will be holding a series of programs honoring it's "prodigal sons" (as their promotional copy says) Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Howl: A Celebration of Columbia 's Beats will run from 3:30 to 10:00 PM. Details & schedules can be accessed here , if anybody is interested. If I don't get lost on the subway (it's happened before), I'll be attending. (School of Visual Arts Professor Regina Weinreich, who spoke here last October on the work of William S. Burroughs, is one of the featured guests.) -Ed

(Left to right: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, circa 1945, at Columbia U.)

Related link: Literary Kicks.

Black History Month

2008-02-06T09:30:00.000-05:00

February is Black History Month and I've put up a few links to sites that may be of interest to students, teachers, librarians and other members of the community:

Infoplease.com has a very sweeping collection of site links. There's also the Black HIstory page from CMG Worldwide. The Biography Channel's web site has, well, biographies of important African American figures. And the Florida Memory Project has some great photos.

Finally, here's a link to a video of Dr. King's historic March on Washington (pictured above) in 1963. (I tried to embed the video but it took forever so I settled for the link instead.)

-Ed

From NRP: Blind People "Seeing"?

2008-02-05T15:22:00.000-05:00

One of the reasons I pushed for getting a blog set up at the library was to provide access to new & updated articles regarding news concerning the hearing & visually challenged. One of my colleagues pointed out this article from NPR that's quite fascinating. It deals with a little known medical condition called Charles Bonnet Syndrome , which has an unusual effect on persons with macular degeneration or diabetic eye disease. Check it out. (Thanks Michele.) -Ed

Related link: http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_rnib003641.hcsp

Troia Has Arrived!

2008-02-04T16:20:00.000-05:00

A while back, I mentioned searching for a copy of Bonnie Bremser's Troia: Mexican Memoirs, her 1969 account of how she prostituted herself on the streets of Mexico in the early sixties to get money to support her and her husband (Beat poet Ray Bremser)'s drug addiction. The book was finally reprinted late last year by Dalkey Archive Press & I managed to get a copy. Probably the only Beat novel written by a woman, Troia is an exciting and harrowing account of Bremser's various adventures from that period.

I had first heard of the memoir from Tufts University Professor Ronna C. Johnson, co-editor of Girls Who Wore Black: Women Writing the Beat Generation (2002; Rutgers University Press), who spoke about the work at the Kerouac Conference in Lowell, MA last October. Professor Johnson's take on Troia captures the work perfectly as seen at www.bookforum.com (do a search for "bremser"). I don't think I can add anything more to it. So I'll see about putting in a Purchase Request for it and the Girls Who Wore Black book. -Ed

Related link: http://www.womenofthebeat.org/Brenda%20Frazer/BrendaFrazer.htm

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on DVD: UPDATED

2008-02-04T14:15:00.000-05:00

Last month I broke down and purchased the forty-plus DVD set of the Complete Man From U.N.C.L.E. four season (105 episode)collection, and so far it's been a purchase about which I haven't had any regrets. Well almost; the packaging of the DVDs on flimsy glued together cardboard slats with one disc on top of the other isn't designed for longevity. ( I have to be very careful taking the discs out and then putting them back in.) That complaint aside, I've just finished watching the last two episodes of the show's first (1964-65) season (the one filmed in black & white) with guest stars Sharon Tate (whom U.N.C.L.E. star Robert Vaughn reminisced fondly about in an interview on one of the DVD extras included in the set) & Martin Balsam respectively and I've enjoyed them all, some more than others.

(Left to right: David McCallum as Russian UNCLE agent Illya Kuryakin, Leo G. Carroll as UNCLE chief Mr. Waverly and Robert Vaughn as American UNCLE agent Napoleon Solo.)

Yes, when you've watched these shows back to back on a nightly (or even a weekly) basis, it's not hard to pick out the same sets -the show was shot at the old MGM studio in Hollywood from 1964-68- regardless of how they've been "dressed up". (One week Solo & Illya will walk down "Main Street" in what's supposed to be New York City. The following episode the same street set, now with vaguely Easten European-language signs all over the place, will have been relocated to a fictional Communist Bloc country "somewhere behind the Iron Curtain" as U.N.C.L.E. chief Mr. Waverly would put it. And yes, the hound dog attitude Vaughn's Solo character projects around the female U.N.C.L.E. agents (and this being the mid-60s, the women agents in these episodes act more like secretaries than intelligence operatives, religated to making coffee & looking up research while the men do all the dangerous stuff) would've been grounds for a sexual harassment suit today.

In a nutshell, the show is representative of the period it was created in. The idea of a multi-national law enforcement agency, where various countries including the US & Russia (strangely, I have yet to see a Chinese U.N.C.L.E. representative), could put aside their differences and work together to protect those less fortunate may be native today, but it is still charming (and, in these post 9/11 days, not so far fetched anymore)in that post-JFK afterglow of the early 60s. To try and read anything more into it would be a mistake.

The set can be ordered by Time Life here . And an online episode guide can be found here.

-Ed

Another Black Lizard Review

2008-01-25T15:17:00.001-05:00

Go here -Ed

Beat Odds 'n' Ends

2008-01-19T15:52:00.000-05:00

* The pulp magazines that were popular (and a popular influence on) Jack Kerouac & his fellow Beats get a historical review here.

