"Lee Kidd (L), Squawk Coffee House,
Lawrence Carradini (R)."

LAWRENCE CARRADINI
"The Road" runs coast to coast, and then some. Big Sur is a blur at one of the diffuse edges.

And so, Jack Kerouac set out to describe his journey; point out some hand holds for those who might follow him in the climb. It leads to Desolation Peak. It leads to the summit where Japhy Rider taught Jack the most important lesson, "You can't fall off a mountain," and it descends into dark waters, mysterious, a reflection pool for the sky above, Yin/Yang, the dark mirror of uncertainty, the star filled hopefulness where roman candles burn with a pop, and we all go, "Awww!"

- Lawrence Carradini,
poet President, Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!

HENRY FERRINI

"Didja ever tell em about water meeting water? " Sea (Sounds of the Pacific at Big Sur) - Jack Kerouac
The Merrimack River was one of ti jean's childhood hangouts. Its current floated me into "Dr. Sax" and "Lowell Blues." The river runs northeasterly to Newburyport across "the Plum Islands of time" into the dark Atlantic. I've always wanted to take my skiff from Gloucester, where I live, to Lowell following the Route 12 fisherman steamed in the spring of '36 to help victims of the great flood. Here a fisherman saw a 14 year old boy watching phantom horses ride out the deluge. Later, the riverbanks exhale returning the boy to Pawtucketville and the fisherman to the open sea, where every drop of Merrimack river connects to the waves at Big Sur.

- Henry Ferrini, film maker