Tag: Counterculture

Acid test poet: Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

How curious that he should lead the parade. When my own poetry practice was taking root, back in the early ‘70s, I was largely unimpressed compared, say, to Bob Dylan. I didn’t pick up on the gay dimensions, either, only the rage of Howl. In fact, though I had some poetry courses, I wasn’t blown away by much of anything until I encountered Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath’s searing despair. Everything was essentially head, not heart.

Over the years, my opinion of Ginsberg changed. I came to appreciate his lines that stayed close to their source of inspiration and the ways his poems faced current events. While much of his artistic voice is seen as an homage to Walt Whitman, I find his work is much more in the stream of the lives of the prophets in the Bible. I’ve come to love a masterful, righteous rant for justice, which his poems often are. (Just see my Trumpets of the Storm series, starting with Primary Care at my ThistleFinch blog).

I’ve also come to admire the seeming ease with which he presents an observation – his definition of New England as famed for red leaves comes to mind.

His 1973 collection, The Fall of America: Poems of These States, has been the volume I’ve returned to the most.

Despite his role as an avatar of drug highs or gay rights, he strikes me increasingly in his native Jewish robes more than in those of the Tibetan Buddhism he avowed. Maybe for that, you should read the book The Jew in the Lotus by Rodger Kamenetz.

Yeah, here we are already, with one author leading to another. But first, where is my set of Whitman?

Get ready to meet some crucial writers along my journey

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

You’ve no doubt heard more than one person boast that their life could be a book, perhaps even adding that it would make a fortune and lead to fame. Perhaps you even shuddered because this was somebody who doesn’t read books, somebody essentially uninterested that way. As a fellow writer once quipped, he could simply look at a page and tell immediately if the creator was a reader.

The fact is that good writers are also devoted readers. We are inspired by good models, informed by their content, and strengthened by their style and structure. They give us standards to measure up to, excellence to aspire toward, and frontiers to explore. They caution us against getting lazy or complacent.

As my diamond jubilee winds down, I find myself reflecting on novelists and poets and a few others who have accompanied me at some crucial stretch in my writing and editing practice. I’ve come up with a list of 50 plus one.

It’s a quirky list, with an emphasis on those who have been influences at one point or another. Sometimes just one book is enough to leave an impact. I’m not calling these “favorites” – much of my pleasure reading isn’t necessarily that original or elicit that spontaneous “Oh, wow!” reaction. Think of what I’m presenting as godfathers and godmothers of a work. These have served as touchstones or charm stones, elders, wilderness guides, guardian angels. They weren’t there to be imitated or copied but to provoke, definitely, and sometimes comfort.

Over the coming year, I’ll present one a week. They’ll run alphabetically – by first name, just to shake up expectations.

Feel free to name your own personal top writers in the comments as we go. If you’re a reader, one name will lead to another.

Onward!

How comforting when a few others independently come to my conclusion

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Two examples:

  • The Dover Historical Society’s now ancient trolley tour that mentions the Providence ship’s landing. (Now, where did I come up with that?) It is crucial in establishing the early settlement date for what’s now the oldest city in New Hampshire, as I detail in my book Quaking Dover.
  • Someone else seeing the similarities between the slow movement in American composer John Knowles Paine’s second symphony and in Gustav Mahler’s much more famous and more popular fifth two decades later. Give originality and genius its due.

 

Am I the man you wanted me to be?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

The question is asked by Zorro in the opera by Hector Armienta recently premiered in Albuquerque and Fort Worth. This version of the story is much more subversive than the one I encountered as a kid. And the musical drama is, from what I heard on the radio, very much worthy of retelling.

What stunned me in the question that it’s directed toward the father. How often in today’s Western culture does a son turn toward his father that way, rather than his mother? Not in my experience.

It is making me look toward Dad anew and suspect I hadn’t failed him that much, after all. But the question remains disturbing and enriching, all the same.

How do we males find this working as well in terms of our wives – or lovers? Or our children?

This really gets serious – and unending.

Does every act of creation begin with demolition?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Or at least making a mess?

The observation here originates with an artist’s amazement at the mess at the beginning of the book of Genesis in the Bible. As panelist on the Bill Moyers’ PBS series, he picked up on the matter of chaos at the outset. Not the blank canvas but rather all the surrounding disarray, probably including thinking.

More recently, I’ve been seeing that in our own home renovation project. For a while, there was a lot less of our house than when we began. How quickly the Dumpster got filled and another delivered!

As for a film society’s choices

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

The Eastport Arts Center was a major factor in my decision to relocate here. Quoddy Voices is one of its constituent groups.

Another was the Northern Lights film society, which only recently resurfaced but greatly diminished after the Covid hiatus.

I’ve found its offerings invigorating and sometimes disturbing. The deep discussions that follow the showings are especially valued, even for the recent Carnival of Souls and Night of the Living Dead horror vein.

