The following comes from the old file I recently opened that included the James Brown book review from two editorials ago. This one supplies a perfunctory report on the Beat conference of 1982 that I wrote for a rock fanzine, and its sociological slant justifies putting it under the heading of “parapolitics”. My Beat mentors, in fact, comprised a parapolitical counter conspiracy from long before the two decades ago when I encountered them. Where are their counterconspiracy counterparts today?

    This event became relatively well-known, and chunks of it still can be found in recordings at www.archive.org.

    Last July (1982), the remaining members of the Beat generation met in Boulder, Colorado with over three hundred young street-poets, hipsters, hippies and other interested parties for a week 1ong celebration of Jack Kerouac and his work. The purpose of the conference was to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of On The Road, Kerouac’s seminal novel about life in post-war America. In the midst of a Cold War fiercer than the one the Beats grew out of, most participants agreed that the conference helped rejuvenate Kerouac's literary and spiritual 1egacy.

    Sponsors of the conference included Naropa Institute, New Aqe Magazine and the Cultural Events Board of the University of Colorado, with a large donation for it coming from the Grateful Dead, who also played at nearby Red Rocks amphitheater. Allen Ginsberg, the quintessential Beat poet and principal host-moderator of the event, serves on the faculty of Naropa, an institution devoted largely to the study of Tibet Buddhism.

    The conference began with remarks by Ginsberg and Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, the founder and titular head of Naropa. Ginsberg stressed the "tender, compassionate heart" of Kerouac as the theme for the coming week and concluded with an invitation for participants to "get drunk and get laid." Trungpa's talk was 1onq and awkward, inhibited by a body half para1yzed from a stroke. Trungpa did manage a few coherent jabs at nuclear politics, however, and was well-received by the crowd.

    The opening comments were followed by screenings of two Robert Frank films and footage of Kerouac on the Steve Allen Show reading from his novel, Visions of Cody. Frank brought a print of Pull My Daisy, the 1958 Beat movie narrated by Kerouac and starring Ginsberg, poet Peter Orlovsky and jazz musician David Amram. The filmmaker also brought a rare, pristine quality print of Cocksucker Blues, the controversial documentary on the 1972 Rolling Stones Tour. An admission fee was collected for the screening of Cocksucker Blues to subsidize Frank's filming of the week's festivities. Approximately five film crews were shooting separate documentaries of the conference.

    While many Beat celebrities were on hand the first night, most arrived the next day at the reception to open the Boulder Center for the Visual Arts, a small museum containing artifacts of the Beat generation. Notables included Ginsberg, Orlovsky, Corso, Frank, Herbert Hunke, Carolyn Cassady, widow of Neal Cassady, the Beat muse, and author of Heartbeat, a book later turned into a disappointing Sissy Spacek movie, Ted Berrigan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William Burroughs and Timothy Leary. Although Burroughs took an early leave, the others remained to converse amiably with conference participants.

    The main event designed to kick off the week-long series of films, readings, discussions, concerts and workshops was a heavyweight panel on the political fallout of the Beat generation. Participants included Ginsberg. Burroughs, Leary. Paul Krassner and Abbie Hoffman talking about the effect the Beat movement has had on American culture and what it is likely to have in the future. Hoffman, whose public speaking style still contains elements of guerilla theatre, tiraded against the political apathy of the current generation and praised the Beats for offering cultural alternatives. Of the hippies and the yippies Hoffman said, "We were the warriors of the social revolution that the Beats predicted."

    Timothy Leary, whose latest book, Changing My Mind Among Others, goes a 1ong way in debunking the misinformation often proffered about his various pitches to the younger generation. He modified his famous aphorism to "Tune in, turn on and take over!"

    Both Ginsberg and Burroughs presented historical analyses of the Beat generation from their personal perspectives. Burroughs commented that the Beat movement was "a world-wide mood," a cultural revolution that did more to 1iberalize American politics than any political movement. Ginsberg pointed out the male-bonding aspect of the Beats, "with a touch of queerness, perhaps," noting also that the Beats ultimately helped provide a name for the four bonded males known as the Beatles.

    On the subject of rock'n'roll music, I asked the panel for its thoughts on perceptions by the punks that people like Abbie Hoffman, Tim Leary and Alien Ginsberg comprise part of a decrepit old guard that needs to be rebelled against. Ginsberg's response; "The rock'n'roll coalition that I look for is an outgrowth of the earlier poetries but we have a younger generation including Jim Carroll, who is introducing poetry to music; Patti Smith; and I understand that William Burroughs is going to be doing some recording in Lawrence, Kansas with rock groups. Ann Waldman has just produced a single that I hope you will be able to hear soon, "Oh! Oh! Plutonium!" A group called Still Life will be performing with me on the last night of the poetry readings. So I think you'll be hearing some kind of renaissance of poetry combined with music. I think there is another wave of that coming up.”

    Ginsberg did, in fact, perform with Still Life later in the week, doing "Birdbrain," a tune he had recorded with a Denver group called the Gluons. "Birdbrain" is getting a great deal of airplay on alternative radio stations in many cities around the country. Ginsberg also performed it on the David Letterman show earlier this year.

    Burroughs made no elaboration on recording with rock bands in Lawrence, but later in the week was asked about the reasons behind his album with Laurie Anderson and his Saturday Night Live performance. "Money," he responded dryly.

    Forty events spanned the next ten days that remembered, commemorated and celebrated Jack Kerouac and the culture he, perhaps inadvertently, helped create.