Diane di Prima (1934-2020) was a poet, artist, activist and teacher who navigated countercultural landscapes of both the Beats and the Diggers and published mor...
If you've ever wondered what it's like to actually attend and have a movie in consideration at Sundance, you'll enjoy these dispatches from Sundance 2018
[Edit...
Lisa Janssen profiles another favorite Gadabout - Joseph Hansen: author, radio personality, community theater actor, tv show writer, beloved writing teache...
By Lisa Janssen
Martin Sharp, who is referred to in various bios as pop artist, songwriter, cartoonist, et. al., was one of those figures who pop up in ...
In celebration of poet Anne Waldman’s birthday, April 2, 2017
One of my personal origin stories is of how I ended up at Naropa Institute. I was in art school, ...
RIP Poet Joanne Kyger (1934-2017), who passed away Wednesday, March 22
I once saw a clip of Jeff Bridges talking about Hal Ashby. He said, Hal had balls, ...
by Lisa Janssen - Dear Andy, I wanted to write you and let you know the many ways you have impacted my life. It started with “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol from A to B and Back Again.” There were some aphorisms in that book that I live by to this day, at least I try. My favorite is, “So what.”...
by Lisa Janssen - In classic gadabout form, Renate Druks is remembered as an ephemeral creature. Like Wallace Berman, she attracted a circle of remarkable people and forged connections between them. On her own, she was a painter, but even more acted as muse for so many others’ work....
by Lisa Janssen - Carole Eastman. Contrary to the most typical gadabout, she did produce one masterwork, FIVE EASY PIECES. But so quietly that she is rarely remembered behind the towering actor and director....
BY LISA JANSSEN
Tyler Hubby, an editor and director of the highly anticipated Tony Conrad documentary lives around the corner from me in Echo Park. When he m...
by Lisa Janssen - Every once in a while my father would talk about his favorite movie Two-Lane Blacktop. As he spoke of it his gaze would drift to a place far off from the dinner table. He would describe the white line going up the middle of the highway, how it filled the screen of the drive-in theatre he had seen it in.
“These two guys just drive,” he said. “That’s all they do.”...
Lisa Janssen is a writer and documentary researcher living in Los Angeles. Her recent film work includes Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present and the acclaimed web series We’ve Been Around. She edited and oversaw the publication of filmmaker Curtis Harrington’s memoir Nice Guys Don’t Work in Hollywood as well as the reissue of Rudy Wurlitzer’s Slow Fade.