Artist's Statement: I make collages of beachtrash and vintage magazines. It started during a peaceful moment at a trashy Spanish beach where I put, without thought, some pieces of plastic together. … [Read more...]
The Invitation of the Mirror: Jonathan Lethem & Me, from the Margin to the Mainstream
Words and images by Jasun Horsley I recently had a podcast discussion with the author Jonathan Lethem. This connection has probably meant more to me than previous connections. For one thing, it’s … [Read more...]
Jack Kerouac’s “Strange Cemetery in Jamaica”
--- from a work-in-progress, I, Duluoz!: An Appreciation of Jack Kerouac If I had to pick my favorite poem of Jack Kerouacʼs, it would be “Strange Cemetery in Jamaica” published in Some of the … [Read more...]
Dennis Hopper as Daniel Morgan in Mad Dog Morgan
The film Easy Rider (1969) made its director and star Dennis Hopper, and the film's producer and co-star Peter Fonda, counter-cultural icons of the late 1960s. The film's minuscule budget, roaring box … [Read more...]
Three poems by P R Kargaard
False Bay, San Juan Island In the autumn morning, the high thirds of the trees I know have vanished. Obscured by a sleepy fog. It is a way of being in pearl which seeps like a surface … [Read more...]
Music Review – An Evening With Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer
There have been many great artistic couples down through the ages. Now a days there seems to be more celebrity couplings than any real co-joining of artistic talents. So when I first began to hear … [Read more...]
How to write an excellent book review query
So, your book is finished and you need to get the word out. You've found some book reviewers who you'd like to email. You're hoping they'll accept a copy of your book for possible review. But … [Read more...]
The Naked Beat
The Love Electric's new video was filmed in New York City, Lisbon, Berlin, and Woodstock. You can get "The Naked Beat" here. About A Love Electric The Love Electric is a band that does … [Read more...]
Post-Zen, a reflection for Reilly
When you were put away your car had a half a tank of gas. This surprised me, because I had only ever seen you put five dollars in at a time. While you drove I would watch the dial on the odometer … [Read more...]
10 public speaking tips for writers
Writers often work in solitude. But when it's time to do a reading or a book signing, or to give a presentation or speech, you're no longer in your own environment, and the nerves can really kick in! … [Read more...]
Photography: Verboten by Samy Sfoggia
The photographic series titled Verboten (“Prohibited”) is focused on characters that usually are called "outsiders". Verboten consists of staged photographs that are based on 1920s criminal mugshots. … [Read more...]
I Am San Francisco
I have witnessed the waterfront decay the ships disappear the piers given over to tourists and sunbathing sea lions Gone the Haight Theater in the old Haight Ashbury where as a kid I … [Read more...]
On Being Corso’s Lover
In the Cadillac of my imagination unraveling in Corso's kitchen we eat verses of Homer for lunch. He becomes my Odysseus. My fingers are burnt and veins tapped. Our highs grow weary as we … [Read more...]
Insomniacs: Photography by Fabio Sassi
A Curious Stew
Silver Lake was a circus when I moved here in ‘92. By day it was old buildings with peeling paint set against lush hillsides with hidden graffitied cement stairways and morning glories everywhere. … [Read more...]
Rik Lina Painting a Leporello
Watch Rik Lina paint a leporello (folding book) in this new video: Here's the result: … [Read more...]
Two poems by Benjamin Smith
Pink Shots. The needle drops, wails Gin and trombones While Erikson plays dice In the mirror and Lucy downs Pink shots of poetry. By 5am we are beasts, Animals on hands and Knees, lapping … [Read more...]
How to Identify a First Edition Book
This page has lots of information on it! Here are some quick links to the most important topics. General guidelines for identifying a first edition Identifying 1st editions from specific … [Read more...]
Charged Vision: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg
The photographs of Allen Ginsberg recently were on display at the Jewish Contemporary Museum in San Francisco. Walking through the museum is like going on a jaunt through Beat History. A spritely Jack … [Read more...]
John J. Dorfner on Jack Kerouac’s Induction into the Rocky Mount Hall of Fame
John J. Dorfner is the author of two books on Jack Kerouac, Kerouac: Visions of Lowell and Kerouac: Visions of Rocky Mount. In them, he delves into Kerouac's life in Lowell, Massachusetts, and in … [Read more...]
Rob Wasserman, Michael McClure & Jay Lane – Music & Poetry – Sept. 12, 2013
Rob Wasserman • Michael McClure • Jay Lane New Music! Thursday, September 12th • 8:00 p.m. Sweetwater Music Hall 19 Corte Madera Ave., Mill Valley, CA 94941 Limited Seating • Box … [Read more...]
