"No
one owns Jack Kerouac. Jack Kerouac is a spirit embodied in words, in honesty,
in art, in truth, in life. Anyone who reads Kerouac participates in that spirit
but no one owns it. It's free for the taking. ...The fight for ownership of the
physical stuff of Kerouac is interesting only insofar as it is an ironic illustration
of the suffering and transience inherent in material things, which Jack wrote
about and knew all his life, but that's as far as it goes. "
October
10, 2004
We had
sadly come to know that, Jack Shea, Producer and Director of the film
"Who Owns
Jack Kerouac" passed on in an accident at his home in
Scotland.
For those
of you who didn't know Jack Shea, besides being one of the most gentle, passionate-compassionate
caring souls on the planet, was a brilliant poet singer songwriter and filmmaker.
His film, "Who
Owns Jack Kerouac?" is a necessary masterpiece. one of
the most important films ever produced on Jack Kerouac and his daughter, Jan Kerouac.
The film faces
head on, the life and work of one of World Literature's most significant writers.
Necessary questions are asked. Multi-faceted responses to the Kerouac ownership
debate, to the lives, works, and deaths of father and daughter are presented.
Original members of The Beat Generation are quilted with a new generation of poets
and writers. But the film is more. Through Shea's brilliant production "Who
Owns Jack Kerouac" becomes an epic Whitmanesque Road poem,
terribly tragic, awesomely beautiful.
Jack
founded Scotland's Film School out of which was born TRAINSPOTTING & other
works of genius.
I
will always remember our collaborations our visits our friendship! He was a gentleman
& a scholar. I will miss him dearly! Jack, wherever you are, I send My Love
to You!!!
love and
blessings
Ron Whitehead
To
Learn More on the Life, Work and Times of Jack Shea . . .
Here
Are Some Other Links
http://www.jackshea.co.uk/
Cosmic
Baseball Foundation
imageacoustic.com
Renaldo
Rasa on "Beat Facism" at www.nettime.org
The
Blacklisted Journalist - Column 88
The
Blacklisted Journalist - Column 85c1
Marie
Countryman's "Pop Quiz" at The NoneList Anthology
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