66 Frames [Paperback]

Gordon Ball (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1999

A sixties memoir and an intriguing slice of avant garde film history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In late 1960s New York, experimenting with sex and psychedelics, Ball "sought the 'romance' of the city," and he found it in film. Editor of Allen Ginsberg's Journals Mid-Fifties, Ball arrived in Manhattan in 1966 at age 21, after a childhood in Tokyo and college in North Carolina. His fascination with the avant-garde and new American cinema prompted him to sign on as assistant to filmmaker Jonas Mekas (whose best-known work remains 1964's The Brig), a position that led to encounters with pivotal personalities at Andy Warhol's Factory, the Filmmakers' Cinematheque, the Filmmakers' Cooperative, Timothy Leary's League for Spiritual Discovery and other subway stops along the New York Underground. In addition to encounters with Emmett Grogan (Ringolevio), Paul Krassner and other writers, Ball recalls meetings with avant-garde filmmakers like Ken Jacobs, Stan Brakhage and Shirley Clarke. Amid the passing parade of poets and "flaming creatures," there were gallery openings, rooftop parties, premieres and publications (including Mekas's Film Culture), confrontations with film censors and federal marshals, good acid trips and bad ("the sky would darken and the droning generator of the universe continued..."), police break-ins, the sudden success of Warhol's The Chelsea Girls, the memorable 1967 Human Be-In in Central Park on Easter Sunday and the "entire blossoming of the arts in the mid-sixties." Ball sees the time as "a crucial moment in the development of American art in general and film in particular." Those who regard Mekas as a true prophet of the cinema will embrace this book, while others will discover a new perspective on the fertile decade through the poetic refractions of Ball's memory.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Ball's memoir of New York in 1966 is "set in three sometimes overlapping milieus: sex, psychedelics, and avante-garde film." In a disjointed narrative, somewhat akin to the cinematic technique of a hand-held camera, Ball recalls drug trips, sexual couplings, distributing Film Culture (the voice of the film underground), run-ins with censors, anti-war rallies, and other stirrings of the counterculture. Ball, who has edited several volumes of Allen Ginsberg's journals, describes hanging out with Ginsberg, Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, and Jack Smith, who outraged the establishment with the sexual candor of his Flaming Creatures and Un Chant d'Amour. Like some of the films he describes, Ball's prose is sometimes repetitious, too often narrating the routine comings and goings of the characters, although Jonas Mekas, the self-described "raving maniac of the cinema" comes off as an authentic character. Marginal for film collections, this book should be considered by large academic libraries with an interest in alternative artistic and social movements of the Sixties.AStephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Coffee House Press (April 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566890829
• ISBN-13: 978-1566890823
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,248,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The 1960's in the land of the free............, November 3, 2002

By 

! "GU2cool" (Cary, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 66 Frames (Paperback)

READ THIS BOOK!
Gordon Balls' intimate recollection of a fascinating time in American history allows a vicarious experience for those unwilling or unable (due to age) to participate. I know of no better writing from a personal perspective on the exploration, freedom, generational misunderstandings and sometimes, excesses, of the 1960's. Perhaps Ball will consider an autobiography of his early teenage years, 60s experiences, and later periods and indicating how those have shaped him. One may drop acid AND love baseball, right?

5.0 out of 5 stars For Those Who Missed (or Miss) the 1960s, February 6, 2000

By 

William Stott (Austin, TX, and Santiago, Chile) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 66 Frames (Paperback)

The best books about the 1960s were written by people who disliked much about the time: Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe. For those who want to know why one might miss the decade, what it was like to be young and arts-oriented and practice free love, I recommend Gordon Ball's book.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars PERSISTANCE OF MEMORY, October 19, 1999

By 

Prestoni (TX, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 66 Frames (Paperback)

Gordon Ball's fine little memoir of the distant past is a bitter sweet account of growing up to a world that was not what we told it was. I guess, self discovery of the world, is always narcissistic and solipsitic. I admire so much his persistance and devotion to those that influenced and guided him in that discovery. He continues to do a great service to the legacy of that era. We may discover that the 60's are not over. Not by a long shot.