#jackkerouac — Public Fediverse posts

There is genius that insists upon itself, and then there is genius that does a striptease. Hold these opposing poles in mind as you consider Night of the Jick Beast, the album of improvised goblin metal by Rushadicus. Here are eighteen tracks of experimental cello, composed on the evening of March 9, 2026 and recorded between the hours of six and eight pm. For instruments, we have a cello, two (2) kazoos, a viola, a guitar, and some flutes. The vocals spew forth in the nonsense goblin language of Sneth. Some tracks come in at a minute or less (opener “Portal to Eelsgard,” “Brokbath”). Others, like album centerpiece “Three Headed Jick Beast,” are nearly six minutes. So what is going on here–does Night of the Jick Beast blow your doors off with its brilliance right away, or is it the sort of thing that takes years or even generations to flower?

We may need to broaden our conception of genius. I listened closely to Night of the Jick Beast, and neither of the above definitions seems to apply. This leaves open the possibility that there is a third, as yet unconsidered, framework for appreciating the work of Rushadicus. Sole member Rushad Eggleston works within a tradition of provocation. His songs recall the open mic antics of anti-comedians like Neil Hamburger or The Purple Organ. This is music as an endurance test, with rules and standards that are private to the creator. The cello-and-kazoo attack of “Gargoyles Converge at the Pentaglyph” yields to the flute digressions of “Two Headed Fifing Faun.” It all feels like you’re being punished to no good end, but that is just the quitter in you. How do you get your eyes wide open enough to see the elephant that is Night of the Jick Beast?

Drugs and alcohol might be the answer. The energy unleashed by mind-altering substances fuels the creation and appreciation of art. This is the school of thought that asks us to prize the sweat equity of the artist, to treasure the endless sheet of paper that fed Jack Kerouac’s typewriter while he wrote On the Road as if that paper were the novel itself.1 Unfortunately, even this definition of genius fails to unlock the charms of Night of the Jick Beast. There’s kinetic force to spare in tracks like “Gravity vs Goblinity” and “Septupulary Imp Romp,” but it’s the kind you cross the street to avoid. Sometimes mania is just a halfway point between the meth pipe and the morgue.

I’m almost out of ideas for how to get at this thing, but I’m not out of paragraphs yet. I must go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on–oh, hey, wait a minute! Let’s take a cue from existentialism and say all action is meaningless. So why not spend a decade honing a style called Sneth Metal or Blark Metal, one that relies on a rapid ricochet bowing technique called “the bounce?” It’s as good as doing anything else! The meaning might lie in summoning the will to act at all. This suggests that we use our now-enlightened ears to take another listen to “Spires of Gnistromé.” Here Rushadicus conjures up a black metal atmosphere by skillful use of the bounce. Could this track be the key to appreciating Night of the Jick Beast… ?

I failed to get to “yes.” And while the end of the review approaches, the struggle to esteem Night of the Jick Beast is just beginning. Until the truth comes along, I have no choice but to score this record with the ears and brain that came factory installed. Rushadicus seems like a good-hearted guy, and I am impressed with the isometric strength it takes for him to hold a horse pose while playing the cello and a kazoo at the same time. The actual music, however, is an irritating imposition on your time. To listen to Night of the Jick Beast is to submit yourself to a grueling gauntlet that rivals the 12 Labors of Hercules. That’s just a temporary assessment, though. If you happen by these crossroads again, I’ll be right here where you left me.

