HST

[BigH]

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are those goddamn animals?"

Hunter S Thompson, what a man, RIP.
H

[pretzel]

Ageed H.

R.I.P.

No more Fear and Loathing  

[Steve Pyro]

Maybe 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' will be on the TV soon.  I believe this chronicles the events you mention H.

[BigH]

Maybe 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' will be on the TV soon.

It's no substitute for the book Steve. As your attorney, I advise you to pick up a copy, if you haven't already.
H

[Andy Zarse]

I guess he was a sort of Jack Kerrouac for the post-beat generation. I read Fear and Loathing at school in about 1981 and was mightily influenced by it. Along with Robert Perzig's Zen and the Art,  it made me realise there was a great big world beyond the walls of a provincial grammar school, with plenty of high jinks to be had along the way.

FWIW, another great avant-garde exponent passed away recently (drowned in the Thames whilst pissed). Malcolm Hardee was the kingmaker behind the alternative comedy movement in the 1980's. He brought to fame Sayle, Mayall, Authur Smith and a host of others. Along with a friend, he broke into London Zoo one night, shook hands with a gorilla and went back to the pub. He was also responsible for smashing up Freddie Mercury's 40th birthday cake, which had cost a reported £4,000. After his funeral, Arthur Smith described Hardee as "a total shite".

As Mick Channon once famously said, "There's no characters left in the game no more".

RIP both.

[BigH]

Zen and the Art is a wonderful book. I made the mistake though, of buying it along with a new socket set and pair of sturdy pliers, instead of a leather cap and black polo necked jumper. As a youth, and sober, the idea of emulating HST, Frank Zappa and Corporal Els seemed very tempting. I'm not sure I'd have seen 30 though. There's a lot of Fear and Loathing translates easily to Le Mans I reckon. Checking into the hotel on Sunday springs to mind. Apart from the ordnance, that is.
As poncy intellectuals go though, you have to take your beret off to Mick Channon, I've always thought that he must have felt terribly let down when he discovered that he didn't figure in the Pythons 'Philosophers Song'.

H

And While we're on, I blame Kimberley-Clark for all that's going wrong.