Via Con Dios, Doc.

April 5, 2005 4:41 PM

Hunter S. Thompson's ashes WILL be blasted from a cannon mounted inside a 53-foot-high sculpture of the journalist's "gonzo fist" emblem. You can see Hunter & Ralph Steadman plan these details in the BBC documentary Fear & Loathing in Gonzovision.
posted by helvetica (22 comments total)

via boingboing
posted by helvetica at 4:42 PM on April 5, 2005

That docu is also on the Criterion Fear & Loathing DVD under the title "Fear and Loathing on the Road to Hollywood", and it is excellent.
posted by VanRoosta at 4:44 PM on April 5, 2005

*yawn*.

Seriously.

A couple of interesting books in the 60s and early 70s, and pretty much nothing since. Sorry he's dead, by his own hand at that, but he's not a huge cultural or literary loss.

Seriously.
posted by 1016 at 4:54 PM on April 5, 2005

It worked for Graham Chapman.
posted by LeLiLo at 4:56 PM on April 5, 2005

This FPP should have been saved for after the blast.
posted by fire&wings at 4:57 PM on April 5, 2005

I'm guessing they won't do that to Saul Bellow.
posted by liam at 5:00 PM on April 5, 2005

1016 : I'm not a Catholic, but that doesn't blind me to significance of the loss of the Pope. Furthermore, Thompson wrote some excellent work this side of the 70's too.

You don't have to be a "true believer" to have respect. Don't be a dick.
posted by trinarian at 6:00 PM on April 5, 2005

Not bad for some last laugh action.
posted by homodigitalis at 6:12 PM on April 5, 2005

HST was my pope, now afroblanca is.

Mahalo Doc.
posted by schyler523 at 7:37 PM on April 5, 2005

But the event won't air on every major network and cable news station and that's the real crime.
posted by PuppyCat at 8:25 PM on April 5, 2005

I hope all attending will be suitably twisted on dangerous pharmaceuticals.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:54 AM on April 6, 2005

*cough*vaya*cough*
posted by sninky-chan at 3:23 AM on April 6, 2005

"Top that, Pope!"
posted by emf at 4:06 AM on April 6, 2005

trinarian, I showed what I believe to be proper respect for his earlier work; looked at some of the later stuff and found it repetitive, overly self indulgent, and devoid of interest.

Don't be a dick yourself.
posted by 1016 at 5:08 AM on April 6, 2005

O.T., [pedant] It's "vaya con dios", btw. [/pedant]
posted by signal at 6:34 AM on April 6, 2005

We're supposed to bicker about the person's merit on the obit thread, people. This thread is all about explosions and corpse disposal. I, for one, think the cannon is a good send-off.
posted by mikeh at 6:47 AM on April 6, 2005

thanks mikeh,

This post is all about a 53 foot sculpture of a fist on top of a 100 foot platform shooting a dead guy out of a canon. I'm sorry, but even if the guy never wrote a good book that's freaking cool.

Complaining about the guy's writing here is like saying the Colorado Rocky Mountains pale in comparison to the Canadian Rockies. Sure it's somewhat related since Hunter is being blasted in the Colorado Rockies, but it is pretty beside the point.

On a similar note to the actual topic of the post, my friend made me promise to give him a viking funeral where he'd be put to sea in a burning ship. Well the ship will be burning after using bronze mirrors (or available substitutes) to set the ship on fire like Archemedes did to the Roman ships in the Syracuse harbor in 212 BC. I found plans from some SCA wingnut. With a bunch of 5' by 3' mirrors and 60 people to hold them I should be able to torch it from 160 feet. If i don't do this i think my friend is going to haunt me. (Email me if you want the plans)
posted by lips at 8:19 AM on April 6, 2005

Fucking awesome.

That is all.
posted by joe lisboa at 10:13 AM on April 6, 2005

When they describe the 'Gonzo fist' in the mainstream media, they always neglect to mention the peyote button in the center.
posted by wadefranklin at 10:18 AM on April 6, 2005

Didn't they already do this with Sarah Vowell's dad?
posted by bukvich at 12:41 PM on April 6, 2005

ta da! (jump to paragraph number four)
posted by bukvich at 12:46 PM on April 6, 2005

.

BOOM !

.
posted by matteo at 6:52 AM on April 7, 2005