Date: January 19th, 2010

Beat News You Can Use!


1). Important Jack Micheline Artifact Added to Beat Museum Collection
2). Fifth Annual Neal Cassady Birthday Bash - Sunday, February 7th
3). Valentine's Day Event - The Life & Work of Henry Miller - Sunday, Febraury 14th
4). Diane DiPrima - San Francisco's New Poet Laureate speaks Tuesday, February 2nd
5). Memorial for George Tsongas - Caffe Trieste, Monday January 25th 6:00 PM
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1). PLEASE HELP US PRESERVE THE JACK MICHELINE WALL
Jack Micheline was a beloved character in North Beach and all of San Francisco for many years. A friend and confidante of many of the writers and artists who made up The Beat Generation he was often called The Poet's Poet. Jack was well known for his live poetry performances and unique painting style.

We had a sudden and magnificent opportunity presented to us recently that required us to act fast and ask for help and support later. A local bookstore, The Abandoned Planet located in the Mission District in SF, closed on December 31, 2009. Micheline spent a lot of time over the years at The Abandoned Planet and became friendly with the owner, Scott Harrison. At one point Scott asked Jack to paint a back room and Micheline covered it floor to ceiling on all four walls with his images and poetry.

With the sudden closing of Abandoned Planet we worked closely with Scott, Poet Jack Hirschman, Matt Gonzalez and the building manager Claude Marks to salvage Jack Micheline's masterpiece and bring it to The Beat Museum.

Now we need to restore, preserve and display this magnificent piece of Beat Generation and San Francisco history. The wall (all 25 linear feet of it) is now stored in pieces in our back rooms awaiting restoration. We figure we need to raise $5,000 to restore and rebuild the wall so we can put it on permanent display at The Beat Museum.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Please consider making a donation to our Restoration Fund so we can achieve our goal of raising $5,000 so we can get to work on Rebuilding the Micheline Wall. I realize this may not be the best week to ask for donations given so many of us have been riveted by the news and doing what we can to help the people of Haiti. But my belief is we all do more than one thing at a time every day of our lives and there's no reason we can't help the people of Haiti and rebuild the Micheline Wall at the same time. You can donate with either a credit card at Kerouac.com or via Paypal.

To Read the Story and See Photos of the Disassembling of the Painting at Abandoned Planet click here:
http://www.thebeatmuseum.org/jack-micheline-wall/

To Make a Donation to the Reconstruction Fund and Receive a Free Gift from Kerouac.com, click here"
http://www.kerouac.com/cgi-local/cart.pl?db=michelinewall.txt

Watch a video of Abandoned Planet's closing (includes footage of Micheline's Wall):
http://missionlocal.org/2010/01/leaving-an-abandoned-planet/
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2). FIFTH ANNUAL NEAL CASSADY BIRTHDAY BASH - SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7TH
It's hard for me to imagine we will soon be celebrating our FIFTH ANNUAL NEAL CASSADY BIRTHDAY BASH in San Francsco in just a few weeks. Past Birthdays have seen wonderful surprises such as Carolyn's Cassady's booksigning last year and Wavy Gravy's surprise and unannounced visit a few years prior. Mark your calendars and remember to stop by to see what surprises will be in store this year!

To see more details about the Fifth Annual Neal Cassady Birthday Bash, click here:
http://www.thebeatmuseum.org/feb-events.htm
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3). VALENTINE'S DAY - HENRY MILLER RETROSPECTIVE - SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14TH
What better day to have a Henry Miller Retrospective at The Beat Museum than on Valentine's Day? Did you know Henry Miller's middle name was "Valentine"? It's true! Look it up. So, it's very appropriate for The Beat Museum to host Magnus Toren, the Executive Director of the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur. In addition to running the HMML, Magnus has been touring the country for years, telling stories and singing songs about Henry Miller at various colleges and community centers, very similar to the show John Cassady and I have been doing on The Beat Generation.

Come to The Beat Museum to learn all you can about Henry "Valentine" Miller, Patron Saint of all erotic lovers.

To see more details about our Henry "Valentine" Miller Retrospective, click here:
http://www.thebeatmuseum.org/feb-events.htm
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4). SEE SAN FRANCISCO'S NEW POET LAUREATE AT A CEREMONY AT THE SF PUBLIC LIBRAY

DIANE DiPRIMA - SF's NEW POET LAUREATE
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 5pm - 8pm

Poet Laureate Address
Locations: Main Library Koret Auditorium
Address: 100 Larkin St. (at Grove)
Library Sponsored Public Program

Description:
San Francisco Poet Laureate inauguration address
Poet laureate Diane DiPrima discusses Poetry as Spiritual Practice.
Click here: http://tinyurl.com/pnso4
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5). MEMORIAL FOR GEORGE TSONGAS - CAFFE TRIESTE, MONDAY JANUARY 25TH 6:00 PM
Writer and Poet George Tsongas passed away a few days ago. The good folks at Caffe Trieste will be hosting a memorial on Monday, January 25th at 6:00 pm. George came to San Francisco in 1945 and was here during the height of both the Beat Era as well as the Hippie Era. He was one of the Co-Founders of the SF Oracle, the short lived but extremely important Haight Ashbury "Rainbow Newspaper" that foresaw and chronicled the entire Summer of Love experience.

WATCH THE PBS DOCUMENTARY OR READ THE TRANSCRIPT OF "THE SUMMER OF LOVE":
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/love/filmmore/pt.html

A TERRIFIC HISTORY OF THE SF ORACLE WRITTEN BY ALLEN COHEN DESCRIBING THE WHOLE BEAT/HIPPIE SCENE:
http://www.rockument.com/WEBORA.html
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Thanks for your continued support of The Beat Museum. And if you can donate to our Jack Micheline Painting Restoration Fund we'd be deeply grateful. And if you can't do that, please consider making a purchase from Kerouac.com during the slow retail months of January, February and March. The Tourists won't start to show up until May and in the meantime we have many deserving projects to attend to in addition to making our rent. Please do what you can to help keep us going.

Regards!

Jerry Cimino
The Beat Museum
540 Broadway (at Columbus)
San Francisco, CA 94133
kerouac.com
1-800-KER-OUAC
415-399-9626 - Museum Direct


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