The public persona he presents, utterly unique, both brash and delicate, subversive and charming, masks an inner core of serious artistry. This lover of nature in all of its forms -- good, bad and ugly -- mostly lives an austere, isolated life that has enabled him to make such a rich contribution to the fragile, precious library of American literature.
Back in the day, the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti was all the rage. Paperbacks of A Coney Island of the Mind could be seen stuffed in jean pockets on college campuses. Now 93, he is the subject of a valuable biopic by photographer and filmmaker Chris Felver
A local saloon changing owners is rarely front-page news in the big city, but the recent sale of Tosca, in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, has received much attention.
Working again with screenwriter Jose Rivera, and with Gustavo Santaolalla on the jazzy soundtrack, Salles' adaptation took five years to cast.
One Zen monk from Japan who was visiting a Zen retreat center in America observed the enthusiasm and numbers of meditators with astonishment. "How do you get them to meditate without beating them?"
Rainhat's gently staggering poems are spontaneous, lyrical, physical and immediate. When his grandmother, a farmer, tells him she doesn't understand poems, he explains to her, "A poem is a song. It is in your heart and you can breathe it with your mouth."
Poetry is, at its heart and in its origins, an oral medium. To read a poet's work is one thing. To hear a poet read their work is something else altogether.
Director Danny Boyle is a master cineaste of potty detail. Who can forget the toilet swim in "Trainspotting"? Or the latrines of "Slumdog Millionaire"...
