An Insomniacathonian letter to the KING of AWAKENESS, MR. RON WHITEHEAD HIS OWN DANG SELF--------------------------------------(Page 2)

When Kerouac and I did those first-ever Jazz/poetry readings ever given in New York in October of 1957 at the Brata Art Gallery, it was an extension of what we did at the spur of the moment whenever we were together and the spirit moved us.

We never thought for a second on that rainy afternoon that it would be remembered a half a century later as an historic event, and would have been blown away to know that what we did for a handful of friends would lay the groundwork to encourage others to pursue what has now become spoken word and hip hop based rapping, as well as countless collaborations of poets and musicians.

WE WERE HAVING FUN!!!!!

I believe that the continual sense of joy that your Insomniacathons bring, each and every time, (to all the places you have done these crazy beautiful events), is a blow for mental health and an energizing force to let everyone know that art is for anyone and everyone, that a thing of beauty IS a joy forever.

I'll never forget what Charles Mingus told me in 1955, (when I was a 24 year old hayseed and newcomer to the big Apple, playing with his quintet at the Cafe Bohemia)

"No matter how ratty the joint is that we play in, whenever you make music with me, every night is Carnegie Hall.'
The same may be said of your Insomniacathons.

You have our thanks, and our love.

My whole last month has been one big Insomniacathon.

When asked in different parts of the country where I got my energy and if I ever slept, I told them about what Carolyn Cassady always said when asked the same question.

Like Carolyn Cassady, (and now with her son John Cassady, with whom I played in three different
venues, when his Beatmobile tour coincided with my own travels), I felt that every minute was to precious to miss. So you and your fellow Insomniacathons must eat healthy food, think positive thoughts, pray for peace, try to get SOME sleep, and the rest of the time STAY AWAKE!!!

This has been a great action-packed thirty two days with hardly a minute off. and I often thought of you and your endless energy, whenever ii thought I might be dozing off, when I did my annual series of events at the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival in Lowell Mass., where I performed with my trio, accompanied scores of other musicians and poets, read from my books, hosted screenings of the film "Pull My Daisy," which I did with Kerouac in '59, played at an art show where my caricatures of the era are being shown, and did programs with John Cassady, (the very much alive and always awake son of Jack's Road buddy and inspiration for "On the Road," Neal Cassady).

I also did a program at U. Mass Lowell, and a bunch of interviews (in three languages) for people from around the World who come every year to this amazing event which also celebrates
Kerouac's hometown, where 27 languages are currently spoken.

The old French, Greek and Portuguese communities have been replaced with new immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia. Laos and many countries from Central and South America, and most of the people who were born here still have a strong regional old New England accent that has like so many
other regional accents, disappeared throughout so much of the country.

Even the way people dress and relate to one another feel s like a much earlier time, and the stark beauty of the old abandoned red brick mills, the rushing waters of the Merrimack River, and the old wooden frame houses and shops with fading hand written signs in many languages are magical in comparison to most plastic chain store franchised Burger-King-ized miles of monotonous malls that make more and more cities in America all seem like the same place.

Wish you could have been there, to see all the people gathered from all over to celebrate Jack's life and the enduring value of his life's work...the beautiful books he left us.

Back in New York, I performed for the City Island Jazz Festival, where John Cassady and Jerry Cimino from their Beatmobile. tour blew everyone away when they joined us as surprise guests, and then went off for the Bruce Springstein concert in Orlando, where Clarence Clemens, his great sax player and I are planning some collaborations, and then came back to NY to continue work on my new "SYMPHONIC VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY WOODY GUTHRIE," I always think about Woody, as I do about Jack, whenever I fly over or drive by the places Woody wrote about in his songs.

Like Kerouac, Woody embraced America in a way that makes us all open up our eyes and our hearts to the beauty part of this amazing country that still has so much to offer and so much that is overlooked or ignored.

Then I went to an Insomniacathon-style festival in Windber Pennsylvania, which culminated in a marathon reading of "On the Road", where I was the guest of honor, (SeniorBopper-at-Large)

Driving from our farm in New York through the Western Pennsylvania Mountains to Windber Pennsylvania was amazing, with small truck stops with religious signs saying "The Holy Road" posted on small clapboard chapels for truckers to come and pray. It was great to enter the truckstops and watch and talk to the people working there and see the local farmers hanging out, speaking with the same rural accents of my boyhood's farmerly neighbors of 65 years ago in Feasterville Pa. (pop. 200)

Most of the people in the truck stops looked the same as these people from long ago, as if I were in a time machine, going back to late 1930s to 1942.

I spent the first day in Windber giving concerts, and hosting a screening of "Pull My Daisy," the film in which I collaborated with Kerouac in 1959, prior to a marathon 12 hour reading of On the Road," the next day, for which I provided some of music, as well as playing between and during the readings with local musicians. I also had a show of my caricatures of everyone from that era.

The festival was held in an abandoned hotel which had been purchased for $10,000 from E-Bay by a wild guy named Blaire Murphy who loves Kerouac's work, and who was our tireless and gracious host.
During the one break I had in the two day marathon event in Windber, we went a few miles to eat a celebratory meal with John Cassady, at the one place I wanted to take everyone to that I felt would be a transcendental experience.

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