Irish Whiskey...what else!

Hi Tom, great to find another fan of John Clellon Holmes (a writer considered part of the Beat Generation yet apart from it in numerous respects).

Best bet is to buy Holmes' collected essays, which include the one I mentioned, arranged in a three volume set issued by The University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville.

The volumes were issued in 1988 shortly after Holmes' untimely death.

One volume is devoted to biographical essays (including his landmark essays on Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg); a second is his cultural essays; and the third collects his travel writing.

He was one of America's finest essayists, and like many, he had a good appreciation of good wine, beer and liquor..

Cool! It started out as a fascination with beat writers (esp Kerouac, who hails from the same hometown and High School as I) but has since broadened out in many fascinating directions. I will definately have to look for that.


Thanx Again.

TomC

Wow, you are from Lowell. Do the Dracut Tigers still exist?

Cy

Yep, born and raised in Lowell, MA, moved cause my wife wasnt. http://www.straightbourbon.com/ubbth...icons/wink.gif . While attending Lowell High, Jack Kerouac Park became one of my favorite places to skip to, due to its close proximaty to the school ((which is in the heart of downtown) and its peaceful vibe (despite being just of one of the busiest streets in town). One day, feeling bored I actually read what was ON the monuments, and my literary adventure began....
cheesy I know, but quite true LOL.



And no as far as I know they do not. . .sorry http://www.straightbourbon.com/ubbth...cons/frown.gif .



Tom (fuggin' Dracut. . . .LOL) C

Great picture Tom, thanks, I have visited the park.

I hope some of the old "Canayen" (Canuck) influence subsists in and around Lowell. Kerouac was a complex guy and part of his approach to life and art derived from that part of his background. You may know that the novels that focus on Lowell and the French-Canadian background include Maggie Cassidy and Visions of Gerard. I believe Jack Kerouac ('ti Jean to his family) will be remembered for a long time in Centralville (if it still is called that), Lowell in general and America.

The canadian influence still seems particularly strong in Centralville & Pawtucketville more than elsewere around town.


Yeah its still called that, though it sounds more like "Cennaville" to those in town. I dunno about othe people in Lowell but to me the French Canadian influence is quite alive and well through my parents, and especially my grandparents on my Dads side (my Moms parents were Irish). We were born and spent our early lives in the same neighborhood (Pawtucketville) and even went to the same Parishes (St Louis And St Jeanne D'Arc) and reading the books and stories (esp Maggie Cassady, Visions of Gerard, and The Town and The City, where Galloway equals Lowell and you can take sections of that book and use it as a roadmap around town ) 40 years later, I can tell you they still feel eerily familiar. There are a pair of stories obout Christmas collected in the compilation "Good Blonde & others" that particularly strike home. "Not Long Ago Joy Abounded at Christmas" distills wonderfully the idea of what Christmas Eve and Midnight Mass mean to me. And I can picture exactly the trip he takes (down to current landmarks that stand there) during his walk around Lowell in "Home at Christmas". Usually around the holidays I get homesick for Lowell and my wife has made a bit of a tradition of reading me these stories on the 24th to help me get past it.


I think that one of the things he is most underrated regarding is his discussion of the New England working class way of life of the time of his youth. I tend to find that just as interesting if not more so than the material he is widely known for and famous for.


Tom (former Lowellian)C

Jon,

My only problem with Jameson Gold is the price...$70 and sometimes more.

Omar

Thanks Tom, I enjoyed reading this, very insightful. I know well the stories you mean from "Good Blonde and Others", they are superb (the one also about boxers travelling in small towns in Maine). The writing about Lowell, MA really can't be separated from the "Beat" writing, it is all of a piece, he was writing about (remembering) his life, not like Proust from his sickbed but "on the run", as he said, on the road of course. A sensitive guy not without his faults (he could be racist, for example) he had that gift to connect with people, both in his art and (usually) his life. The story called "Good Blonde" in the collection you mentioned sums him up in my view. It is a wild, sexy kind of story (beautifully written, deceptively simple) but in the end he is talking about how the blonde he met was a real person, a good person too - that is what counted for him, not her razzamatazz. There's a good French word for her, she was "sympathique", and so was (in sum) Jean Louis Lebris de Kerouac (aka Jack Kerouac).

Cy

I think it is "Clontarf" (sp?) that has the three expressions. Connemara does also have a cask strength expression which I've heard may come here to the US soon.

I'm actually a big fan of Midleton and only a modest fan of Powers. The most recent Midleton I've had (the '98) is not robust like Rebreast or Powers, but to my taste, the most elegant of all the Irish Whiskeys.

If you love Redbreast, you might also want to try the Jameson 15yo Pure Pot Still--soon. It was a millenniun limited edition and is being replaced by Jameson 18 (blend) this year. Redbreast is my "everyday" Irish pour and I'm very fond of it. It took me about half the bottle of my first J15 to realize I love it even more than Redbreast! It normally goes for about $100. It is available right now for $89 from Town Spirits (RI) and less if you order in bulk. http://www.straightbourbon.com/ubbth...ons/tongue.gif