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Hell's Angels
It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—that kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run. . . .
My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights—or very early mornings—when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .
And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
Hunter S. Thompson is dead, by his own hand. His (retroactively weirdly apt) final column is here. Or start with his first really brilliant [gonzo-style] piece, "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved." If your personal moral code permits such things, take a holiday weeknight to get roaringly fucked up in honor of Raoul Duke.
|2.21.05 @ 2:53AM|#
Man, I'll always cherish the memories of getting completely f-d
up listening to Fear and Loathing. (Hey, it's hard to use drugs and
read so we used the book on tape, don't harsh my trip here)
Suicide is a choice only the taker can understand, so I'll leave it
at that. Thanks for the memories man, bon voyage!
|2.21.05 @ 3:56AM|#
I couldn't sleep after I heard the news.
The most chillingly appropriate piece of his that I could find for
the occasion was from something he wrote
(amazingly) at age 16:
It is from the bystanders that we receive the propaganda that life is not worth living, that life is drudgery, that the ambitions of youth must he laid aside for a life which is but a painful wait for death...These are the men who dream at night of what could have been, but who wake at dawn to take their places at the now- familiar rut and to merely exist through another day. For them, the romance of life is long dead and they are forced to go through the years on a treadmill, cursing their existence, yet afraid to die because of the unknown which faces them after death. They lacked the only true courage: the kind which enables men to face the unknown regardless of the consequences.
Guessing at these things is always a mugs game. In the end, I think
it was just the last act of a man who saw no value in puttering
about, slowly seeing himself become everything he once
despised.
Too weird to live, too rare to die. Always knew he'd go out with a
bang.
|2.21.05 @ 6:59AM|#
Here I tune in wanting to know what joe thinks, and I find
nothing.
Come on, man, wake up and smell the coffee! You're late for
work!
|2.21.05 @ 7:20AM|#
What the fuck? I don't believe it. I know he claimed that he
always played with weapons, but I never thought he could actually
hit anything as fucked up as he said he was.
It is going to be impossible to forget this one. I could let
Hemingway fade, and have already let most everyone else, but not
the guy that wrote the interview with Nixon in the pisser. It was
real enough for me, Duke.
|2.21.05 @ 7:22AM|#
This is terrible, terrible news. His wife of barely two years is
now a 30-something widow.
HST was a great writer, though he hasn't written anything
worthwhile in book-length for at least 20 years (some of his ESPN
columns are pretty decent). Everything I've read about him for the
last decade indicate he was becoming more of a drunken agoraphobe,
shut-in with his whiskey and polishing his salad-days Kerouacian
fiction. His last column is apt, Julian, because it shows
how funny he could be if he just left the house. Instead
he comes off as pathetic, talking childishly to Murray about
rumored structures that Murray himself has verified in person, and
the best HST can do is talk about shooting the golf balls -- he's
parodying himself. He claimed that going out in public caused more
of a circus than he preferred, but of course the answer to that is
more exposure, not less (the complaints of all celebrities about
publicity and paparazzi are always disingenous). Maybe he was sick;
he looks bad in recent photos, but I just thought it was his usual
drunken totter magnified by age.
In a way, it's like he was the last of the Beats, even though there
was minimal overlap. They possessed that same vitality and
enthusiasm in the shared landscape of California.
My condolences to his widow and son. Do you think if I call a Woody
Creek flower shop and tell them "Owl Farm," they'll know where to
take it?
|2.21.05 @ 7:51AM|#
Could he have missed Nixon so much that he had to to take a one way ticket to Hell?
|2.21.05 @ 8:24AM|#
Nietzsche was once quoted as saying "The last Christian died on the cross." Did the last libertarian die in his heavily-fortified Aspen compound?
|2.21.05 @ 8:48AM|#
Too bad those young free spirits were being entertained at the
Fillmore by underpaid, mismanaged musicians. The Jefferson Airplane
finally said fuck it, but most of the groups getting used by Bill
Graham were just too stoned to realize it. Fortunately, some
parlayed the exposure into some big money down the road, The Dead,
Carlos Santana, and dare I say Neil Schon, aren't oppressed
today.
And who needs a holiday to get wasted on a weekday?
|2.21.05 @ 8:54AM|#
"I've always considered writing the most hateful kind of work. I
suspect it's a bit like fucking, which is only fun for amateurs.
Old whores don't do much giggling."
--Thompson, Jacket copy for Fear & Loathing
R.I.P., Dr. Gonzo
|2.21.05 @ 10:15AM|#
It's pretty sad that you folks wrap yourselves up in someone
else's life so much, especially someone who apparently ran out of
juice so long ago.
Ever thought about joining him?
|2.21.05 @ 10:30AM|#
He's driving with Dr. Gonzo down that long eternal highway to heaven. Keep your head low Doc, you're still in Bat Country.
