Owl Farm Blog

Harrison Fieler was vastly talented.  Of this, he was certain -- for it had been pointed out to him all his life by old women at his large, Midwestern high school, by old men at his small Eastern college, by young men in the army, and finally by young girls in Greenwich Village -- where he came, in the flush of his vibrant youth, to live, work, and climb the ladder to fame and immortality. 
But for all his raging talent, Harrison Fieler was painfully unsuccessful.  In five years, he had gotten nowhere.
After three semesters, he gave up on the Art Students’ League and joined Actors’ Equity.  While working as a stagehand at an off-Broadway theatre, he wrote a play.  It took him two years, and the play was a dismal failure.  No one would even read it through.  His best friends, after listening to the first act, advised him to try another medium…

--Hunter S. Thompson, Fire in the Nuts. 

Posted by Anita Thompson at 09:40 AM | Permalink Post a Comment:

I'm getting used to the NY life.  It's the polar opposit of the quiet Rocky Mountains around Woody Creek. Despite NY being the fountainhead of intellect, art & high style, the sensory overload can be extremely irritating.  Eight million people live on this tiny island. But all the while, during the stress of looking for an apartment (I did find a gorgeous place) I felt an undercurrent of freedom and happiness.  As I got off the subway and walked down Broadway, suddenly it hit me...  NO CAR!!!  The last time I haven't needed a car was in Swiss high school which I graduated from in 1991.  I've depended on the damn automobile for 15 years!  Yes, I'm homesick for Colorado, but I sure as hell don't miss the gas pump. For that alone, I love NY.

So I continued down Braodway, popped into a bookstore & skimmed through a quote book that was sitting on the front table.  One grabbed me. It's a quote by Sarah Bernhardt who died in 1923.

"Your words are as necessary to me as the sunlight and air.... Your words are my food, your breath my wine -- you are everything to me."  S.B.

Lovely.  So let's get to Hunter's words.  He wrote the following in 2002 about Pres. W. Bush & the fact that he is a dunce, a fool:

This is never an easy thing for the voters of this country to accept. 

No. Nonsense.  The president cannot be a Fool.  Not at this moment in time -- when the last living vestiges of the American Dream are on the line.  This is not the time to have bogus rich kid in charge of the White House.

Which is, after all, our house.  That is our headquarters -- it is where the heart of America lives.  So if the president lies and acts giddy about other people's lives -- if he wantonly and stupidly endorses mass murder as a logical plan to make sure we are still Number One -- he is a Jackass by definition -- a loud and meaningless animal with no functional intelligence and no balls.

--Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear

Until next time, your friend on foot,

Anita Thompson

Posted by Anita Thompson at 08:07 PM | Permalink Post a Comment:

"No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough."

--Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

That wisdom is one of my favorite lines from Vegas.  When I'm stressed, lonely, weird or insecure, it comes in handy to silently repeat it, like a mantra...  Try it sometime.  It works.

I'm in New York planning my classes for the fall, and looking for an apartment -- in Harlem.  What is the population of all the humans on earth?  5 billion?  They all seem to be right here in NYC this week.

  To respond to those of you who have emailed with worries about Owl Farm: rest assured that I'm not leaving Owl Farm . It and all the animals are in the very able hands of loved ones and professionals awaiting my return.  We also ratched up security several more notches since I won't be there with the 12 guage. But... no worries, Owl Farm will always be Owl Farm. I've been slowly restoring some things like the War Room, which turned into a storage room sometime in the late 80's.  It is the room that Hunter wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in and planned his Sheriff's campaign.  The trustees are also commited to keeping Owl Farm away from Developers and the I.R.S. and other undesirables. So, consider this a temporary move and I will continue the Woody Creeker and the blog. 

Guess what?  I have a gift from Ralph Steadman.  He emailed it last night--just for you Owl Farm Blog Readers...  It's actually a SONG he wrote. About...  well... Zits.

Zits on your nose

Zits on your face

Zits all over the goddamn place

Zits

Zits

Zits

 

I've got zits

I've got zits

Zits breakn' out

 

Zits

Zits

Zits 'll go to heaven -- but me, I doubt.

(I think it will need the power of re-formed members of Led Zepplin to do it justice --Ralph Steadman)

So, there we have it.  More HST / STEADman wisdom coming oh so very soon....

your friend, cramped in with the rest of the NYC population,

Anita Thompson

Posted by Anita Thompson at 06:02 PM | Permalink Post a Comment:

My computer at the library logged out unexpectedly when they were closing and I forgot to complete the interview when I got home.  So, here is the rest Hunter’s answer to George Plimpton’s question he asked Hunter one night about 5 years ago for a Paris Review interview.  George Plimpton asked “What’s the appeal of the “outlaw” writer, such as yourself?

Hunter said:

I just usually go with my own taste.   If I like something, and it happens to be against the law, well, I might have a problem.  But an outlaw can be defined as somebody who lives outside the law, beyond the law, not necessarily against it.  It’s pretty ancient.  It goes back to Scandinavian history.  People were declared outlaws and were cast out of the community and sent to foreign lands – exiled.  They operated outside the law in communities all over Greenland and Iceland, wherever they drifted.  Outside the law in the countries they came from – I don’t think they were trying to be outlaws… I was never trying, necessarily, to be an outlaw.  It was just the place in which I found myself.  By the time I started Hells’ Angels I was riding with them and it was clear that it was no longer possible for me to go back and live within the law.  Between Vietnam and weed – a whole generation was criminalized in that time.  You realize that you are subject to being busted. A lot of people grew up with that attitude.  There were a lot more outlaws than me.  I was just a writer.  I wasn’t trying to be an outlaw writer.  I never heard of the term; somebody else made it up.  But we were all outside the law:  Kerouac, Miller, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kesey; I didn’t have a gauge as to who was the worst outlaw.  I just recognized my allies: my people.

Until next time, your friend,

Anita Thompson

Posted by Anita Thompson at 02:49 PM | Permalink Post a Comment:

Hi.  I had a wonderful time at a going away party the Stranahans and Owseley's put on for me at the Stranahan art gallery/barn.  It was wonderful to see everyone there.  People I haven't seen in a while, like Joe Edwards, the sheriff, and my old friends from the snowboard shop that I used to work at 14 years ago!  It was really fun.  A ton of food and drinks, and a car load full of school supplies!

Anyway, I happened to be reading the following from an exerpt from an interview George Plimpton did with Hunter about 6 years ago.

GP: What's the appeal fo the "outlaw writer, such as yourself?"

HST:  I just usually go with my own taste.  If I like something, and

Posted by Anita Thompson at 04:55 PM | Permalink Post a Comment:

Yes, I’ve been out of touch again. Sorry.  I’ve been going full speed on several fronts getting ready for my move to NY.  Then I put my shoulder out and have it in a sling now.  BAD TIMING.  So, typing just takes a little longer.   But I haven’t forgotten about you.  And my physical therapist, Peg O’Brien worked wonders on me today. 

The HST wisdom for today is a quote about SPEEDISM that Hunter wrote a few years ago after we had dinner at Butch’s Lobster bar in Snowmass.   He gave 5 rules for driving fast.  You can read them in Kingdom of Fear. They are a guide for speed-junkies otherwise known as “victims of speedism.” Hunter said people like Richard Pryor and Sid Vicious set themselves on fire while researching the Speedism virus.

He said they were helpless Victims of a highly contagious Virus, “Speedata Viruuseum” as Hunter called it. He also said that speedism can be Fatal when mixed with high-speed automobiles and whiskey.

1.Make sure your car is functioning on all mechanical and electronical levels.
2. Get familiar with the Brake pressure on your machine before you drive any faster than 10 mph.
3. Have no small wrecks (If you are going to loop out and hit something, hit it hard.)
4. Avoid, at all costs, the use of Any drug or drink or Hubris that leads you to steal a car and crash it to feel the rush of the airbag.
5.The eating schedule should be as follows;

-Hot fresh spinach, Wellfleet oysters, and thick slabs of sourdough garlic toast with salt and black pepper.  Eat this two hours before departure…The smoking of powerful hashish should be saved until after your return from the drive, when nerve-ends are crazy and raw.

 

Tomorrow I will excerpt a bit of my interview with Doug Brinkley. 

Okay! Your friend,

Anita Thompson

Posted by Anita Thompson at 09:14 PM | Permalink Post a Comment:

My intern Laura complained to me yesterday about the blog. She said "Jesus! That was a lame blog. All you did was post the longest definition in the history of the internet! I couldn't even read the whole thing. You call that a blog!" I looked at my other intern Liz, who felt compelled to shake her head sadly. I responded with a shrug and agreed to change it. I'll do it this afternoon. So far, they are the only ones to complain.

Anyway, your friend,

Anita Thompson

p.s. maybe I'll post the part of Doug's interview that I was referring to.