Rating: 0.5/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: rushadicus.bandcamp.com|rushadicus.com
Releases Worldwide: August 24, 2026

Pack up the car

None really. I’m not much of a traveler so no book or movie has inspired me to travel. In fact, the first movie I thought of this morning inspired me not to travel and that’s The Wizard of Oz. When Dorothy wakes up in her bed and tells us if she ever goes looking for her heart’s desire again she won’t look any further than her own back yard because if it’s not there, it was never lost to begin with, it made sense to me. Stay home, stay safe. Kind of a sheltered existence, but it works. About the best a book has ever done for me is inspire me to want to travel. Travels With Charley, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. On the Road. I suppose The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the Hobbit books might have to be somewhere on that list too. Maybe, in a way, metaphorically?, the Book of Exodus? If I think about it more I’m guessing more titles will come to mind so I’ll stop thinking about it now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfo0XBrGgI0&list=RDLfo0XBrGgI0&start_radio=1

I am currently rereading The Dharma Bums and disappearing down a rabbit hole discovering the people that inspired it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rP1Gi0ppH0&feature=youtu.be

#GarySnyder #JackKerouac #TheDharmaBums

What Gets Kept

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/what-jack-kerouac-left-behind

#HackerNews #WhatGetsKept #JackKerouac #Culture #Essay #Literature

JACK KEROUAC
Readings By Jack Kerouac On The Beat Generation
2024 U.S. MONO reissue

The end of a very long day; spent travelling down island on a day trip to Victoria.

Found a couple gems through my day’s adventures, THIS being my favorite one.

I discovered #JackKerouac when I was 14; the first time I read On the Road, and my whole world opened up. I was hypnotized by Jack’s rhythm and language, & it’s been a life long love affair.

Unlike his legendary album with Steve Allen, there is no jazz piano here. No musical accompaniment.

Just Jack alone, reading excerpts from his various writings, and it’s remarkable.

The aforementioned rhythm and language really takes on a different energy hearing it directly from Jack’s mouth.

Smoky jazz clubs, lovers and drinkers, the heartbeats of San Francisco, the infinite and immaterial.

This is my favorite find of the year.

#vinyl #vinylrecords #vinylcommunity #vinylcollection #retro #vintage #art #music #analog #poetry #beatgeneration

Mistodon: from one celebrated '50s typewritten manuscript to another, today we look at Cthulu's attempt to adapt #BillEnglish's abstract cover art illustration to #JackKerouac's influential 1957 Beat novel #OnTheRoad. This screen was included in last month's books-themed MIST0426 artpack collection.

#ScribesAndMakers ~ Do you dance or move along to music when you listen?

I multitask: wiggling while writing, proving two rhythms can coexist messily. :music_notes_woozy:

As Jack Kerouac wrote... "The only truth is music." ❤️‍🔥

#JackKerouac #Writing

[SF Chronicle]: Zach Bryan just bought Jack Kerouac’s original ‘On the Road’ scroll for $12.1 million By Aidin Vaziri, March 14, 2026

https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/zach-bryan-kerouac-scroll-22077310.php

#jackKerouac #zachBryan #onTheRoad

"I have the right ideas, but my words are too... complicated. I need to simplify them, so that people won't get lost in the dark when they see and hear them. I want them to shine like beacons of light in a world of overly complicated darkness. One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple."

~ Jack Kerouac, born today, 1922.

#JackKerouac #Quote #Today

Despite being famous for writing a book called On the Road, Jack Kerouac never learned to drive and envied people who had the skill. 10 facts about him on his birthday.

https://topicaltens.blogspot.com/2026/03/12-march-jack-kerouac.html

#BirthAnniversary #JackKerouac #Writers

‘We all want to know what he was doing in the bedroom’: Kerouac’s unseen archive goes on show in New York https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/mar/09/jack-kerouac-archive-photos-sexuality-grolier-club-exhibition-new-york-beat-generation #JackKerouac #Books #Photography #Art #ArtAndDesignBooks #ArtAndDesign #Culture #AllenGinsberg #WilliamBurroughs #FyodorDostoevsky #ColumbiaUniversity

`The Hunt is a 1977 jazz album of performances from 1947 by a nonet featuring saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray. The title song is referenced in the book On the Road by Jack Kerouac.`

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_(Dexter_Gordon_album)

#DexterGordon #ConnieKay #JackKerouac #music #art #jazz

#JackKerouac

#Resist

Jack Kerouac’s 37 metre-long, first draft scroll of On the Road to be auctioned https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jan/30/jack-kerouac-on-the-road-first-draft-scroll-to-be-auctioned #Books #JackKerouac #Culture

Jack Kerouac started writing on an Underwood 4-bank portable, and used an L.C. Smith 8-10 to write 'On the Road', but he wrote his last book on a Smith-Corona Space-O-Matic.