Peter K.|2.21.05 @ 11:23AM|#
One of my favorite lines from the book and film Fear and Loathing occurs when he's in a casino in Las Vegas on multiple drugs and in crisis and wonders "What would Horatio Alger do in this situation?"
|2.21.05 @ 12:34PM|#
You scurvy scheister bastard! First he throws up all over himself at the booksigning in Hollywood, moments before I can yell at him for keeping us waiting in the rain, and now he goes and tops himself. When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. Here's to finally hitting your target, Hunter. But you were a long way from Ketchum.
|2.21.05 @ 12:52PM|#
When I saw the headline this morning, my first thought was, "I
can't say I'm surprised. Rest in peace." My second thought was
about a passage of his from Fear and Loathing about the death of
the '60s:
There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across
the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La
Honda... You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic
universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were
winning...
And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable
victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or
military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply
prevail. There was no point in fighting - on our side or theirs. We
had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and
beautiful wave...
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill
in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can
almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally
broke and rolled back.
I think Thompson saw himself, to an extent, as a morbid spokesman
for those who felt stranded once the wave rolled back. As long as
he felt that "the spirit of the '60s", however trampled upon,
maintained an important place in the cultural zeitgeist, he saw a
purpose to his life. But in an age of boy-bands and teenyboppers,
homeland security departments and wars of liberation, my guess is
that he felt that he'd outlived his usefulness.
|2.21.05 @ 1:12PM|#
Perhaps not a defining moment for my generation, but certainly
one for those such as I: drop that (electric) tape player in the
tub of water (I am in) on the very last note of White Rabbit played
at full volume. Feed Your Head!
Of late I have been collaborating on paper sup positioning that we
of my generation, those such as I, are the true repository of
American Cultural Memory. Dr. Thompson, like Kesey and, to a
certain extent, Kerouac, were chroniclers of our transition from
agrarian "American can-do self-sufficient accept responsibility for
one's own actions" society to today's "pussy (squaw)
industrial/information society with its DRUGS and twelve-step
programs and churches and nobody, from the top down, nobody,
capable of accepting responsibly for their own actions."
I think Willie and Waylon, with Johnny and Tom and George, said it
best: Another piece of America gone...
Matt Welch|2.21.05 @ 1:56PM|#
Terrible day. And I disagree with Julian's assessment -- The Kentucky Derby piece is a marvel, but he had been writing terrific journalism for a good 8 years *before* that, such as Hell's Angels, which is a groundbreaking work.
|2.21.05 @ 2:20PM|#
Matt's right; perils of posting late & hasty. Guess I was thinking of TKDIDAD as the place where the style that'd be associated with "gonzo" is first really evident
|2.21.05 @ 2:21PM|#
im going to smoke a long overdue bowl, think of the man, and how long until we invade iran... rest in peace world peace.
|2.21.05 @ 2:21PM|#
Dear citizengnat,
Yes I have heroes. And they have to stand up to the same standards
that I set up for myself. If they just up and snuff themselves then
they'g go right out the window with the various other bad ideas
I've ahd.
But barring any evidence that he was in inordinant pain, or
schizophrenic, or clinically depressed then he was just as weak and
unable to shoulder his duties as the people he railed upon.
The voice of the gonzo style appears to have gone out with a
whimper instead of a bang...
|2.21.05 @ 2:55PM|#
i used to post, a very long time ago, on a batshit crazy awesome
site called shadowgov.com. it was about a right wing takover of the
government and how they were going to institute the death penalty
for everything. it was a thiny vieled murder fantasy in parts, but
good fun to troll.
actual engagement was usually brief and mostly focused on how
everyone else was a postmodern relativist who followed neitzche and
gay porn.
but one of the things which confused the everfucking shit out of me
was the insistance that suicide be made illegal (?) and that
attempts to kill yourself would be punished with flogging. why
would you want to make someone who was trying to die suffer
further? to give that person a good reason to pursue revenge upon
you...seemed dumb.
i know, i know, the whole idea was dumb, but still.
|2.21.05 @ 3:05PM|#
Hell's Angels is a phenomenal piece of anthropology and, as much as I enjoy Fear and Loathing in LV and The Great Shark Hunt, is the best thing Thompson ever wrote.
|2.21.05 @ 3:28PM|#
but one of the things which confused the everfucking shit
out of me was the insistance that suicide be made
illegal.
It'd be funny if it were.
Then it could be said--to paraphrase Thompson's obit for Richard
Nixon--that even the bastard's death was a felony.
|2.21.05 @ 3:31PM|#
Hey troubleshooter, there's plenty of evidence that HST WAS in
extreme physical pain AND severely depressed, and there's reason to
also believe that he was also recentluy diagnosed with a terminal
disease. And now you ignorantly come here and insult the dead? You
chickenshit! - you're lucky we don't know where to find you.
