the Beats go on - San Francisco

Somebody lies with Jack Kerouac tonight.

…I'm looking at ash, human remains, scattered down foggy Jack Kerouac Alley. The ashes are sprinkled alongside quotes engraved in stone tablets. The tablets are embedded in the alley pavers, solid, immovable, imortal, positioned for eternity.

"Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations". - Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

The powerful draw of the Beats, their poetry and legacy is laid out before me tonight. A honored soul's remains rest in peace in the Beat mecca, North Beach San Francisco.

"The free exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world". - John Steinbeck.

I read On The Road by Jack Kerouac last year. It's why I'm here in North Beach. It's a road trip book. It's THE definitive road trip book. Sal Paradise (Jack Kerouac), the main character, travels with his buddy Dean Moriarty (based on Neal Cassady) from New York to San Franciso and points in between; multiple times. The road traveled is not just taken in miles but in the culture, landscape and mindscape of America in the immediate years after WWII. I enjoyed the "trip" but struggled to see what was so important about the book until I came to realize the common language it's written in IS Kerouac. He was a major influencer on the language we speak today inventing and bringing jazz speak to the literary world. What seemed so common to me in the book was at that time a rejection against the conservative 50's. It was a new way of thinking, speaking and writing. Baby, it was holy and groovy when we hit the road with Sal, cool. I still use those words in 2008. :)

Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. - Maya Angelou.

The Beats championed a powerful freedom of thought and expression that helped bust open the 60's. The beats turned into the hippies. The hippies went on to change American culture and politics in a lot of ways.

As I stand in the alley, in a misting San Francisco night, I look onto Columbus Avenue. The street howls with the reflecting colors of the neighborhood neon. The colored lights paint the street in a wash of wet color. Jazz wails from Pearl's Jazz Club across the street. I could be Sal Paradise on this "mad night, hearing a wild tenorman bawling horn across the way, going "EE-YAH! EE-YAH! EE-YAH!" and hands clapping to the beat and folks yelling, Go, go,go!....Blow, man, blow!"

Feels good man. I am, On The Road.

"The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great...." - Jack Kerouac

Cultural Whiplash - Attitash, NH

Seven days ago I was in a Texas honky tonk. Now I'm sitting, Bloody Mary in hand, at the base of Attitash Mountain on the outdoor deck at Ptarmigan Pub. I'm experiencing cultural whiplash here in the frozen north. I'm partying with New England yankees not Texas cowboys.

Driving out of Marblehead, Ma. this morning there was no snow on the ground. My thoughts revolved around raking the leaves I hadn't gotten to in the fall but a 2 1/2 hour drive north took me to a polar winter wonderland. The record snowfall in New Hampshire this year has left a 7 foot base of snow and 10+ foot snow banks. It's fantastical.

It's in the high 30's but my body is warm from a morning and afternoon of skiing. In front of me is an "ice bar". It's a 25 foot square snow bar built from snow blocks serving ice cold Tuckerman's Pale Ale.

Beyond it the ski lift silently carries excited passengers towards the white heavens as skiers float and carve their way down and across my view. Tree limbs are coated with the mornings snowfall highlighting the already majestic landscape. It's the the frosting and sprinkles on the cake.

It's a 1970's themed day at the mountain so Chic's "Good Times" is blasting it's refrain across the valley for all to hear. The mountain staff is dressed in afros and 70's costumes. To the left of me a drummer and bass player warm up for their afternoon session. My second Bloody Mary is gone.

More beer appears on our table. I buy a green afro seeing this is St. Patrick's weekend and we dance on the outdoor deck to the live band as they rip into Earth Wind and Fire's "September". There's no sitting down as Kool and the Gang's "Ladies Night" and burn baby burn "Disco Inferno" come next back to back. Awesome!! My son Dylan is embarrassed as any 15 year old would be but we got him up and dancing at one point.

I had a great time! Molly had to drive home. I love her. :)