Posted by Anita Thompson at 12:26 PM | Permalink Post a Comment:

Hi guys.  Please accept my apology for my long absence.  I've been working.  One of my last interviews was with Doug Brinkley about Hunter for the Gonzo Way.  He ended it with a word I haven't heard in a while: Brave 

So, I thought I'd post the definition so that we can have it in our consciousness: 

brave

adj 1: possessing or displaying courage; able to face and deal with danger or fear without flinching; "Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver but less daring"- Herman Melville; "a frank courageous heart...triumphed over pain"- William Wordsworth; "set a courageous example by leading them safely into and out of enemy-held territory" [syn: courageous, fearless] [ant: cowardly] 2: invulnerable to fear or intimidation; "audacious explorers"; "fearless reporters and photographers"; "intrepid pioneers" [syn: audacious, dauntless, fearless, intrepid, unfearing] 3: brightly colored and showy; "girls decked out in brave new dresses"; "brave banners flying"; "`braw' is a Scottish word"; "a dress a bit too gay for her years"; "birds with gay plumage" [syn: braw, gay] n 1: a North American Indian warrior 2: people who are brave; "the home of the free and the brave" [ant: timid] v : face or endure with courage; "She braved the elements" [syn: weather, endure, brave out]

bravely adv.
braveness n.

Synonyms: brave, courageous, fearless, intrepid, bold, audacious, valiant, valorous, mettlesome, plucky, dauntless, undaunted
These adjectives mean having or showing courage under difficult or dangerous conditions. Brave, the least specific, is frequently associated with an innate quality: “Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver” (Herman Melville). Courageous implies consciously rising to a specific test by drawing on a reserve of inner strength: The courageous soldier helped the civilians escape from the enemy. Fearless emphasizes absence of fear and resolute self-possession: “world-class [boating] races for fearless loners willing to face the distinct possibility of being run down, dismasted, capsized, attacked by whales” (Jo Ann Morse Ridley). Intrepid sometimes suggests invulnerability to fear: Intrepid pioneers settled the American West. Bold stresses readiness to meet danger or difficulty and often a tendency to seek it out: “If we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at the hazard of their lives... then bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by” (Theodore Roosevelt). Audacious implies extreme confidence and boldness: “To demand these God-given rights is to seek black powerwhat I call audacious power” (Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.). Valiant suggests the bravery of a hero or a heroine: “a sympathetic and detailed biography that sees Hemingway as a valiant and moral man” (New York Times). Valorous applies to the deeds of heroes and heroines: “The other hostages [will] never forget her calm, confident, valorous work” (William W. Bradley). Mettlesome stresses spirit and love of challenge: “her horse, whose mettlesome spirit required a better rider” (Henry Fielding). Plucky emphasizes spirit and heart in the face of unfavorable odds: “Everybody was... anxious to show these Belgians what England thought of their plucky little country” (H.G. Wells). Dauntless refers to courage that resists subjection or intimidation: “So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,/There never was knight like the young Lochinvar” (Sir Walter Scott). Undaunted suggests persistent courage and resolve: “Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey.... We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible” (Winston S. Churchill).

Until next time, Your friend,

Anita Thompson

Posted by Anita Thompson at 01:19 PM | Permalink Post a Comment:

Hi.  As most of us know, Hunter spent a lot of time thinking about what he called the end of the American Century.  Maybe he was right.  I don’t know.  I came across something he wrote in 2003 one night as he was contemplating --as was the case oh so often -- the direction of this country.  He was thinking about how The United States was approaching "another ominous polarization between right and wrong.” And the wisdom of going to war with a whole world of Muslims.  He went on:

            Well, shucks.  What can I say?  We are coming to a fork in the road for this country, another ominous polarization between right and wrong, another political mandate to decide “What side are you on?”… Maybe a bumper sticker that asks ARE YOU SANE OR INSANE?             

 I have confronted that question on a daily basis all my life, as if it were just another form to fill out, and on most days I have checked off the SANE box – if only because I am not dead or in prison or miserable in my life.

-- Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear

Well, that makes me think of a part of a book by Doris Goodwin about Abraham Lincoln subtitled the political genius of Abraham Lincoln..  Doris points out how Abe recovered from a serious personal downward spiral:

“In times of anxiety it is critical to ‘avoid being idle,’ that ‘business and conversation of friends’  were necessary to give the mind ‘rest from that intensity of thought, which will some times wear the sweetest idea threadbare and turn it to the bitterness of death.”  He returned to his law practice and his duties in the legislature, resuming his work…”

Hmmm.  I don’t know what got me on to that riff.  Maybe I should get back to work on The Gonzo Way Manuscript and check in with you tomorrow.

