August 2010
10 posts
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The first paragraph is such a great opener and the book doesn’t really lose that momentum until halfway in, when the first round of drugs begin to wear off.
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive…” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: “Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?”
Last summer, I read The Rum Diary, in which Thompson’s alter ego Paul Kemp works for a paper in Puerto Rico, but spends most of his time drinking rum with ice and getting too close to the girlfriend of an incredibly hench friend of his. Between diving for lobster, dancing at a carnival and getting into fights with the locals, Thompson reflects on growing old (Paul Kemp is 30, and although Thompson was 22 at the time, he felt his dreams of becoming a writer had stalled.)
Like most of the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top. At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles - a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other - that kept me going.
In Fear and Loathing…, Paul Kemp has been replaced by Raoul Duke and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, and they’re in search of the American Dream. If you’ve seen the Terry Gilliam film you might be surprised to learn that, despite all its visual weirdness, for the most part the film is incredibly faithful to the novel. The descriptions of drug-taking are far removed from the lame hazy psychedelic cliches of, say, ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ by the Beatles. They’re so real and so fun that the book stalls a little when Duke sobers up.
Thompson’s hell-raising anecdotes are shot through with original and unmediated reflection. The anecdotes pull you through the story, and the reflection gives it meaning. Despite his affected, myth-making style, he gets closer to the truth than most ‘straight’ journalists could ever hope to.
Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of ‘the rat race’ is not yet final.
Boy Runner / Saints
A Number of Young Lovers
From a live show by A Number of Young Lovers recorded in the living room of 4A Hartington Rd, Brighton, UK. (Thanks to Holly for taking the photos in the previous posts!) There are two songs here and they are the last of the set. Boy Runner is a song based on a newspaper story. Saints features a verse and a chorus about my favourite sea creature, the nautilus.
Lyrics
Boy Runner
Strung up upside down,
hanging from the ceiling fan.
And though I’m scolded and beat,
I wear a smile, not a frown,
upside down.
It’s my new nature to run.
I’ll pound the streets with a tyre around my waist.
And every step is money
for the folks back home.
My pretty face on the front page:
“Those kids belong in a government home.”
They won’t protect us,
we don’t got the money.
Got to make it alone.
My parents don’t own me.
My boss, he don’t own me.
If I just kept on running…
Saints
So the light covers the forest floor,
depending on the positions of the leaves.
And creatures defend this shifting territory,
from their competitors’ offense and mischief.
Your todays, you recollect, then they gather regret
like books gather dust
if left on the shelf. The love that you gave,
the love you witheld may leave you frustrated.
Each month he moves on a chamber;
it’s where the moon reaches the sea.
And galaxies, when he adds a layer,
share his style, logarithmically.
If you fell out of step
with the moon,
then your growth might be delayed,
or come too soon.
Each month you would reside in a chamber
of ill-fitting size.
You might find that you miss connections,
and misplace your life.
These legs,
though not fully grown
will carry me forward.
- Forwards.
(Come, Umm Kulthum, come to Cario)
And though my back is torn,
pain is something I’ve learned to ignore.
- Oh.
(Come, Umm Kulthum, come to Cario)
An uncluttered head,
sees the sky and the land and runs.
- And runs.
(Come, Umm Kulthum, come to Cario)
I fear a time is coming
when I can no longer ignore my saints.
- My saints.
(Come, Umm Kulthum, come to Cario)
Oh blessed saints,
oh Michael, oh Catherine, oh Margaret,
- Spare me.
(Come, Umm Kulthum, come to Cario)
You’ve blessed my eyes,
and I would like nothing more than to be gone,
as you are
“Although music is halal, promoting and teaching it is not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic. It’s better that our dear youth spend their valuable time in learning science and essential and useful skills and fill their time with sport and healthy recreations instead of music.”
—Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran
“An instrumental album is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I have the ideas for it. I want to call it The Planets. I don’t even know if I should be saying this, but fuck it. [Laughs.] It’s just my interpretation of what each planet sounds like. I’m gonna go off on that. Just all instrumental. I’ve been studying the planets and learning the personalities of each planet. I’ve been doing this for about two years now just in my spare time so to speak. I wanna do it in surround sound. It’ll have to be in surround sound for Saturn to work.”
—Dr. Dre
A Good Sleep is Not One in a Courtroom
A Number of Young Lovers
From a live show by A Number of Young Lovers recorded in the living room of 4A Hartington Rd, Brighton, UK. This song begins with birth and then tracks back through evolutionary stages… Also, I’d just started a new job with an old friend of mine. I hadn’t seen him since primary school and he had grown up to look almost exactly like Rod Stewart.
Lyrics
I was born…
I was born
a swimmer.
Before I was born
I was a swimmer.
I’m a whale who walked right into your heart.
I’m a monkey filled with opinions on art.
I’m a swimmer,
oh.
Urine stings my leg.
Your best friend from school
grows up to look like Rod Stewart.
Rod Stewart,
yeah.
A good sleep is not one in a courtroom.
I was born with water and a cord on.
A good sleep is not one in a courtroom.
I was born with water and a cord on.
Let’s roll around in our underwear.
I was born without whiskers and hair.