HST had more "juice" in a fingernail clipping on his worst day than
you have in your entire body on your best. A curse upon you.
|2.21.05 @ 3:46PM|#
Peter James Bond,
there's plenty of evidence that HST WAS in extreme physical
pain AND severely depressed, and there's reason to also believe
that he was also recentluy diagnosed with a terminal
disease
Any links you would like to share? I'd be very interested. HST
hadn't looked good for awhile, and it may explain why he seemed
increasingly reluctant to travel over the past decade or so.
Ignore the troll. The internet provides a cushion for him to mouth
off. If he ever said something like that in the flesh, you'd have
to wait in line behind me while I split his septum.
|2.21.05 @ 5:01PM|#
*yawn*
I went out of my way to specify that there are conditions where I
don't have a problem with someone ending pain, or is just plain
broken (schizophrenia and clinical depression).
Your hollow threats aside, I've spoken this way both in the flesh,
over the phone and via the web for years now. I don't count on the
buffer of the internet to protect me from such sterling examples of
cognitive prowess, such as you are.
I speak as I do now, the same as I always have. As I see it.
Jesse Walker|2.21.05 @ 5:59PM|#
Count me as another Hell's Angels fan. One of the essential American books.
|2.21.05 @ 6:38PM|#
Troubleshooter,
My threats are never hollow.
Please contact me at the following email address:
slag121@yahoo.com
If we are located near one another (lets say 100 miles), I would
like to arrange a meeting.
And no, I'm not kidding.
|2.21.05 @ 7:33PM|#
Cut the internet tough guy bullshit. If you really feel the need to compensate, there are plenty of penis growth treatments available on the internet.
|2.21.05 @ 8:30PM|#
This just sucks.
What makes me feel worse is, just a couple days ago I was fondly
recalling a time that HST appeared on Conan O'Brien's show. He took
Conan out to his ranch, doc gave him the tour. That was some good
shit.
The lesson I learn here is -- all else being equal -- lock up your
guns before you drop acid. I'm not saying it has any relevance to
the Gonzo situation, I'm just noting it for my own personal
welfare.
|2.21.05 @ 9:02PM|#
OK, I think I had my own gonzo moment there. Over dinner, my
attorney reminded me that (a) dueling is still illegal,
and (b) fighting outside of sanctioned sports confederations, even
if voluntary, is generally illegal as well. So Mr. G-Man, if you're
reading this, we wuz just kidding around! Honest Abe!
The irony is that I can remember a line of Thompson's -- I think
from The Proud Highway -- where he happens to be at a bar
after a nearby karate school gets out, and Thompson comments that
these people are crazy and dangerous as hell because all they want
to do is fight.
Troubleshooter, I'll leave you with this parting thought: I was
never a big fan of Kurt Cobain or his music. But when he killed
himself, I felt very badly because he was obviously unhappy and in
pain, he left a young widow, and worst of the worst, he left a baby
daughter without a father. I did not -- repeat not -- go around
making fun of Cobain or his situation. Only the most pathetic,
weakling savages make fun of suicides and the havoc they leave
behind.
And Czar, fuck you too.
|2.21.05 @ 9:19PM|#
Sure it's a shame when someone kills himself, and more so when that person is someone you admire, but the fanboyism evident on this thread - the macho "I'm a gonzo too" attitude - is fairly embarrassing.
|2.21.05 @ 10:41PM|#
"The voice of the gonzo style appears to have gone out with a
whimper instead of a bang..."
Christ, even your cliches are inapt.
"Here I tune in wanting to know what joe thinks, and I find
nothing.
Come on, man, wake up and smell the coffee! You're late for
work!"
Federal holiday, Doug.
The "high water mark" passage was always my favorite. Cobain, Ian
Curtis, Thompson - all my artistic heroes kill themselves.
Shit.
|2.21.05 @ 10:54PM|#
[i]Troubleshooter,
My threats are never hollow.
Please contact me at the following email address:
slag121@yahoo.com
If we are located near one another (lets say 100 miles), I would
like to arrange a meeting.
And no, I'm not kidding.[/i]
Federal offense now dontcha know...
|2.21.05 @ 10:59PM|#
It's kind of funny really, I was just thinking of Kurt Cobain as
I read this thread and I was noticing the similarities. Angst,
drugs, guns...
Did the revered Mr. Thompson ditch his responsibilities as
well?
|2.21.05 @ 11:17PM|#
Oh, I'm sorry, should have gone back and re-read the whole
thread. It appears that he did forget that there
were people being left behind who counted on him. My mistake.
