Benito Vila

Benito Vila is a features writer living on the East End of Long Island, where he can be found on the water when he’s not researching and typing. A former New York City design firm honcho, he occasionally still helps companies with their operations and marketing.

BASEBALL BOOKS AND MOVIES TO HELP MAKE IT THROUGH THIS SEASON

Benito VilaMay 6, 2020

A summer without baseball is cruel and unusual, and probably unconstitutional too. More to the point, it is unthinkable. Therefore, PKM’s Alan Bisbort and Benit...

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REBEL WITH A CAUSE: A DAUGHTER’S TAKE ON THE LEGEND OF NICHOLAS RAY

Benito VilaApril 13, 2020

As a film director, Nicholas Ray made some memorable films, like They Live by Night, In a Lonely Place and, of course, Rebel Without a Cause. As a father, he wa...

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FREDERICK WISEMAN: THE DIRECTOR WHO MAKES THE ORDINARY EXTRAORDINARY

Benito VilaMarch 25, 2020

At age 90, Frederick Wiseman is one of those living American masters who would, in a better world, need no introduction. And yet, as a pioneer of documentary fi...

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THE ENDLESS SUMMER OF JOHN VAN HAMERSVELD, ARTIST AND PUZZLE MASTER

Benito VilaFebruary 20, 2020

John Van Hamersveld is an art-school-trained modernist with roots in the California surf culture who was set loose in psychedelia, which he called “hippie moder...

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CAN’T FIND MY WAY HOME: OUR DRUG APOCALYPSE

Benito VilaJanuary 28, 2020

Punk’s holy trinity, if it has one, would be sex, drugs and rock & roll. For the past 30 years, author and filmmaker Martin Torgoff has examined the middle ...

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Charley Plymell eating with William Burroughs. Lawrence, Kansas. Photo by Allen Ginsberg. Courtesy: Allen Ginsberg Estate/Stanford University Libraries.

CHARLEY PLYMELL: OUTLAW POET & ORIGINAL PUNK

Benito VilaJanuary 6, 2020

Poet, publisher, provocateur and people-connector, Charley Plymell is, like fellow Midwesterner Ed Sanders, a floater among contingents of kindred spirits, from...

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WELCOME TO THE TRIDENT: WHERE YOU COULD GET ANYTHING YOU WANT

Benito VilaNovember 25, 2019

From its waterfront perch in Sausalito, the Trident’s clientele could see the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge. The club/restaurant was “a tripp...

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LISA LAW: CAPTURING THE SIXTIES AND BEYOND WITH HER TRUTH-TELLING CAMERA

Benito VilaOctober 28, 2019

Lisa Law and her camera, Dennis Hopper once said, caught “everyone” in the Sixties from the Beatles, Dylan and the Byrds to the Velvet Underground, Kesey, Krass...

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SPIT IN THE OCEAN: KEN KESEY’S FORGOTTEN BOOK SERIES

Benito VilaSeptember 26, 2019

Ken Kesey assembled his Merry Pranksters and other kindred spirits for one more, and final, prank—a semi-regular book series that contained pieces of his unfini...

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MY BOYS: STERLING LORD ON JACK KEROUAC, LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI AND KEN KESEY

Benito VilaJuly 22, 2019

The longtime publishing insider and agent Sterling Lord is still keeping the Beat flames burning for Kerouac, Ferlinghetti and Kesey. PKM's Benito Vila spent a ...

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JACK CASADY: THE BASS MAN SPEAKETH

Benito VilaJune 11, 2019

One of the most distinctive bass players in rock history, Jack Casady came to prominence with Jefferson Airplane, but his resume stretches back to Little Anthon...

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Janne Robinson: This Poet Will Never be Well Behaved

Benito VilaMay 6, 2019

The Canadian poet and surfer has ridden a wild wave from loner iconoclast to ‘woman of distinction,’ influencing dialogues young women around the world are havi...

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Zapped by Absurdity: Paul Krassner Can’t Stop Now

Benito VilaApril 23, 2019

One of the forefathers of underground culture and Free Speech advocate extraordinaire (who turned 87 on April 9), Krassner has a new book, Zapped by the God of...

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PETER STAMPFEL: THE LAST HOLY MODAL ROUNDER TELLS ALL

Benito VilaFebruary 27, 2019

At 80, the tireless and talented fiddle, banjo and guitar player, Ur-punk provocateur, former Rounder, Fug, devotee of Harry Smith, Spike Jones, Pete Seeger, Li...

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Carol Kaye started as a jazz solo guitarist, working the club scene of 1950s LA, when she was asked to work on some studio tracks for Sam Cooke. Though she loved the bebop jazz scene, Carol was a single mother with three kids and so to the studios she went, eventually switching to bass. She ultimately changed the very sound and role of that instrument in pop music as a member of what drummer Hal Blaine dubbed The Wrecking Crew (but which Carol has called The Clique). By any name, these were the session musicians who shaped some of the biggest hits of the 1960s, after which she went back to playing live gigs and working in movies and television, writing and teaching, which she is still doing in her 80s. Michael Shelley talks with the amazing Carol Kaye for PKM. Read more!

Barbara Shafer on MY OWN PRIVATE BASKETBALL DIARY: MEETING JIM CARROLLNO question the real unsung hero of CATHOLIC BOY is that terrelle winn(?) sorry the LP isn't within reach-the left handed guitarist he had then. he told me they " had a falling out" anyone know the details on that? after he left the albums became not so good.
David C Thompson on THE JOYS OF RENT BOYS AND DRAG QUEENS, THE STOOGES AND BOWIE: A CONVERSATION WITH LEEE BLACK CHILDERSYour paragraph about the bands Leee had a hand in has a mistake. It was Levi and the Rockats, not Rockettes, or Cockettes or any other ettes.
John Battles on JOHNNY THUNDERS IN COLD BLOODAntonia expresses her motivation to write a Thunders biography in clear and concise terms , here. Though it's good that her book is being released again in any form , it's a gross injustice that there is not a readily available , affordable version that you can hold in your

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JOHNNY THUNDERS IN COLD BLOOD

DADDY COOL: AUSTRALIA’S UNSUNG ROCK & ROLL GREATS

SCANDAL! THE 1927 CASE THAT JUMP-STARTED THE TABS!

Best Of

FRED WILLARD WAS FOREVER YOUNG: AND REALLY REALLY OLD

SHOOTING STIV BATORS AND LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH

DENNIS HOPPER’S BLUE PERIOD: THE MAKING OF OUT OF THE BLUE (1980)