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.

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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‘ZEN BASTARD’ PAUL KRASSNER HAS THE LAST LAUGH AND THE LAST WORD

Benito VilaNovember 13, 2018

Publisher/editor of The Realist, satirist, comedian, Merry Prankster, Yippie co-founder, and compatriot of a who’s who of the counterculture is still shocking a...

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EMBRYONIC JOURNEY: INTO THE LIGHT WITH JEFFERSON AIRPLANE’S JORMA KAUKONEN

Benito VilaAugust 27, 2018

Jorma Kaukonen - founding member of Jefferson Airplane, co-founder of Hot Tuna, teacher, archivist, brilliant rock, folk and blues guitarist, and tinkerer extra...

All Please Kill Me PostsBenito VilaInterviewsMusicians1 Comment 3

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 trippy space ship” whose passengers just happened to be a Who’s Who of rock & roll (the Stones, Quicksilver, Crosby, Garcia, Lesh, Sam Andrew, Peter Stampfel) and Hollywood (Clint Eastwood, Warren Beatty, Sterling Hayden) and elsewhere (Alan Watts, Sonny Barger, Bill Cosby), not to mention Robin Williams was one of the busboys and the tequila sunrise was invented at the bar. The Fifties became the Sixties at the club, then the Sixties became the Seventies…Benito Vila takes us back, through the words of those who were there. Read more!

Count Thrillhammer on DO YOU RESPECT (ED) WOOD? A PRIMER ON THE ‘WORST DIRECTOR OF ALL TIME’What a marvellous article . I really got lost in that for a few minutes , it certainly took my mind of this wretched lockdown. They used to show his movies at the Scala in London in the 80s. I really wanted to like them but they were often shown
David Goldsmith on HIS LIPS ARE SEALED: THE DEATH OF SONNY FRANZESE, NEW YORK’S LAST OLD SCHOOL MOBSTERThanks for the great piece-- perfect ending!
Jimi Lalumia on JAYNE COUNTY: I DON’T FIT IN ANYWHEREGreat new Jayne County biography about to be released in the very near future

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JOHN LEE HOOKER: THE KING OF THE BOOGIE

DO YOU RESPECT (ED) WOOD? A PRIMER ON THE ‘WORST DIRECTOR OF ALL TIME’

BILLY HOUGH: THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PATTI SMITH’S HORSES ALBUM

Best Of

TAQUILA MOCKINGBIRD: KEEPING PUNK HISTORY ALIVE IN L.A.

CAROL KAYE: THE BOSS OF THE BASS GUITAR

MARSHALL CRENSHAW IS HAVING ANOTHER FIELD DAY