Legendarily inspired by hearing Ray Charles, Ginsberg wrote it in 1958 over 40 straight hours in the Lower East Side apartment at 170 E. Second St. he shared with fellow writer Peter Orlovsky, fueled by Dexedrine and a "tiny hit of LSD 25," as revealed in HITS contributor Harvey Kubernik's comprehensive liner notes. Dubbed "a 20th century American ecstatic narrative poem," Kaddish, published by San Francisco's famed City Lights in 1960, was the follow-up to his groundbreaking 1956 piece, "Howl," an attempt to create a singular voice carved out of a common language, with the subjectivity of a very particular life experience.

The recording illustrates how language can carry the cadences of music, and the earthy, conversational performance, belying its lofty goals, was a precursor of Dionysian rock poets from Jim Morrison and Bob Dylan to Patti Smith. By digging beneath the conformity of '50s America to unearth the yearning self that would consume us through the '60s to the present, still thirsting for elusive transcendence and meaning, this fascinating artifact is every bit as enthralling and rapturous as the day it was created.

N.Y. Times Mets Forum

This New York Times discussion board located in their online Readers' Opinion section is a gathering place for disgruntled, disgusted, despairing, distraught, dyspeptic Mets fans, who love to kvetch even in the rare occasions when their team is ensconced in first place, as they are as of this writing. I enjoy logging on during the course of a game to catch the diehards reacting to every twist and turn with anguish, joy (plenty of exclamation points and cap letters) and just plain wonderment at our Amazin's.

It's a veritable MySpace of Mets rooters, with monikers like tlagee, ethrich, pamiam, lisametsfan, reyogold, skatz12, rbloomclu and dimaliv, all arguing their points with the passion and belief that can only come from followers of a team that has always managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It's a lot more fun when they're losing, and you get to read the sniping and calls to fire manager Willie Randolph and trade off half the team, but these days, the incredulous euphoria of fans suddenly awakening to the fact they might actually have a contender to follow is no small pleasure for this long-suffering Metsaholic.

Kulak's Woodshed (5230 1/2 Laurel Canyon Blvd.)

Tucked away on a nondescript corner north of Magnolia Blvd. in what is now known as Valley Village, this storefront is run by Paul Kulak as a free performance space, which he's equipped with six cameras to beam out digital webcasts of the shows that take place there. Inside, it looks like someone's den right out of the '60s, festooned with old blues album covers, DVDs and fortune cookie - like aphorisms like "Everyone has a story to tell...but not every story is worth hearing" while patrons lounge with their pets on sofas, folding chairs and a large twin bed right in the middle of the room.