He wrote a letter in which he says he bought the machine in hopes it would help him meet a publication deadline. https://news.justcollecting.com/jack-kerouac-last-typewriter-vanity-duluoz-auction-university-archives/ #JackKerouac #Typewriters #Writing 9/14

So shut up, live, travel, adventure, bless and don't be sorry.
-- Jack Kerouac (Desolation Angels)

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #JackKerouac #Adventure #Discovery #Life #Regret #Travel

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Sunset #Kayaks #Everglades #Florida

quixote / bruce baillie. 1965

Co-founder of Canyon Cinema and the San Francisco Cinematheque and one of the godparents of experimental film, Bruce Baillie (1931-2020) has forged a singular path in his visionary explorations of the world, his exquisite treatment of light and fragmented storytelling influencing successive generations of like-minded filmmakers. Shot on a cross-country journey during 1964 and 1965, is the Baillie film most in need of rediscovery. Joining the ranks of Bob Dylan, Robert Frank and Jack Kerouac in chronicling a tumultuous period in American history from the road, Baillie sets out “to show how in the conquest of our environment in the New World, Americans have isolated themselves from nature and from one another”.

#Baillie #BobDylan #BruceBaillie #CanyonCinema #cinema #experimentalFilm #film #fragmentedStorytelling #JackKerouac #onTheRoadInChroniclingATumultuousPeriodInAmericanHistoryFromTheRoad #RobertFrank #SanFranciscoCinematheque #USA #video

Malcolm Cowley was an influential #editor #writer and book #critic who helped bring #WilliamFaulkner #JackKerouac #KenKesey and other pivotal figures to U.S. readers / Bettmann/Getty Images

So shut up, live, travel, adventure, bless and don't be sorry.
-- Jack Kerouac (Desolation Angels)

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #JackKerouac #Adventure #Discovery #Life #Regret #Travel

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #CoyoteButtesNorth #TheWave #VermilionCliffs #Utah

Jack Kerouac, Malcolm Cowley, and the difficult birth of On the Road - By Gerald Howard

https://theamericanscholar.org/scrolling-through/

#literature #books #novel #JackKerouac

Jack Kerouac, Malcolm Cowley, and the difficult birth of On the Road

https://theamericanscholar.org/scrolling-through/

#HackerNews #JackKerouac #MalcolmCowley #OnTheRoad #Literature #History #Writing

Lost Kerouac manuscript found:

https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/lost-jack-kerouac-chapter-found-mafia-boss-estate-21098566.php

Why, that could be the basis of a crime fiction novel, I'm thinking:

https://www.markcoggins.com/the-dead-beat-scroll/

#jackkerouac #AmReading @bookstodon #books #Bookstodon #WritingCommunity #ReadingCommunity #noir #thriller

‘Very significant’ Jack Kerouac story discovered after mafia boss auction https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/10/very-significant-jack-kerouac-story-discovered-after-mafia-boss-auction #JackKerouac #Worldnews #Culture #UKnews #USnews #Mafia #Books

"On The Road" by Jack Kerouac, published on this day in 1957. A cornerstone of American literature and culture. John Leland, author of "Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think)", says "We're no longer shocked by the sex and drugs. The slang is passé and at times corny. Some of the racial sentimentality is appalling" but adds "the tale of passionate friendship and the search for revelation are timeless. These are as elusive and precious in our time as in Sal's, and will be when our grandchildren celebrate the book's hundredth anniversary."
Hard to imagine how we get Hunter S. Thompson without "On The Road".
#OnTheRoad #JackKerouac

#JackKerouac #Quote