Gonzo Blogging

6:15 p.m. Sunday:  V just came in to find out if we are going to the movies as planned tonight.  I wasn't at the computer as you might expect.  It was 6 p.m. and I was in bed.  Asleep.  And not because V and I are again ships passing in the night. 

This morning we got out of bed at approximately the same time: 6:30.  I'm noticing that even though I go to sleep really late, recently I started waking up really early most days with ideas for a blog.  Today I didn't get up with blog on the brain.  I got up to drive my son to an airport almost 2 hours away.  When I got home 4 hours later, V was watching TV sports and I was tired---but not too tired to resist the computer--trying to learn how to use the scanner I bought a year ago, and discovering how "popular" I had become on the Huffington Post.  But after awhile, even being popular---exciting as that was---couldn't prevent exhaustion---and I decided to take a nap.

I almost never nap.  After I wake up from a nap, I can't fall asleep again for hours afterwards-- which pushes me even further away from the Pacific Time Zone and edges me closer to the international date line.  But today I was too sleep-deprived to care and crawled into bed at 2 in the afternoon.  Which is where I would still be if V had not just come to rouse me to go to the movie which starts in an hour and a half.  But I can't move.  I want to stay in bed.

I am the one who chose this movie: "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson."  I would have seen it just based on the reviews, but this also happens to be a documentary about someone I actually knew.  Only slightly, but knew.

I was a huge fan, especially after reading "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" which he wrote about the McGovern campaign at the same time I was working on the campaign.  By the time I met him, I was no longer working in politics, but covering it, for the local CBS-TV station in Miami.  Jimmy Carter was running for President, and the national press spent a lot of time in Miami during the campaign season. 

What I remember most clearly is one night when I was home at my apartment in Miami and Hunter called from Key West.  (I bet you're thinking: phone sex.  Especially if you know anything about his lifestyle.  Although it might spice up my image... over the few months I knew him, the truth is---no sex, just phone.)  Anyway what was on Hunter's mind that night was..."The Blob."  He was watching it on late night TV down in Key West and couldn't believe I'd never seen such a classic.  So even though I had to be at work the next morning, he made me turn on the TV so he could give me a running commentary of "The Blob" as I watched with him over the phone from bed.

30 years later, the same key words tonight:  Hunter S. Thompson.  Movie. Bed.  How ironic.  But this time I can't watch the movie from bed. I take a pass.

V is one of those people who has no problem seeing a movie by himself.  And he's willing to wait to see the movie with me.  So he goes off to get the movie section of the paper, while I start thinking about "The Blob"--and the blog.  Hunter--and what a good sport my husband has been about my new obsession.

He comes back in 5 minutes.  Instead of "Gonzo" he is going to see "Swing Vote."  I am getting up by now and I tell him to forget about "Swing Vote."  I saw the preview.  And though I'd like to save V from seeing it, what actually gets me out of bed, once again, is a blog.

Hunter was a legend, who pushed the envelope in journalism and in life.  I figure I should be able to make it to his movie and at the same time, push the envelope of my blog---if not in his style, in his honor. 

So I tell V to hold tight for awhile and I sit down at the computer.  What comes out is what you just read.  A galaxy away from Hunter Thompson who was truly brilliant.   But as I am writing it feels less like a column and more like....a blog.  I don't have a point to make.  Or even a purpose.  Which makes this maybe my first blog in the way a "web log" was meant to be--like an online journal.  I look at the clock and see that writing this blog took 20 minutes.  Which gives us just enough time to make it to the movie "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson."

10:30 pm.:  Now that I'm home again and you have read all the way to the end, it turns out that there is a point to this blog after all.  And it is:  See this movie.

Comments

[marriedwithpets]

hunter was a legend, and still is to me. i love his work, his humor and never underestimated his intelligence even though his addictions got the best of him, which may have been the worst of him. at any rate, i cant wait to hear more gonzo-esque stories.

[Darryle]

The most amazing stories are in this movie--told by the people who knew him best. His story is perfect on the big screen since he always was so much larger than life.