OPEN CITY No. 71, Sept. 27–Oct. 3, 1968 — Bukowski Notes, Bob Dylan's Tarantula, Dr. Spock on Nixon, Police Attack Elysian Park, Procol Harum

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 at a hot party where Bukowski plays piano and people dance on the couch, moves through a bathroom encounter with two naked men, a bar in North Hollywood with Big Jack and his girlfriend Maggy, and a long strange vigil watching people disappear behind a big curtain. The column turns on the moment a light-colored man approaches Bukowski in the gym — "I read Crucifix in a Deathland, I consider you the greatest since Verlaine" — and reaches out and cups Bukowski's balls. Bukowski walks out to the Pasadena freeway, finds his car ticketed in somebody's driveway, a letter from his ex-wife in Arizona, and lets the water run into the bathtub.

The front cover leads with John Bryan's eyewitness account of the LAPD assault on Thomas Carpenter's peaceful Elysian Park Autumn Equinox Celebration, printed in green and black two-color. Interior includes the third installment of Bob Dylan's Tarantula, Dr. Benjamin Spock's forecast of Nixon's presidency and increased repression, and an account of KTLA commentator Stan Bohrman's resignation over censorship. The back cover carries a full-page advertisement for Procol Harum's Shine On Brightly on A&M Records. Full broadsheet format, 22.5" x 15.5", green and black spot color on cover, black and white throughout interior.

Provenance: Mailing label on front cover addressed to John E. Bryan, 22420 Edgecliff Drive, Euclid, Ohio — the editor's father at his home address.

Slightly uneven folds. Pages stick out slightly on the right and bottom. The biggest flaw is probably a two-inch fold on the right side of the horizontal fold. It’s not a tear, but the section has rolled over on itself.