Epitaph For A Tramp - David Markson - 1959

"You cats dig jazz, incidentally? Or am I cast awash on an alien shore, like?"

 Most readers will recognize the name David Markson from the highly regarded literary endeavors of his later career but in the late 50's he penned a few crime novels, most notably the Harry Fannin - P.I. novels Epitaph For A Tramp & Epitaph For A Deadbeat. Markson is quite a good writer which makes it a joy to read these well written crime novels. Similies always abound in pulp noir. Their generous use probably stems from the works of Raymond Chandler. Markson does go a little overboard with them here, every page is brimming with them. I don't even know what some of them are even alluding to. They can get a little obscure at times but really it just makes it more of a fun read. Harry Fannin keeps his apartment and office in Greenwich Village and the events of this story all take place there. Being written in 1959 and taking place in the village, you can be sure there will be some bohemian types showing up sooner or later. The story is not really unusual. It's highly procedural actually. Harry's ex wife Cathy (the tramp) shows up on his doorstep late one sweltering summer evening with a fatal stab wound which she appears to have just recieved on the street out front. Harry still has a soft spot for her despite her roving ways which is what split up their marriage and is also what appears to have gotten her killed. He vows to find out the why's and wherefore's and sets about following up his only leads. He eventually teams up with the police and they carry on in a procedural fashion. This leads them to question a number of Greenwich Village locals. I was a little shocked at the brutality of the cops and even the disgust of Fannin himself when dealing with a gay photographer who had taken some "art" photos of Cathy. I suppose that attitude is pretty acurate for the time period but the fact that the main character, Harry Fannin, seems to have similiar feelings leads me to wonder at the authors own views. Not a bad book and it touches lightly on beat characters in the village. Up next is Epitaph For A Deadbeat which promises to have more of a beat influence.

Danny Kaye & The Beats

I just discovered this film a couple of days ago when someone posted a lobby card for sale on eBay that featured a still from the beatnik scene. After some exhaustive research I discovered that you can watch the whole film, in pretty good resolution I might add, on Youtube. The only problem is that it's completely dubbed in, I don't know, Turkish? The point is, there's a scene where Danny Kaye stumbles upon a beatnik party where a guy reclining in the middle of the room is reciting some poetry to bongo accompaniment. I snapped these screen shots from the youtube video, but I'd love to get at least the audio from that scene in English. Can anybody out there help out? The film is called "The Man From The Diners' Club" - 1963

On The Road Trailer

It would have been Jack Kerouacs 90th birthday and the official trailer for On The Road has just come out. Not sure how I feel about it. The trailer gives me a totally different vibe than the book did, which is the biggest problem with books to film. It's really just one persons take on what they read yet that vision can sometimes have a bigger impact on a larger audience than the original work. I don't think that will happen here. Movies seem to come and go so fast any more with little lasting quality. I'll have reserve any real opinion until I've seen it. I can't not see it...still, I'm trepidatious.

Mermaid ~ Vol.2 ~ No. 2 ~ 1960

Here's a pretty cool photo essay from a 1960 issue of Mermaid magazine. Seems they got to hang out and observe a Greenwich Village beat party and take some shots of the lively atmosphere.

Thanks to the folks over at Vintage Girlie Mags

The Dead Beat - Robert Bloch - 1960

"Being beat is simply an attitude toward life which no amount of sophisticated rationalization can cover up. An attitude of me first, of anything-for-kicks. Larry had it. Or it had him. He may have been an extreme case, but I think the beats can be characterized best by one of their own sayings. Sick-sick-sick."

One of the things I have time for lately is reading. I've been doing alot of that. And I've also picked up a bunch of beat related pulps recently as well so until I can resume more normal blogging and, fingers crossed, podcasting, there will be a lot of book reviews.
SPOILER ALERT!!
    I had read somewhere that this was Bloch's beatsploitation novel. Well, the beat references are pretty thin but it's still a great little crime novel and a really enjoyable read. I always enjoy Robert Blochs writing. Well paced and the character interactions seem quite natural and of course there's Blochs knack for setting a really creepy atmosphere with psychologically damaged characters.
     Larry Fox, the main character here needs to hide out after taking a beating while trying to blackmail his ex girlfriend for a little cash to escape from a small time grift gone wrong that he's currently being sought for. Her new Beau runs the nightclub that she sings in and he has some ties with local gangsters and aranges the beating but Larry gets dumped in the back of a car belonging to one of the nightclub patrons and wakes up in a bed in suburbia. This is where it gets interesting. Larry is sort of a beat character. He's a small time grifter who works in hotels and plays piano in jazz combos. He's an urban cat through and through, so when he realizes where he is he decides that if he plays it just the right way, he can hide out here in the suburbs while he tries to get back at his ex and possibly extort more money from her. It's interesting the way Bloch turns your feelings of loyalty. In the beginning I felt somewhat sympathetic towards Larry but as he begins to decieve all of the innocent suburbanites that are trying to help him, he begins to show a despicable side. He secretly thinks these folks are the dumbest bunch of squares ever and even begins to scheme about getting the neighbours young daughter into a compromising position.
Jim Whittaker, one of the neighbors where Larry is staying is suspicious right from the beginning. He's a philosophical sort who is writing a book about how the father figure has become a hapless fool of a character due to televisions's portrayal of youth and this is all running over into real life. He also blames the beat generation for all his troubles. Naturally everyone thinks he's spouting a bunch of nonsense but he's the only one who's on the right track here. His ideas eventually strike a nerve in Larry and, along with the stress of attempting to blackmail his ex and not get killed by her husband, Larry begins to unravel. It all ends happily ever after because even though the gangster nightclub owner is the one who actually saves the day, he gets killed in the process, because you have to pay for your crimes somehow. Daughter runs home to daddy and all is well in suburbia as they marvel at how such a seemingly nice young man could be so troubled. All because of that misguided beat generation.

Bongo Calypso

Found on Ebay

News

Well, I've had to put The Dreamsville Show on ice, for a little while at least. I've been resisting it for a while because I really love doing it but lately my non-Internet interests along with a ton of manditory overtime at work haven't left me with very much free time. Keeping the blogs going is no problem but the podcast requires more work. Not sure what I'm going to do yet but naturally I will keep you posted. My apologies to all of my faithful listeners. Here's a couple of vintage shots of a stripper who was known as The Blonde Beatnik. Hope that helps.