Monday, February 21, 2005
It Is Better To Be Feared Than Loathed
Total bummer about Hunter S. Thompson. I wish I could say the news is shocking, but when someone likes to play with guns, it's naive to think something like this won't happen.
He was one of the true wild men out there, and a hell of a writer. When I started reading Rolling Stone in the late '80s (late to the party, but gimme a break, I was only in high school), reading his stuff was a revelation. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72, and Hell's Angels were all big influences on me. While I'm hardly a true gonzo-style journalist, and I've never stolen 600 bars of Neutrogena soap, I like to think I carry a little bit of his mad spirit with me every time I step up to the keyboard.
ADDENDUM February 22, 2005
I meant to mention that HST's famous quote about the music business...
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.
...is in fact a wildly inaccurate adapation of these words he wrote about the television industry in 1988...
The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.
