66 Frames

By Gordon Ball

A sixties memoir and an intriguing slice of avant garde film history.

Part record of the New York underground art scene, part history of contemporary American avant-garde cinema--Gordon Ball's vivid memoir lays bare the soul of a decade that redefined the photographic image.

Featured within '66 Frames are encounters with Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, and many others as--in the words of poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti--"the young Southern innocent sets forth in all his whiteness to find himself among visionary New York poets and other flaming creatures." Here are nights on Washington Square park benches and a week in the fabled Dakota. Here's everyday life with film pioneer Jonas Mekas in his Third Avenue loft, at his Filmmakers' Cinematheque and Filmmakers' Cooperative; visits with Andy Warhol at his Factory; anti-war marches; tension and violence between flower children and long-time residents of what would become known as SoHo; everyday New York City scenes a generation ago, from St. Mark's Place with its Gem Spa and East Side Bookstore, to the Central Park Be-In of Easter 1967. From the staccato camera movement of Warhol's The Chelsea Girls to the hypnotic close-ups of Ball's own Georgia, this author takes his readers on a tour of an era that stretched visual imagery outside the box, beyond the frame. '66 Frames simmers with the sixties' sense of possibility, even as it delves the wreck of the drug-culture and sexual-liberation movement with a post-Reagan generation in tow.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566890829
• ISBN13: 9781566890823
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Coffee House Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

The 1960's in the land of the free............

READ THIS BOOK!Gordon Balls' intimate recollection of a fascinating time in American history allows a vicarious experience for those unwilling or unable (due to age) to participate. I know of no better writing from a personal perspective on the exploration, freedom, generational misunderstandings and sometimes, excesses, of the 1960's. Perhaps Ball will consider an autobiography of his early teenage years, 60s experiences, and later periods and indicating how those have shaped him. One may drop acid AND love baseball, right?

For Those Who Missed (or Miss) the 1960s

The best books about the 1960s were written by people who disliked much about the time: Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe. For those who want to know why one might miss the decade, what it was like to be young and arts-oriented and practice free love, I recommend Gordon Ball's book.