He lived by the gun and he died by the gun. Now the late writer Hunter S. Thompson, who shot himself in February, is to be blasted from a cannon from the back garden of his home in the hills of Aspen, Colorado.
Thompson's ashes have been packed into firework casings and will be dispersed today from 34 different shells fired from a gun barrel mounted on top of a 50m-high monument.
The monument, in the form of a clenched fist made symmetrical by the addition of a second thumb, is modelled on Thompson's gonzo logo.
"We have never had a request such as this one in our company's history," Marcy Zambelli of Zambelli Fireworks told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "But we respect the request of the family and have actually custom engineered an aerial shell specifically designed to carry out his final wish."
A close friend of Thompson's, Michael Cleverly, said: "They've taken him out and had him pulverised into a consistency that is optimum for the blast, and it'll go straight up. It'll just be taken by the wind and drift around Woody Creek, a place that he loved."
Thompson, 67, killed himself six months ago with a shot to the head with a pistol. His body was found in a chair by his kitchen table, on which a typewriter had been placed and a page of writing paper had been lined up with the word "counselor" (sic) typed at its centre.
It was a typically enigmatic final word from the inventor of gonzo journalism, the stream-of-consciousness style of writing that was a chief ingredient in the new journalism of the 1960s and 70s.
The age of gonzo officially began with Thompson's account of a drug-fuelled visit to Las Vegas, published in two issues of Rolling Stone, and then released, to great acclaim, as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Much of today's ceremony and the Gonzo monument has been financed by the actor Johnny Depp, a friend of Thompson's who portrayed the writer in the film version of Fear and Loathing.
The actor, it seems, has drawn an idea from his most recent role as Willy Wonka, the chocolate magnate in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for today's ceremony.
In the story, five children who find a ticket inside the wrapper of a Wonka chocolate bar are invited to visit his factory. For the funeral the procedure is remarkably similar.
Brian Harvey of Boise, Idaho, found a secret ticket hidden inside the label on a bottle of the Flying Dog Brewery's Gonzo Imperial Porter.
The ticket grants Harvey and a friend entry to the party, as well as transport and accommodation, according to the company's website.
Gonzo Imperial Porter, with a label designed by another close friend of Thompson's, British artist Ralph Steadman, has a hefty price tag and a worthy cause. Bottles of the beer sell for US$95.
Only 1,500 numbered bottles have been made, and proceeds from the sale go to raise money for the Gonzo Memorial Fund. The fund, says the company's website, was "set up initially to raise funds for a permanent memorial to Hunter so future generations can ponder the life of one of the world's great mavericks".
But all is not sweetness and light in Woody Creek, the hamlet Thompson made his home. Some residents are emulating the writer's curmudgeonly ways.
Jimmy Ibbotson, another close friend of Thompson's and a musician with one of the acts performing at today's ceremony, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, fired a shotgun at a photographer hoping to take a picture of the cannon from his land.
"He was in no danger," Ibbotson told the Aspen Times. "But he won't come back, you can be sure of that. I wasn't aiming at him, I just wanted to scare his ass. I don't want him coming back here during the event. If you want to print the fact that neighbours are shooting at paparazzi, please do. It might save us a little hassle on the day of the event."
Asked if police had been in touch with him about the incident Mr Ibbotson said they had not. "But I don't answer the phone very much," he added.
After the ceremony, Thompson's widow, 32-year-old Anita Thompson will attend to her role as protector of her late husband's legacy.
"I'll be working for Hunter the rest of my life," she said. "I know that. I made that commitment, and I'm honoured that I can."
Publication is planned of a third volume of the writer's letters, a collection of short stories and an unfinished novel, Polo is My Life. Anita Thompson also plans "a small book of wisdom" based on the late writer's utterances.
"Never think you're the smartest one in the room. And never think you're the dumbest one in the room. Little things like that," she said.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
COMMUNITY CONFLICT: Concerns about disease spread from corpses has run up against friends and families’ desire to bury their dead as infection spreads in the area Angry residents of a town at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) attacked and burned a tent that was part of a health center where people are being treated for the virus, the staff there said Saturday. It was the second such attack in the region in a week. No one was hurt in the attack, according to reports but as patients ran out to escape the fire, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections fled the facility and are unaccounted for, a hospital director said. Angry residents arrived at the clinic in the
INSURGENT ACTION: A local independence movement in Balochistan, alleged by Pakistan’s government to be backed by India, claimed responsibility for the strike A suicide bomber detonated an vehicle-borne IED near a railway as a passenger train passed through the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta yesterday, killing at least 23 people and wounding over 70, officials said. The explosion caused two of the train cars to overturn and catch fire, according to footage shared online. The attack happened in an area where security forces are usually stationed, badly damaging several nearby buildings and smashing more than a dozen vehicles parked along the road, according to witnesses and images circulating on social media. Doctors at local hospitals said they had received the wounded, with 20 in critical
RSS