Word: beatnik
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...thing a beatnik cannot abide is a square. The bearded, sandaled beat likes to be with his own kind, to riffle through his quarterlies, write craggy poetry, paint crusty pictures, and pursue his never-ending quest for the ultimate in sex and protest. When deterred from such pleasures by the goggle-eyed from Squaresville, the beatnik packs his pot (marijuana), shorts and bongo drums, grabs his black-hosed, pony-tailed beatchick and cuts out. Lately, beatniks in increasing numbers have been cutting out of the incipient squareness of San Francisco and swinging in the shabby little Los Angeles beach community...
...Angeles Lawyer Alphonse Matthews, a self-styled beatnik named Eric ("Big Daddy") Nord turned the joint into a coffeehouse. By midsummer, "the Gas House" was in full swing, and the beats pushed in to make the scene, as they say. A jukebox blared the beatniks' Three Bs: Bach, Bartok and "Bird" (Cool Saxophonist Charlie Parker). Bongo drums pounded out broken rhythms from early afternoon to early morning. Folk singers plunked guitars. Far-out paintings dripped from the walls. Ancient, rump-ruptured couches, rescued from the city dump, decorated the floor, and in the center of the room stood...
Ashcan School. Crazier still were the neighbors, who complained that the bongos and other assorted beatnik activities were giving Venice a bad name. After police ruled only that Owner Matthews must have an entertainment license for the Gas House, the townspeople shuddered, got their Venice Civic Union to fight the licensing. The beatniks sent for the Civil Liberties Union, and after generously beautifying Venice's alleys by painting vivid abstractions on garbage cans, got ready for battle...
...Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 40, as a combination Beat Haven and publishing house. Now the crush is so great that the bookstore has been expanded, and Ferlinghetti's only slightly offbeat A Coney Island of the Mind (New Directions) has sold a surprising 15,000 copies. The really far-out beatniks do even better. Allen Ginsberg's effete epic, Howl, published by Ferlinghetti, is up to 40,000 copies in print, and Fantasy Records is preparing a disk of Ginsberg reading Ginsberg, including some passages too naughty to print. Jack Kerouac's soapless saga, The Subterraneans, is doing...
...pulsating glow of Los Angeles fills the night sky 75 miles to the west, and the velvety oasis of Palm Springs is only 16 miles away. But Cabazon, Calif, (pop. 855) is a seamy, sun-seared desert slum. A drab procession of beatnik churches, hamburger stands, service stations and motels, Cabazon straddles the confluence of three major highways. The blast-furnace winds of the Colorado Desert roll in through San Gorgonio Pass, and on winter nights the temperature drops to subfreezing levels...