Golden Land

“Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run, but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.” 

-Hunter S. Thompson

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Animals

"There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning."

-Raoul Duke

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Ch-Ch-Changes

Sometimes life slows down and gives you a chance to breathe and reflect. Other times it moves at warp speed and if you are lucky, you get a chance to take in the experiences flying your way.

Right now I'm going through a phase of change. It was bound to happen. I was feeling restless in where I was mentally and physically. I'm starting a new job in a few weeks which is a great opportunity in the journalistic sector. People tell me I have to pay my dues before I work at Rolling Stone so this is just on that track. I'm following the path of Hunter Thompson by working at a newspaper, slaving away for the man. And the coolest part is that I get my own column, free reign to write whatever my heart desires.

With this new job, I am required to move to a small town. I feel this is the perfect change for me as I was starting to feel the crush of the city. I was feeling suffocated and yearning for the forest and a slower pace lifestyle and now I'm getting it. The town I am moving to is my mom's home town so there are tons of relatives to visit with and I know my way around. I look forward to running through the forests, frolicing by the river and breathing in that mountain air.

These changes may turn some people off but I really feel they are exactly what I need to breathe. "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you find you get what you need."

Bat Country

The desert is my home

I dream of driving the American Dream trail paged out by Hunter S. Thompson.

The land of cacti, big skies, cowboy boots, turquoise, and head dresses.

I want to go to Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Tennessee.

I want to drive from L.A. to Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing style.

Enter bat country

I want to go to Joshua Tree and live like Keith and Gram with my bestie.

I want to go out in the desert and take peyote like Jim Morrison and The Doors.

I love the desert. It's my next stop.

A Slow Ride is a Good Ride

Yes, Easy Rider, the 1969 classic film that shot Jack Nicholson into the blood stream of America. If you haven't seen this epic, watch it now. It's filled with drugs, bikes and good tunes. What else can you ask for?

The Byrds are a huge part of the soundtrack. "Natural Harmony" is beautifully paired with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda riding their bikes through the dessert. The Byrds even titled a track "Ballad of Easy Rider".

The plot revolves around two counter culture bikers cross America trek on their motorcycles. The encounter rednecks, hippies living in a commune, bigots, and take a wild acid trip. Though the plot sounds superficial, during it's time, it was saying a lot on the current counter culture craze sweeping the nation. I read the film in the same way as I do Hunter S. Thompson's works: magically superficial on the surface, chillingly satirical sub-surface.

You Can Call Me On The Telephone

Day 16 of 28 Days of Warhol

We're getting a little behind I see...

Warhol was not only obsessed with Polaroids. He was also very much into talking on the phone, which is why the gift to Jim Morrison of a telephone was so fitting.

Warhol loved to spend hours talking on the phone. He would record some of the conversations he had with friends on the phone. To Warhol the phone is, what the voice recorder was to Hunter S. Thompson. It was the crucial communication device that bound the genius to his work and the public. If Warhol did not love the telephone, he would have been quite the isolated man.

Gonzo Style Quotes

Spoken from a true genius, here are some random quotes

from an Hunter S. Thompson article.

"Most of use are living here because we like the idea of being able to walk out our front doors and smile at what we see. On my own front porch I have a palm tree growing in a blue toilet bowl, and on occasion I like to wander outside, stark naked, and fire my .44 magnum at various gongs I've mounted on the nearby hillside. I like to load up on mescaline and turn my amplifier up to 110 decibels for a taste of 'White Rabbit' while the sun comes up on the snow peaks along the Continental Divide."

"No more huge, space-killing apartment buildings to block the view of anybody who might want to look up from any downtown street and see the mountains. No more land rapes, no more busts for flute playing or blocking the sidewalk...fuck the tourists, dead-end the highway, zone the greedheads out of existence and in general create a town where people could live like human beings, instead of slave to some bogus sense of Progress that is driving us all mad."

Death of the Typewriter

Forget Kate Moss, Hunter S. Thompson is in town and here to stay. He showed the typewriter who's boss. He is my idol/muse. From him I'm to learn how to show the keyboard who's the new sheriff in town.

Time to rehash the 'vegas book', pound through his biography and read some of his old articles. It's time to experience Hunter through Hunter's eyes, his writings. Let's just hope this time I survive and come out Gonzofied.