:(

My brother-in-law just sent this in an e-mail:

"Initial CNN internet article was bull****. Quotes Nixon as saying HST represented “that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character.” What weenie-wagging journalistic fraud is that? That’s what Thompson said about Nixon!!! I think we’ll be seeing a ton of crap from the neocons in the next few days. I hope Limbaugh chokes on a doughnut."


He's right, and that is shoddy reporting. Hunter would have ripped that guy a new one.

Time for a video double feature - "Where the Buffalo Roam" and "Fear and Loathing"
Is "Buffalo" even available? I saw this waaaay back when, and liked it a lot. I'll have to go check Netflix and see if it's on DVD. (For anyone who doesn't remember, Bill Murray played HST in that one. It was his first jump into "serious" acting, and it worked pretty good for me. Johnny Depp's protrayal overshadows it, to be sure, but they are both worth checking out.)

We have them both, Flippy! I love "Where the Buffalo Roam"- I thought old Bill did a great job.

We still have a picture of Hunter hanging on our wall- it's from his "Generation of Swine" tour/junket. I'm really going to miss the crazy bastard.

"Don't take any guff from these swine," I yelled. "Remember, if you have any trouble you can always send a telegram to the Right People."

"Yeah...Explaining my Position."

I always loved that one. An old friend and I used to holler this at each other at odd times and in odd places. It always cracked us up, and confused those around us who weren't 'in the know'. Good times.

:(

I was just talking in the last month or so about how I need to read his stuff.

Where the Buffalo Roam is great. Definitely worth a rental. Weird to see how both Murray and Depp did him so exactly alike.

I'm so sad that after all he's done, he couldn't be happy with living. :( :( :(

I suspect it was ill health. There is a picture of him on our local newspaper that shows him being helped out of a van last year, and he looked kind of frail and sickly. Given the lifestyle he led for so many years, it's a miracle that he lived this long. He was a wild man and he had a wild life. I'm really going to miss him.

I heard someone call this "perhaps the greatest opening to an american novel".

Man, the more information I read about him today, the sadder I get. I've heard many speculate that he could have had some sort of terminal illness. That would make a little more sense out of the whole thing.

I prefer Murray's portrayal to Depp's. I hope if they ever do a "Death of Hunter S. Thompson" movie that Bill is him again. I'm saddened (well, as sad as one can be for the loss of someone they didn't know), but not surprised. I need to read more of his work.

A coworker of Michael's has a cousin in Colorado that works at a liquor store. Supposedly HST was always coming in and buying loads of alcohol and paying with a check that would inevitably bounce. They would always give him the liquor anyways though, because he was just so cool.

I totally agree, and thought WtBR was a better movie overall than Fear and Loathing. Fear and Loathing relied too much on eye candy.

Thompson's been on my need-to-read list for a while. I wish I could say that this will motivate me to get around to it, but I know myself better than that.