* There's a new collection of old pulp stories & novels that's just come out: The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps , edited by Otto Penzler.

NPR has an online article about the book, which features works by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Carroll John Daly, Leslie Charteris & others. Recommended, but beware, there's a lot to read!

* There's also s site devoted to women who took part in the Beat Movement:
More Than Minor Characters.

* A previously published collection of interviews with William S. Burroughs & his artistic accomplice Brion Gysin has just been reprinted. And for those with further interest in Mr. Burroughs', um, unique way of looking at things, check this site out.

* Finally, here's my pick for the most insane pulp magazine character concept I've ever come across: The Spider! The stories I've read of this character are packed with so much action that the author must've been high on a bender or something! If you get a chance, just follow the links listed on the site I've linked to & read the plot descriptions. The titles of each installment practically give it away! Kerouac and/or Burroughs must've come across this series at one time! Who knows what must've gone through their minds reading this stuff!
Update: A major publisher has begun reprinting Spider novels! And a less major one has also jumped on the bandwagon!

-Ed

The Book That Turned Me Onto Jack Kerouac (No, Not That One!)

2008-01-17T16:51:00.000-05:00

I submitted this review for Greenwich Library's Staff Picks feature:

Published shortly after the success of the author’s groundbreaking classic On the Road, but written years earlier in Mexico (when Kerouac hung out –and got high- with William S. Burroughs), Doctor Sax is a touching account of one young boy’s flight into fantasy and his subsequent path to adulthood. Young Jacky Duluoz (Kerouac’s literary alter ego), a French Canadian boy growing up in Lowell, Massachusetts in the early 1930s, escapes from the pressures of family & school into a world where vampires, werewolves & other creatures of the night converge and only the mysterious “Doctor Sax”, a combination of the Shadow & the Wizard of Oz, can stop them. But the boy’s growing perception of his actual surroundings may be young Jacky’s real solution. Written in an even more audacious style than his other books (one section is detailed as stage directions for a play), Kerouac uses a variety of influences from his childhood (Walter B. Gibson’s aforementioned pulp magazine character, “The Shadow”; L. Frank Baum’s “Oz” books, the short stories of H.P. Lovecraft; radio thrillers & others) to craft a touching tale of a boy’s leaving behind the things in his past to embrace approaching adulthood & maturity.

I'll have more to say about why this particular book got to me, as well as how it reintroduced Kerouac and his fellow Beats to me, in a future post. Meanwhile, I wanted to note this mention of the 2CD set that came out in 2003 which I picked up first before reading the book. (Sadly, the set is currently out-of-print.) And here's a link to recent reprintings of one of the central influences on both the book and Kerouac himself. -Ed

Grace Metalious' Peyton Place: The Great Lost Beat Novel?!?

2008-01-11T15:49:00.000-05:00

Back in October, when I attended the Jack Kerouac Conference at the University of Lowell in Massachusetts, I took note about how one of the featured speakers made this interesting observation:

UConn Professor Richard Pickering came on to deliver his paper “It’s Like Turning Over a Rock with Your Foot: On the Road and Peyton Place as Pandora’s Boxes”. Citing the popular culture of 1956-57, when Detroit had more cars being built, Elvis was on the radio, and television was showing Civil Rights protests to a wide audience, Professor Pickering argued that the success of Grace Metalious’ Peyton Place (which was considered quite shocking at the time due to its depiction of rape, infidelity and overall sexuality), released in hardcover in ’56, not only engendered a ready-made audience of teens as well as adults waiting to pick up the cheaper paperback edition published the following year, but also whetted their appetites for Kerouac’s On the Road (also released in 1957). Pickering also made a persuasive augment for the enduring merits of the Metalious novel, citing his assigning it to his students, who found they couldn’t put it down.

(Above, top: Peyton Place book cover. Below: Grace Metalious)

Of course Professor Pickering's (current day) students couldn't put the book down! After 52 years, Peyton Place still rocks the world with it's alternatively adult and near-sordid depiction of the dark secrets underneath a small (slightly fictional) New England town sometime in the 1930's, as seen through the eyes of central character, young teen ager Allison MacKenzie. There's alcoholism, incest, murder, teen age sex, illegitimate births and so much else going on that it's easy to forget Metalious has managed to craft a riveting narrative that holds the audience's attention, even when shifting from one group of characters (there's quite a large cast) and situations to another. (Said scene shifting, along with some purple prose, are probably the only real drawbacks of the novel.) And the language! Except for the likes of such then-popular authors Norman Mailer, James Jones and Mickey Spillane, no best selling author ever used such graphic and profane words in a popular novel that wasn't male-oriented. (I may be wrong, but, aside from various female pulp writers using male-sounding pseudonyms, Grace Metalious may be the first prominent female novelist to write such coarse-yet-realistically "rough" dialogue in her works. Can anybody out there confirm this?)

Metalious' then-bold and frank description of adult situations caused quite a bit of outrage in it's day. Most critics hated the book, yet the public made it an instant best seller. More importantly, when Kerouac's On The Road came out in hardcover the following year, it was joined by the first paperback printing of Peyton Place, which, thanks to it's lower price and smaller size (easier to hide it from one's parents or spouse)became even more accessible to readers eager to see what the fuss was about. Meanwhile, those that had already read the book moved on to the similarly mature-themed Road novel, itself already getting its' fair share of outrage.

(Below: Covers of Kerouac's and Metalious' follow up novels.)

But is Peyton Place really "Beat"? Well, just barely. Again citing the mature themes of the book mentioned earlier, the novel also shares, especially with the works of Kerouac and the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, a central character (Allison) who wants more out of life than what's being offered, while becoming aware of the dark underbelly of her surroundings. That's silmilar to the desires Road's protagonist Sal Paradise carries. Sal, like Allison, has to grow up and mature to survive, while still seeking some kind of internal satisfaction/justification for his existance.

Grace Metalious probably didn't see herself as a Beat writer. But her most popular novel (a sequel, Return to Peyton Place, came out in 1959, followed by one or two lesser books before her untimely death, from alcoholism at the age of 39, in 1964)certainly shares many Beat characteristics. (And yes, the manner of Metalious' death does prefigure and parallel that of Kerouac's, who died of similar circumstances five years later.)

The library only carries the first Peyton Place novel. I'll ask the video librarian about getting the 1957 movie version, currently available on DVD, for the catalog.

(Peyton Place and it's immediate sequel were made into very popular, if slightly sanitized, movies in 1957 and 1961, respectively. A quite popular television serial (which I barely remember), starring Mia Farrow as Allison, and featuring a then-unknown Ryan O'Neal, aired from 1964-69 on ABC. Some years back, Barbara Delinsky penned a sort-of sequel to Metalious' novel, Looking for Peyton Place in 2005. As for the tragic life and times of Grace Metalious, click here.)

-Ed

(Below: Photo of the 1960's Peyton Place television cast. Currently, there are no plans announced to release the series on DVD.)

(Clockwise from right: Ed Nelson, Christopher Connelly, Ryan O'Neal, Barbara Parkins, Mia Farrow and Tim O'Connor.)

In Defense Of Skidoo

2008-01-07T09:11:00.000-05:00

"If you can't dig nothing, you can't dig anything...you dig?"

That indispensable pearl of wisdom is uttered by one of the characters in Otto Preminger's 1968 "counterculture" film, Skidoo, which I discussed last week. The aformentioned line also closes blogger Tim Lucas' persuasive arguement in favor of the film, which you can read by clicking here . And yeah, the line does sound "Beat". (Strange bedfellows and all that...)

Me, I kinda liked the film's bouncy theme song (sung by Carol Channing!) myself. And those end credits.....! -Ed

Covers Of Beat Books (Boy, I Wish I Had Some of These!)

2008-01-04T16:07:00.000-05:00

My interest in the Beats hasn't waned. Due to outside circumstances, a post I planned to do on the role women played in the creative processes of Jack Kerouac & the other Beats has been delayed. I'm currently searching for a copy of Brenda Frazer's reissued post-Beat 1969 novel/memoir Troia as well as reading a collection of essays on female Beats (Girls Who Wore Black: Women Writing The Beat Generation, edited by Ronna C. Johnson & Nancy M. Grace; Rutgers, 2002) so I'll know what I'm talking about.

Meanwhile, to whet the appetites of those interested in the Beats, I'd thought I'd showcase some covers of both pivotal works & various cash-in items. Enjoy!

-Ed

Bad Movie Alert!Update

2008-01-04T11:33:00.000-05:00

If you're up very late tonight, say around 2 am, and you have cable, you have to tune into the Turner Classic Movie channel for this gem:

Skidoo (1968)
A retired gangster has to pull off a hit when his daughter is kidnapped.
Cast: Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon. Dir: Otto Preminger. C-98 mins, TV-14

So bad the family of late director Otto Preminger (Laura; Anatomy of a Murder, In Harm's Way)has refused to have it released on home video! Find out why tonight! (For more info, click here.)

(Interest in Mr. Preminger and his work is currently being revived via Foster Hirsch's new biography, Otto Preminger:The Man Who Would Be King, which the library carries, and by the showing of several of his much better classic films at New York's Film Forum. Go here for their film schedule.) -Ed

2008: The Year of James Bond?

2007-12-24T11:09:00.000-05:00

The man who created the seemingly immortal superspy James Bond 007 would have turned 100 next year. Born May 28, 1908 (the same birthdate he gave Bond's archenemy Ernest Stravo Blofeld in the 1961 novel Thunderball), Ian Lancaster Fleming wrote the first 007 novel Casino Royale in 1951 apparently to work off impending wedding-day jitters. Fleming (who died in August, 1964)used elements of his life as a Naval Intelligence agent during World War II and as a foreign correspondent to form the foundation for his books and short stories about the larger-than-life Bond.

According to this site, plans are afoot to celebrate Fleming's birthday. MI6 also reports on forthcoming Fleming and Bond-related events for '08. (Including a new novel!)

In addition, production is scheduled to begin next month on the latest 007 film, a direct sequel to 2006's film version of Casino Royale, once again starring Daniel Craig as James Bond. Of course the library carries Fleming's Bond novels (I recommend From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service)as well as the still-popular films based on the books. (Any of the films with Sean Connery , the 1969 film version of On Her Majesty's... and last year's Casino Royale are recommended for your consideration.)

