Crime and Wonderment

After reading an article last year in the New York Times about the Beat writers Lucien Carr, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, et al - and their lives in the area of Columbia University (a short walk from where I now live) - I got the idea that this would be a good destination for a stroll. This weekend's sweet and warm autumnal weather seemed like the perfect time.
 
The focus of the article was the murder of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr - and the map included, in addition to the scenes related to the the crime, showed many of the locations in the area where these writers worked and lived.
[Read the article, "Where Death Shaped The Beats", HERE.]

And so - 69 years, 1 month, and 9 days after the focal event of the article, my partner in art/life, Tammy Remington, and I walked the map's pathways, exploring this West Side neighborhoods' wonders along the way.

627 W 115th ~ Ginsberg residence

Riverside and 115th ~ area of murder

118th ~ where the glasses were buried

419 W 115th ~ Kerouac/Parker residence

419 W 115th ~ Kerouac/Parker residence

421 W 118th ~ Kerouac residence

formerly West End Bar

click on images to enlarge

Anomalous Duo - private investigators

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Unrelated little neighborhood bonbon.

As we passed this building Tammy wondered aloud where the writer Thomas Ruggles Pynchon (my favorite) got his middle name.  We joked about the fact that since he did live on the Upper West Side -  maybe this was the place. (In fact it is a Columbia University dorm.) 
As I was taking the photo I noticed the address number: 508 - delighting in the coincidence that Thomas Pynchon's birthdate was May 8th.
This is better than finding Jesus' image on burnt toast!
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Elsewhere in the day's journey . . .