Perverts Wanted

Just kidding… or maybe not. We need artists and we need art about sex. Whether that means something depraved or something tasteful, let us know. We are open-minded.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Tribute

On October 2nd, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and his Beat bookstore and publisher, City Lights, will receive Litquake’s 2010 Barbary Award at Herbst Theater.

The celebration will be attended by Tom Waits,  Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, Winona Ryder, Michael McClure and Eric Drooker.

Issue Eight Update

Thanks to everyone who’s thus far contributed to Beatdom’s eighth issue. I know it’s a long time coming, but be patient – it’ll be here in January, and it’ll be better than ever.

The theme of this issue, as you know, if SEX.

5 Tips from the Beats on how to Write Better

Guest post by Ardin Lalui, a writer inspired by Tom Waits and Cormac McCarthy.

While the beats have gained a reputation for spontaneous, free-flowing, unedited writing, the truth is that usually, good writing takes time and practice. The best beat writers were well aware of this. Here are 5 of their tips on how good writing happens:

One Fast Move Or I’m Gone

The Henry Miller Library is holding “The Event of The Season” this August 14th, with a screening of the movie One Fast Move or I’m Gone and a concert by Jay Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard.

The movie features Tom Waits, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Patti Smith, and was largely filmed in and around Big Sur. The event will be catered by Grapes of Wrath Catering – which is owned by a former neighbour of Kerouac during his time at Big Sur.

Tom Waits

In Beatdom #3 we brought you Tom Waits as part of our regular “Modern Beat” section. In celebration of the upcoming “Music” issue, we thought you might like to reread this essay…

Tom Waits is often viewed as an heir to the Beat Generation, and indeed he acknowledges the strong influence the Bets, and in particular Burroughs and Kerouac, have had upon his work. It’s not hard to see in Waits’ work the musical influences of the bop artists held in such importance by the Beats, as well as the lyrical significance of urban, Cold War America, a central tenant of Beat literature.

Elvis Costello quipped that around the release of ‘Swordfishtrombones’ and ‘Raindogs’, Waits shed an image that was entirely built upon the legends of the Beat Generation, and partially on those who influenced the Beats. He called it “this hipster thing he’d taken from Kerouac and Bukowski, and the music was tied to some Beat/ Jazz thing.” Indeed, many remember meeting Waits or even seeing him perform, looking as though he’d just stepped off a freight train, after years of footloose wandering…

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