Brianland

. Beat & Prankster fans rejoice! A new firsthand memoir has just been released of life with one of the Mount Rushmores of both the Beat Generation & the Merry Pranksters.  That doesn’t happen ...

https://brianhassett.com/2024/05/anne-murphys-tripping-with-a-viper-about-neal-cassady/

. TOTALLY DRAMATIC . . It wasn’t just a big-screen spectacular — it was a nail-biting drama! An old brother of ’70s shenanigans flew from Winterpeg to my place in Southern Ontario because I...

https://brianhassett.com/2024/04/eclipse-totality-in-bronte-ontario/

The Benefits of Biopics   . With James Mangold’s Dylan biopic currently shooting in New York with the Bobster’s blessing; and four different Beatle biopics greenlit for Sam Mendes;  and Mic...

https://brianhassett.com/2024/03/the-benefits-of-biopics/

“The Greatest Night in Pop” is The Greatest Documentary About Collective Creation . The Greatest Night in Pop (Netflix, 2024) directed by Bao Nguyen, is a spectacular riveting colorful fun do...

https://brianhassett.com/2024/02/the-greatest-night-in-pop-movie-review/

. I hope everyone’s enjoying the heck out of the theater of the absurd that’s playing out on the national stage in the U.S. Diaper Don is losing his mind . . . and the cameras are rolling.  ...

https://brianhassett.com/2024/01/trumps-losing-his-mind/

  First of all, he’s an Irish leprechaun, and I’m very pro Irish leprechaun. Second — he’s also an empath . . . as opposed to a sociopath. As he likes to say in his Irish way — “Don�...

https://brianhassett.com/2023/12/why-i-love-joe-biden/

. Why this Deadhead Beatnik Beatlemaniac loves Pop’s Princess   I’ve been into Taylor Swift since a New York Times profile in 2008 talked about her confessional songwriting and use of social...

https://brianhassett.com/2023/11/taylor-swift-the-grateful-dead-and-the-beat-generation/

Jack on Film: Take 2 at Lowell Celebrates Kerouac . Here’s a YouTube playlist with great video of the entire Jack on Film show — . =========================================== Here’s a riffi...

https://brianhassett.com/2023/10/jack-on-film-take-2-and-lowell-celebrates-kerouac-lck-2023-videos/

Imaginestock . photo by Christy Worsoe . Imagine, if you will, a place where music and love fill the air, and every person works for free to build a utopian kingdom. Imagine a secret island hidea...

https://brianhassett.com/2023/09/imaginestock/

Poster by Frank McTruck  —  who did ‘Pokes posters in the ’70s .   The Central Continental Cowpokes — Winnipeg Folk Festival, 1977 Laney Hunt, Rick McGhee, Sue Hodgson, Bill Hodgson, A...

https://brianhassett.com/2023/08/central-continental-cowpokes-friends-reunion-winnipeg-august-22-2023/

The Art of Glass, the Art of Business, and the Art of Love . One day a hundred years ago, or maybe it was five, I noticed this store called the Squisha House opened around the corner with insanel...

https://brianhassett.com/2023/07/squisha-house-in-bronte-village-oakville/

Starry Nights in Bronte by Brian Hassett In my never-ending search for Adventure I stumbled into the coolest little enclave in the harbourfront park in front of my house — an astronomer’s mee...

https://brianhassett.com/2023/06/oakville-astronomy-group/

Fireworks in Oakville or The Day Florida Moved to Canada . . . What a riot we had last weekend in Oakville! A buncha teenagers came to my little harbourfront neighbourhood cuz it has a corner Var...

https://brianhassett.com/2023/05/fireworks-in-oakville/

The Setting: The new Bob Center is in Tulsa Oklahoma because the Woody Guthrie Center is there, and because both were paid for by the OK billionaire philanthropist George Kaiser. Tulsa is remarka...

https://brianhassett.com/2023/04/the-bob-dylan-center-in-tulsa/

. The Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role is *the* story of the 2023 Oscars. I’ve seen all the nominated performances, and thought un-nominated Margot Robbie sure as hell should ha...

https://brianhassett.com/2023/03/andrea-riseborough-in-to-leslie-the-oscar-underdog-to-root-for/

You wake up one day and your whole life changes just by the chance seeing of a picture. Much the way it might with a chance spotting of a poster on a bookstore wall. As Jack says, “My books are...

https://brianhassett.com/2023/02/writing-the-hitchhikers-guide-to-jack-kerouac/

The Beats, The Beatles & The Brotherhood . . This month I met a fellow Toronto-area author, John Arnone, who’s just written a book about The Beatles and Canada — Us and Them: Canada, Canadian...

https://brianhassett.com/2023/01/the-beats-the-beatles-the-brotherhood/

Revival Revived   Klaus Voormann’s drawing of the 1969 plane trip   The most important musical event that ever occurred in Canada — and one of the most important concerts in history — too...

https://brianhassett.com/2022/12/revival69-documentary-review-about-john-lennons-toronto-concert-in-1969/

David Amram and I have been performing together since we first started hanging in 1994 after an introduction by Teri McLuhan, Marshall’s daughter.  It was the big NYU Beat conference — I wri...

https://brianhassett.com/2022/11/david-amram-brian-hassett-on-stage-collaborations/

  Stories, videos and photos from the annual Kerouac hometown festival over the last several years I’ve been going. Edie Parker-Kerouac called and told me about the the initial commemorative d...

https://brianhassett.com/2022/10/lowell-celebrates-kerouac-lck-videos-stories-photos-2015-2022/

Here’s a little taste . . . My “script” notes for the first dramatic portrayal of Jack . . . . Pull My Daisy (released Nov. 1959) One of the Big Five to focus on MY THESIS HOW THIS IS THE G...

https://brianhassett.com/2022/09/jack-on-film-sample/

The Making of “Jack on Film” . . Believe it or not this whole thing started when I got a call on January 12th, 2021 — six days after the Capitol insurrection (!) and still deep in the pande...

https://brianhassett.com/2022/08/the-making-of-jack-on-film/

The Magic Genie’s Happy Place —  Saturday July 9th, 2022 . The matinee show (4PM) stemmed from a massive reorganization of all my performance pieces — many dating back to New York in the 1...

https://brianhassett.com/2022/07/first-live-shows-after-the-pandemic-lockdown/

With the recent stacking of the Supreme Court and overturning of Roe vs. Wade and gun protections in New York, I was reminded that these events all happened because just enough people of the left...

https://brianhassett.com/2022/06/vote-blue-no-matter-who/

Billy Joel Interview Story   . I was contacted by this Since The World’s Been Turning podcast production out of New Zealand to talk about Kerouac. Ever since Peter Jackson’s masterful recrea...

https://brianhassett.com/2022/05/kerouac-in-billy-joels-we-didnt-start-the-fire-podcast/