"Kerouac and the Beat Generation", Friends & Lovers

Kerouac and the Beat Generation (Kerouac et la Beat Generation. Une enquête, French original title)- Jean-François Duval

Who would have guessed? Don't want to sound pedantic, but I have devoted a very remarkable amount of my time reading about the beat generation, so, being honest, when I received "Kerouac and the Beat Generation" (a birthday gift) I thought it was going to be a waste of time. How wrong I was.

Jean-François Duval looks to me like the quintessential beat obsessed, but he is wise enough to use his vast knowledge on the subject to look for something else. He doesn't aim to build yet another chronicle of the times and lives of the Beats, but instead, find the surviving "starrings" of these era and let them speak, allowing them to explain, to unveil a vivid picture of the Beats, as revealing as refreshing.

Shifting the focus from the investigator/author to the opinions of the people interviewed makes "Kerouac" a lightweight and engaging read. But that doesn't make the book "simple". On the contrary, different personalities result on a very complete, multi-directional, look to the Beats. In particular on his most famous member: Jack Kerouac. The six personalities interviewed can be divided into two categories. First, the survivors: close friend and pivotal member of the movement (although it is dubious there was one) Allen Ginsberg, plus Carolyn Cassady, Neal Cassady's wife, and Joyce Johnson, both once Kerouac lovers. And second the "next generation beats", counterculture propelled by the first beats, like poet Anne Waldman, LSD guru-icon Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey, writer and Merry Prankster leader, arguably the one who tried to make "On the Road" a larger-than-life experience outside Kerouac's pages (and with too many drugs involved). Duval has read it all, so he knows what the questions must be, but that means he knows (we know) the real story? The answer is not really.

For a confessed fan like myself, it was puzzling to realise we have been living with the myth, the image portrayed by the books and the impact-influence of their literature, as well as the supposed aesthetics-attitudes related to it, believing that was the truth. Well, that's the constructed truth, half the truth if you prefer. Jack Kerouac slowly killed himself because he couldn't get along with his myth. Cassady, in the words of his wife, was a guy struck between his father-husband obligations and his will to explore the world. Kesey and Leary wanted to go "Further" not because they were experimenting with drugs, but because they were convinced life as we know it is not all it should be. In a way, America needed the Beats to offer a definition of the changes the country was going through, building a generation from very different personalities, literary ambitions and attitudes... I can go on, but I don't want to spoil "Kerouac", a book that, needless to say, is incredibly absorbing, and also one that I'm sure will stimulate more reads.

My only complaint about the book? Longer, I wish it had been much much longer!

SCORE: 9/10

"Easy Riders, Raging Bulls", 70s' movies, drugs & egos

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood- Peter Biskind

"I did a lot of drugs because I wanted to do a lot, I wanted to push all the way to the very very end, and see if I could die." Martin Scorsese

"The cocaine problem in the United States is really because of me. There was no cocaine before Easy Rider on the street. After Easy Rider, it was everywhere." Dennis Hopper

"Popcorn pictures have always ruled. Why do people go see them? Why is the public so stupid? That's not my fault." George Lucas (on Star Wars)

These are true sentences, said by some of the most well-known directors-actors on cinema history. These are only three little excerpts taken from "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" a book that is so full of this sort of ... well, let's say statements, you'll need a couple of weeks (at least) to start reading something else after finishing this book. They also serve to summarise what you are going to find inside this absorbing encyclopedia of the movies that were done on the 70s, the so-called "New Hollywood" and the people behind them. But if I had to choose just one expression to define what this book shows it would be "a monster parade". The most scary I ever read about. Because they were and are real people.

I assume the new directors arising on late 60s really had artistic aims, even a revolutionary spirit to bring substance and interest back to cinema, to integrate movies with the counterculture of that age, a period were Hollywood was agonising and ideas severely lacking. It's depressing to realise that's where we are exactly nowadays. And after reading Biskind's book is even more appalling to find out our current "creative desert" has its origins on the failure of  the exciting "New Hollywood".

Don't want to make this review very long, because in my opinion, every person who loves cinema should read this book, but "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" is a ridiculously detailed account of the work of talented young filmmakers like Scorsese, Coppola, Robert Altman, Hal Ashby, William Friedkin, Roman Polanski or Peter Bogdanovich. But while explaining how those films were made Biskind reveals much more. Basically that it was a horrible and constant battle of egos, a dangerous wild ride of people living out of control, with little rules and even less humanity, and a genuine miracle that some of the movies became the masterpieces that now we venerate. Being honest, even personal heroes like Scorsese, Altman, De Niro, or Ashby doesn't look very well in this picture. Guys like Spielberg or George Lucas confirmed my suspicions: just a couple of egomaniacs (add Coppola here) with an unbelievable greedy mind.

I have read some reviews that salute Biskind's book as "a unabashed celebration of the 70s". I couldn't disagree more. This is an overwhelming work on the worst of mankind. Some people believing and behaving as if they were some sort of Almighty God just because they had a successful movie. Others forcing the people who surrounded them (wives, girlfriends, brothers, long-time friends, etc) to share their miseries and frustrations. Sex, alcohol, drug abuse to impossible limits, delusions of grandeur and surreal situations abound on the book, all related with accurate and puzzling precision. I'm mesmerized by the amount of information gathered by Biskind, but also why his freedom to paint such an ugly picture of a decade. Worse than that. The epilogue is a devastating summary of what legacy Hollywood's last golden age left us.

Please don't miss this book, but also proceed with care with what you're going to read.

SCORE: 8,5/10

"Sunset Strip", on entertainment street

Sunset Strip  
Beefeater In-Edit 2012, Chapter IV

Our fourth music documentary during the In-Edit Festival was the one with less expectations as, being honest, we didn't have any clue about what we were going to find. In that sense "Sunset Strip" was a nice surprise, quite fun and smooth entertainment on one of the most famous (arguably the most) streets on the planet, Sunset Strip, aka The Strip.
 
The documentary proposes a historical ride through the quite wild story of The Strip. From its origins, the not so glamorous road that connected Hollywood studios to a developing area that soon would become Beverly Hills in the roaring '20s, to the new Millennium. There's music, cinema stars, gangsters, hippies, drugs, hair metal, decadence, counterculture, glamour, scary parties, comedy, more drugs, and neon lights.... All is narrated in a very lightweight way, just a glimpse, a little bit of the whole, so the film can keep flowing, peppered by the comments of an impressive number of celebrities (even too many in my opinion) and people who were there (and others who weren't).

"Sunset Strip" doesn't offer any real insight or much substance. For the good and the bad. Some of the opinions are more passionate, amusing or significant than others. It's not the same hearing former mobsters talking about that policeman who made their life impossible than hearing Kelly Osbourne (what?). It's not the same hearing Lemmy or Billy Corgan than Slash (uggh). Johnny Depp (at least he used to be interesting) than Keeanu Reeves. I think you get it now. Also, some parts are way more absorbing than others. The mafia, the story of the clubs or the bloom of live music is much more engaging than the Chateu Marmont's or the comedians parts. But despite being somewhat uneven in the weight of its parts, or its unconventional mixture of footage, opinions, storytelling, live music and animations, it keeps going with fluency. It would be close to being confusing or chaotic, but believe it works because its doesn't attempt to go deeper. 

If something is made clear on the documentary, is that Sunset Strip's story is made by cycles. It's arguable if there's space for a new rebirth of the street today, despite director Hans Fjellestad tries to convince us that the new generations of artists and club owners are injecting new life to The Strip. That sort of latest minute eulogy looks forced, as the director doesn't show us the reasons behind that argument, and doesn't help the film coherency either. But I don't think "Sunset Strip" deserves to be blamed at all. It works just fine as a quite entertaining and pleasant, unpretentious carousel of stories on a very particular street.

SCORE: 6/10

Best Books of (My) Year 2011

After sharing with you my personal 100-list of songs of the year, followed by the best movies, today I bring you the books. The 10 works I read this 2011 that should be a must, in my modest opinion, of course.

