Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

The image above, with the caption "Jack Was Here", appears on the power box of My Brother's Bar in Denver.  The image is of Jack Kerouac, the famous Beat Generation poet who died due the effects of cirrhosis at age 47 in 1969.

Or is he famous?

When I took this photo on my phone, I texted the image to my wife and son.  My son replied "Jack who?"  It's not an unreasonable question.  He's well read, but he'd never heard of Jack Kerouac.  I have, but quite frankly, I've never read him.  Not one word, including the famous "On The Road.".  And I have low interest in doing so. Perhaps that's because I have read snippets of Beat Generation poet Alan Ginsberg, and have no appreciate for the material of his I have read.  Perhaps, of course, that's unfair and Kerouac and Ginsberg should not be compared.  I don't know.

Perhaps also it's because the Beat Generation seemed to be a comma between the 1930s and 1940s and the 1960s, leaving their moment very brief and seemingly irrelevant. But I think that may mean more than it seemingly says. Perhaps some personages are truly only relevant to their times, and irrelevant to all others.  Or, if not irrelevant, not more relevant, or much more relevant, than everyone else.  In other words, maybe Kerouac doesn't pass the test of time very well.

Indeed, I did know that Kerouac had lived in Denver for a time and that he'd left an unpaid bar tab at My Brother's Bar, which he frequented in that period.  But I was only aware of that last minor item because I'd heard it on a television show about hamburger joints.  Apparently My Brother's Bar, located just next to REI in Denver, is a major famous grill.  I didn't know that.

 The interior of My Brother's Bar in Denver.

It is a neat old bar.  I frankly would have been a little spooked to have ventured into that area of Denver a decade or two ago, but not so much now. As noted, it's right next to REI, and just down the street from the Denver Aquarium, which is pretty neat.  It's a really old establishment.  It's apparently so well known that they've never put a sign up.  You just have to know its there.

According to the Food Channel, it's famous for the Johnny Burger, which was created there and named after a bar tender who thought it up.  That's what I had.  They are very good.

Anyhow, I guess that may, or may not, be a comment on fame.  Sic Transit Gloria Mundi were the words, we are told, that a slave spoke to those who were granted a Triumph.  All glory is fleeting.  And not only fleeting.  Over time, it seems, some locations are not remembered for who were there, but for the really fine hamburgers they serve.

Sic transit gloria mundi.