Well, this book is most definitely cool! An excellent collection of writers, poets, and musicians that illustrate different eras and contexts of being "cool". I really enjoyed reading my old favorites, like Kerouac, Thompson, and Burroughs, and I loved being exposed to new material, like Mezzrow, di Prima, Wurlitzer, Dylan, and Owens! This book has stories, song lyrics, poems, essays, reviews, and comedy routines, so it is very diverse, and very entertaining. And the flow between pieces has a nice vibe and tempo and they seem interconnected. I am glad I read this, and will proudly add it to my collection! ( )

Finished in a flurry. This book was a lot... grittier than I expected. To be fair, in the introduction the editor warns us "I may have given shorter shrift to the greener, more Big Sur Zen garden end of the spectrum in favor of urban grit, but that can be easily rectified - get with Gary Snyder and he'll do the rest."

I've been hanging out in Snyder's Big Sur Zen garden for some time, so I welcomed the fresh ground. The contemporary accounts of the music are amazing, from Charlie Parker to Miles to Dylan visiting Woody in the asylum. The various riffs on the meaning of hip by minor scribblers wear quickly, and by the time we got to Warhol transcribing a day's conversation I was skipping parts whole parts.

Solid collection, seedier than I expected - as more and more of the previously prohibited was enveloped by the culture at-large, the remaining underground got weird indeed.

Closing with Carlin's riff on modern man was a nice touch, I'm glad to have that in writing. ( )