Beat News: July 14 1995

1. Several weeks ago I mentioned Pseudo Online Radio, an excellent radio show devoted to online culture and happenings that interviewed me live and is run by a Beat poet named Galinsky … well they now have a pretty nifty home page as well, and here it is. They’re on WEVD (1050 AM) Thursday nights at 11:00, and are really worth listening to.

2. I think news of Patti Smith counts as Beat News. She became famous as a punk-rock poet in the mid-70’s, but there are lots of Beat echoes in her music. She hung out with Burroughs and chanted the name of Rimbaud in her songs. I think that qualifies her … she was also one of the great singer-songwriters of her time, in my opinion. The reason I mention this is that she’s doing a live show in Central Park (here in NY) on July 27th! This is happy news because she’s been in retirement for a long time. She read
poetry in Central Park a couple of years ago, and it was pretty good (but kind of quiet). Now she’s bringing ace guitarist Lenny Kaye along, and is apparently prepared to rock.

There’s a sad subtext to this: Patti’s husband Fred “Sonic” Smith (of MC5) died suddenly in the past year. I understand Patti’s
bringing her two children along as part of this concert tour. If this is therapy … I’ll only be applauding that much harder because of it. Maybe I’ll see some of you there?

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