Fifth Estate 22, January 15-30, 1967 Add to the Bookbuilder

Provo! Provo! Provo! Provo! Provo! Provo! They used to be called “Nosems,” the Dutch beatnik. The new word rides out of France. The Provo is the new young style in Holland—the Provocateur—the Hipster. They stopped being Nosems when the big changeover came about a year ago; when the kids started paying more attention to style than to content.

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During the past few months, the peace movement has become aware of the fact that it must pass into a new phase of protest, a phase closer to resistance than symbolic demonstrations.

Draftees at Ft. Polk, LA. Is this the only way? photo: THE TOY

Especially within the context of the draft, the most oppressive mechanism of the military apparatus, it has become clear that real support and aid should be given to those young men who, realizing that they cannot participate in the immoral Vietnam war, must search for alternatives to the draft.

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A Conference in Chicago of Dec. 26–29, student and anti-war activists has called for National Student Actions April 8–15 against the war in Vietnam. This will culminate in the transportation of as many students as possible to New York and San Francisco as part of the general Spring Mobilization of the anti-war movement on April 15.

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Yes it IS a New year. This year Detroit will be born into flesh and spirit and we will have what we want finally. It’s been a long time acomin’, but it IS here. Yes. Last Friday night I was able to go out to a place of business (the Wisdom Tooth on Plum Street) and hear the Lyman Woodard Trio, playing its own music, and a joyful occasion THAT was. I mean it’s the first time anyone has HIRED a forward jazz unit for the public to hear, in Detroit, and that’s just ONE sign of what will come. Woodard’s trio includes the master himself on organ, alto saxophonist Charles Miles, and drummer Norman Roberts, who is really amazing. Norman plays regularly with the Temptations, and can handle ANY kind of music like he was born to it. He was. The Trio will be at the Wisdom Tooth every Friday and Saturday night after hours, that is from 2:30 to 6:00 a.m. The cover charge is $2.00, which is fine, as the money goes to the musicians. And they need it, just as you need them.

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In my last column [FE #21, January 1–15, 1967] I enumerated some of the more outstanding malfeasances on the part of the leading representatives of the jazz critics’ Establishment. In what follows I intend to go beyond mere individuals, to make clear the pivotal institutional role played by DOWN BEAT magazine in helping to perpetuate the reign of white supremacy in jazz.

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Detroit is going through a lot of changes. Plum Street has made the inner city a nice place to visit and the Grande Ballroom has made tripping out a routine. But the most important change is at 2555 Burns Avenue, home of the Court Players.

The Court Theatre is headed by Clyde Vinson, speech instructor at Wayne. His resident acting company consists of thirteen University students, most of whom are Detroiters. Their current production is Joan Littlewood’s OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR.

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[Web archive note: “Ripes” as it appears in the original print edition]

She stands five feet seven inches in her Courreges boots. Her face is as smooth and unreacting as a billiard ball. She wears miniskirts four inches above her knobby knees, and hip-huggers which hug skinny, unrelenting hips. Her favorite people in the whole wide world are Bobby Dylan, the Beatles, and Mick Jagger. She gets high on anything that’s handy—bennies, methadrine, grass, acid. She is known as a Groupie. Want to ball her?

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When most Detroiters think of the organized right-wing in this city they immediately conjure up images of Don Lobsinger and his lunatic organization, Breakthrough, throwing Soviet flags at speakers, disrupting concerts because groups from the Soviet Union are playing there, or trying to break up (or through) peace demonstrations. Certainly, the Breakthroughers are spectacular and through their bizarre actions guarantee headlines. However, less spectacular, but perhaps -much more effective are the activities of the John Birch Society. Although there is an overlap in membership, Breakthrough and the Birch Society express ‘scorn for each other; the former saying the latter is not militant enough in dealing with the ‘communists’ in Detroit.

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LEMAR’s second meeting happened Jan. 4^th at the Artist’s Workshop and I mean IT REALLY HAPPENED, over fifty people showed up. The place was full of happy, alive, enthusiastic human beings. It was just downright out-of-sight. We’re getting together—here’s what came out of the last meeting:

1. A committee was formed to produce a one page flyer/bibliography. This will be a handout to make the people aware of us, what we are trying to do, and where they can get more information.

