Neither more nor less

There is not much left of the indigenous culture of the East Village . What does it matter then that "Howl" claims somehow to be a celebration of the E.V. , trivial or not ? That which put The E.V. on the map is gone so just hustle what you can of what people think the E.V. was and make a place for yourself promoting the trivialized illusion ...and perhaps make a little money too.

This most recent "Howl" did not hark back to much of anything that had to do with the past culture here , nor did it have much to do with anything current here ; there simply isn't much culture here at all now . No matter how much the presenters tried to claim that this "Howl" was of and about the real East Village , this "Howl" was nothing more than another fabrication , a fantasy , that as one can see from the lists of contributors was to some extent at least paid for by real estate interets ; the very interests that have had the larger hand in ending the indigenous East Village culture by driving out the people that created and maintained that culture .

We know that many had fun and were entertained attending "Howl" and that it probably appealed to these many , mostly new arrivals in the neighborhood as a genuine indigenous East Village cultural event .... but what did any of this event have to do with Mr. Ginzburg's "Howl", it's sentiments or the East Village culture and it's people that he knew ?