Here's to you, Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac stares from a window at an ice cream stand across the road. He looks young, much younger than when he lived in St. Petersburg at the end of his life. If the Kerouac in the window walked up to the Flamingo Sports Bar now, the men sitting on the patio might not recognize him.
"Jack never walked in and identified himself," said Ron Tischner, one of the author's drinking buddies from the 1960s. "Back then, he really didn't have that much identity. He was more famous in France and Europe than here. I think the reason he liked Florida is, he was under the radar."
Alan Sansotta, an old 9-ball partner, nods. "He liked St. Petersburg for that reason: He was anonymous."
It's a little like that today, too. St. Pete may be where the iconic Beat author spent his final years, and it may be a pilgrimage site for On The Road fans, but tributes to the author and his connection to the bay area are few and far between.
Out of the closet: some musings on fashion
The truth is, clothes do so much more than keep us warm and respectable. Whether to a nation, sports team, subculture or academic institution, dress style conveys and assigns belonging.
Style is always political—t-shirts and buttons are not our only political choices. Vintage is not just in fashion; it prevents landfill, reflects nostalgia and both familial and cultural be-longing—think of the passed-down wedding dress.
Fashion also shows religious conviction—down to the tiniest cross necklace accessory. The headscarf is a marker of faith—and an immensely trend-sensitive garment that, on my home campus in Stockholm, like all over the Muslim world, comes in a wide range of sizes, colors, shapes and materials for the fashionable pious girl. In the professional world, including academia, dress communicates status—not just during rituals where faculty and graduates march in costly or borrowed regalia.
In many settings, “professor” still means a suit-wearing man, whereas a short skirt or revealing cleavage is the antithesis of authority and intellect. Fashion can hide or reveal status; it can cost a lot of money to look cheap, as Dolly Parton demonstrates and as Chanel bags are traded on Ebay.
The poster went up in April 2010. The T-shirts arrived this May. None of it has made anyone much money. But it has brought a new clientele to the bar: writers, professors, college-age fans who want to snap a picture. "Now, all of a sudden,
