Thanks to Arts Fest and United Arts, the Mennello Museum was able to host a full day of folk performers at its annual Folk Festival. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a festival with blue skies and a cool breeze. Terry and I attended last year and we both decided it is one of our favorite events of the year. There are plenty of tents set up with artists of all kinds displaying their wares. We first stopped at the Kerouac House table where Kim Buchheit and Summer Rodman were having a lively discussion. I became infatuated with a book by Kerouac called “Sketches”. This is an amazing book in which Kerouac describes scenes and places in bold poetic broad strokes. All of the sketches were lifted from small moleskin notebooks in which he jotted down his notes on the spot. With words he recreates scenes very much the way I sketch every day. It is an inspiring read. I am maybe half way through the book now.
Dawn Schreiner had a tent set up with all her wonderful portraits and doodles. She was sitting in the grass with her children and sketching. Next to her tent was an artist who makes elaborate cigar boxes which are encrusted with glued on objects. I stood and watches as he made a space ship themed box with day glow paint a space shuttle and plenty of beads as planets. I wanted to sketch him, but this was Valentines day, and I had decided to stay focused on my wife and maybe sneak in a sketch of the stage if time allowed.
We had lawn chairs and set them up in front of the stage. As Sarah Purser performed, I felt myself become fully relaxed and at peace. I sat back and enjoyed the sun and view overlooking the lake. It was time to sketch. Travis Blaise who is dating Sarah explained that she is classically trained and in fact performs for the opera. Her voice is stunning and she has a lighthearted humor that is infectious. In the foreground I sketched Gordon Spears who was wearing a distinctive red hat and leaning back talking to a friend. Someone told me that Gordon booked all the acts for the event. Later that night I had to take down my display of sketchbooks at the Cameo Theater and Gordon was there helping Louise Bova as she took down her work. I had never met Gordon before, but here I was bumping into him twice in one day. This town just keeps getting smaller.
Brian Turner Poetry Workshop
At the Kerouac House Brian Turner hosted a Ekphrastic Poetry workshop. Ekphrastic poetry is poetry that is inspired by works of visual art. Brian first spoke about his humble background. He grew up in a family of middle class intellectuals. His father used to read a book to the family at the diner table, but the family never discussed what was read. Brian put himself through college as a machinist. Later like his father he felt the need to serve his country in the military. When he was deployed to Bosnia and then Iraq he wanted need to learn about the country’s culture and ways. As a soldier he had to be keenly aware of the environment and the pace of life in the villages and towns. If the pace of life changed something was wrong.
As an exercise Brian asked all the poets to walk through the house and pick and object to write a poem about. From all these separate poems he later compiled the group poem “Tonic”.
Tonic
A lone gin bottle sitting on the headboard
labors to inspire the numbing dreams
which-out of love, like musicians
with their instruments laid down-
might serve to keep me company.
The air has turned electric-conducting
all that is about to happen. Through windows
of blue and grey-the air smells of rotten cabbage,
pond scum, rancid sweet fermenting,
stewing, the dark soul of a marriage
overcome by the hive of bees in sheet rock,
layers of winged frenzy sweetened
only by the magnolia out back.
If there’s only one thing I have learned-
not from the wandering,
not from the traveling, and
not how Aristotle said it best-
it’s how I move, most impressively,
alone. No one stretches me.
It is true. A bottle of gin is only lonely
when it is empty.
This collaborative poem was written by: Susan Shannon Spraker, B.J. Hart, Naomi Butterfield, Julie Dunsworth, Mary Ann deStefano, J. Northlake, Lorie Parker Matejowsky, Mary Elizabeth McIlvane, Kenny S. Murry, Gene Moore, Bernadette Adams Davis, and Brian Turner.
