GM Strong
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 18 Sep 2004
Posts: 1579
Location: Penna
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 Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2005 11:24 pm Post subject: Kerry attends Hunter Thompson finale. |
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It figures. His Presidential aspirations went with HST's garbage ash. Gag me with a silver spoon.
HST Canonized
By Troy Hooper/Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Woody Creek - Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson's ashes rained down on his Owl Farm property Saturday night as actor Johnny Depp, who paid for the $2.5 million ceremony, raised his champagne glass toward the night sky.
A star-studded crowd included 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and his 1972 counterpart, George McGovern.
"Hunter would have loved it," said veteran television newsman Ed Bradley, a friend of Thompson's who logged many years with the "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" author.
Thompson shot himself in his kitchen on Feb. 20.
The ash blast occurred at 8:46 p.m. while a kimono-clad Japanese drum band wailed away. The red-white-and-blue pyrotechnic show featured more than 30 firework missiles exploding into the dark horizon, punctuated by three hologram double-thumbed gonzo fists.
Those who toasted Thompson included actor Bill Murray, former Nitty Gritty Dirt Band musician Jimmy Ibbotson and a slew of his neighbors and friends.
"It's a fantastic crowd," said Thompson's longtime friend and neighbor Don Dixon. "Half of the people here look like Keith Richards."
Richards was invited to the fiery farewell but could not attend because he is preparing for the Rolling Stones concert in Boston on Sunday.
Thompson's ashes were blasted out of a 153-foot monument - 2 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. The "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" author often violently disagreed with how his image and materials were produced.
"He'd probably say it wasn't quite big enough," said Ralph Steadman, who flew in for the ceremony from London after last seeing Thompson in the fall of 2004. "We want him back. (Saturday night) was a kind of pleading for him to come back. All is forgiven."
Black-and-white photographs of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Samuel Cooleridge, Joseph Conrad, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Henry Miller, Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway looked down on the approximately 350 attendees who wrote down their thoughts once they climbed a large black staircase that led into an open-air tent. Chandeliers and mounted wild-game heads decorated the booze-ridden ceremony.
Alcohol was limited before the ash blast, but in true Thompson style, mint juleps were served to attendees at the gate. Trays of champagne circulated just before Thompson's remains flew.
Juan Thompson, the author's only son, said the ceremony not only fulfilled the vision outlined in a 1978 BBC video, but it "was bigger than he ever imagined."
Depp, who played Thompson in the 1998 film adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," and Juan Thompson embraced as the ashes fell to the ground.
Thompson's son said the ceremony was not his father's final chapter. But, he said, it was the continuation of the iconoclastic author's legacy.
note: Duplicate here: http://www.swiftvets.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20591
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