Last week, both Jim Cook of the Lowell Plan and I talked to a Boston Globe business reporter about Jack Kerouac and his impact on our city, particularly from marketing and economic perspectives, and referenced what Liverpool, England, has experienced through the legacy of The Beatles. Skip ahead a week,…
Today’s SUN includes an eloquently written article by Rita Savard about Jack Kerouac’s roots in Centralville, specifically St. Louis de France parish. She accompanied a group of people on a Sunday morning walking tour that was guided by the orginator of the tours of Kerouac literary sites, Roger Brunelle. He led four tours at this year’s Kerouac…
AOL.COM News reports on the “first ocean life census,” which revealed “6,000 new species.” Who says there’s nothing new under the sun? Read the news here. This is also International Space Week. Here are some suggestions for celebrating from 944.com. To learn more about Space Week, visit the home on the web.…
We like the Lowell Folk Festival, which is a big event for our mid-sized city. San Francisco this past weekend hosted its annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, which drew about 600,000 people to Golden Gate Park. Some of the performers who were in S.F. have played stages in Lowell, including…
From truth-out.org, I picked up the following five-step plan by filmmaker Michael Moore, who still prefers Democrats over Republicans any day. Read it here.
It will take me some time to process the multitude of impressions and facts of this past weekend’s Kerouac Festival, but I want to share some initial observations: 1) We accomplished the goal of drawing a larger and more varied literary audience to the city with a broader menu of…
Sun writer Angel Roy’s article in this morning’s paper explores the geographical and generational reach of Kerouac. People from Texas, Ohio, California, Rhode Island, Nevada, and elsewhere came for the Kerouac Literary Festival. From Thursday through Saturday nearly 2,000 people attended the events, which continue through late afternoon, with the now-traditional David Amram…
Trees are changing color on the South Common. The early reds, golds, rusts, and yellow-oranges in every variation multiply by the day. Green leaves still predominate, but won’t last more than a couple of more weeks. I walked the dog this morning in air that was colder than cool. This is…
There are too many things happening today at the Kerouac Literary Festival to list them. For the schedule, visit www.lowellcelebrateskerouac.org or www.uml.edu/artsandideas The 2.5 hour bus tour of Kerouac sites with Roger Brunelle guiding is already underway. Next event is 11 am at the Kerouac Commemorative, Kerouac Park, at Bridge…
Rita Savard of the Sun wrote a great background story about Bob Dylan and Lowell in nothing flat so that it hit the streets just as lots of people were talking about Dylan coming back to Lowell. Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg at Kerouac’s grave in Edson Cemetery, November 1975. We…