The New Phoenix rises...

Spent most of the morning watching the news filter in...listening to Hunter howl from beyond the grave in various newsbites dredged up for your post-mortem enjoyment.

Through this tragedy, he is being reborn in the minds of many. Perhaps new media warriors will emerge from his ashes and storm the fragmented rotten shell that modern journalism has become. Maybe his sudden death will help wake those who have been sleeping. Who knows? But I have to believe that something good will come of this.

As sad as it is, you know that Hunter would have loved the attention this is generating. As I said to my friend Christine earlier this morning: "I'm sure he's sitting on a cloud somewhere with a bottle of Chivas Regal and a pipe full of Purple Haze - getting a cheap giggle at our expense."

The Doc has really outdone himself this time.

HST Manifesto redux

So...in light of Hunter's death - what do we do?

We can no longer afford to be merely spectators.....it is our duty to keep reading, writing and revealing the soft underbelly of the 'generation of swine' - a theme that is continual and in touch with the death of the American Dream. Real journalists - (i.e.: Thompson, Hemingway, Dos Pasos, etc...) never really bought into the idea of true objectivity. It was and is an academic pipe dream that is only as good as your instincts and sources. And since everyone wants a bit of the limelight these days, the quality of reported journalism is tainted with the hubris of greedheads, political yahoos and the same old thing that our boy has fought since the dubious media pigeonholing of the term 'gonzo'.

Forget silence. We are too young and too sharp to make that excuse any longer. If we are to remain Americans (I'm assuming most of you are) and aware human beings, we have no choice but to keep hammering on the weird nerve......to remain true to rumblings that the truth - no matter how backwards and wrong - invokes in us.

As I'm sure you all know, Hunter was not just about drugs, alcohol and corn-fed lunacy - he was one of the last remaining literate paragons in a vortex of pretenders, hacks and weekend warriors. I won't advocate everything the man stood for - I'm more than certain that he was a moral cripple and little more than a functioning alcoholic, but he was still one of the more profound journalists this nation has sired. We are his children for lack of a better definition.....not biologically bound, but definitely at the blood level. To forget that would be an injustice to ourselves and the freedom that we have. Freedom that has been all but forgotten by a nation of spiritual thieves, bean counters and puritans.

Long live Hunter

The news is just now sinking in as I scan the cable news channels.

Hunter is Dead. By my initial reaction to the news, my wife thought the U.S. had started bombing Iran and Syria. It was like a pall cast over all good things. The end of some kind of era that lifted the veil of ugliness, erupted in verse and then ate it's own death on a farm in Colorado. No answers on this day - and we're not likely to get many.

So why....why would the Doc do such a thing? In my heart, I think he gave up. I think he saw the face of the future and decided to take the quicker exit. It's an ugly and selfish way to go, but Hunter was infamous for his moments....and does it really shock anyone? In some ways, I guess we're lucky that we had him for this long. The expectation was that his lifestyle would catch up with him.

Maybe it did....or maybe George W. Bush gave him a weird cancer through the mail - and Hunter wouldn't give the bastard the pleasure of watching him suffer.

In the end, we have his words and legend.....and it's our job to keep the thing going. We need to focus on breaking this ugly wave of cheap patriots, greedheads and puritans that are dead set on crushing the American Spirit. Hunter loathed our current state of affairs/administration - and unfortunately expired before we could find a way out.

This change falls to us - for good or ill.

Hunter is dead. Long live Hunter.

Selah - and take care...

The Doc is Dead

Dammit all...why did he have to do it?

I just got the word from my old photographer friend Mike McDermott that the good Dr. Hunter S. Thompson was found dead - apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. WTF?! I can't say that I'm completely suprised that he's passed. Hunter's been on the celebrity deathwatch list for the past 20 years - and has always been considered fodder for the reaper - his habituations always at the forefront of grim possibility.

But suicide? There must be a reason. Maybe a rare leg cancer or perhaps the malignant nature of the last two presidential elections was too much to bear. Still, it boggles the mind.

I remember when I stood outside Owl Farm in the summer of 1998 - crocked and reclining in a lawn chair - ready for the Doctor to emerge. He was in New York on a book tour at the time, but I could have cared less. I was at the door of his ranch - smoking my last little bit of Afghani grey - and waiting for him. In the end, I left an "offering" at the gate and fled to the Woody Creek Tavern, where I closed the place after about five too many. Of course, I wrote about it - and no, it wasn't worth reading after the fact.

It's a damn shame - and worthy of a day to mourn. The Death of the American Dream has come full circle and claimed one of its prophets.

Selah.

Life in flux

Hit a bit of a writing dry spell lately...wrapped up in work and juggling Greer's childcare situation - and it's been an exceptionally busy month for Alex. Her folks came down during the first week of February to look after Greer - and since then, we've managed to find someone to look after him at least one day a week until something more permanent comes along.

Ugh...if you check Greer's blog - you'll see I'm repeating myself somewhat.

During a recent stop at the Clinton Street Theater, the topic of my blog came up. Within seconds, Seth, the CST honcho, pulled it up on his laptop and started reading it like a junior high school diary...

Yesterday, I went to the bathroom and then wrote about it....phthphhhh!

Ok...I know it's been a bit boring lately, but I can promise never to resort to this.

The days go flying by...

Sometimes I wonder if I'm actually organized enough to do this blogging thing. As it is, I can barely manage my day to day schedule of fatherhood, work, home maintenance, etc. To come home and blog after a day in front of a computer sometimes feels like a stretch...

Ah....who am I kidding. I may not be able to keep up like I want, but it's still a necessary exercise.