Tuesday, February 22, 2005
HST
It's so dicey talking about Hunter Thompson cuz you definitely don't want to even remotely SEEM to be one of those guys who wants to BE Hunter.
He's like Andy Kaufman and Allen Ginsberg in that they were all brilliant, but the people that tried to copy them and be "The New (Thompson, Ginsberg, Kaufman)" have inflicted more misery on the human race than chlamydia.
You also don't want to be one of these people that gets weepy over some celebrity's passing in an effort to rub some of their celebristink over themselves.
But sheeiit ...
Hunter was funny.
"Nixon was so evil he glowed."
"Nixon was so crooked he had to screw his pants on in the morning."
I'm going to miss the rhythm of seeing a new HST book every couple of years and checking to see if it was going to be Thompson back on his game and utterly dazzling (Kingdom of Fear) or wildly, unreadably off the rails (Better than Sex)
I guess I always kinda figured that the guy who effortlessly partied Belushi under the table was indestructable. (Belushi went RUNNING from Hunter's place. He didn't even get his jacket, just ran for the road and thumbed down a car and told the driver "You gotta get me away from this guy!")
I've read some chatter on some message boards calling Hunter names for "taking the cowards way out" or some such shit.
Well that's easy to say when you're young and the worst pain you ever felt is a bad hangover.
I suppose if you've never felt the cavernous depression that can follow a serious injury or if you've never felt pain that is chronic and unmanageable I guess you can talk shit about people who commit suicide.
But if you have, you tend to keep your yap shut on such things.
I've thought a lot on this since Spalding Gray killed himself. And while I may have some OPINIONS on how Spalding's depression could have been treated or how Hunter's pain could have been better managed but WHO CARES WHAT I THINK?
It's not my story, it's not my life, it's not my pain and it's not my decision.
And if you wanna run some line about how talent comes with responsibility and that their GIFTS meant these guys OWED it to THE WORLD to work through it and give us one more monolog or one more book ... well isn't that sweet that we've all got our little opinions?
It's closing time at Owl Farm.
He's like Andy Kaufman and Allen Ginsberg in that they were all brilliant, but the people that tried to copy them and be "The New (Thompson, Ginsberg, Kaufman)" have inflicted more misery on the human race than chlamydia.
You also don't want to be one of these people that gets weepy over some celebrity's passing in an effort to rub some of their celebristink over themselves.
But sheeiit ...
Hunter was funny.
"Nixon was so evil he glowed."
"Nixon was so crooked he had to screw his pants on in the morning."
I'm going to miss the rhythm of seeing a new HST book every couple of years and checking to see if it was going to be Thompson back on his game and utterly dazzling (Kingdom of Fear) or wildly, unreadably off the rails (Better than Sex)
I guess I always kinda figured that the guy who effortlessly partied Belushi under the table was indestructable. (Belushi went RUNNING from Hunter's place. He didn't even get his jacket, just ran for the road and thumbed down a car and told the driver "You gotta get me away from this guy!")
I've read some chatter on some message boards calling Hunter names for "taking the cowards way out" or some such shit.
Well that's easy to say when you're young and the worst pain you ever felt is a bad hangover.
I suppose if you've never felt the cavernous depression that can follow a serious injury or if you've never felt pain that is chronic and unmanageable I guess you can talk shit about people who commit suicide.
But if you have, you tend to keep your yap shut on such things.
I've thought a lot on this since Spalding Gray killed himself. And while I may have some OPINIONS on how Spalding's depression could have been treated or how Hunter's pain could have been better managed but WHO CARES WHAT I THINK?
It's not my story, it's not my life, it's not my pain and it's not my decision.
And if you wanna run some line about how talent comes with responsibility and that their GIFTS meant these guys OWED it to THE WORLD to work through it and give us one more monolog or one more book ... well isn't that sweet that we've all got our little opinions?
It's closing time at Owl Farm.
