(#154) BERKELEY CONFERENCE CENTER (HOWL):

Edition of 1830 of which 100 copies are signed 1-100, 26 copies are signed A-Z as artist's proofs, three sets are signed as progressives and 3 are signed as dedication copies.

17-3/8" x 24" 13 colors

Model: Megan Cody

Client: Eli Cuckerman, The Berkeley Conference Center Telephone (510) 848-3957 1-100: Thackrey & Robertson Gallery
A-Z: Artist's own use
Dedication copies: One to Megan Cody, one to Denise Cody, one to Eli Cukerman
Progressives: One set to Megan Cody, one to Eli Cukerman
(National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, "Posters American Style" exhibition and catalog, March, 1998)

I came to the Bay Area in 1959. In answer to a long-felt need, the San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen had just coined the word "beatnik," and beatnik is what I wanted to be, even though I had only the foggiest notion of what a beatnik was. Hot-foot, I went to Enrico's on Broadway in North Beach and sat at one of the tables and ordered an espresso. I had no idea of what an espresso might be, but I knew it was the very last word in the vocabulary of hip. I lit up a Gauloise and took a sip. God-damn! This is awful! Wow! Anything that tastes this bad must be really cool! (Cough.)

So there I sat looking at myself being hip, wearing all black and wishing that I was old enough to grow a goatee. Wondering if any women noticed me and thought to themselves how cool I was, sitting there and drinking espresso and reading Howl. At that point a Grey Line tour bus drove past and the driver indicated the real live beatniks smoking these bad-smelling weeds and drinking tar at tiny tables and all the Iowa tourists were I suppose real impressed by a skinny teenager who was no more a beatnik than they were.