What was perplexing was that the society was essentially two people, one a veteran of its 47-year history, give or take a few seasons.

They were asking those of us who kept coming each week for our input regarding possible selections from the two vendors available to us. Learning of the licensing hurdles for presenting movies even at a nonprofit arts venue was daunting. I’ll spare you the details.

I will, though, share my response to the possibilities and the situation we’re facing.

~*~

As I wrote:

Seems to me our thinking about the film society comes down to building a larger audience. That, in turn, adds considerations of “branding” – the image the public has – as well as the types of films we air and even our geographic range of appeal.

What do we show this week that will bring people back for our next film? That is, what’s our continuity or identity? What has them awaiting the next round? Are we an “art” films circle, an awards-driven following, a sensual experience sharing group? Do our screenings enhance or compete with other arts ventures in the region?

If we’re limiting ourselves to two showings a month, let me suggest making those the second and third Sunday evenings of the month. I’m feeling there might be a “bounce” in favor of that second showing, perhaps even with some common thread for the month. Let me also push for 6 pm so more viewers from throughout Washington County can readily attend. (Note, too, the problems of getting anyone out on a Sunday night, plus the competition with the winter Sunday afternoon series at the arts center and Stage East matinees.)

My thinking is that we might get some synergy and energy that way, especially in getting the word out. The Tides comes out on the second Friday (we might have occasions when the showing falls a week before that).

Orchestras and live theater companies have long relied on season subscribers but have been finding, even a few decades before Covid, that the model was eroding. Festival programming – a cluster – has been one alternative that’s created excitement and ticket sales. I’m seeing that as something that might work with the second/third Sundays model, perhaps even giving us the option of adding a fourth Sunday for a suitable extension.

That said, we are also shaped by the collections of our two distributors.

At the first, I’m steering clear of the traditional art films for now – the Italian, French, German, Japanese, etc.

Instead, I’d look at the USA (not Hollywood, for the most part, which is the global conglomerate movie center) and three Canadian films, many of them documentaries, and at the Latin films – Mexico, Cuba, Spain, Portugal, Brazil. Viridiana stands out on that front. Washington County has a large and largely overlooked Hispanic population.

Cluster options here: Orson Welles, Robert Downey Sr., Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, silents The Freshmen, The Kid Brother, The Most Dangerous Game, and King of Kings (if we can keep a straight face), Norman Mailer, John Huston (Under the Volcano and Wise Blood).

Among the docudramas etc.: A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking), Burroughs: the Movie, Don’t Look Back (Dylan), For All Mankind (astronauts), Gimme Shelter, God’s Country (Louis Malle), Jimi Plays Monterey or Monterey Pop, Louie Bluie, Multiple Maniacs (John Waters), Eating Raoul (Warhol).

Titles that catch my attention: The Baron of Arizona, The Beales of Grey Gardens, Border Radio, Buena Vista Social Club, Cameraperson, Carnival of Souls, Chop Shop, Clean Shaven, Desert Hearts, Detour (possibly anchoring an international film noir survey), Dillinger Is Dead (OK, it’s Italian but still), possibly with I Shot Jesse James, Drylongso, The Honeymoon Killers, Push Cart Man, Paris Texas (yeah, it’s French), A Poem Is a Naked Person, Poto and Cabengo, Routine Pleasures, Smooth Talker, Slacker, Sweet Sweetback’s Badass Song, Symbiopsychotaxism, Twin Peaks, Thank You and Good Night, and The Watermelon Woman.

Looking way ahead, sometime it might be fun to do a festival based on Japanese Godzilla fixation.

And then, at the other: For the most part, these offerings strike me as highly commercial creations most people stream at home. Still, American audiences look for star-power rather than directors, so this might provide some extra punch for attendance. That said, some offerings to consider: Barbie, Oppenheimer, Gran Turismo, Joy Ride, Insidious, Tar, Asteroid City, Dear Evan Hansen, The Little Mermaid (with ArtsWalk), The Outfit, Samaritan, The Black Phone, and Cruella (if it’s not too Disney).

~*~

Well, we’ve had a second meeting and set a course for the next year, one that seems to be generating a buzz. We’re focusing on one boffo film a month, with both a matinee and evening showing, and tying the offerings into other events happening in town, when possible.

The first one is indeed Barbie on the Thanksgiving weekend.

The one place I’ve never wanted to live was the suburbs

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

I love big cities, even have a certificate in Urban Studies, but can’t afford them, not for long.

Internet, at least, allows me some important virtual connections that way, not that it includes strolling into ethnic restaurants or great museums.

On the other hand, I’m living in a place others consider ideal for a vacation.

And for me, it’s an ideal writer’s retreat or de facto arts colony.

The ability to walk to so much of what I want in daily life is a huge consideration.