In "Kill your Darlings," slated for release later this year, Daniel Radcliffe plays Allen Ginsberg, who befriends writers William Burroughs and Jack K...
Aussie rock band Longreef are back on the road in support of their latest EP Dirty Motel. The band recently shot a video for their second single "She Likes The Ladies," the song being a crowd favorite.
While his tenure as the 11th president of Boulder's Naropa University began in August, Charles "Chuck" Lief did not have "the keys to car," as his goo...
My imagination ran wild. What witty thing would I say to Mr. Ginsberg? What will I do when he asks me to drop out of college and be his full time assistant? What will my family say? But how can I turn down such an opportunity?
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
When Brazilian director Walter Salles finally got funding to make his movie of On the Road in May 2010, and asked me to be the first "drill instructor" at Beat Boot Camp in Montreal, I felt a heavy responsibility to see that this long-awaited opportunity wasn't blown.
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.
It's taken me a while to get around to it, but I wanted to offer a nod of approval for Walter Salles' On the Road, which came out in limited release at the end of 2012.
We sparked some tea and spit seeds onto the street, pulsing to the rhythm of the passing cars while feeling the ghosts of North Beach -- Kerouac, Ginsberg, Cassady, and the rest of our long-gone friends -- falling further away.
Why can't a film simply exist without trying to change the world? There are plenty of different kinds of movies, and in the chaos of awards season some wonderful, little flicks are completely forgotten.
Joyce Johnson's new biography, The Voice Is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac, traces the development of Kerouac's prose style, showing how his French freed him to create his famous spontaneous narrative.
One of the most significant challenges of the film is to make us feel as if we're seeing this lifestyle with a fresh eye. The film does a terrific job of putting us in the era and making us feel like we're actually there.
"The Beat Generation," as Kerouac defined them so early on, has maintained a fascinating hold on popular culture, even though during their heyday they were mocked by the mainstream.
I've written variations of this Thanksgiving list just about every year since I read a book a day. Thank you to the authors who make my year of reading -- whether it is a book a day or a book a week -- a core pleasure of my life.
On the Road starts off speeding, snapping the audience's heads back against their padded seats, and kidnapping them. Taking 'em to the 1940s, America. At some point each voyeur has to decide whether they are in or out.
The New York Post has been sniffing around for academic gossip because they can't write about me stumbling out of clubs. I think my class's collaborative film Tar says it all: They can kiss my ass.
One of the many surprises tucked away in the vast Jack Kerouac Archive at the New York Public Library is the tiny pocket notebook in which Kerouac reacted in the fall of 1947 to a conversation he'd just had with his mother.
In 1938, F. Scott Fitzgerald received a story from family friend Frances Turnball, who was looking for feedback on her writing. In response, Fitzgerald crafted a letter containing advice for young writers worthy of marble etching.
Simply put, one doesn't read Kerouac for clever female characterizations (male either, for that matter) or his progressive views on women any more than one would read Jane Austen for thematic variety.