The California Zephyr at Emeryville
Detail shot of the California Zephyr train at Emeryville (Oakland) station. I was about to start the greatest train journey of my life and one of the very best experiences of my life so far – the journey from San Francisco/Emeryville to Denver is absolutely breathtaking. And it’s forever linked in my mind with Kerouac’s … Read more
Tosca
After finishing watching Antonelli’s film Kerouac: The Movie (1985) I decided to post a photo of the Tosca, although I don’t know if Kerouac had a connection with it at all, or if it already existed at the time he hung out in San Francisco. In any case it’s located directly opposite the Cafe Vesuvio … Read more
Easy And Dreamlike
This photo post was inspired by chapter 1 of ‘Big Sur’ in which Kerouac describes the journey he took from Long Island to San Francisco. This photo was taken somewhere in the Sierra Nevada (‘the final mountains of California’ he meant I guess)
San Francsico Skid Row Hotel
The Chronicle Hote, on Howard Street (I believe, am not 100% sure), Civic Center/South of Market – San Francisco’s Skid Row. Kerouac wrote about the ‘Mars Hotel on 4th and Howard’ in Big Sur – which I couldn’t find, but this Hotel was one of a few I saw that looked how I … Read more
City Lights Bookstore
City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA Referred to (in Kerouac’s ‘Big Sur’) simply as ‘the bookstore’. As you can probably imagine I spent quite a few hours in there and had a happy time.
Jack Kerouac, The Mill Worker
Bootts Mills, Lowell, MA ‘Books, shmooks, this sickness has got me wishing if I can ever get out of this I’ll gladly become a mill worker and shut my big mouth’ Big Sur, Chapter 37 I always liked this sentence, as it shows that Kerouac often managed not to take himself too seriously, and display … Read more
The Hills and Waterfronts of San Francisco
The inspiration for posting this photo is chapter 16 in Jack Kerouac’s ‘Big Sur’ in which he describes ‘being driven 100 miles an hour around the sleeping hills and waterfronts of San Francisco’ by a guy who he hardly knows, but wants to prove to him that he can drive faster and better than Neal … Read more
One Fast Move Or I’m Gone (Pt.2)
The Vesuvio Cafe, North Beach, San Francisco (next to the City Lights Bookstore). As the schedule on my trip didn’t permit me to go down to Bixby Canyon I chose to use this photo to accompany the post. For an overview of the project see pt.1 of my post here: http://wp.me/p1GcOs-35 The first few minutes … Read more
One Fast Move Or I’m Gone (Pt.1)
One Fast Move Or I’m Gone (Kerouac’s Big Sur) Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard … is a CD/DVD combo released in 2009 and was in fact the catalyst for me to (finally) start the project ‘Retracing Jack Kerouac’ (see the ‘About’ page). The center piece of the release is actually the 96 min film documenting … Read more
