Fug You: An Informal History of the Peace Eye Bookstore, the Fuck You Press, the Fugs, and Counterculture in the Lower East Side
Page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Acknowledgments
FROM THE AUTHOR
The Glories of the Early ’60s
The Mimeograph Revolution
The Founding of My Magazine
Jonas and Adolfas Mekas and the Film-Makers’ Cooperative
Typing a Wild Magazine at the Catholic Worker
An Egyptian Vision
A Sit-In at the Atomic Energy Commission
The Death of Bennie Paret
An Unself-Confident Egomaniac
The Charles Theater and Ron Rice’s Flower Thief
A Polished Poem from Jail
The “Freaking” Issue of F.Y.
The Death of Marilyn Monroe
A Party for Marilyn at Nelson Barr’s
Warhol’s Silkscreens
Working at the NYU Purchasing Department
James Meredith
A Spine-Chilling Speech
The Fall of ’62
Drawing on Stencils by Flashlight
Trouble from My Editorial Notes
Bodhisattva Collating Method
The Beauty of Yum
Meeting Harry Smith and H. L. Humes
Underground Films
Help from Jonas Mekas
The Rise of Warhol as a Filmmaker
Sending an Issue to Ginsberg in India
The Children of Birmingham
Quang Duc
Al Fowler
The Beginning of Filming
The Kick Grid
Renting the Secret Location in the Lower East Side
Rent Control!
“Jack Smith Decor” for the Secret Location
Burnt by Herbert Huncke!
The Living Theater
The Great March on Washington
Pound at the Great March
Filming the Nazis
Birmingham Bombing
September 7, 1963
The Shutdown of the Living Theater
The Fall of ’63
Hoping to Help the Spark of Revolution
Amphetamine Head
Sound Track for Amphetamine Head
White House Cooperation with Seven Days in May
Bye Bye, Nam
A Trip to Texas
The Final Procession
Then the Assassination
Oswald in the Village?
The Arrival of 1964
War, Always War—This One on Poverty
Belief in the Power of the Lower East Side and the Underground
The Beatles in America
My Final Term at NYU
Hanging Out with Allen Ginsberg!
Roosevelt After Inauguration
Reading with Joel Oppenheimer at the Five Spot
Harvey Brown and Peace Eye
Crackdown on Coffeehouses and the Arts
Clamping Down on Jonas Mekas
Barbara Rubin
The Travails of Lenny Bruce
The Great Society
May 1964
The Glorification of the Needle
The Sexual Revolution
A Long, Hot Summer of Drought
Lenny on Trial
Graduating from NYU
My Catalogs
Freedom Summer
Chaney, Goodman, Schwerner
Despair, an Anthology
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The War Starting to Impinge
The Republican Convention
Goldwater’s Famous Speech
Riots in Harlem
Trouble in the Gulf of Tonkin
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Letter to Olson
The Democratic Convention
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Getting Invited to Literary Soirées
Parties at the Dakota
The God Issue
Applying to Grad School a Bit Too Late
A Cigar to Phil Whalen
Charles Olson’s Introduction to My Book
The Folklore Center
Johnson’s Victory
Meanwhile, Kerouac Folding the Flag on Park Avenue
Locating Peace Eye
Tuli Kupferberg
The Physicality of Peace Eye
Bugger—An Anthology
The Founding of The Fugs
The Founding of LeMar
The Free Speech Movement
1965
Writing Songs
Marijuana Newsletters
Trouble with Jim Bishop
Orlovsky and a Break-In
The First Fugs Concert
Silkscreened Warhol Flowers
The Grand Opening of Peace Eye Bookstore
The Hideous Rolling Thunder
The First Selma March
Selma Two
Selma Three
The Fugs at the American Theater for Poets
A Three-Day Fug Festival
A Fugs Show Cost Me $250,000
APO-33 for Burroughs
Spring Arts Festival in Buffalo
Peace Eye
The First Fugs Session
War War War
The Mansfield Film at Cordier & Ekstrom
Filming at the Dakota
Harry Smith’s Freakout at Peace Eye
Filming at the Secret Location
The Background of the Bridge Theater
Revolutionary Egyptology
The Berkeley Poetry Conference
July 25
July 28
Night of Napalm
The Attempted Setup of Allen Ginsberg for Pot Arrest
A Raid on the Secret Location
Demonstrations Against Federal Narcotics Agents
Neal Cassady at Peace Eye
The Thought of Going to California
A Moment of Antiwar Glory at Carnegie Hall
Recording Some Tunes to Entice Verve/Folkways
Preparing The Fugs First Album
September 24
September 26
A Police Informant Trying Out for The Fugs
A Visit of Support for the Kinsey Institute
October 22
October 29
October 30
Down and Out
Fugs Gig with Country Joe and the Fish and Allen Ginsberg
Benefit for the San Francisco Mime Troupe
Neal Cassady Driving Us to La Honda
The Fugs in Placitas
Two Letters to Charles Olson
Onward to New York City
The Founding of the East Village Other
Another Letter to Charles Olson
Peaceful Life on East Twenty-Seventh
Rastignac at the End of Balzac’s Pere Goriot
December 20
1966
The Raid on Peace Eye
Wanting Supporters to Come to My Trial
