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Thursday, May 31, 2007

R.U. Sirius interviews B. Duke

The RU Sirius Show recently had a great show where he interviewed a writer/performer who evokes Hunter S. Thompson in a theater piece called "Gonzo: A Brutal Chrysalis." A text version of the interview has now been posted on 10 Zen Monkeys.

RU: Is this writing, basically, you trying to do the voice of Hunter S. Thompson? Are you incorporating his stuff? Is it all him? How does it work?
BD: I had originally intended to take certain passages from Fear and Loathing in America : The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist and kind of knit them together. I quickly abandoned that. I knew it wasn't going to work. Also, we would run afoul of copyright issues with the estate and I don't really care for his widow. She's done several stupid things that I really detest. So I didn't want to pour more gasoline on that fire. And unlike Johnny Depp or Bill Murray, I didn't have the luxury of moving into Thompson's house and getting the Hunter experience.
So I did more research and it was the political stuff that he did that really caught my attention. And at that time, I live alone. So I had a great luxury of time to myself to do this. And I really kind of absorbed him through his letters, and went back and re-read things that I had read before, in the context of the letters, to get the complete effect. And I really allowed him to take me over. I spent a lot of time with my eyes closed imagining the world as he would see it.
And it's very easy to translate elements of his frustration -- the Vietnam war to the Iraq war; spineless, useless Democrats to spineless, useless Democrats; vile Republicans to vile Republicans. Oil companies fucking everybody.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:49:14 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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Support Bloggers' Rights! HOWTO: Get a link posted to Boing Boing Boing Boing Mobile powered by Winksite Fark rules! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States [and other countries]. Stats (About our stats) defeat censorware Policies Our first five years' worth of posts in one file	View a recent day: June 10 \| June 09 \| June 08 \| previous days \| by month and year Thursday, May 31, 2007 R.U. Sirius interviews B. Duke The RU Sirius Show recently had a great show where he interviewed a writer/performer who evokes Hunter S. Thompson in a theater piece called "Gonzo: A Brutal Chrysalis." A text version of the interview has now been posted on 10 Zen Monkeys. RU: Is this writing, basically, you trying to do the voice of Hunter S. Thompson? Are you incorporating his stuff? Is it all him? How does it work? BD: I had originally intended to take certain passages from Fear and Loathing in America : The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist and kind of knit them together. I quickly abandoned that. I knew it wasn't going to work. Also, we would run afoul of copyright issues with the estate and I don't really care for his widow. She's done several stupid things that I really detest. So I didn't want to pour more gasoline on that fire. And unlike Johnny Depp or Bill Murray, I didn't have the luxury of moving into Thompson's house and getting the Hunter experience. So I did more research and it was the political stuff that he did that really caught my attention. And at that time, I live alone. So I had a great luxury of time to myself to do this. And I really kind of absorbed him through his letters, and went back and re-read things that I had read before, in the context of the letters, to get the complete effect. And I really allowed him to take me over. I spent a lot of time with my eyes closed imagining the world as he would see it. And it's very easy to translate elements of his frustration -- the Vietnam war to the Iraq war; spineless, useless Democrats to spineless, useless Democrats; vile Republicans to vile Republicans. Oil companies fucking everybody. Link posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:49:14 PM permalink \| Other blogs' comments View a recent day: June 10, 2007 \| June 09, 2007 \| June 08, 2007 \| June 07, 2007 \| June 06, 2007 \| June 05, 2007 \| June 04, 2007 \| previous days \| all BB archives by month and year Email this entry to: Your email address: Message (optional):	Boing Boing Sponsored by: Your Text Ad Here Get BB by email: