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Fishhead Family Reunited
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Slightly Off Center
 
2005-03-07, 12:12

mmm, another article, that ties in the Radiators and Hunter S. Thompson...

Quote:
Hunter Thompson's Family Memorializes Gonzo Writer

Hollywood Celebrities Also Attend

POSTED: 7:41 am MST March 6, 2005

ASPEN, Colo. -- The luxurious Hotel Jerome and residents of this mountain resort town fulfilled the wish of Hunter S. Thompson's family to keep a private party memorializing the gonzo journalist Saturday night private.

Outside, a careful passerby might have noticed Johnny Depp, who portrayed Thompson in a film adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," and John Cusack slipping into the hotel along with guests with printed invitations. Inside, the hotel's ballroom was decorated with a giant American flag and an almost life-size black and white photo cutout of Thompson standing in front of it.

"I think that's why he lived here. He didn't get tons of public exposure. People had to come find him," Aspen resident Anna Bugge said of Thompson, who shot himself at his nearby home in Woody Creek on Feb. 20. She said she hadn't heard of the party.

Outside the ballroom, with tables decorated in red and black, were dozens of photographs of Thompson. A sign outside the doorway said "Thompson for Sheriff," a reference to Thompson's almost-successful 1970 bid (Thompson reportedly ran his campaign from the hotel's J Bar). Colored banners with the word "gonzo" forming the handle of a sword topped with a fist hung from the walls. A TV was playing the film "Breakfast with Hunter."

A few blocks away at the Belly Up, where Thompson's family originally intended to have the private party, the Radiators dedicated their show Saturday night to Thompson.

"I was in the generation that read 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,'" bassist Reggie Scanlan said. "Nobody had read any kind of journalism like that before," Scanlan said.

He said he was disappointed the party was moved.

"I would say, if it's going to be crazy, let's go for it," he said. "It'd be in the spirit of Hunter Thompson. His memory would be served to have it as chaotic and out of control as possible," he joked.

Back at Hotel Jerome, Peter Glover of Minneapolis said he had read "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" in high school. He took the book with him on his first trip to Las Vegas in college.

"We flipped to a page and put our finger down and tried to do whatever drugs Hunger was doing," said Glover, 38. He was in town to hear the Radiators.
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