OPEN CITY No. 43, Feb. 23–29, 1968 — Bukowski Notes, The Fugs, LA Free Press

An issue of the Los Angeles underground weekly in the full broadsheet format, featuring Charles Bukowski's "Notes of a Dirty Old Man." The column opens with an unsigned poem addressed "To Funky Bukowski" — a long, rolling self-description from a smooth clean cunt who loves long-distance sex — to which Bukowski responds with a sprawling meditation on sex as the tragi-comedy of the universe, dismissing beauty contest winners grown demeaned in supermarkets, and arriving at 2,000 pieces of ass, most of them not very good. A memory surfaces of being drafted alongside a young shipping clerk, the two of them leaping like spider-monkeys across cardboard packing cases looking for a number. The 17-year-old blond girl at the bar proves to be under the madam-lesbian's protection, and they go up the hill together, the door closes, and then the madam swings her very shiny thick interesting steel claw. Bukowski could not fathom why he wanted that ugly scene. He comes back down the hill, the liquor store closed, pours a quiet drink, goes to bed alone and lets the world go by. The column closes with a tender, explicit poem in Bukowski's own voice addressed to "Dear Unsigned" — oh my god, baby, I can hardly wait — signed, yours truly, Charles Bukowski.

The front cover asks "Will Blacks, Chicanos Unite?" alongside a striking close-up portrait. Interior features a substantial interview with The Fugs, the New York avant-garde band and counterculture provocateurs. The back cover carries an editorial by John Bryan on the relationship between Open City and the Los Angeles Free Press. Large tabloid format, 17" x 11", black and white throughout.

Provenance: Mailing label on front cover addressed to John Bryan Sr., father of Open City editor John Bryan, and a newspaper man himself.

This copy has an even fold but has 1.5" tear on the left and small tear on the right of the fold. The paper shows some browning and there are some small years along the page edges which stick out slightly to the right.