The Bay Area traffic scene is not a terrain I would recommend for people with malignant hearts or impending pregnancies. Thus, the introduction of tears in such an environ is like wearing green to Bal Thakerey's birthday party. The tears flow south, colorful specks like discarded bile in an acid infested tummy pass you by east and west and the sorrow wobbles on in every direction. It's a high unparalleled by that of any drug - a sorrow without a source you can completely pin point.
I had watched Gonzo: Life and Works of Hunter S. Thompson over the weekend, and while the experience had touched me, I wouldn't say it had moved me a considerable amount at the time. Hunter S. Thompson is the God who wrote the novel version of the Depp starrrer "Fear and Loathin in Las Vegas" where Depp plays the jouno/author himself. It is a scathing, sarcastic commentary on American consumerism and greed as Duke (played by Depp) and his attorney Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) set out in search of a 'phony' American Dream under the heavy influence of "every drug known to mankind since 1540 AD". Anyway watch the movie for a brilliant performance by Depp and director Terry Gilliam's twisted vision, reinforced by some psychadellic camera work.
Hunter even ran for mayor of Aspen, Colorado and to everyone's surprise managed to rake up 160K votes (the winning block of stone got 213K or so) with his ludicrous yet sane manifesto which included legalizing drugs. He was a stauch supporter of George McGovern in the '72 presidential elections who wanted to pull out troops from Vietnam immediately, and thus lost out to Nixon, chronicled in "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail". There is a point in an interview in the documentary when Hunter breaks down in anger and hatred for Nixon. The Bush re-election finally drove him to take his own life in 2005 at the age of 73, which is a shame, because I agree with his friends who feel that he could have weilded a pretty effective sword with his Gonzo journalism on today's events. People like John Stewart and Colbert are but modern day minions of Hunter.
Maybe it was the songs on the soundtrack CD of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" that I bought yesterday in San Francisco's Hippie Haight-Ashbury area, where Hunter hung out a lot, or the sudden realization of the loss of sanity and clarity that has descended upon us, or a looming personal tragedy that triggered the tears, but I cannot say for sure. All I can say is that it was the worst kind of sadness.
White noise is a random signal (or process) with a flat power spectral density. In other words, the signal's power spectral density has equal power in any band, at any center frequency, having a given bandwidth. White noise is considered analogous to white light which contains all frequencies.
Who am I?
- ArSENik
- Neo-hippie cinephile. Follower of the great Jim Morrison who once said "If the doors of perception are cleansed, everything would appear to man as it truly is, infinite."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
I watched that film for Depp's sake......but too much psychedelics and drugs , I thought. Makes a sane people feel sick.
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" surely one of Depp's best performances. For some reason Shomeek never got to watch the movie and I keep telling him he should. One of my ex boyfriend actually introduced me to Depp's movies - thanks to him for that. I do agree with 'what's in a name' - at the end of it I was feeling sick too. :)
@WIAN, Mala: I think the whole point was to make the audience sick, since that's how Hunter felt after the trip, not just because of the drugs, but also because of the phoniness of the American Dream and the obscene green and consumerism (no better place than Vegas to find that I guess).
@Mala: Depp, the method actor that he is, actually spent 4 months with Hunter before shooting, learning his mannerisms and even copying his voice to an extent. He even exchanged his own car with Hunter's red convertible (the Red Shark in the movie) for the duration of the shoot. Hunter himself shaved Depp's head for the role in his own kitchen.
Depp became good friends with hunter and claims it to be his best performance to date. It's a difficult one, but I think I agree.
Post a Comment