Posted on 08/19/2005 10:20:13 PM PDT by cambridge
He lived by the gun and he died by the gun. Now the late writer Hunter S Thompson, who shot himself in February, is to be blasted from a cannon from the back garden of his home in the hills of Aspen, Colorado.
Thompson's ashes have been packed into firework casings and will be dispersed today from 34 different shells fired from a gun barrel mounted on top of a 150-foot high monument.
Article continues The monument, in the form of a clenched fist made symmetrical by the addition of a second thumb, is modelled on Thompson's gonzo logo.
"We have never had a request such as this one in our company's history," Marcy Zambelli of Zambelli Fireworks told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "But we respect the request of the family and have actually custom engineered an aerial shell specifically designed to carry out his final wish."
A close friend of Thompson's, Michael Cleverly, said: "They've taken him out and had him pulverised into a consistency that is optimum for the blast, and it'll go straight up. It'll just be taken by the wind and drift around Woody Creek, a place that he loved."
Thompson's widow, 32-year-old Anita Thompson, told the Associated Press that there would be "no crying, no tears, only celebration" at the event, which has been dubbed Hunterpalooza.
"He wanted people to celebrate," she said. "He envisioned it to be a beautiful party. The most amazing people would be there. His friends would celebrate his life. And he was even specific that there would be clinking of ice and whisky."
Thompson, 67, killed himself six months ago with a shot to the head with a pistol. His body was found in a chair by his kitchen table, on which a typewriter had been placed and a page of writing paper had been lined up with the word "counselor" (sic) typed at its centre.
It was a typically enigmatic final word from the inventor of gonzo journalism, the stream-of-consciousness style of writing that was a chief ingredient in the new journalism of the 1960s and 70s.
The age of gonzo officially began with Thompson's account of a drug-fuelled visit to Las Vegas, published in two issues of Rolling Stone, and then released, to great acclaim, as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Much of today's ceremony and the Gonzo monument has been financed by the actor Johnny Depp, a friend of Thompson's who portrayed the writer in the film version of Fear and Loathing.
The actor, it seems, has drawn an idea from his most recent role as Willy Wonka, the chocolate magnate in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for today's ceremony.
In the story, six children who find a ticket inside the wrapper of a Wonka chocolate bar are invited to visit his factory. For the funeral the procedure is remarkably similar.
Brian Harvey of Boise, Idaho, found a secret ticket hidden inside the label on a bottle of the Flying Dog Brewery's Gonzo Imperial Porter.
The ticket grants Mr Harvey and a friend entry to the party, as well as transport and accommodation, according to the company's website.
Gonzo Imperial Porter, with a label designed by another close friend of Thompson's, British artist Ralph Steadman, has a hefty price tag and a worthy cause. Bottles of the beer sell for $95 (£53). Only 1,500 numbered bottles have been made, and proceeds from the sale go to raise money for the Gonzo Memorial Fund. The fund, says the company's website, was "set up initially to raise funds for a permanent memorial to Hunter so future generations can ponder the life of one of the world's great mavericks".
But all is not sweetness and light in Woody Creek, the hamlet Thompson made his home. Some residents are emulating the writer's curmudgeonly ways.
Jimmy Ibbotson, another close friend of Thompson's and a musician with one of the acts performing at tomorrow's ceremony, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, fired a shotgun at a photographer hoping to take a picture of the cannon from his land.
"He was in no danger," Ibbotson told the Aspen Times. "But he won't come back, you can be sure of that. I wasn't aiming at him, I just wanted to scare his ass. I don't want him coming back here during the event. If you want to print the fact that neighbours are shooting at paparazzi, please do. It might save us a little hassle on the day of the event."
Asked if police had been in touch with him about the incident Mr Ibbotson said they had not. "But I don't answer the phone very much," he added.
After the ceremony, Anita Thompson will attend to her role as protector of her late husband's legacy.
"I'll be working for Hunter the rest of my life," she said. "I know that. I made that commitment, and I'm honoured that I can."
Publication is planned of a third volume of the writer's letters, a collection of short stories and an unfinished novel, Polo is My Life. Anita Thompson also plans "a small book of wisdom" based on the late writer's utterances.
"'Never think you're the smartest one in the room. And never think you're the dumbest one in the room.' Little things like that," she said.
Let's hope he lands on Ward Churchill...
I find him slightly interesting, but no more so than any other dirty old man.
When I croak, I want my mouldy bones shot into space.
Not quite, it's a two thumbed fist clutching a peyote button.
SO9
Thompson would have liked be called weird.
Self-indulgent, narcissistic egotism and exaggerated sense of self-importance even after death.
I don't like Johnny Depp either. For the same reasons (although alive).
Won't that contribute to global warming ?
Gimme a break. The guy was a cookie cutter liberal - not some "great maverick. Then for added liberal silliness he went out as an unoriginal drama queen. Sorry, not impressed.
This reminds me of an old George Carlin skit.
I wanna be on the shelf next to Ted Williams.
Me either. Something about Depp lately. Cant put finger on it.
Any long-time friend of Pat Buchanan's and PJ O'Rourke's and hardcore firearms / explosives nut who lived in a heavily fortified compound in Colorado can hardly be called "a cookie cutter liberal".
Has the EPA approved of this? The Sierra Club? The fellow
travelers at The Million Mom March headquarters?
...but there is an afterlife, of which he's experiencing right now.
...and he will answer to the Creator just like all of us.
Good one.
"unoriginal drama queen". Good point,..
May I add some of what I said to yours,....
Self-indulgent, narcissistic, exaggerated sense of self-importance, unoriginal drama queen.
Or maybe drama queen covers it all.
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