Jay Gerland's The Black Dog

~ Sit down, Maddy.

Jay Gerland's The Black Dog

Category Archives: Books

Hunter Stocton Thompson, 1937-2005

21 Monday Feb 2005

Posted by Jay Gerland in Books, Life, Sad

≈ Leave a comment

I’m still in shock about this and I’m not even sure I believe it yet but apparently, The Good Doctor has taken his own life over the weekend. He was 67.

I’ve never been much of a reader, but thanks to a couple of very good friends (Jason and Geoff, who don’t know each other but both share a fondness for Hunter) have kept me in supply of Thompson books. I consider myself lucky to list books like Hells Angels, The Great Shark Hunt, Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas and his only purely fictional novel, The Rum Diaries as books I’ve finished all the way through ;^). I loved all of the books as well as the random Rolling Stone articles and his missives for ESPN.com’s Page 2.

I really liked Terry Gilliam’s take on “Fear and Loathing” (Depp was incredible as usual) but what I remember first was Bill Murray’s take on the man in “Where the Buffalo Roam.” At the time, I didn’t know this was supposed to be HST or that any of those accounts were real (or based on unreal stories), but I loved the movie. Someone once told me that HST wanted Murray dead for making a mockery out of him (a list that also included Gary Trudeau), but if you read his last Hey Rube! entry over at espn.com, I would say they were able to patch things up. If I remember correctly, the movie ends with him doing a lecture at some university, well a couple of years ago I came across a bootleg of a recording of him doing the same lecture in 1977. It’s very cool to listen to him and hear him interact with the students. He was as gonzo as his writings made himself out to be.

The old version of this site, as recently as a couple of weeks ago, featured a logo from the same writing used in many of Thompson’s work by the artist Ralph Steadman. [update: I had to bring it back.] Christ, I even bought Flying Dog Beer because it had the same artwork as his books.

I just can’t believe he took his own life, what a shitty way to go, especially after all the effort he put in to his life. But he will be missed by a lot of people, mostly guys I’m sure who loved to read about drugs, sports, gambling, crooked politicians, and ner-do-well thugs. Count me in that group.

Some early obits:

ESPN | MSNBC | CNN | New York Times

“Those bastards at Rolling Stone” haven’t bothered to get off their asses to pay a little homage to one of their most significant writers in their questionable, journalistic history. How much do you want to bet that he doesn’t get the next cover either?

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • April 2018
  • April 2017
  • July 2008
  • April 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • November 2007
  • April 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • January 2006
  • October 2005
  • May 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • September 2004
  • April 2004
  • January 2004
  • December 2003
  • November 2003
  • October 2003
  • July 2003
  • June 2003
  • May 2003
  • April 2003
  • March 2003
  • February 2003
  • December 2002
  • November 2002
  • October 2002
  • September 2002
  • August 2002
  • July 2002
  • June 2002
  • May 2002
  • April 2002
  • January 2002
  • August 2001
  • May 2001
  • January 2001

Categories

  • Books
  • Buffalo
  • Buffalo Sabres
  • Food
  • Friends
  • Funny
  • History
  • Holidays
  • Jack
  • Jen
  • Life
  • Maddy
  • Music
  • Politics
  • Quotes
  • Sad
  • Technology
  • TV
  • Video

Meta

  • Log in

Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Chateau by Ignacio Ricci.