*whew* u guys r life savers!! i was just about 2 go and buy the edition that's out right now [which i can't find 4 under $20 n e where]...this SE is gonna b awesome, as The Criterion Collection always is (just saw The Last Temptation of Christ), thanx alot guys!!



Edited By musafir02 on 1042299928

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/OttawaSun ... 0-sun.html

Mon, February 21, 2005

Gonzo to the bitter end

Counterculture icon Hunter S. Thompson shoots himself

ASPEN, COLO. -- Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, fatally shot himself last night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

Besides the 1972 drug-hazed classic about Thompson's visit to Las Vegas, he also wrote Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72. The central character in those wild, sprawling satires was "Dr. Thompson," a snarling, drug- and alcohol-crazed observer and participant.

Thompson is credited with pioneering New Journalism -- or, as he dubbed it, "gonzo journalism" -- in which the writer made himself an essential component of the story. Much of his earliest work appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.

"Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairy-tale artist," Thompson told the AP in 2003. "You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it."

'DARK, VENAL'

An acute observer of the decadence and depravity in American life, Thompson also wrote such collections as Generation of Swine and Songs of the Doomed.

Thompson was a counterculture icon at the height of the Watergate era, and Richard Nixon once said he represented "that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character."

Thompson also was the model for Gary Trudeau's balding Uncle Duke in the comic strip Doonesbury and was portrayed on screen by Johnny Depp in a film adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

THOMPSON'S BOOKS
- Hey Rube (2004)
- Kingdom of Fear (2002)
- Fear and Loathing in America (2000)
- The Rum Diary (1998)
- The Proud Highway (1997)
- Better Than Sex (1994)
- Screwjack: And Other Stories (1991)
- Songs of the Doomed (1990)
- Generation of Swine (1988)
- The Curse of Lono (1983)
- The Great Shark Hunt (1975)
- Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (1972)
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971)
- Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (1967)

If any one wants to catch it in theatre, "Fear anf Loathing in Las Vegas" seems to be making art theatre/ film festival rounds.

Toronto listing:
http://www.cinemaclock.com/aw/cmva.aw?p ... _Las_Vegas

"Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas"

Playing this week at:

Royal (Festival)
606 College St., (at Grace St.), Toronto
Thu: 9:10