Author Archives: Peter

Open City declared Peter Nolan Smith an underground punk legend of the 1970s East Village. The New England native spent many years as a nightclub doorman in New York, Paris, London, and Hamburg. The constant traveler has lived for long periods of time in Europe and the Far East. After a forced retirement from the Schmatta trade in Thailand, Peter Nolan Smith returned to New York to work in the international diamond trade. At summer’s end he resumed the life of a writer. The world’s leading leisureologist is currently based in Sri Racha, Thailand, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and Luxembourg City. He has no address.

Mark Frechette ZABRISKIE POINT

June 20, 2017 – 4:17 pm

“As you get old, you forget. As you get older you are forgotten.” James Steele Some of us never get to be old or even older, especially those doomed by the James Dean’s curse ‘live fast, die, and leave a good-looking corpse’. Few men of the counter culture were as good-looking as Mark Frechette. In […]

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Death Valley Hot

June 20, 2017 – 2:22 pm

A long heat wave covers the West and the weathermen are predicting that the temperature in Death Valley might hit 126 tomorrow. The manager of the Wrangler Restaurant in Furnace Creek on Tuesday closed the establishment after the ACs went on the blink, saying, “We can’t put customers through this — it’s just too hot.” […]

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135 IN THE SHADE from BACK AND FORTH a hitchhiking novel by Peter Nolan Smith

June 20, 2017 – 1:33 pm

Two days later Sean and AK swam one last time at Moonlight Beach. They bid good-bye to Helen, then got into the Benz with Victor and Cuchillo. Victor drove the Mercedes convertible on the San Diego Freeway. AK was in the passenger seat and Victor’s boyfriend sat in the rear with Sean. “Good-bye summer,” said […]

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CHAPTER 9 – AMONG THE REDWOODS from BACK AND FORTH by Peter Nolan Smith

June 19, 2017 – 12:35 am

Overfishing in the 1940s had closed Monterey’s canneries. Gone were the bars and people immortalized by two of John Steinbeck’s Great Depression novels and the only sign of life along Ocean View Avenue were two cats fighting over a mangled fish carcass, so I wandered away from the forlorn harbor toward the Presidio. Two young […]

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Monterey Pop Festival 1967

June 18, 2017 – 10:52 pm

Fifty years ago the Monterey Pop Festival was held south of San Francisco. “Three days of understanding. Even the cops grooved with us,” sang Eric Burdon of the Animals later. Many regarded the gathering of 60,000 counter-culture music fans to be the opening act of the famed Summer of Love. Check out the line-up. Friday […]

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