Hunter S. Thompson - The strangest memorial EVER

[Niko]

Thompson's ashes to be shot from cannon

'He loved explosions'

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- Hunter S. Thompson's ashes will be blasted from a cannon mounted inside a 53-foot-high (16.15 meter-high) sculpture of the journalist's "gonzo fist" emblem, his wife said Tuesday. The cannon shot, planned sometime in August on the grounds of his Aspen-area home, will fulfill the writer's long-cherished wish.

"It's expensive, but worth every penny," Anita Thompson said. "I'd like to have several explosions. He loved explosions."

Thompson, 67, shot himself in the head on February 20 after a long and flamboyant career that produced such new journalism classics as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and cast his image as a hard-charging, drug-crazed daredevil.

The cannon shot will be part of a larger public celebration of Thompson's life. Some details remain to be worked out, including the exact date, what kind of cannon will be used and the specifics of the gonzo fist, his wife said.

She said the gonzo fist will be mounted on a 100-foot pillar, making the monument 153 feet (46.63 meters) high. It will resemble Thompson's personal symbol, a fist on an upthrust forearm, sometimes with "Gonzo" emblazoned across it.

Anita Thompson has said the monument will be a permanent fixture on the writer's 100-acre property.

She said planning for the fist has been guided by a video of Thompson and longtime illustrator-collaborator Ralph Steadman, recorded in the late 1970s when they visited a Hollywood funeral home and began mapping out the cannon scheme.

Meanwhile, Playboy magazine this week is publishing an interview with Thompson based on a series of conversations he had with magazine staffer Tim Mohr in December.

In the interview Thompson discusses a range of topics from political freedom to the best kind of snow tires to buy but offers no obvious hints of his impending suicide.

"He was really enthusiastic and full of energy," Mohr told The Associated Press on Monday. Thompson even talked about embarking on a long-term project to expand the Playboy piece into a book, "a guide to life, sort of a handbook," Mohr said.

The interview appears in the magazine's May issue, which hits newsstands Friday.


http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/...r.thompson.ap/

[decypher]

this months rolling stone... a must read! so much stuff on hunter s.thompson

[ebbomega]

Someone posted this on P6 a while ago.

Seriously. If this is a public event it'll be like fucking Burning Man.

[Ryan Ross]

Timothy Leary (Harvard prof turned LSD enthusiast) had his remains shot into space to orbit the earth for 3-10 years until he burned up upon re-entry. I'd say that comes pretty close to being the strangest memorial ever... I guess drugs make you want to explode somehow upon death. Who knew?

[decypher]

^^ anyone can get that done, it costs like 10,000 to send your remains to conjugate with space debri haha

[mapleleaf4ever]

Who doesn't love Explosions? I sure as hell love them too!

[Ryan Ross]

Originally Posted by decypher

^^ anyone can get that done, it costs like 10,000 to send your remains to conjugate with space debri haha

haha wow... i think his was different though, he wasnt just blasted into space. His remains were in a rocket that orbited earth for a fair number of years until the rocket burned up coming back into earth's atmosphere. I think that would be a tad more than 10 grand

[decypher]

When i die i'm gonna get shot to Mars in a refrigerated capsule where the remains of my DNA will thrive to form a new civilization.

[clevich]

god bless the doctor of journalism. I'll be wearing my hawaiian shirt, smoking a cigar, and sporting my fisherman hat the day of.

[Hot Karl]

i'm gonna miss him.

but a fitting tribute.