Drop City

"It's impossible to define Drop City," states an interviewee in filmmaker Joan Grossman's chronicle of the brief, storied existence of an early 1960s commune—but that doesn't stop Grossman from giving it a good try. Drop City was founded in southern Colorado (near the town of Trinidad) by free-spirited couple Jo Anne and Gene Bernofsky, who were increasingly unhappy with Vietnam-era America and embraced the theories and designs of R. Buckminster Fuller. The DIY site drew painters, poets, writers, and inventor Steve Baer (aka “Luke Cool”), who installed solar-energy systems and experimented with Fuller-esque designs in creating the dodecahedron geodesic dome-structures (made from scavenged car parts) in which the "Droppers" lived. Drop City featured experimental music/art jams, witnessed the birth (the assertion goes) of underground “comix,” and served as a major inspiration for Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Catalogue. Still, personal differences ultimately led to the founders' desertion; a druggier, aimless hippie influx mixed poorly with the old guard; and in 1969, a young "flower child" committed suicide at the commune. By the 1970s, Drop City was an empty, domed ghost town. Serving up an engaging scrapbook of one aspect of 1960s American counterculture (that would be somewhat overshadowed by later developments at Woodstock and Altamont), Drop City will definitely appeal to Baby Boomers, as well as readers of T.C. Boyle's novel Drop City and Lauren Groff's similarly-themed Arcadia. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)