Until next time, your friend,

Anita Thompson

Posted by Anita Thompson at 01:47 PM | Permalink Post a Comment:

“Politics is the art of Controlling your environment.”

--Hunter S. Thompson

Today I have to give you the grim news about what Gary Hart had to say last Wed. about the Middle East.  When I started the blog, I didn’t intend on getting into this sort of topic because I am not a statesman. But the headlines on every decent newspaper in the country are making me worried & angry.  So here is a small excerpt from my interview with Senator Gary Hart, whom Hunter respected and admired deeply: 

Anita Thompson: You have been paying attention to  the midde east and the security of this country for so many years, as you were one of the people to issue a warning to the administration 8 months before Sept 11.  Warning that something like that was going to happen.  You talked to Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, you talked to Condoleezza Rice.  I know neither Bush nor Cheney would see you. After it happened, so many organizations and journalists said "God, why didn't we listen??"  Can you tell us if peace is possible in the Middle East?

 Gary Hart: Well, it’s necessary because of this: the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.  In sixty years since the founding of Israel, you could have these wars where somebody wins and somebody loses, and Israel usually won, and whoever was attacking would go home and sulk and still hate Israel and then frictions would continue.  And one terrorist group would give way to another.  But by and large, except for the ’67 war where two other armies crossed borders, it was low intensity conflict—terrorist kind of operations, suicide bombers.

But we are somewhere between five and twenty years away from all kinds of not just countries, but other kinds of organizations getting weapons of mass destruction.  So we can’t have this continuing friction over there because sooner or later,( I mean Israel does have [weapons of mass destruction] even though they won’t admit it,) but what about when Saudi Arabia gets them? When Egypt gets them? and then the arsenals are not protected… God only knows.  So I think unless you want the whole Middle East blown up, we have got to figure out a solution to this.

AT: If you could give Condoleezza Rice some advice?

GH: Well, I would  give it to George Bush and it would be “you wasted five years and we’re partly to blame for what’s going on.”  We can’t negotiate peace by ourselves.  Clinton came as close as anyone.  Other presidents have tried: Carter, even Reagan (or people around Reagan.)  But the one clear thing is if we are not involved diplomatically on a continuing basis trouble is going to happen.  So we have to be present and visible and that means the president (who hates it there, who [doesn’t go] there… being visible and telling people in the region that he, the president and this country cares about what’s going on over there.

AT: Cares about peace.

GH: Yeah.  And lay out an agenda, when he isn’t up there then it’s the secretary of state, the national security advisor, any senior diplomat he’s got to constantly appear going from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Beirut, Damascus.  [Currently] We are not talking to anyone.  It’s crazy.

AT: So the lack of communications is crazy.

GH: And leadership.  Leadership crystallizing, saying “ok, here’s what you want” and then going to the next guy “ok, here’s what they want.  What do you want?”   and being that broker, and constantly keeping the governments focused on that agenda… .  And the United States, at least up to now, can still do that.  But we are losing enormous credibility.  Bush just didn’t want to be involved.  So it’s a race.  It’s a race against time. Time is a critical factor.  When terrorist organizations or their sponsors get a hold of weapons of mass destruction, the whole situation then changes.  Because most weapons will get into the hands not of reasonable people but people who hate Israel so much that they are willing to drop the bomb right in the middle of Tel Aviv and kill about a million Israelis.

AT: And you, not long before September 11^th, you actually issued a similar warning. And nobody listened. 

Posted by Anita Thompson at 05:49 PM | Permalink Post a Comment:

Hi. For some reason I was inspired today to read one of Hunter’s wonderfully  twisted stories you know of as S-C-R-E-W-J-A-C-K.  Oh yes.  Remember Screwjack?  Hunter often used it as a test, to see who could handle the kitchen and who couldn’t.  Seven years ago, when he finally decided to have me read it,  I passed the test…just barely.  Anyway, here is a bit of it:

       I am guilty, Lord, but I am also a lover – and I am one of your best people, as you know; and yea tho I have walked in many strange shadows and acted crazy from time to time and even drooled on many High Priests, I have not been an embarrassment to you… So leave me alone, goddamnit, and send Mr. Screwjack back to me; and if the others have any questions of snide comments about it, tell them to eat shit and die.

       Who among them is pure enough to cast the first stone?  Or to look on me with those rheumy courtroom eyes and say that I was wrong…. 

That’s all I can divulge to you from that story.  I don’t want to spoil it for those of you who haven’t read it. It’s a hot one.

