Ginsberg Drift

As described by Al in the last entry, here is the clip of Allen Ginsberg taking documentarists through the defunct industrial groves of Paterson, and talking about "no ideas but in things." He starts with his reading of one of his letters to Williams (which we musicated earlier this spring for the blog) and somewhat reinforces my hunch that Williams did not expect Ginsberg to become famous, since Ginsberg describes Williams as wanting his letters for their "street" quality (the way Ginsberg mentions this, you get a sense that he might have felt honored by this inclusion but also condescended to.) This footage was shot 20 years ago, and from what little you can see, the landscape remains little changed. As one is apt, Al marvelously scrambled the elements of this footage in his memory. I'm still looking for the boot and the shopping cart!