Tess Adamski
I met Tess at a writers workshop being held at the Keouac house. Tess designed the tattoo on her back herself and I found out that her tattoo artist in Toronto was named Thor, which happens to be my nickname. The tattoo consists of the last paragraph from Jack’s novel, “On the Road.” On the wall were photos of Jack writing in this very room. The center photo was the photo she used as reference for her tattoo. The red and green color scheme was far to perfect, there had to be a greater force at work here. There was something surreal about the whole experience. Tess refereed to it as Kerouacendipity.
“Like most people I read On The Road at age 17…and Jack answered and validated a lot of internal questions and thoughts that had me in a teenage turmoil. Growing up in an idyllic childhood in a small town…I always wanted out, feeling I should be somewhere else-so unlike my friends and family and wondering what is wrong with me? Why do I feel so unhappy? Jack let me know I wasn’t crazy and it was alright to see myself on the road out of my hometown. That was the pivotal point in my life.
Then it was a sweet progression into his works and life. With a background in classic literature, I spent my time with London, Fitzgerald etc…then comes Kerouac…whose writing touched me so deeply on a personal level from the honest passion that he created with the same 26 letters offered to everyone. Yet he created such a unique voice…I developed a real familiarity that was very comforting…like finding the perfect lover without all the mortal complications.
The more I delved into his personal life, I found myself becoming very protective of TiJean, sympathizing with the bombardment of misunderstanding that plagued his life and legacy of work. And so now, I am at a point in my life where I can devote my time to constant study of
Kerouac…working on a book to promote a further understanding of his writing genius. His voice is still an important voice to be heard and like hearing a great piece of music…reading Kerouac
once, is not enough. I’ve always thought that Kerouac could give sight to a blind man…the true historian of mankind…no one has documented the minuteness of sights, sounds and feeling of man like Jack… and he makes everyone of those details so poetic and soulfully important that it makes you glad you’re alive and a part of it.
Jack once said…Life is my art. And now I ink myself with his art-his words…. an eternal
canvas of the purest poetry of life….and it’s kinda nice to know that Jack always has my back.”
-Tess Adamski
Kimberly Elkins Interview
Ever since Kimberly stepped foot in the Kerouac house as the new resident author, I seem to have been buzzing around her like an annoying mosquito trying to convince her to let me do a sketch of her at work. The very first night she stepped foot in the house was the evening when “txt” was being performed. If you recall that performance had some of the most sexually explicit offensive and downright insane dialogue being written by the audience in real time on iPhones and blackberries. Genius that I am, I chose a moment right after the performance to excitedly talk to her about my idea of sketching resident authors. To me she seemed shocked. I realized she was just getting to know her surroundings. She looked out the kitchen window for the first time. I don’t know if she felt at home yet. I had spoken to soon. At several other gatherings I threw my proposals at her with no effect. I know that in a crowded social setting I am always a bit adrift. Timing and simple social graces seem to slip when I need them the most.
I was excited to discover that two Full Sail documentary film makers, Lyle Kastrati and Robert Navarro, had succeeded where I had failed. They landed an interview with Kimberly. Since I had already sketched a David Amram Interview in the Kerouac house I realized I just had to sit back relax and learn about Kimberly and her writing process through the video interview with her. The interview went great. She is writing a historical novel about a woman named Laura Bridgeman who is deaf, dumb, blind, and mute, she can only experience the world thru the sense of touch. Laura helped teach Annie Sullivan who later became Hellen Keller’s teacher. Laura was a huge celebrity in her day. I found it interesting that Kimberly said that no matter how well researched the book might be, some part of herself would be reflected in Laura.
Kimberly and I talked in her kitchen this day, I felt for the first time as one artist to another. She told me something that I find reassuring and useful. She said that not having a great memory is actually a good thing for a fiction writer. It allows the writer to feel and interpret rather than just report the facts. I find myself walking that fine line every day writing this blog, am I just reporting, or am I expressing how I actually felt as I did a sketch? Do my other senses fall to the wayside as I sketch? Is my perception of myself and my identity dependent on the feedback I get from my subject?