For a look at Mr. Fleming's life, I recommend Andrew Lycett's Ian Fleming, the most recent (1996) biography of the author.

Happy 100th, Mr. Fleming! -Ed

Greenwich Library Closes At 1:00 Today

2007-12-24T11:06:00.000-05:00

We'll reopen Wednesday, December 26 at 9 am.

Happy Holidaze! -Ed

Classic And Cult Television: January, 2008

2007-12-21T11:15:00.000-05:00

On January 16, 2008, at 7:00 pm in the Meeting Room, Greenwich Library's Classic and Cult Television program will present an episode (two, if we have time) of the long-running Perry Mason series. Starring Raymond Burr as the title character, the dead serious whodunit/murder mystery series (which ran from 1957-66 on CBS) was based on the long running mystery novels and short stories by Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970)about an attorney whose clients always seemed to be accused of murder.

The show's familar but popular formula (taken from Gardner's books) usually had one of Mason's clients say or do something towards another person (often a disloyal business partner, old pal or spouse), usually in front of witnesses, then sometime later wind up charged with the latter's murder. Mason, assisted by secretary Della Street (played on the show by Barbara Hale) and private detective Paul Drake (William Hopper), would track down evidence that would exonerate the client during the trial AND get the real guilty party to confess right in the courtroom at the same time! (Sometimes this formula would be tweaked, with, say, the killer confessing after getting caught outside the courthouse and/or another location.) Mason's friendly nemesis District Attorney Hamilton Burger (William Talman), along with cynical LAPD detective Lt. Tragg (Ray Collins), both presenting the prosecution's case, would always hear the familiar words "case dismissed" (or a variation of them) at the end of every episode.

For it's time, the series was one of the best-looking shows of the period. The almost noir-ish black and white photography greatly contributed to lend a sense of mystery (especially in the night scenes, which unlike other shows at the time doesn't look shot with cheap day-for-night filters). The courtroom sequences often take up the second half of the episodes, yet the combined dynamics of deft writing (in addition to adapting Gardner's stories, original ones were used as well), acting and direction overcome any limitations such interior scenes could have and made most episodes stand out dramatically. You don't even question why any murderer would break down and confess in front of witnesses at the climax after following the story's well done build-up.

More importanly, the show worked thanks to it's appealing cast. After a horrible experience with Warner Brothers in the 30's (that studio did "comedy" movie versions of the books, with miscast actors like Warren William and Ricardo Cortez playing Mason as a hard-drinking, ladies' man type who was always broke and trying to avoid marrying his secretary), Gardner had reasonbly full creative control of the television series and personally approved of the cast.

Raymond Burr's Mason is steadfastly loyal to his clients, no matter how unstable some of them might seem. Despite facing all kinds of threats to his career and even his life, Burr's Mason keeps his cool. (One sequence in 1958's "The Case of the Lucky Loser" has Mason, after refusing to buckle under a threat by another, more influencial attorney to drop his current case, actually serve a suppoena to the bullying lawyer, ordering him to testify in court regarding the case in question!) Aided by loyal Della and Paul,who provide the investigative legwork, there's never any doubt in the audience's mind that Mason would let an innocent person take the rap. Even DA Burger & Lt. Tragg grudgingly admire and respect Mason's character and conviction, despite their losing so many cases to him. (In later years, Burger and Tragg not only sometimes assist Mason in his cases, and vice versa, but are even seen socializing with him and his associates after hours!)

More info on the Mason series can be found here. For anyone would likes a good brain-twisting mystery, the Perry Mason books (which we carry in our Mystery section on the second floor) and television series (we'll be carrying the first 15 episodes from the 1958-59 season after the Classic TV showing here next month) are recommended! -Ed

Cheap U.N.C.L.E.

2007-12-18T18:19:00.000-05:00

If you've read my previous post & clicked on the Time Life link to view information about the massive Man From U.N.C.L.E. DVD set, you may have noticed it doesn't come cheap. (The 1967 episode "The Hot Number Affair" with guest stars Sonny & Cher, isn't even worth two cents...) But if you're fueled by nostalgia and/or just simply curious, check out AOL's In2TV site , which offers online access to selected episodes of that series & other classic TV programs that you can watch on your PC. And it's free! -Ed

Look What's Finally Out On DVD!!!

2007-12-17T14:11:00.000-05:00

One of my all time childhood favorites, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. has finally been released on DVD!!! This tongue-in-cheek adventure spy series, which ran on NBC from 1964-68, and starrred Robert Vaughn & David McCallum as secret agents Napoleon Solo & Illya Kuryakin, was television's answer to the then-innovative (and still popular) James Bond 007 film series at the time. I'm old enough to remember both the great toys that cashed in on the show's popularity (spy briefcase containing the easy-to-assemble U.N.C.L.E. gun, the cane gun, bubble gum cards, comic books and the cool corgi cars)and the fact that the program, after the first two seasons, dipped in quality somewhat. But there's a catch to this piece of news.

You see, you'll be able to purchase the entire set online from Time-Life Video only (www.timelife.com). (Any fan of the show might suspect this arrangement was the work of U.N.C.L.E.'s archfoes, THRUSH, but we know that can't be...)

Time Life did the same arrangement last year when it offered all five seasons of the 1965-70 spy spoof Get Smart. The company promised that by Fall of this year, the shows would be made available to retail outlets like Best Buy & Borders, but that hasn't been the case.

Anyway, if you do order the DVD set (the library probably won't, due to budget, space & distributor considerations), keep in mind that'll include getting the awful third season U.N.C.L.E. episodes (from 1966-67), which you'll have no choice but to accept. That was the period when the show switched from tongue-in-cheek/suspense to all-out comedy. Bad comedy.(You'll all love the episodes from that period. With titles like "The 'My Friend, The Gorilla' Affair", how could you not?)

So, for those fans of the show who are interested, U.N.C.L.E. is now available on DVD & yours for the taking! -Ed

Update: Here's an online review of the set.

Dummy Post

2007-12-17T14:00:00.000-05:00

Practice Posting. To be deleted. -Ed

Winter Safety Tips

2007-12-17T13:35:00.000-05:00

Here's a link on dos & don'ts to get through the winter. -Ed

Little Steven's Underground Garage

2007-12-17T11:16:00.000-05:00

For the past 5-6 years, I've been listening to the syndicated Little Steven's Underground Garage radio series (aired locally on WXRQ 104.3 FM Sunday nights at 10pm), hosted by Steve Van Zandt, gutiarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. "Little Steven"'s program focuses on "garage bands" from the birth of rock 'n' roll in the fifties to current groups. As such, a typical episode's playlist will include songs by Chuck Berry, Little Richard, the Beatles, Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Byrds, the (British) Birds, the Rascals, Graham Parker, Elvis Costello, the Clash, the Who, the Faces, the Kinks, Johnny Cash, the Ramones, the Chesterfield Kings, Prince, the Rolling Stones, the Grip Weeds, Oasis and the Stems, scattered all over the place, Van Zandt also gives listeners background information on a variety of topics, from the strange life of Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys), the origins of Thanksgiving & Drive In Movies, and the life and works of such diverse artists as Allen Ginsberg, Frank Sinatra and Roger Corman (to name but a few).

Aside from walking down memory lane however, the Underground Garage is, next to satellite radio, practically the only source to hear new, young bands for the first time. I would not have heard of, and enjoyed, such current performers as the Kaiser Chiefs, the White Stripes and the Woggles without having first heard them via Little Steven's program. Similarly, I also rediscovered the joys of the likes of the Pretty Things, the(American)Wailers, the Sonics and Johnny Thunders.

The template for the show was obviously the classic Nuggets collections (currently available on CD by Rhino Records & carried by the library), which focused on the great unsung groups who'd meet & rehearse in somebody's garage and then try to go professional.

Little Steven's shows have been archived at his site here, so check it out! And play it LOUD! -Ed

Follow Up on I Am Legend

2007-12-17T10:45:00.000-05:00

The third film version of I Am Legend, starring Will Smith and based on the classic novel by Richard Matheson, opened strong in first place with an estimated box office take of about $76 million. This despite some unnecessary alterations (especially in the last third)in the original plot. The film's ending is not the same as the book's. For a much darker take of the story, I again recommend the original novel. (We already have three holds on our four copies.) -Ed

From 1969! The Rascals!

2007-12-10T16:12:00.000-05:00

From Guest Blogger David Waring:
Anyone who came of age in the mid-sixties in the New York metropolitan area would have had the opportunity to see the (Young) Rascals play live on numerous occasions. Those fortunate enough to do so would have caught a band that epitomized the excitement of rock ‘n roll, albeit with a strong, perhaps dominant, strain of r&b. Indeed, the Rascals, along with Mitch Ryder and the Righteous Brothers were the era’s prototypical “blue-eyed soul” acts. This video clip from 1969 conveys the power, tightness and dynamism of the band; including legendary drummer Dino Danelli’s propulsive stickwork and organist, Felix Cavaliere’s trademark impassioned vocals on the Rascal’s biggest hit, People Got to be Free.

(Thanks David. The first seven Rascals albums, previously issued by Atlantic Records in 1966-71, have now been remastered & reissued on CD by Collector's Choice/Warner Special Products with new, informative liner notes. In addition, the first four albums contain both stereo and mono mixes. The albums are carried by Greenwich Library and are very definitely recommended! -Ed)

More on I Am Legend

2007-12-10T09:45:00.000-05:00

Looking over my previous post, I noticed I may have given the wrong impression and recommended the new film version of I Am Legend, which opens in theatres this Friday. Since I haven't seen the film (though I have read one review at Variety), I couldn't really recommend it in good conscience. What I was recommending was the original Richard Matheson novel the film is based on. That novel still packs a punch! (Guaranteed: after you finish the book, you'll be sleeping every night for a week with the lights on!)

I also wanted to point out that, while the new film takes some liberties with the book's plot, the casting of Will Smith is, I think, spot on. Vincent Price and Charlton Heston were two of the best actors to appear in films, but because of their theatrical backgrounds (and an occasional tendency for hamminess), neither of these guys ever struck me as playing "average joes". The protagionist of Matheson's novel is an average 9-5 guy in the proverbial gray flannel suit who quickly adapts to his surroundings as best as he can. Will Smith, in some of his previous performances, has shown he can "take it down a notch" and act in a more naturalistic manner (without being mannered), giving the sense that, yeah, he's a "regular guy" like you & me, which only makes the impact of the plot even more powerful. (What would we do in such a situation? Smith shows us one possible path by reacting the way we might in a planet where everybody else is a literal monster.) So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh, and here's hoping the scenes of Neville (the book's protagionist) researching the history of what led up to his present situation by reading newspaper articles & research journals in the now-deserted local library in his neighborhood is kept in the film. (Take that Google!) We librarians have to get some good PR wherever we find it.... -Ed

I Am Legend

2007-12-04T15:00:00.001-05:00

Richard Matheson's classic novel from 1954 that combines the horror & science fiction genres, I Am Legend , has been adapted for the third time by filmmakers. The new IAL, starring Will Smith, comes out next week. The production made news earlier this year with tales of it's on-location shooting in New York City.

Previously adapted for film in 1964 (the Italian black & white Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price), and again, in Hollywood, seven years later (The Omega Man with Charlton Heston, this time in color), IAL is basically the horrifying saga of Robert Neville, a man who survives a world wide plague that tranforms survivors (if you can call them that) into blood sucking vampires who come out only at night. (Matheson gives a reasonably convincing pseudo-scientific explaination for this.) Neville spends his days hunting down the creatures' resting spaces to destroy them and his nights barricading himselve from their attacks on his home. Then one day... But that would be telling.

I have no idea if the new film will improve upon the previous movie versions, but even if it doesn't, at least new audiences (as well as those who remenber Matheson's work on movies like Duel and the original Twilight Zone tv series) will be exposed to a timeless thriller classic that's guranteed to keep you up nights. Check it out if you get a chance. (In addition to several copies of the novel, the library also carries the '64 movie version as part of the public domain "Horror Classics" DVD set.)

A few years back, I had recommended the book for members of the now-defunct library Science Fiction Book Club. It's nice to feel ahead of the pack on this. -Ed

Embedded Video

2007-11-28T15:49:00.001-05:00

Enjoy my first attempt at embedding a video. This is Jack Kerouac, nervous & slightly drunk, reading from On The Road and (I think) Visions of Cody on The Steve Allen Show in 1959. -Ed

Rawhide! With Clint Eastwood!

2007-11-13T19:24:00.001-05:00

The intent of Greenwich Library's Classic & Cult Television series is to focus on TV series from the 50s through the 70s which are no longer being shown in reruns. Plus, as most of these old programs had or are about to be released on DVD, it made some sense to make our patrons aware of these programs' availability. Especially since cable channels like TVLand seem to think television began after 1980. (And an aside: WHY is TVLand showing movies like "Top Gun" ?!? Other than nostalgia for the 80s -which I don't share- there's no earthly reason for showing the same old stuff easily found on TNT, TBS & AMC.)

Anyway, tomorrow night Classic TV will be showing episodes of Rawhide co-starring Clint Eastwood and Cheyenne with Clint Walker. Neither series is currently being rerun in the tri-state area, so this evening's program will either be a revelation to some ("Gee, Clint sure talks a lot in these shows!") or a reunion of sorts ("I remember that episode!"). The episodes start at 7:00 pm. Information on the series can be found at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID+28294 and (for Cheyenne) at http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/cheyenne/cheyenne.htm .

Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac On The Road

2007-11-09T10:34:00.000-05:00

Last night's viewing of the exhibition Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac On The Road at the New York Public Library was like discovering the Holy Grail for anybody even remotely interested in the works & influences of Jack Kerouac. The exhibit is housed on the first floor of the museum (click on the links in the previous sentence for dates & times) in the Gottesman Hall, just next to the library's gift shop. Inside the cavernous hall are, enclosed in glass cases, dozens of written journal entries, correspondence, various drafts & outlines for novels, essays, photos, unpublished short stories, drawings & paintings and even fantasy baseball rosters all by Kerouac and/or his friends. There's even a CD player on the wall where you can listen to Kerouac's favorite classical music works, which he'd listen to while writing. There are photos of fellow Beats Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Herbert Huncke, Gary Snyder and Neil Cassidy, plus various bri-a-brac like Kerouac's first typewriter as well as a kind of Zen Buddist-like scroll with a haiku composed by Kerouac & Snyder. You'll also see (despite the dim light) photos of the various residences Kerouac, Ginsberg & the others stayed in during the 50s & 60s.

But it was The Scroll that really held the attention of the guests.

Begun in April, 1951, Kerouac began writing the work that would make him famous (or infamous, at least when it was finally published six years later after several revisions), the Beat classic On The Road. Kerouac composed the first draft on his typewriter using 12 ten foot long rolls of architectural tracing paper, forming one long continous scroll so as not to disturb the author's train of thought. Afterwards, and after many excisions & additions, Kerouac would transfer the text of the scroll onto standard sheets of paper so it could be submitted in manuscript form to publishers.

To actually see & read this amazing example of Kerouac's creative process is something else! You can "get" the sense of spontaneous thought Kerouac projected as he wrote without stopping to pause for a moment. (Corrections, such as spelling & paragraph breaks, were made after he completed the scroll.) As a testament to the creative imagination of an artist, the Original Scroll is required viewing.

(Those unable to view the Scroll at the library but want to see it are encouraged to seek out a copy of On The Road: The Original Scroll, edited by Howard Cunnell, which Viking published this past September. The library carries three copies of it. Recommended.)

The exhibit is broken up into eight sections ("On The Road:The Scroll & Its Successors"; "Fiction, Poetry & Prose"; "Confession, Reflection & Judgement") and is well worth the time.

Oh, I managed to run into Bill Morgan & his wife Jean at the exhibit. Mr. Morgan will be giving a talk on Beat poet Gregory Corso tomorrow (Saturday, November 10) at 2:00 pm in the library's Meeting Room. Professor Regina Weinreich from the School of Visual Arts, who spoke here last month on William S. Burroughs, also attented. Unfortunately, the man responsible for putting together this great exhibition, Dr. Isaac Gewirtz, was nowhere to be seen. I managed to pick up a copy of his Beatific Soul companion book in the gift shop with the hops of getting him to sign it AND offer my personal congratulations, but no luck. I did get a glimpse of Beat figure & jazz musician David Amram, as well as meeting Beat scholars like William Gargan & Gordon Ball. (Jean Morgan tried to find John Tyrell, author of the Beat retrospective Naked Angels -also carried by us- for me to meet, but to no avail.)

The Morgans both expressed their appreciation with their reception here last May when Bill spoke about Allen Ginsberg & are looking forward to coming to the library on Saturday. (Bill's biography of Ginsberg from last year, I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg, is now in paperback. Also, Bill co-edited the just-released You'll Be Okay: My Life With Jack Kerouac, a posthumouslypublished memoir by Edie Parker Kerouac, the author's first wife. Need I add Greenwich Library has copies of these too?)

Aside from not seeing Dr. Gewirtz again, my one real regret about last night is that I wish I had been allowwed to take pictures (the hall's dim lighting not withstanding)! Oh well....

-Ed

Follow Up On Kerouac Exhibition

2007-11-08T15:21:00.000-05:00

Unless anybody objects, I'll discuss my going to tonight's Kerouac Exhibition viewing/reception in my next post. Personally I think it's great that I got invited to such an event by such a important institution like NYPL. I hope fellow staffers get similar invites to such things in the future.

Meanwhile, here's the NY Times with an article on the exhibition. My mantra has always been "the art, not the artist":

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-kerouac.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

-Ed

Shameless Staffer Plug

2007-11-06T14:29:00.000-05:00

Last March, I had invited Dr. Isaac Gewirtz, curator of the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library to be guest speaker at the second Beat Generation program held here, Focus on Jack Kerouac. Dr. Gewirtz was in the process of putting together an exhibition on the life & works of Kerouac to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of On The Road. The exhibition would include various unpublished, never-before-seen writings (including journal entries, first drafts, essays, short stories and even a fantasy baseball roster) and artwork. Dr. Gewirtz was able to put together a power point presentation of the exhibition for our program last March, giving staff and the community a great "sneak peek" at what the New York Public Library would unveil, as well as giving a terrific overview of Kerouac's life and his progression as an author. (Basically, we "scooped" other libraries on news about the exhibition.)

Well, last week I received an invitation to attend the opening reception & viewing of the NY Public Library's new exhibition Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac On The Road. The opening will be at NY Public this Thursday night (November 8) at 6:30 pm, with the exhibition officially open to the public November 9 to March 16, 2008. Information can be glommed at http://www.nypl.org/press/2007/Beatific_exhibition.cfm or at NYPL's home page (http://www.nypl.org/index.html). And Dr. Gewirtz has also finished a companion book to the exhibit, which should be out in January.

It goes without saying that without the support of staff & public alike, my Beat Discussion program would never have gotten this sort of acknowledgement. To be recognized in this way helps support & holds in high esteem the efforts of myself & my fellow programmers in fulfilling the requirements of our Library's Mission Statement, as well as expose audiences to literary artists & works they might otherwise not known of.

Thank you all for your support of this program. I promise to represent the best impression Greenwich Library can make at the reception. Provided I don't bump into any furniture...

-Ed

More About Gregory Corso

2007-11-05T16:43:00.000-05:00

This Saturday, Bill Morgan wil discuss the life & work of Beat poet Gregory Corso. Those who would like to learn something about Mr. Corso's life & body of work can go to http://www.rooknet.com/beatpage/writers/corso.html, which features examples of his poems.

-Ed

ADA -Related Article Links

2007-10-29T15:31:00.000-04:00

Why I first got into blogs; I wanted to offer links to ADA-related articles that patrons may find interesting. See this link below:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305239,00.html

-Ed

Twilight Zone Episodes on Halloween...at Greenwich Library!

2007-10-29T13:09:00.001-04:00

First, I'm moving away from the Beats & the related programs on them here at the library as this blog's focus. Instead, I'm going to focus not just solely on the Beat programs but also other programs & services the library can carry. To kick things off, here's a little reminder about this Wednesday's "Classic TV" event.

Starting at 7:00 pm October 31st (Halloween!), I'll be airing episodes of The Twilight Zone series, the original one that ran on CBS from 1959-1964, not the various revivals from 1985-88. It'll be shown in the second floor Meeting Room and at the moment I'm still trying to decide which ones to pick. (They're also on VHS and the tape quality is uneven.) I had hoped to show the two hour pilot film of Zone creator/writer/producer/host Rod Serling's Night Gallery from 1969 on DVd but the library copy of that is listed as 'missing'. Sigh.

Bill Morgan Returns To Greenwich Library

2007-10-25T10:39:00.000-04:00

Author/librarian/editor (and tour guide - I'll explain that shortly) Bill Morgan (pictured on top right) spoke here at the library last May on the life of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg (in the picture on the left; Ginsberg, with beard, is standing next to Gregory Corso). That went pretty well, so I arranged for him to come speak about another Beat Gen figure, poet/author Gregory Corso (1931-2001). Mr. Morgan edited a collection of letters to & from Mr. Corso & published them (via New Directions) as An Accidental Autobiography: The Selected Letters of Gregory Corso (with a foreword by Patti Smith) in 2003. Thanks to Marianne Weil & the RM department we managed to get two copies of this collection.

I won't pretend that Corso's poetry was up there with Browning, Whitman or Ginsberg. His earliest stuff (the Gasoline collection for example) had much more "oomph" & youthful vitality than his later works (for a good overview, check out Mindfield). His one novel American Express, written & published in France in 1961, is scattershot & unfocused (it only just got a domestic publication this year), but does have its moments. Mostly, as Accidental makes clear, Corso was too busy living off patrons (sponsers) and getting loaded/stoned, when he wasn't stealing the personal property of friends & colleagues, to focus on producing literary output on a consistant (or at least artistically valid) basis. His appearences in the documentaries "What Happened to Kerouac?" (1986) and "The Source" (1999) indicate that as he got older, Corso seemed to have gotten more angry & unpleasant, to the point of being personally abusive (verbally & otherwise) to said friends & colleagues. Had his personal demons not consumed him to the point that he depended more on chemical stimuli and less on expressing his stands on things via his poetry, Corso's works may have been as highly regarded during his life as say, Carl Sandburg, who, right up to his death in 1967, still had an audience eager to listen to what he wrote about next. (And no, I don't think Corso & Sandburg were in the same class, talent-wise. Corso at least didn't phone it in on his later poems the way Sandburg did with his. Corso's later work was uneven, but that anger of his I mentioned still gave his best poems an edge lacking in the works of some of his peers.)

So why devote an evening here at the library to Corso? I could go on & on about what his poems "say" or why he has a place in American letters (aside from hanging out with Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs & the other Beats - hence his inclusion here), but I can't quite get that across, especially with a large audience, all that well. I really want people not only to know of Corso, his life, and his work, but also what fired his jets. Why would a guy, who spent half his life in & out of prison, with little if any formal schooling, be able to cite the works of Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Balzac, Poe & others & use those influences to create artistic works of his own?

More importantly, if Corso could seek out these literary influences, then maybe people such as students or even our patrons, upon hearing about Corso's work & what helped form them, could seek out these works and the works of others that stimulate them, and get something rewarding out of it.

Which is why I wanted to start up the Beat program. Not just to discuss the social aspects of the Beats but also the literary aspects as well, and share them with the public.

Down the line, if we continue this program, I hope to move beyond the Beats and focus more on the writers that were influenced by them, such as Charles Bukowski. I'm also looking up info on Hunter S, Thompson (who, like the lives of Corso, Bukowski and others, personifies the meaning of the expression "judge the art, not the artist" - hey, I know none of these guys were altar boys) and hope to set something up about him.

MEANWHILE Mr. Morgan will be talking about Mr. Corso's life & works here in the Meeting Room on November 10 at 2 pm. Maybe I'll ask him for more details about the series of tours he conducts in New York & San Francisco where he shows groups the places & hangouts Corso, Kerouac & the other Beats hang out.

Naked Lunch Book Cover Via My Friend Flickr

2007-10-18T15:44:00.000-04:00

The cover of the 2003 restored edition. As the story goes the original 1959 publication was out of order as Burroughs typed his manuscript in Tangiers (or the Beat Hotel in France), tossing the pages on the floor while still in a smack-induced haze. Others (including Kerouac) helped try to put the work together as much

as possible.

I'd love to get Barry Miles (who's in the UK) or Burroughs' former secretary James Grauerhotz (Kansas!) to come down & discuss what process they went through to restore the text, but my resources may not be enough.

Flickr

2007-10-18T15:43:00.001-04:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

If At First...

2007-10-16T19:16:00.000-04:00

Flickr and Explorer aren't seeing eye to eye, so, using the technique discussed on pps 22-23, I'm going to jpeg a picture instead:

William S. Burroughs

2007-10-16T17:54:00.000-04:00

Well, I was going to show a picture of William S. Burroughs, but there seems to be a technical problem with Flickr. (Probably also with Explorer. Boy, I wish we had Firefox!) Anyway, I was able to follow the procedure as outlined in last Saturday's class pretty well. I'll give it another shot later.

UPDATE: Blogger is "aware" of the problem & is trying to fix it.