10. A People's History of the United States- Howard Zinn
The inclusion of the book on the list is a bit "tricky", because I haven't finished reading it (quite far from it to be honest) but the amount of references, things to look at and further readings that I already have at this point now make this spot totally deserved. A much needed, exhaustive, ridiculously interesting and absorbing work.
9. Dog Soldiers- Robert Stone
My first approach to Robert Stone was an hallucinogenic trip to hell where pitch, rhythm and storytelling are three machine-guns firing their ammunition relentlessly in a plot that flows smoothly. But if you scratch the powerful surface, you will find a much sombre and hard look, flooded by sarcasm and absurd, of the 70s and America, a time where the country lost its innocence and its head.
8. Submarine- Joe Dunthorne
Loved the film and Alex Turner's beautiful soundtrack, so I had to get my hands on the book. Recently finished, "Submarine" is as special as the film, but at the same time quite different, darker than Richard Ayoade's movie and more extreme. First the director, then the musician, and now Joe Dunthorne, the writer: three genius for a great story.
7. Sukkwan Island- David Vann
If there were a competition for "disturbing book of the year" my vote will go for "Sukkwan Island" without a doubt. Tense, fierce and brutal, when the personal, introspective drama becomes physical, this book transforms itself into a beast that attracts you irredeemably.
6. Roscoe- William Kennedy
Welcome to Albany, a dense universe where power means everything. The corrupted political network William Kennedy shows with detail hides a deep, engaging tale of human obsessions and addictions, condensed in that sort of "Citizen Kane" Roscoe, the main character, is.
5. Wilson- Daniel Clowes Bitterness and nastiness condensed in the most stinging, perverse character Daniel Clowes ever created. An outsider, a loner who is a real sociopath and hates everything (including himself) in a demented quest for human interaction. "Wilson" mixes multiple approach aesthetics, different types of drawing, with razorblade-sharp dialogues and a deep analysis of the life of someone pathetic. Bold statement.
4. Counterculture Through the Ages- Ken Goffman and Dan Joy
And more outsiders, this time with a non-fiction book that attempts to gather and document social change through history, through the individuals and collectives of the so-called counterculture, that fought and rebelled against the majority of society, trying to leave a mark with their different path. Rich, enlightening and fun.
3. Chump Change- Dan Fante
Dan Fante's homage to the great and damned writer John Fante, his father, couldn't be more strikingly beautiful. Despite its rawness and self-destruction, "Chump Change" is a gut-wrenching tale of redemption, and the trip of a son finally able to say goodbye to his father. Superb.
2. Honor Thy Father- Gay Talese
But 2011, in what regards to readings, is the year of Gay Talese, the extraordinary revelation, for me, of a masterful writer. First, thanks to this incredible job of reporting, an intimate dissection of the Bonanno family, the world of the Mafia and the United States, and the personal and very human story of Bill Bonanno. "Honor Thy Father" is  an unparalleled work.
1. The Gay Talese Reader. Portraits and Encounters- Gay Talese
And second, and topping the list, thanks to this compilation of some of his best articles, an outstanding collection of little (only in their format) pieces of art. A lesson for journalists, for writers and for everyone who loves human stories.

"Counterculture Through the Ages", fun & wild trip to the "other side"

COUNTERCULTURE THROUGH THE AGES. From Abraham to Acid House - Ken Goffman (aka R.U. Sirius) and Dan Joy

"Outsiders" of the world, get together! That's what this peculiar book says to the reader. Authors Ken Goffman and Dan Joy had an amazing premise, but also a titanic goal to accomplish. Define counterculture while showing us that, all through history, there have been people and collectives that didn't fit into mainstream culture, therefore  fighting and rebelling against the majority of society, and conforming groups and subcultures that leaves a mark on it. Quoting the LSD and counterculture enfant terrible Timothy Leary, author of the book's preface: “The mark of counterculture is not a particular social form or structure, but rather the evanescence of forms and structures, the dazzling rapidity and flexibility with which they appear, mutate, and morph into one and another and disappear.” Intrigued? You should.

Welcome iconoclasts, rebels, transgressors, the ones proposing alternatives."Counterculture Through the Ages" traces an unexpected and absorbing storyline of the "other side". Because one has to have a lot of braveness and self-confidence in their theory in order to qualify Abraham as the first (with Prometheus) countercultural icon. But once you read that chapter, you'll probably will find that link as amusing (in a much needed subversive way) as plausible. And from there, Mr. R.U. Sirius (his countercultural techno-ciberpunk name), builds the book through Sufis to Zen Buddhists, to the Enlightment classic references to (my beloved) beatniks, hippies, black panthers, weathermens, acid house visionaries and digital culture addicts of modern times. Hundreds of references and names to a book that invites you, provokes you to an almost infinite list of further readings.

Sure, the task of documenting every counterculture the world has seen is impossible, and to me there were chapters that I found way more attractive than others. But I believe the purpose of this book, in its choices, is trying to show a common, recognisable path throughout history, where influences can be easily (sometimes) identified. These attempt to offer an insightful and comprehensive study, in principle, could sound boring and pedantic. Luckily, Goffman doesn't take himself that seriously, making the book an insightful work as well as a rewarding entertainment. An irresistible combination.

From the Bob Dylan fan to the social networker, from the radical environmentalist to an open-minded Christian, to the indie music lover to a computer freak, "Counterculture" could appeal you. To the ones, as Sam Shepard said, who consider that "the place to be is just in the middle of the contradiction", this book is definitely a must read. And to anyone interested in social change, something urgently needed today, this is a wonderful recommendation.

Revolution starts in the mind

SCORE: 8,25/10