PROMENADE. The Medicine
Show comes to town and
with it, Hurricane, a man
who weaves a tale painted in
the carnival colors of a
generation ago. In this book
of poem & song Hurricane
takes the reader on a hurdy
gurdy trip of disturbing and
tender whimsythrough
visions of experience which
once reflected off the waters
of the zany California coast.
His mnemonic verse rubs
down to a raw, surreal
starkness of emotions as our
own sentiments follow his
through this mystery of Beat
& Hip. The journey’s reward:
a souvenir of time and place;
a space of mind.
Over de auteur
THE DAY BEFORE PEARL HARBOR Martin Abramson’s
family of Jewish immigrants arrives in the City of
Angels from the Bronx. At fourteen, set on being a
cowboy, he leaves home for Arizona & hires out as a
wrangler, becoming the penultimate “Pachuco hipster
Yiddish cowboy.” Four years later he’s a GI in a 7th
Cavalry Recon unit patrolling the East German Border.
Honorably Discharged & back in Venice, Abramson
works a string of odd jobs: he boxes in the ring—setting a Lightweight Division record
for the fastest KO, plays a noted lead role in Tennessee Williams’ Summer & Smoke at
the Hollywood Playhouse & runs games as a carney on the Santa Monica Pier midway.
He drives a taxi & becomes the chauffeur-body guard to one of his fares, an eccentric
Palm Springs oil heiress. While in her employ Abramson uncovers & foils a plot
hatched by local gangsters to steal the widow’s fortune; Mid-sixties finds him active
in the poetry scenes in San Francisco & Berkeley. Friend and neighbor, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, films & tapes Abramson reciting & sells his chapbooks at his legendary
City Lights Bookstore. Back in LA, he teaches himself to play the guitar, and begins
singing & songwriting; he transforms his growing body of work into the Inkblot
Hurricane Poetry Revue, adopts Hurricane as his nickname & takes the show on the
road. Just as his work begins to see considerable publication, Abramson drops out &
disappears from the scene to work in the world’s deepest silver mine. He then hits
the road again, this time with his young son, David, busking on the street, performing
in nightclubs, theaters & art galleries throughout North America & Europe. In the
mid-eighties Hurricane Abramson returns for good to Jerusalem where, until the last
months of his life, he continued to devote himself to his poetry, teaching guitar &
performing on stage.
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