Until next time, your friend,

Anita Thompson

Owl Farm

Posted by Anita Thompson at 08:46 PM | Permalink Post a Comment:

Hi. I just got back from a great afternoon with Gary Hart and Doug Brinkley in Denver. They both send their regards and I’ll be excerpting my interviews with them in The Gonzo Way and The Woody Creeker. Isn’t it fun to be in the company of VERY smart people? What? You say you love smart people? Me too. 
 
Okay, the HST wisdom for today is from a letter Hunter wrote to Paul Semonin in Jan 1964. This is many years before Hunter declared Bob Dylan, Muhammad Ali and Fidel Castro his three life-long heroes: 
 
Now and then I get the scent of a man with enough balls to try and whip things around to a decent position. Kennedy was one; Betancourt was another; Castro was and may still be; I even go along now and then withKhrushchev. This man Nyerere in Tanganika may be one, but I barely know him. And I’m sure there are others – but that doesn’t really alter my basic feelings about power and government. It’s pretty old to say that “power corrupts,” but I think it does and I don’t think it corrupted Kennedy any more than it has Castro. 
-- Hunter S. Thompson, the Proud Highway. 
 
I picked that quote because it’s an interesting statement from Hunter about Power when he was only 27 years old and just starting to build some power of his own. 
FYI  here is a list of leaders Castro outlived (politically) and gives me a better perspective of his Reign: 
 
John F. Kennedy Us pres that Hunter truly loved (1961-1963) 
Lyndon Johnson U.S. Pres. (1963-1969) 
Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India (1966 –1977), (1980 – 1984) 
Richard Nixon Hunter’s favorite. Just kidding (1969-1974) 
Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt (1970 – 1981) 
Gerald Ford U.S. Pres. (1974-1977) 
Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli prime minister (1974 to 1977), (1992 – 1995) 
Jimmy Carter Hunter’s pick, president of US(1977-1981) 
Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of the UK (1979 - 1990) 
Daniel Ortega, president of Nicaragua (1979 – 1999) 
Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq (now in chains) (1979 – 2003) 
Ronald Reagan US pres (Brinkley working on his letters now (1981-1989) 
Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the Soviet Union (1985 – 1991) 
George H.W. Bush yes, the father (1989-1993) 
Lech Walesa, president of Poland (yeah! I’m Polish) (1990 – 1995) 
Bill Clinton pres US (1993-2001) 
Nelson Mandela, president of South Africa (1994 – 1999) 

Until next time, your friend, 
Anita Thompson 
back at Owl Farm. yeah.  
 
(p.s. special thanks to Owl Farm intern Laura Doty who made links for all the above names for me. thanks Laura) 
 

Posted by Anita Thompson at 09:07 PM | Permalink Post a Comment:

So everybody seemed to enjoy the contest. Me too. I love to play. Yes, the quote from yesterday was to Kraig Juenger in 1958 printed in The Proud Highway. Kraig and Hunter had a beautiful love affair in his early life. I’m grateful for all the smart beautiful women that came before me. 
  I would never have enough feathers for everyone who got the correct answer, but Owl Farm intern Liz Yount will be emailing all the participants back in the next few days. I was moved by the amount of people that know Hunter’s work inside & out and fired off the answer within minutes. Bravo. 
  I’ll bring out some political HST wisdom tomorrow. Today, however, I must post one more graf Hunter wrote to the beautiful Kraig Juenger: 

  In the final analysis, I think it is better that we left the ashes of the flame to settle on the white sands of the lonely Gulf Coast beach, where the wind can carry them over the dunes at night and back over the moonlit lowlands and the still waters of the bayous. That way, we are spared the agony of having to fan the flame in the teeming cities of the loud American north, where the mere act of life is so hurried and difficult that no one really has time for love. At least we have a memory unscarred by the horrors of democratic realities. Certainly it is not the typical vacation memory, where you have to forget nine-tenths of everything that happened, in order to enjoy the other tenth. No, it was actually a two-day love, with all the pungent emotion and atmosphere of the timeless ideal. Its ashes still float in the night over the lonely little hamlets of Choctawatchee Bay. 
--- Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway 

Indeed.  

And Guess what? I have a few nuggets of gonzo wisdom from Ralph Steadman. He emailed me a cache of them to post for you periodically. Here are a few, enjoy: 

 

 “-- Far more people have known poverty than riches 
-- A lot of nice people is a hell of a lot better than a lot of bad people but only half as interesting. 
--Time passes but we only pass water.” 
--Ralph Steadman, Kent, England. 
 
Okay. 
Until next time, your friend, 
Anita Thompson 
 
 

Posted by Anita Thompson at 10:59 AM | Permalink Post a Comment: