“A brief mountain pass took us suddenly to a height from which we saw all of Mexico City stretched out in its volcanic crater below and ...

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, but today’s first line is, in my opinion, kind of a stinker, even though it leads into...

We hope you're making time for a few literary adaptations in between summer blockbusters, moviegoers. Here are a couple I've rec...

A week or two ago I picked up The Sea is My Brother,  the so-called “lost” novel by Jack Kerouac, and a thinly veiled account of his da...

I've been working my way through Kerouac's first and, until it was released posthumously two years ago, rightly unpublished, novel ...

In an ideal world, I’d have a babysitter all lined up for tonight so that Mrs. DeMarest and I could go catch the long-awaited movie ve...

“In the window I smelled all the food of San Francisco. There were seafood places out there where the buns were hot, and the baskets w...

Today we’re taking a little break from First Line Fridays to remind you that “Talk Like a Beat Day” is coming up on Sunday October 7 t...

You thought I was done with this theme ? Well, maybe just one more post.  Here are a few literary journeys for those of you with a cartogr...

I mentioned the other day that I’m reading Blue Highways   by William Least Heat Moon, a book that was recommended to me 10 years ago in C...

It's Independence Day here in the US. And really, what better day is there to focus on the doppelgangers of some prominent French-speak...

Well, the first reviews of “On the Road” the movie have arrived from the Cannes Film Festival and word on the street is that it’s… just oka...

“I had a vision of Dean, a burning shuddering frightful Angel, palpitating toward me across the road, approaching like a cloud, with en...

I’ve had some fun at Jack Kerouac’s expense here and here , but I have to admit I’d never actually read the man until this past week. ...

1) Start with any sentence: I took a big swig. 2) Now add a whimsical phrase to give it some unexpected flavor. I took a big swig in the ...

Sometimes, when you try to be funny, you stumble onto a shred of truth. Yesterday’s post led me to Google, which led me to the Google Book...

In the past we’ve explored the jarring disconnect between the literary voice of an author, and their actual speaking voice (see Hemingway a...

Who among us hasn’t felt the urge to chip paint, swab the poop deck, or keep the midnight watch over a commercial shipping vessel at ...