And as to my cliches being inapt, I beg you to reconsider in the
light of the concept of irony. You see, going out with a bang would
have been running into the crowded halls of congress with a
backpack nuke, whereas swallowing a mouthful of lead is just weak.
Note the turn of concept involved.
And so as to prevent anyone from thinking that I speak of suicide
and death too cavalierly, I have dealt with both in my immediate
family and know of which I speak. They received no more sympathy
than His Holiness is receiving in this current dialog.
|2.22.05 @ 9:35AM|#
Troubleshooter, if I had a piece of dogsh*t like you in my
immediate family, I'd probably kill myself too.
Too bad you're family member didn't blow up Congress with a
backpack nuke cuz that would've been really...hey, wait, you're a
total moron!
|2.22.05 @ 11:06AM|#
Sorry for the overlapping post from a previous thread, but I
just noticed there is more activity here.
I've been in a news blackout for the last few days due to the
holiday. What a lousy fucking way to start a morning.
My first impression is that Hunter made himself a victim of his own
mythology. Already I'm hearing comparisons between him and
Hemingway. "Better to burn out, then to fade away".. etc.. etc..
Empty. Sad.
I think Hunter has gone a long way to suggest to folks that there's
different ways to look at things. I hope Reason is planning on some
sort of retrospect/tribute to the man.
Also, people, DON'T FEED THE TROLLS. These creatures thrive on
attention. You put one of these things in an empty room, and it
dies from boredom of itself.
|2.22.05 @ 11:43AM|#
In all seriousness, I am not this mystical under the bridge
dweller that keeps getting mentioned.
Isn't it startling the way people are so filled with sycophantic
zeal about a guy simply because someone impugns his final
decision?
There are plenty of people out there who are just as insightful and
verbose. The only attraction my detractors seem to feel for
Thompson that is distinctive is his outrageous drug use. A rather
shallow criteria.
M. Simon|2.22.05 @ 1:26PM|#
I have a short tribute to Hunter and myself
here.
I was alway a member of the armed non-violence wing of the hippy
movement (a small contingent no doubt) and from time to time I had
Angels and their fellow travelers as friends. I saw Hunter as a
kindred spirit. I traveled in the same "revolutionary" circles. I
knew dynamiters and gun runners and outlaw chemists and murderers
escaped from prison. Reading his stuff was like old home week for
me. I seem to have mellowed some with age. Natural, but a damn
shame.
I see nothing wrong with going out with a bang.
Choice. It is what made America great.
BTW I like bitter, hateful, venomous. Except when it comes to
Nixon.
M. Simon|2.22.05 @ 1:29PM|#
Over in the other thread we were discussing why Hunter might
have voted for Nader. Here is my take:
--==--
BTW Harry Browne probably didn't get Hunter's vote because Harry
had no belly. Or as I prefer guts.
Nader's politics were ugly but he had guts.
If the shooting started I'd give Nader a gun and tell him to point
and shoot.
What would I tell Harry? Surrender and hope for the best in
court.
I have taken my #1 son to Libertarian meetings from time to time
and his favorite remark to me is: "there is no belly energy there".
Or as the Japanese might say they are deficient in chi. He said the
same after meeting Harry.
I don't think Harry's sticking around would have changed a thing.
Chi is generally not something you develop over night. You get it
by learning to thread your way through very dangerous situations.
Not just near the edge but beyond it.
Wars and revolutions develop chi. Hanging with outlaws develops
chi. Being a stock broker does not. Libertarians lack the warrior
spirit. Just look at them post 9/11. Libertarians like to think of
themselves as the decendents of the '76ers. My bet is in '76 they
would have stayed home. "Fighting is dangerous don't you know and
people can get killed." "Of course the revolutionaries are right"
they would say, "but is it worth dying for? Perhaps another
petition is in order."
Hunter was no doubt a libertarian. He would never have been a
Libertarian.
As for me? I'm pretty tolerant of people's faults. Until the rubber
meets the road.
|2.23.05 @ 9:27PM|#
Pavel: In England, back in the day, suicide WAS illegal. Know
what happened if you didn't succeed, and they caught you? They gave
you the death penalty. Isn't THAT brilliant...?
Peter James Bond and Slag: It still happens to be free America...If
I want to say the Pope bites, I can (not that I would, cause the
Pope rocks). You don't have to like it...the same principle that
allows me to say such a thing is what allows you to say the
opposite. It's called "stimulating discussion." And, sorry to say,
but yes, TS is right...an internet threat IS a federal offense. I
find it interesting that you would threaten someone for disagreeing
with you, Slag. Do you do this often? If so, you must threaten a
lot of people.
Remember "opinions are like assholes" and you'll be a lot more laid
back, man.
Sidhe
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