David Amram and Me
David Amram is a force of nature, he is a musician, composer, shaman and inspiration. He often stresses the importance of looking for the beauty in the worthless things in life, for those are often the most priceless. David was a good friend of Kerouac and he said Kerouac at any party would always gravitate towards the person in the room who looked the most insecure. It is this giving, encouraging spirit that separated Kerouac from the average artist. David kept stressing the importance of realizing there is beauty all around us, and that a thing of beauty is a joy forever. He pointed out that you don’t have to travel to Europe or Asia to find this beauty. It is right in your back yard, just look around. He stressed the importance of what he called, the University of Hangoutology. If you hang out at a spot long enough you truly begin to discover its secrets. He also likes to point out the importance of spontaneity as a part of the whole experience.
As part of the presentation David showed a video of a performance he gave years ago at the History Center in Orlando. I was shocked when in the foreground of the first shot I saw a younger version of myself in a stiff button down long sleeve shirt and a full head of hair. I was sketching away as usual unnoticed by anyone. It was that evening that lead me to years later decide to go to the Kerouac house and sketch it. It seems like life keeps coming at me in oblique angles. Lines are no longer straight, but instead curve in and around toward the source. I seemed so young and exuberant in the footage and yet I seemed stiff and insecure, like I was dresses up for the corporate role I had to play. I am left wondering in what ways I have changed since that time. The journey continues and David is still there to remind me to keep my eyes open for the wild, wonderful, frenetic, crazy, spontaneous, outlandish, world that has yet to be sketched.
Caroline Kerouac Blake Tribute
Jack Kerouac’s sister Caroline died in 1964. For years her grave was an unmarked spot below an old Maple tree in Greenwood Cemetery in Downtown Orlando. Members of the Kerouac Project arranged to have a stone marker placed on the spot on March 13th of 2009. Yesterday a small group of Kerouac supporters gathered to honor Caroline, who Jack had nicknamed Nin.
It was a beautiful morning. As I searched for the site I saw several squirrels scrambling between headstones and then up a tree. The birds were chirping joyously. Once I found the site. I leaned my artists chair up against a tree, leaned back and started to sketch. I knew the dedication would not take long so I had to lay in the background and stones fast. Bob Kealing who was going to pay tribute, had been called away on a news story, he had to cover the Casey Anthony case down at the Orange County Court House. Kim Buchheit took his place and did a wonderful and moving job. David Amram, a multi talented performer, played a hand carved courting flute whose warm tones drifted through the morning air.
This days events left me with an impression that art leaves behind a life affirming and ever propagating force that spurs the next generation to keep creating. Get out, find people with amazing stories and listen and learn. David Amram now 78 years old and Pete Seeger about to turn 90 years old are proof that some creative flames burn bright well into old age.
Caroline Kerouac Blake
October 25, 1918 – September 19, 1964
Mother, Daughter, Sister, Wife
World War II Veteran
JE ME SOUVIENSTI NIN ( I remember little Nin)
Richard Goodman on Burroughs and Kerouac
In 1944, Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs all met in the span of two days at Columbia University in NYC. Burroughs began living with Joan Vollmer Adams in an apartment they shared with Jack Kerouac and Edie Parker.
Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law when Lucien Carr, killed David Kammerer in a confrontation over Kammerer’s incessant and unwanted homosexual advances. Lucian had allowed Kammerer to hang out with him for years and Richard speculated that perhaps Lucian was a bit of a masochist. The killing happened in Riverside Park in Manhattan’s upper west side. After the killing Carr sought out Kerouac, who helped him dispose of the knife and some of Kammerer’s belongings. Kerouac may have had a somewhat loose moral code based on necessity yet he was very generous to fellow writers and friends. Kerouac was arrested as an accessory after the fact and served time in jail. He married Edie Parker so her parents would bail him out of jail. The marriage was annulled one year later.
