at the rate of a speeding bullet...

[Sean Mannion]

"Is it a bird?! Is it a plane ?!"
Eh, no. It's Hunter S. Thompson...


Cheers,
Sean
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King of gonzo blasts off one last time
Friends gather to see Hunter S Thompson's ashes fired into sky
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Saturday August 20 2005
The Guardian


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
150-foot 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's widow, 32-year-old Anita Thompson, told the Associated Press that
there would be "no crying, no tears, only celebration" at the event, which 
has
been dubbed Hunterpalooza.

"He wanted people to celebrate," she said. "He envisioned it to be a 
beautiful
party. The most amazing people would be there. His friends would celebrate 
his
life. And he was even specific that there would be clinking of ice and 
whisky."

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, six 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 Mr 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 $95 (£53). 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 tomorrow'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, 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.

Send-offs to remember

· In April 1997, the ashes of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star 
Trek,
were launched into orbit with those of 23 other people. The ashes were part 
of
the payload of Spain's first satellite, launched from Las Palmas in the 
Canary
Islands.

· A fan of the BBC series Dr Who, Tim Haws, from West Sussex, was 
buried in
a replica Tardis made by his brother-in-law when he died last year of 
cancer.

· Joanna Booth, the wife of a Sotheby's gun specialist, organised a 
day's
shooting for close friends, using cartridges loaded with her husband's 
ashes.
The memorial took place last year at Brucklay Estate in Aberdeenshire and 
ended
with guests bagging several game birds.

· Viking enthusiast Alan Smith insisted his friends send him off in in 
true
Norse style. In 1997, the former Cornish docker's remains were put on to a
replica of a Viking longboat which was then set alight before drifting out 
to
sea.

· In 2001, the River Clyde in Scotland was chosen for an unusual mass
funeral service when the ashes of 50 people who died 35 years before were
scattered in a joint ceremony carried out by Catholic and Presbyterian 
priests.
The remains were of those who had laid forgotten for decades in the storage
rooms of Glaswegian undertakers.Jason Rodrigues

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
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