http://www.boulderweekly.com/?site_id=619&id_sub=15933&page_id=15933&pagenum=36
A new book written by personal friends of Hunter S. Thompson sheds
light on the man behind the myth
by Ben Corbett
February 7-13, 2008
Written words are meant to be heard orally, and Hunter S. Thompson
absolutely loved hearing his work read aloud. He savored the ring of
carefully selected words and the echo of a reader engaging in his
genius. And whether it was visiting celebrities, those in his daily
orbit, or newcomers passing through Owl Farm, his ranch in Woody
Creek, nobody escaped the fun. He'd pull something out of the pile of
books and magazines by the window, flip it open, point to a paragraph
and say, "Start there." If Hunter was in a grumpy mood, he'd soon be
purring like a kitten, throwing out a "Wow!" when you passed a
certain twist of words, followed by a "Jesus Christ!" when you
finished. But if you were a slapdash reader, look out. Thompson would
correct your mispronunciations, criticize your cadence with a "Slow
down!" and make you restart a passage if you botched it badly. For example:
Hunter S. Thompson lives in a fortified compound near Aspen, Colorado.
"Read that again," he'd say gingerly. "Slower this time. You didn't
understand what you were reading. You only skipped over the surface
of the words."
Hunter S. Thompson lives in a fortified compound near Aspen, Colorado.
"Goddamn!"
These readings were a nightly ritual, taking place in Thompson's
legendary kitchen, the nerve center for the author's life, with the
bar serving as desk, gambling headquarters, drug dispensary and
birthplace of everything Hunter published over the past few decades.
As Jeff Kass from the Rocky Mountain News once wrote: "It's easier to
get into the White House than the kitchen. The colorful rash of
characters that gathered around the kitchen each evening ranged from
the dubious to the distinguished, including lawyers, actors,
politicians, writers, film crews, athletes, editors, assistants, and
always a few good local friends and neighbors." Two of these friends
were Pitkin County Sheriff, Bob Braudis, and Woody Creek erotic
artist (read: pornographer), Michael Cleverly, co-authors of the new
book, The Kitchen Readings: Untold Stories of Hunter S. Thompson.
For Thompson fans, Braudis's legend precedes him as Hunter's
mysterious friend in law enforcement that appeared in numerous
magazine articles and books over the years. Sheriff of Pitkin County
since 1986, Braudis and Thompson shared a special bond, echoing back
to when they met, during Hunter's own run for sheriff back in 1971 on
the Freak Party ticket, a political campaign covered in Rolling Stone
magazine that gained much national attention. The campaign's
headquarters was staged at Aspen's Hotel Jerome, whose bar served as
Thompson's watering hole before and after the race for sheriff until,
as the book enlightens us, "the principle action moved down the
valley to the Woody Creek Tavern."
Michael Cleverly also met Hunter back in the Jerome days and later
became a neighbor after moving into Woody Creek. A columnist for the
Aspen Times Weekly, Cleverly is responsible for creating the erotic
and infamous Sex and Death calendar sporting lewd photos of naked
women in weird positions with skeletons. The calendar inspired
Thompson's famous ode to Woody Creek and Cleverly, "I shit on the
chest of art."
February 20 marks the third anniversary of Hunter Thompson's suicide,
which, in an odd way, seemed to be Hunter's last stroke of genius to
emanate from the kitchen. On the heels of several new HST
biographies, the release of The Kitchen Readings not only coincides
with the death anniversary but, in spite of the Hollywood caricature
of Hunter, the icon, often portrayed in the media, gives us a view
into the daily life of Thompson: The father, and the friend and
neighbor, whose routine existence was a wild ride just as crazy as
any adventure he'd ever written about. Braudis and Cleverly were two
of Hunter's closest friends from the inner circle. They kept each
other's secrets and shared a mutual respect.
"Hunter even said it himself, that there's no reason not to be candid
about the illegal stuff," says Cleverly, explaining how true the book
is and what was censored out. "You know, there aren't any bodies
buried out in the field or anything. Hunter was a larger-than-life
personality, and his flaws were large probably in the way his talent
was large. There's stories that, to be civil and decent as a friend,
needed [to be] sugar-coated. What needed sugar-coating I simply left
out. A portion of the neighborhood has been expecting a hatchet-job
for a couple of years now. They're going to be disappointed."
Make no mistake, the book is controversial. Some critics will
certainly argue that the book should have never been published at
all. Others will denounce it as Cleverly and Braudis capitalizing on
the situation. But Thompson fans are sure to enjoy it. The book is
easy to read and captures moments behind the scenes that reveal a
side of Thompson unknown to the public. For the authors, writing the
book was a means of catharthis, a chance to retell great Hunter
stories amongst old friends.
"One night I was sitting with him during Monday Night Football," says
Cleverly. "It was just the two of us, and I said, 'Hunter, you
wouldn't mind if I mentioned you in my column once in a while?' And
he said, 'No, as long as you don't make a career out of it.' Since
the book has been written, some people have yelled about letting what
happened in the kitchen out of the kitchen. But Hunter was really his
own best audience. If you would tell a Hunter story in the kitchen,
he would enjoy it more than anyone else. So I think he would have
enjoyed this book."
For Braudis, The Kitchen Readings counts as his first effort as a
writer. It was a painful process at first, he explains the
albatross project that sat around for the longest time after signing
the contract because the task seemed so enormous.
"We decided to tell the more anecdotal stories about Hunter," he
says, "rather than the ugly shit that some writers focus on. I don't
want to make money on certain things I know about Hunter. If Volume
II is ever offered, I've learned how to write and discipline myself
to some extent. I could tell more of the war stories with Hunter and
be more insightful into the depth of his personality. It took this
first attempt to teach me a little more about the art of writing."
In many ways, the book will serve as a sort of closure for many
readers, both those who knew and didn't know Hunter. For Braudis, the
loss and anger over the loss of his close friend healed during the
writing of the book, not through it.
"It was a self-healing wound. I can't name the time or date, but at
some point life goes on. I've had an awful lot of friends die since
Hunter, a lot of old age, a lot from the lack of respect for the
human organism that a lot of people here have. He was my pole star,
my mentor. I could confide in him. When I went to Hunter with a
problem, you could see the gears in his brain turning, like an
oracle. He was one of the very few people who could give me advice."
---
On the Bill
Bob Braudis and Michael Cleverly will discuss The Kitchen Readings:
Untold Stories of Hunter S. Thompson at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb.
7, at the Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-447-2074.
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment