I’ve performed as Beat Hotel Rm 32 Performs Howl five times now:

1. Inception, for “Palo Alto World Music Day” with Steve Rothblatt, percussion, June, 2009 (the idea came out of a discussion with Steve)

2. At Bell’s Books, with Beth Custer (clarinet) in August, 2009

3. bits of it, with Joel Betts and Sue Webb, at Lytton Plaza, summer, 2011

4. with a local musician named Jim Byron,  in front of Caffe Trieste, September, 2011

5. with Michael Akatiff (guitar), at Lytton Plaza, September, 2011

It takes about 25 minutes to perform, and the idea, that I got from Charlie Hunter, is to have a rotating cast. I talked to Scott Amendola about doing “Howl” while playing Monk, and he said he would do it if I also got Joe Goode to read.

Out of this comes also, indirectly, the upcoming “Lami@50” event, regarding Alden Van Buskirk’s 1961 text. Ginsberg wrote the intro to Van’s book. We are planning an event for Thursday, December 15, 2011, at Books and Bookshelves, 901 Sanchez in San Francisco. Matt Gonzalez said he will be one of the readers. David Highsmith, poet, publisher, shopkeeper, cabinet-maker, is our host.

edit to add, October 30: my spontaneous new partner at Caffe Trieste was Jim Byron or Jim Bryan. He was a Dylanesque young man with a soft nature and skills on guitar and voice and a lovely girlfriend and respect for and of some of the regulars at Trieste.