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DIAMOND DAVE AND CANDY ASS I met Diamond Dave at a press
preview at the de Young Museum where the Whitney Museum's Beat
Culture exhibit was being shown. He said that he wanted to
interview me on his radio program at his studio in the Mission
district in San Francisco. Diamond Dave Wittaker is an amazing
cat. His claim to fame, he told me, was that he turned Dylan
on to pot. Dave is very literate; he calls into the local PBS
radio station to discuss issues frequently. I showed up for the
pre-interview meeting at a restaurant. He introduced me to a
friend of his Candy Ass, a band member from the Mission. |
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GINSBERG MEMORIAL Allen Ginsberg had several memorials in Jewish Temples around the country. The first Memorial was in San Francisco at Temple Emanu-El, where more than 2,000 people poured into the sanctuary to pay tribute. I was honored to have one of my photographs of Allen from 1965 used on the cover of the Memorial program. There was standing room only at the Memorial. Some of the people praising/ speaking/reading at the Ginsberg Memorial were Michael McClure, Pulitzer Prize- winning poet Gary Snyder, Diane Di Prima, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, U.S.Poet Laureate Robert Hass, Anne Waldman, Andrew Schelling, Nancy Peters and Joanne Kyger. |
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ANNE WALDMAN / GINSBERG MEMORIAL Poet and orator Anne Waldman co-founder with Allen Ginsberg of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado reads her work at the Memorial held in Los Angeles. Many celebrities attended and spoke to the huge crowd. Actor Kevin Spacey was a speaker. |
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ARTIE SHAW / GINSBERG MEMORIAL Big band leader and composer Artie Shaw, spoke at some length to the crowd at the Memorial. He related his experiences of being black listed in the 1950's and the difficulty of making a living. He compared his experiences to Allen Ginsberg's of being a social outcast because of his beliefs. Many other celebrities attended and spoke to the huge crowd. Writer Ken Kesey was also a speaker. |
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BEAT TRIO / GINSBERG MEMORIAL Allen Ginsberg's guitar player, Anne Waldman and Ed Sanders (The Fugs) are performing in this photograph in front of an art-in-action painting at the Ginsberg Memorial. The Memorial event went on until the wee hours in the morning and still about a third of the speakers had not spoken or performed. They got cancelled. Actor Johnny Depp also spoke at the memorial. |