This incident inspired Burroughs and Kerouac to collaborate on a novel entitled And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks. This title came from a WWII news radio broadcast. It was the broadcasters last pitch before signing off. Completed in 1945, the two young authors were unable to get it published, but the manuscript was finally published in November 2008 by Grove Press and Penguin Books. Plans are in the works to make it into a movie.
Richard Goodman personally met Burroughs after he sent him a letter and Burroughs wrote him back. Richard had those letters and showed them to people after the talk.
Jack Kerouac’s Birthday
Jack Kerouac was born March 12th, 1922. Were he alive today he would be 89 years old. He died at the age of 47 which is how old I am today. In his memory I went to the house where his sister Nin lived through the late 1950’s at 1219 Yates Street in College Park. Jack often came to stay starting in 1954 for varying lengths of time. When he was here in 1956 “On the Road” was about to be accepted by Viking Press for publication. Jack then rented rooms in a house for himself and his mother around the corner on Clouser Avenue. He soon shipped out to Tangier.
Ed White suggested to Kerouac that he sketch the streets like a painter but with words. Kerouac filled 15 pocket sized notebooks with “sketch poems”. After completing “On the Road” Jack sat down at his typewriter and wrote the manuscript that came to be known as “Book of Sketches”. As an artist who has also taken to the streets I identify with that endeavor.
This house sits in an old quiet neighborhood. Weeds sprout up between the sidewalks and curbs are broken and worn with age. Children are at play everywhere. Three girls next door ride there bikes and scream to each other until mom calls them in for dinner. A train whistle can be heard in the distance.
Do you know what this homestead,
this ranch is? — what
my statue and responsibility, in it
is? It’s a footing from which I can
be my childlike self forever.
–Kerouac
Darlyn Finch writing
Darlyn is a former Kerouac house resident author and today lives in East Orlando. On Tuesday nights she and her fiance Brad Kuhn have a writer’s date night. They both sit at the dining room table facing each other and tap away on there respective laptops. They both have full cups of coffee as they work into the night. Darlyn who is petite in size uses two large pillows from the living room to prop herself up in the chair. When she writes alone, she works at the small antique desk seen behind her in the corner of the room. This writing duo met at the Kerouac house on September 17th which will be the date of there wedding sometime in the future. When asked how long they work on these date night sessions, Darlyn said “we generally stop when we start playing footsie under the table and begin to feel frisky.”
I bought Darlyn’s book “Red Wax Rose” prior to doing the sketch since I felt it important to know something about her work since it might influence the sketch. This book of short stories and poetry is filled with gut wrenching emotion. At times I felt a surge of joy and sorrow at the same time. She is also the hand behind an online writer’s resource called sunscribbles which offers news about Florida writers.
Words
First memory –
hearing them on
mama’s knee –
a big black book and
parroting back
sounds that turned into
meaning on the page.
Loving to learn –
learning to love words
craving the Seussian sibilant sounds
eating alliteration like fudge,
drinking poetry like cool water.
Latest memory –
words on my skin,
Shakespeare and Croce,
Kuhnsian kissing cadences,
wearing my lover like a blanket,
eating poetry for breakfast with good strong coffee.
–Darlyn Finch
Digital Seance
I returned to the Kerouac house to see a second performance of txt. I realized after my first sketch that the performance wasn’t so much about the man reading the text messages, Brian Feldman, but it was about the uninhibited comments that came from the audience who remained anonymous writing the script on there iPhones and PDAs. This time I sat in the far back corner of the living room so I could sketch as much of the audience as I could. The performance was again peppered with sexual innuendo and some paranoia. This time Brian was asked to do more physical actions such as jumping jacks. One unexpected incident occurred when he said, “Get me a cup of water, I am parched, this isn’t in the script I really need a cup of water”. Kim darted into the kitchen to get a cup of water. After the performance Brian indicated that the call for water was just another text message. I found myself laughing louder than ever at this performance. The uninhibited mind is a strange and quirky beast. I was fascinated by the glow of the PDAs through red thumbs and fingers. The small room crowded with people again made the reading feel like a digital seance.