Howl - Allen Ginsburg

I had quite a bit of fun reading Allen’s work, It bought me back to my last trip to Berlin where I had been taken to this poetry event, I was not sure what it was about or even the type of poetry, I just went with the flow. I remember the reading to be somewhat like the style of Allen Ginsburg, very passionate, and hard but soft.

Howl by Allen Ginsburg is about America and the systems, he reveals the truth of life of living in a system and being told what to so, he uncovers the ugly truth of the machine. He challenges you to think in different manner and out of the box, why can’t you do certain thing and why can we only read certain books.

I felt a little inspired but also sad after reading Howl, I was suddenly infused by the enthusiastic words but also sadden by the awful truth behind it all, the drugs alcohol, the life that just passes by you, always having to live out of your means, and never being able to do anything about it., the sadness.

The language is like no other typical poem, its beat and rhythm it whatever the reader wants it to be, I read it fast then slow. Allen Ginsburg was part of a group called the beat poets,

“The Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and the cultural phenomena that they wrote about and inspired (later sometimes called "beatniks"). Central elements of "Beat" culture include a rejection of mainstream American values, experimentation with drugs and alternate forms of sexuality, and an interest in Eastern spirituality”.

Sourced from Wikipedia.

Las Vegas - Tom Wolfe

I’ve always been fascinated by Las Vegas, it sound so tempting when someone tells you of there adventures over there, I always thought that when I go there not if, I would emerge a different person, I haven’t thought about if that person would be good or bad yet, that just depends on my experience there. As I can’t tell you from first hand experience let me tell you what I do know. I love movies and every now and again I come across one that come close to the description people describe it as. I fell in love with Oceans Eleven, I know it’s not a mad classic of anything but for me it’s a taste of what might be, It a tornado of bright colours, a place where you can do anything at what ever time of the day and get whatever, whatever any time of the day. The sex the drugs and the music, it always sounds beautiful when you hear it from someone else.

Besides from the chaos, how does the state of Nevada cope with it’s naughty child of a city? It’s the naughtiness that entices us in the first place, we seek pleasure from a place who’s reputation has always been to please. The enlightenment project, the very first, the guilty pleasure city, the gambling, alcohol, drugs, sex, all of the pleasures under one county ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ . The project was a big success, it reminds me of another movie I saw which was the funniest this year so far, ‘The Hangover’ four friends go to Las Vegas for one of the guys stag do, they end up on the other side with the biggest hangovers but they don’t know what happened throughout the night, they lost one of there friends and have to retrace there steps to find him and so they tell the story of the events which are side splitting but yet really honest of what can or could go on there.

The celebrity appeal to the city of sins gives me good reason to believe that is ‘magical’ pulling powers are addictive, I suppose once you get a taste for the good life for the right price you never want anything else, or until your money runs out. As long as you have money Vegas will always welcome you with open arms. The darker side to Vegas is that if you don’t have the funds for the pleasure you will be cast into the ‘broke’ bin and forced to rely on the underworld Las Vegas also offers, which you never see in any travel brochures. The slum town of the city, I suppose every city in the world has one it’s just in Las Vegas everything is multiplied one hundred times. I can’t wait till I get there myself. Viva Las Vegas.