How to Enjoy Reality

July 14, 2009 1:07 PM

Rest in peace, Simon Vinkenoog [Dutch blog w/English option], poet, friend of artists like Karel Appel, translator of Beat Generation figures like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, psychedelic enthusiast and "weed ambassador" of Amsterdam, and author of such guides to hip living as How to Enjoy Reality. One of the European jazz-loving proto-hippies who made the '60s swing and mentored several generations of culture hackers, though he was never widely known in the US.
posted by digaman (15 comments total)

Niets dat beklijft.
En alles zal verdwijnen.
posted by jouke at 1:13 PM on July 14, 2009

Was he one of the Provos? Or am I getting him confused with someone else?
posted by jonp72 at 1:13 PM on July 14, 2009

You're right. He was one of the most prominent provo's.
And thus a little part of that era moves into history and oblivion.
posted by jouke at 1:20 PM on July 14, 2009

Yeah, I always associate him with the White Bicycle thing. And Jan Cremer. Whatever happened to Jan Cremer? I bet he's the Netherland's most popular author in the UK. He surely was during the 60's and 70's anyway.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:49 PM on July 14, 2009

After his 60s NSFW bestseller "Ik Jan Cremer" Jan Cremer kept on writing as his brash, provocatively vulgar, consciously arrogant persona. "Ik Jan Cremer 2". And recently "Ik Jan Cremer 3". His themes didn't change. Though the times did.
And he has been painting to some acclaim among the Dutch art establishment.
posted by jouke at 2:12 PM on July 14, 2009

Vinkenoog's milieu in Ibiza.
posted by digaman at 2:38 PM on July 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

before / after
posted by digaman at 3:40 PM on July 14, 2009

Interesting stuff. Never heard of him before. Thanks for the post. I loved the Rolling Stone clip tho' I could not understand what he was saying.
posted by binturong at 4:43 PM on July 14, 2009

You're welcome, binturong. There's a lot of talk of Vinkenoog among Dutch Twitterers, but alas I don't speak the language:

http://twitter.com/#search?q=vinkenoog

Love this one:

"Watching interv. with yesterday past writer/ poet Simon Vinkenoog. Waterfall of thoughts, spoken words. Eyes that saw the hidden world."
posted by digaman at 5:17 PM on July 14, 2009

Thank you digaman. I feel massive nostalgia, even though I was not even here when the beatniks were at their peak; funny that.
posted by VikingSword at 5:19 PM on July 14, 2009

Tonight, I offer a sacrificial burning in memory of Amsterdam's lost ambassador.
posted by dejah420 at 8:44 PM on July 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thanks for that link to Stewart Home's site, digaman. I've never thought his fictional work looked particularly interesting, but he appears to be doing sterling stuff as a historian of the British counter-culture. The stuff about his mother and her set is particularly interesting.

Also, thanks for the update on Jan Cremer, jouke. I'd read 1 and 2 in the early 70's, and now I feel a compelling need to dig out the third episode -- which apparently deals with the Times Square commercial sex scene.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:57 AM on July 15, 2009

.
posted by DreamerFi at 2:01 AM on July 15, 2009

R.I.P.

.
posted by Sailormom at 7:56 AM on July 15, 2009

Video on his burial (in Dutch).
posted by jouke at 11:17 PM on July 19, 2009