2. A research group was formed to compile material for a lengthy ten-to-twelve page booklet which will deal more extensively with some of the studies done on marijuana.

3. There will be a fundraising concert at the Workshop coming soon—watch for notices in this paper.

4. Plans for a Midwest Conference on Consciousness Expansion in the spring, and a symbolic puffin on May 1^st are still going ahead. Plus lots more.

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On opening night of the Fourth Annual New York Film Festival, back in September, there appeared a ‘band of outsiders’ picketing the fountain on the plaza of Lincoln Center. There were maybe four or five men, dressed in black, wearing gas masks, carrying coffins on their shoulders.

A few days later, people attending the Special Events program on the Independent Cinema at the fest were handed flyers printed on pop-art orange paper entitled Engaged Cinema in the United States. When I read this statement of purpose, I found it to be one of the most compelling and sobering calls to arms to emerge in this country in the area of film. I later discovered that the opening night pickets were affiliated with Cinema Engagé, as they are called.

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A “dark-horse,” William Cahalan, has been named new Wayne County Prosecutor to replace the evasive Sam Olsen, who captured a Recorder’s Court post last fall, and hopes are up that there will be a more liberal spirit in law enforcement.

Cahalan, another alumnus of the University of Detroit, appears to be another crony of Mayor Cavanagh—and that’s neither good nor bad in itself, except that it adds a little more fuel to the potent “Irish Mafia” political machine in Wayne County.

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Detroit’s own SPIKE-DRIVERS, having just finished a mind-blowing engagement at the Living End Lounge, are now preparing for their first concert appearance in a benefit for the FIFTH ESTATE.

Besides doing their unusual brand of folk-rock (including their new Reprise release, “Baby Let Me Tell You”), they will add two amplified violins and a flute on several tunes to produce strange and mysterious sounds.

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Leaving aside his descent into scatology and personal abuse, Shelley Manne’s letter [FE #21, January 1–15, 1967] claims that I am in error regarding the degree of integration in 1) his group; 2) his club; 3) the movie-TV-recording studios.

As evidence for 1), he informs us that he offered Teddy Edwards, a black tenor player, a job in his group. So? If true, and if Edwards had accepted, that would have raised the number of Negro musicians in Manne’s group for the last dozen years to 4 instead of 3 (assuming Down Beat is correct in reporting that pianist Hamp Hawes has joined Manne). That hardly makes Manne a flaming integrationist: Dave Brubeck has had a greater percentage of black musicians in his quartet during the same period.

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MUSIC

CONCERT. Spikedrivers, Upper DeRoy Aud., Wayne Campus, 8:00, adm. benefit for 5^th Estate, 1/20

CONCERT. Scandinavian Symphony, Scottish Rite Cathedral, Masonic Temple, 8:20 adm. 1/21

JAZZ CONCERT: THE ANDREW HILL QUARTET, Saturday, January 21, 8:00 p.m., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

DANCE/CONCERT to benefit GUERILLA, presented by the 1967 Steering Committee. Sunday, January 29, 4–12 p.m. Grande Ballroom. Music by the MC-5, SpikeDrivers, Detroit Edison (formerly the Down-Home Tyrannosauraus of Despair), Livonia Tool & Die, the Lyman Woodard Ensemble, Joseph Jarman, the Ron English — Bud Spangler Unit, and others. Lights by the High Society and the Bulging Eyevalls of Gautama. Poetry readings by Bill Hutton, Allen Van Newkirk, John Sinclair, Jim Semark, Bradley Jones, Art Rosch, Don Moye, Jerry Younkins, Gary Grimshaw, and others. For a new civilization. Donation $2.50.

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Editor’s note: Henry Waldorf is the pseudonym of a physician practicing in the eastern United States. Dr. “Waldorf” agreed to write the following article out of a sincere belief in his work and asked only that his real name be kept from appearing in print.

As the circle of people who have had psychedelic experiences continues to expand at an ever increasing rate it becomes more and more common to encounter young people with many questions about the drugs. These are the people who are vaguely aware of the message behind the allusional terminology of expanded consciousness. They are so curious about themselves and the world around them that their gravitation toward psychedelic chemicals is inevitable.

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