FE Author: Art Johnston

Special to the Fifth Estate SAN FRANCISCO—With Thompson submachine-guns blazing, 160 armed cops moved in on the Fillmore District Monday afternoon, April 28, to quiet a Black Panther loudspeaker.

Special to the Fifth Estate! SAN FRANCISCO—The MC5 have blasted their way out of the grease pits of FoMoCo city, resolved their feud with the Motherfuckers of New York’s lower east side, and wound up in the San Francisco jailhouse …

MC-5 in San Francisco Read More »

Editors’ Note: Art Johnston is the former editor of the South End newspaper and disappeared into the West after his term of office ended last June. SAN FRANCISCO—Journalism as novel. History as novelty. History as fiction. Our lives as fiction. …

Roger Calkins Read More »

SAN FRANCISCO—”Naked Angels” is the best movie I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen “2001” four times, and I thought that was better than “Wild Angels” which I saw only 3 times.

The Hill was run by lanky Louie, an ex outrider with the Highwaymen. “The Grand Dude,” as they called him now is sort of manager of a couple scraggly rock and roll bands that lived on and around The Hill. …

Subterranean Homesick News Read More »

The thunder of the drums is building. By now, under the full Sagitarius moon, they are wailing with sticks, rocks, beer cans, shovels, and bloody fists at trash cans, wash tubs, concrete and steel grates, their bodies writhing—Strip Naked and …

Berkeley USA, 1969 Read More »

BERKELEY—This is Wednesday, May 21. A week ago I pulled into the city in the pre-dawn hours on the back of a fifty-two Chevy farm truck laden with contraband oranges, avocadoes, artichokes. We were on our way home from our …

Berkeley (2) Read More »

At a carnival, when disruption strikes, the call for help goes out: “Hey Rube!” The call went out at Wayne State, last Friday, April 26, as it did across the world, as students on all continents boycotted classes and staged …

Protest at WSU Read More »