An Offer from a Record Company
Opening at Astor Place Playhouse
Using the Strobe Light
Recording The Fugs Second Album
Jan Kerouac
Trouble Trouble Trouble
Burning a Flag of the Lower East Side
Section of Chappaqua Filmed at Astor Place Playhouse
The War the War the War
The New York City Department of Licenses
The Ghastly Attention of the FBI and the Justice Department
A Trip to Gloucest
er to See Charles Olson
June 12 at Town Hall
The Players Theatre
A Patriotic Flavor
The Fugs’ Renown Among the Literati
Subletting a Pad in the Summer
Chart-Anguia
The Revolution at Fillmore and Geary
The Mystery of Frank O’Hara
A Call from Jack Kerouac
Performing with Little Anthony and the Imperials
Lenny Bruce Memorial
A Bomb Scare in the Musette Bag
September 13
Poseidon’s Mane
A Hunger to Record Again
The Loss of John Anderson and Jon Kalb
Limo-Anguia and a New Pad
Trouble Inside The Fugs
Reading at the 92nd Street Y
The Fugs to California in Late 1966
Jimi Hendrix at the Wha
The Frank O’Hara Award
1967: The Year of Love and the Great Be-In
Angry Arts Festival in New York City
Recording at Talent Masters
Still Playing at the Players Theatre
On the David Susskind Show
On the Cover of Life Magazine
Sudden Fame
“The Fugs Turned Them On”
Some Hostility
Craziness
Plimpton
Awareness of the Diggers
Jade Companions of the Flowered Dance
University of Buffalo Spring Arts Festival
A Possible Album Cover
Off to San Francisco
”Good Production Job, Ed”
CIA Scandal
The Peace Eye Bookstore in the Hands of the Community
The Young Man Named Groovy
And Then Touring
Benefit for d. a. levy
The Fugs Performing with Andrei Voznesensky at the Village Theater
A Mood of Personal Defiance Following Court Hearing
The Fuck You Trial
Prosecutor Offended by Lady Dickhead Advertising Company
Flaming Creatures Resurfacing in DC
The Trouble over Virgin Fugs
The Summer of Love in the Lower East Side
The Psychedelicatessen
The Riots of July
The FBI and Army Intelligence Not Buying It
The Questioning of Black Men in Detroit
Linda and Groovy
Zip Gun Cisco
The Fugs at the Players Theatre
Theater in Boston
Signing with Reprise Records
The CIA’s “Operation Chaos”
Abbie Hoffman
Abbie and the Burning of Money at the Stock Exchange
The Community Breast Concert for the Free Store
The Rise and Sad Fall of the Digger Free Store
The Murder of Linda and Groovy
Che
A Fugs Movie Project with Barbara Rubin and Shirley Clarke
Planning for the Exorcism
The Trial for the Killers of Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman
The Exorcism and Levitation of the Pentagon
Meanwhile, Out in Topanga Canyon by the Pacific
Publishing Some “Cantos” of Ezra Pound
A Robbery on Avenue A
Completing Tenderness Junction
Richard Avedon Overseeing Design of The Fugs Album
The Fugs in Cleveland
The Fugs in Detroit
Praise for Tenderness Junction from Robert Shelton
Late 1967
Still Searching for the Perfect Band
1968
The Indictment of Dr. Spock and Others
A Festival of Life in Chicago
The Death of Neal Cassady
Kootch’s Departure
An Exorcism of Joseph McCarthy’s Grave
Dawn Protest Concert at Stony Brook
Meanwhile, More Benefits
Time to Complete a Major Album
Idea for Recording a Single During a Parachute Jump
Moving Peace Eye to Avenue A
Life During the Glory Years of the Great Society
A Mantram to Chant in Chicago
Blown Away by Sly
Martin Luther King
A Possible Career Mistake
Photo Shoot
A Tour of Sweden and Denmark
Trying to Finish an Album
The Fugs at Fillmore East
Warhol and Solanas
The Shooting of Robert Kennedy
A Hunger to Study
Still Recording The Fugs Album
Prague Spring
World Poetry Conference
The Summer of 1968
Working with Bob Dorough
Late July
Designing the Album
August 2–3
The Telegram
The Fugs’ Tompkins Square Park Concert
Getting Ready for Chicago
Thursday, August 22
Saturday, August 24
Sunday, August 25: The Festival of Life
Tuesday, August 27
Wednesday, August 28
The Two Albums for 1968
An Apartment for Doc Humes
A Yippie Pot-Mailing Caper
On Firing Line with Kerouac, September 3
”Win a Fug Dream Date” Competition
Pigasus to the U.S. Embassy in Montreal
Crackdown on the Underground Press
The FBI on Avenue A
A Visit to Europe, with Pigasus
An Underground Comic Show
A Book Party for Revolution for the Hell of It
d. a. levy’s Suicide
December 15
Another Visit to the Galactic Spinach: Miriam Once Again Helps Me to Land Softly
Becoming a Social Democrat
1969
Maretta Greer Barefoot in the Snow
Baleful Words from Charles Mingus
More “Win a Dream Date with The Fugs”
Gig with the Velvet Underground and the Grateful Dead
Retiring
An Art Show for Claude Pelieu
Red Boots on Avenue A
Recording The Belle of Avenue A
Saying Good-Bye
The Resist Tour
God Loves Rock and Roll