"If artists are the uninsulated emotional conductors for the rest of society, Thompson was a one-man power grid of paranoia, revulsion and defiance. He was a canary in our collective coal mine, an ulcer on our societal tongue, a warning. He was physically a big and strong enough man to recklessly embody the idea that we should all Beware of Where We Are Headed. A shuddering red flag."
im 68 and he has been my hero since the day i read him (13?) later as i discovered McGuane Harrison Buffet (not that dingleberry Warren) i saw that the co. he kept down in Kwy West those early days he d crash those drinking fishing parties with some chick theyd never forget and head back up by Fort Walton Beach writing sports stories and the Panhandle and the Keys still had sime kind of genuine integrity for being exotic i suppose interesting not this dead eyed bland waiting to die look of a pampered spirit sapped crocodile in a gilded cage
HST at least had some gut level respect for Nixon talking football 8n some urinal
Wow. Whatever the subject matter, your artistry tops it. Write a book. An autobiography (serialized) (for pay), Collection of the Substack pieces INCLUDING ART). Offer it here.
Hard to believe how long it’s been and the fuckery that’s elapsed since his exit. Well said then, and now. You capture his ethos and ours of him. I knew HST a bit as my dad’s partner in design and depravity (my dad wrote a whole post-mortem book “Who Killed HST?”) and as you said, he was definitely not nursing home material.
Yeah. The speed of your thoughts keeps up admirably with the complexity HST road tripping through a desert higher than the stars. Thanks for beautifying this unsightly super star.
"The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station."
— Dr Hunter S Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
We need the good Dr now more than ever. He might have looked too square to fit in with the Angels on that BSA (but the Angels actually respected people on Brit Bikes, they had to wrench more than the club did) but he earned their respect — and, ultimately he got the story. That's sort of HST in a nutshell. He never fit in and he always got the story.
We could really use his unflinching honesty, his always open bias — and his absolute honesty about it to his subjects. I mean start out saying that you absolutely loathe Nixon and then write a series of articles (and a book) about the 1972 Presidential race, managing to get probably the best account of that race, while doing things like sitting in a limo with Nixon, drinking and talking football. That book taught me more about the Presidential electoral process than anything I learned in school or the ton of books I read about it.
His ability to start a story and then take a major left turn into the absurd — but end up making sense out of the madness. The above quote is a good example of the weird — but he also got substantive material from the DA's at that convention (so what if they looked like lizards at the time). He made many of us want our "Attorney" and a goddamn Vincent Black Shadow (when I finally saw one a Magri Motors years later, I was floored by just how beautiful that monster of a motorcycle was).
Imagine what he could do now. He hated Nixon, but Tricky Dick would've just been an hors d'ouvres compared to what he would do to Herr Groppenführer...
Spectacular piece, Cintra - so very well-written (and read!). I know that HST would have been delighted by that beautiful obituary....... Can't forget the great artwork.
Whoah, what memories. We named the operating area in the North Arabian Sea the "Gonzo Station" under his influence with stops in Australia and East Africa.
"If artists are the uninsulated emotional conductors for the rest of society, Thompson was a one-man power grid of paranoia, revulsion and defiance. He was a canary in our collective coal mine, an ulcer on our societal tongue, a warning. He was physically a big and strong enough man to recklessly embody the idea that we should all Beware of Where We Are Headed. A shuddering red flag."
A Great read in 2005. Even better in 2024.
im 68 and he has been my hero since the day i read him (13?) later as i discovered McGuane Harrison Buffet (not that dingleberry Warren) i saw that the co. he kept down in Kwy West those early days he d crash those drinking fishing parties with some chick theyd never forget and head back up by Fort Walton Beach writing sports stories and the Panhandle and the Keys still had sime kind of genuine integrity for being exotic i suppose interesting not this dead eyed bland waiting to die look of a pampered spirit sapped crocodile in a gilded cage
HST at least had some gut level respect for Nixon talking football 8n some urinal
he wouldnt bother to piss on Trumps shoes
Wow. Whatever the subject matter, your artistry tops it. Write a book. An autobiography (serialized) (for pay), Collection of the Substack pieces INCLUDING ART). Offer it here.
You boggle my mind, such a good thing.
You know, you really are quite good at this writing malarkey.
Hard to believe how long it’s been and the fuckery that’s elapsed since his exit. Well said then, and now. You capture his ethos and ours of him. I knew HST a bit as my dad’s partner in design and depravity (my dad wrote a whole post-mortem book “Who Killed HST?”) and as you said, he was definitely not nursing home material.
Yeah. The speed of your thoughts keeps up admirably with the complexity HST road tripping through a desert higher than the stars. Thanks for beautifying this unsightly super star.
"It was a great brain to watch but you wouldn't want to live in it" 👍
"The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Probably at the next gas station."
— Dr Hunter S Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
We need the good Dr now more than ever. He might have looked too square to fit in with the Angels on that BSA (but the Angels actually respected people on Brit Bikes, they had to wrench more than the club did) but he earned their respect — and, ultimately he got the story. That's sort of HST in a nutshell. He never fit in and he always got the story.
We could really use his unflinching honesty, his always open bias — and his absolute honesty about it to his subjects. I mean start out saying that you absolutely loathe Nixon and then write a series of articles (and a book) about the 1972 Presidential race, managing to get probably the best account of that race, while doing things like sitting in a limo with Nixon, drinking and talking football. That book taught me more about the Presidential electoral process than anything I learned in school or the ton of books I read about it.
His ability to start a story and then take a major left turn into the absurd — but end up making sense out of the madness. The above quote is a good example of the weird — but he also got substantive material from the DA's at that convention (so what if they looked like lizards at the time). He made many of us want our "Attorney" and a goddamn Vincent Black Shadow (when I finally saw one a Magri Motors years later, I was floored by just how beautiful that monster of a motorcycle was).
Imagine what he could do now. He hated Nixon, but Tricky Dick would've just been an hors d'ouvres compared to what he would do to Herr Groppenführer...
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Thank you, Cintra
Spectacular piece, Cintra - so very well-written (and read!). I know that HST would have been delighted by that beautiful obituary....... Can't forget the great artwork.
Thank you.
Whoah, what memories. We named the operating area in the North Arabian Sea the "Gonzo Station" under his influence with stops in Australia and East Africa.
I'm sad that you can't just spin words out non-stop. I love to drink up every drop.