Beat poet Allen Ginsberg dies at age 70
By Larry McShane
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Allen Ginsberg, the coun
terculture guru who shattered conventions as
poet laureate of the Beat Generation and influ
enced the next four decades of art, music and
politics, died early Saturday at age 70.
The bearded, balding Ginsberg died in his
Lower East Side apartment surrounded by eight
“close friends and old lovers,” said his friend
and archivist, Bill Morgan. The poet was diag
nosed eight days ago with terminal liver can
cer, and he suffered a fatal heart attack, Mor
gan said.
“He made us see that poets were pop stars,”
said Lenny Kaye, guitarist with the Patti Smith
Group and a recent Ginsberg collaborator. “He
had a sense of liberation — sexual liberation,
philosophical liberation.”
Ginsberg, whose blend of drug-inspired vi
sions, hedonistic sex and gut-wrenching auto
biography first emerged during the 1950s, spent
several days in a hospice after his diagnosis.
On Thursday, he suffered a stroke, fell into a
coma and never regained consciousness.
He returned to his apartment a day earlier
after expressing a desire to die at home.
He wrote about a dozen short poems—one
titled “On Fame and Death”—and “wore him
self out talking to friends,” Morgan said.
David Cope, a friend and fellow poet, re
ceived one of those phone calls.
“He called all of his old friends from many
generations personally to make contact with us
one last time, voice to voice,” Cope said Satur
day. “To me, it was a beautiful gesture.”
Ginsberg’s influence was almost inesti
mable. His extraordinary list of acolytes ran the
gamut from Abbie Hoffman to Smashing
Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan, Czech
President Vaclav Havel to punk poetess
Patti Smith, Yoko Ono to Bob Dylan.
“Dylan said he was the greatest
influence on the American poetic
voice since Whitman,” said Gor
don Ball, Ginsberg’s editor
and friend of 30 years. “I
think that’s certainly
true.”
During the conserva
tive, McCarthy-era 1950s,
when TV’s married
couples slept in separate
beds, Ginsberg wrote
“Howl” - a profane,
graphic poem that dealt
with his own homosexu
ality and communist up
bringing.
“Howl” then careened
wildly through scores of sur
real images: “a lost battalion
of platonic conversationalists
jumping down the stoops off
fire escapes,” people who
“walked all night with their
Please see GINSBERG on 10 Mk %, lifl
Courtesy photo
ALLEN GINSBERG (pictured here in
1996) was one of the foremost
poets of his generation, and
hls work contlnnes to
influence countless
artists and social
activists.
Courtesy photo
JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME (left) and Dennis Rodman (right) star in the new action-thriller “Double Team.”
Double Ifeam’ lacks originality, story line
By Patrick Kelly
FUm Critic
If you love a good cliffhanger, a suspense
ful and action-packed film with just the right
blend of wit and romance added, “Double
Team” is not the picture for you.
This film is the predictable story of a highly
trained special forces agent named Jack Quinn
(Jean-Claude Van Damme) who wants out of
the spy ring so that he can start a family with
his wife. His last assignment is the assassina
tion of an international terrorist, Stavros, played
with flavorless mediocrity by Mickey Rourke.
But the plot thickens (or curdles) when
Stavros gets away and Quinn gets injured. Van
Damme wakes up on an island clinic/prison
inhabited by spies who are too valuable to kill
and too dangerous to be free. Quinn trains to
get back into shape and—with Bond-like pre
cision — escapes the island and meets up with
weapons-dealer/technology expert, Yaz (Den
nis Rodman).
Meanwhile Stavros has kidnapped Quinn’s
pregnant wife, forcing Quinn and Yaz to go
from Antwerp to the French Riviera to Rome.
The film ends with a ridiculous martial arts
showdown (surprise) in the Roman Coliseum.
Usually action movies rely on breakneck
speed, but this movie seems to be one long di
rection-less action sequence with no real sub
stantial story line. Bizarre camera angles,
meaningless slow motion shots and idiotic dia
logue add to the loss of direction.
Film: “Double Team”
Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis
Rodman, Mickey Rourke
Director: Tkui Hark
Rating: R (language, violence)
Grade: D
It’s hard to tell if Rodman will ever have a
substantial career in acting, but he will not be
the last roundball player to cross over (or cross
dress, as the case may be) into film. I can see it
low: Summer 1998 — Scottie Pippen is
‘Shaft”!
Double feature
productions
hit and miss
By Liza Holtmeier
Theatre Critic
This weekend’s Theatrix Double
Feature — which ran last Thursday
through Saturday at the Studio The
ater — sparkled because of the indi
vidual performances of several actors.
The first show of the evening,
“Savage in Limbo,” revolved around
the lives of five desperate and disillu
sioned people. During the play, they
attempt to move their lives in a new
ana more promising airecnon.
Kristin Hensley gave an outstand
ing performance as the fierce and fran
tic Denise Savage. Her passionate por
trayal of the contrasting dimensions
of Savage’s inherent toughness and
fear was powerful. Her aggressive and
sometimes halting steps illustrated
Savage’s explosive energy level, while
allowing the audience to see her con
fusion.
Leticia Martinez struggled with
her physicality in the opening of the
play, lacking the lusty rhythm needed
to portray Linda Rotunda. But she
improved as the play progressed, and
her swaying hips and scoffing head tilt
soon symbolized Linda’s inner fire and
passion. Though the connection be
tween her and Hensley sometimes
wavered, her relationship with the
character Tony maintained its dynam
ics.
Please see THEATRIX on 10
