Lawrence Ferlinghetti, perhaps my favorite Beat poet after Gary Snyder, turns 90 today. And Pete Seger hits 90 on May 3. Literary Kicks has a nice tribute to these American icons. I hope we get to enjoy their genius for many years to come.
One of my few “brushes with greatness,” as David Letterman calls them, came at the Chautauqua Institution in New York back in the mid-’80s, where I had the “privilege” of urinating next to Pete Seger. If I’m not mistaken, he and Arlo Guthrie played that night, and Arlo resurrected Alice’s Restaurant after a long hiatus. I think there was a candlelight vigil against U.S. actions in