Book Review – How Hip Was My Alley by Kenton Crowther
[Editor's note: 5/21/2014: How Hip Was My Alley has been re-titled Dad, the Times We Had: Baby Boomers in Paradise.] Kenton Crowther's previous volume, Alleycats and Beatsters, collected the … [Read more...]
Cry, Exploration, Ceremony
Oppositional postmodernist literature is associated with the Beat movement and came about after the terrible, unforeseen destruction of World War II. While the modernists were positive about the human … [Read more...]
The Jack Kerouac Upper Peninsula Diary by t. kilgore splake, reviewed
The Jack Kerouac Upper Peninsula Diary / t. kilgore splake / Angst Publications / PO Box 508, Calumet, MI 49913-0508 / 1998 The author provided Empty Mirror with a review copy. “Happiness … [Read more...]
When there is nothing, there’s the cup of coffee
When there is nothing, there's the cup of coffee Early morning, i step out; in a heap, in the rubbish pile, my paintings. They look 'belonged'. Few more displaced to the storage-room. New … [Read more...]
Book Review – Horse Latitudes by Chris Wilson
Horse Latitudes by Chris Wilson / Sorika / 978-0957557307 / 92 pages Horse Latitudes is a small gem of a book, bound in white covers illustrated with a painting. It is strikingly beautiful, with a … [Read more...]
Ginsberg’s Refrigerator
In Allen’s tenement flat at 170 East 2nd Street, even the refrigerator is an outlet of poetry. The picture in black and white shows a handle pointing north. On the off-white surface a picture of … [Read more...]
2 Poems by Craig Kocij
Alaska Sun (for Timothy Treadwell & Amie Huguenard) Through thirteen seasons your trails ran down to coasts that fell to ocean hues of rain and dull precipitous sleet. To this airy solitude of … [Read more...]
Gary A.’s Ten Favorite Books
1. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse 2. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac 3. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway 4. Ask the Dust by John Fante 5. Sixty-Seven Poems For Downtrodden Saints by Jack … [Read more...]
Ginsberg at the Grey
How belly they aged, your friends, how hard the young years, every look, an eye for an eye, rapscallions when this country had corners rounded to secret, sweet places unfound by blab and tweet. In … [Read more...]
Book Review – Son of Kerouac, Woodstock and God: A Memoir by James Crockett
Son of Kerouac, Woodstock and God / James Crockett / 978-148125581 / 261 pages Empty Mirror received a review copy of this book. As a young man about to embark upon a summer-long hitchhiking … [Read more...]
In honor of ruth weiss on her 85th birthday
The following is from: “ruth weiss and the American Beat movement of the ‘50s and 60’s” by Horst Spandler, published in: ruth weiss, no dancing aloud – lautes tanzen nicht erlaubt. edition exil, … [Read more...]
Students: A Play by Peter Rose
The living room of a student house in London. Emma sits holding a mug of tea. Robbie stands looking out of the window holding a bottle of beer. She is twenty. He is sixty. ROBBIE:You think you know … [Read more...]
Ten Favorite Books List Contributed by Josechu C.
1. Artificial Paradises by Charles Baudelaire. In perfect style the author praises the marvelous effects that wine and hash have on him. 2. Stomping the Goyim by Michael Disend. How to be gay, … [Read more...]
Bruce Hodder’s Ten Favourite Books
1. In Watermelon Sugar – Richard Brautigan 2. Big Sur – Jack Kerouac 3. Desert Solitaire – Edward Abbey 4. Ulysses – James Joyce 5. The Narrow Road to the Deep North – Matsuo Basho 6. … [Read more...]
splake’s Magic Box
splake fishing in america. Rockford: Presa Press, 2013 only in my dreams. Springfield: Gage, 2012. Beyond Campfire Ashes. Battle Creeek: Gage, 2012. Backwater Bard Loft Musings. Fort Wayne: The … [Read more...]
Mark A.’s Top Ten Books List
1. The Book Of JOB in the OT, La Bible de Jerusalem preferably There was once a man in the land of Uz & the final word was with Yahweh. 2. A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud Emotion, Images, … [Read more...]
Lost Archive
The Art of Don Clausen: May 1 – June 30 in Berkeley CA
Come enjoy these treasures from private collections: DON CLAUSEN'S seascapes of 1963 to abstracts of 2012, most never before shown publicly. Not all artwork shown is for sale. Yes, Clausen's still … [Read more...]
Jenny Lynn
Cold wind is building and ready. It is not understood the pent feelings that have suddenly surfaced after long and even further back and then along the slow moving world and probably before the long … [Read more...]
