OPEN CITY No. 70, Sept. 20–26, 1968 -- With Renaissance Supplement Edited by Bukowski (Skinny Dynamite)

While this is a pretty standard issue of OPEN CITY, it is notable for the Section 2 Supplement, Renaissance, A Magazine of the Arts. Open City publisher John Bryan asked Bukowski to be the guest editor for this second installment of the supplement. Despite knowing what would most likely happen, Bukowski decided to print Jack Micheline’s short story “Skinny Dynamite”. Micheline describes Skinny as a “white jew with a black soul” who begins giving blow jobs at 10 and having sex at 11. Skinny prefers “spades and Puerto Ricans” and the story climaxes with a gang bang at a Puerto Rican gang house that begins with a “Chinaman” performing anal sex on Skinny.

After publication, John Bryan was charged with obscenity and the resulting legal costs would subsequently force Open City to go bankrupt. Bukowski denied any responsibility and refused to take part in subsequent fund raisers by other poets and musicians. As Bryan would later recall, “Bukowski played the editor and I went to jail”.

Bukowski’s contribution to the issue is called “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”. It is also erotic, but in Bukowski’s own cynical style. Micheline used “fuck” several times in his piece, while Bukowski used phrases like “orgy butter”

As far as Open City No. 70 is concerned, the edition of "Notes of a Dirty Old Man” finds Bukowski getting drunk with Jensen, a famous writer whose work bores him. Bukowski is taken to meet Marlowe at the house of L, a celebrated literary figure with a German shepherd named Poopoo and a $250 guitar on the porch swing. Marlowe arrives — Japanese, black shiny pants, white jacket, bowing — and the evening escalates through a parade of literary credentials, dropped wallets, and broken arms, until the whole thing collapses in magnificent chaos and Bukowski heads back toward warm Southern California, the Revolution not arriving fast enough.

The front cover leads with John Bryan's investigation into the LAPD's Metropolitan Squad — the city's secret political police, modeled on Nazi intelligence structures and dedicated to surveilling and suppressing political dissidents — in striking hot pink and black two-color. Interior includes a wide-ranging critique of the contemporary rock scene, photographic coverage of the LA Sheriff's Department, and concert listings for Quicksilver Messenger Service, Sons of Champlin, and Ace of Cups. Advertisements include the Ravi Shankar Chappaqua soundtrack featuring William S. Burroughs, Ornette Coleman, and Allen Ginsberg, and a full-page advertisement for Procol Harum's Shine On Brightly. Full broadsheet format, 22.5" x 15.5", hot pink and black spot color on cover, black and white throughout interior.

The copy of Open City #70 has the mailing address of John E. Bryan, 22420 Edgecliff Drive, Euclid, Ohio — the editor's father at his home address.

I’m pairing it with the Renaissance supplement, but they do not share the provenance.

The supplement is in Very Good ++ condition with a couple of small slits at the fold. There are minimal tears to the edges and some light yellowing.

Issue # 70 This is in nice shape with slightly uneven folds. Pages stick out slightly on the right and bottom. The biggest flaw is probably the top and bottom of the vertical fold where the pages are a little crumbled around the fold. The pages are white and the color is still fairly vibrant.