Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

This is Hunter S. Thompson’s famous twisted tail of a gonzo journalist and his attorney scouring Vegas in search of the American Dream while reveling in a drug induced cloud of psychosis, hysteria and paranoia. The writing is visceral, frenetic, hysterical and appaling. The book was a head trip, and I loved it!

“I hate to say this,” said my attorney as we sat down at the Merry-Go-Round Bar on the second balcony, “but this place is getting to me. I think I’m getting the Fear.”

“Nonsense,” I said. “We came out here to find the American Dream, and now we’re right in the vortex and you want to quit.” I grabbed his bicep and squeezed. “You must realize,” I said, “that we’ve found the main nerve.”

“I know,” he said. That’s what gives me the Fear.”

The ether was wearing off, the acid was long gone, but the mescaline was running strong. We were sitting at a small round gold formica table, moving in orbit around the bartender.

“Look over there,” I said. “Two women fucking a polar bear.”

Translation: I’m going to Spain!

I bought the tickets today. It’s my first trip to Europe. I’m excited.

Now it’s time to start practicing my Spanish…

¡Adiós!

Christmas is a time for family, a time for reflection, a time for joy, happiness, and gifts. This year on Christmas Eve I received a very special gift from the City of New York: $130 in parking tickets for an expired car registration.

Rob-
Merry Fucking Christmas
-with love, NYC

My registration expired on Dec 23. The city never sent me a notification or renewal form. I guess somewhere between doing my Christmas shopping and visiting friends and family, it slipped my mind to check my registration’s expiration date.

The clerk at the DMV was quite jovial — obviously filled with the Christmas spirit. As he prepared my new registration I asked him, “Isn’t the city supposed to mail me a renewal form for my registration?”

“Haha! Don’t ever count on the City!” He laughed. “They don’t have to send you anything. They figure if you’re responsible enough to drive, you’re responsible enough to renew your registration. Haha! And if you don’t, they’ll ticket you!”

“They already got me.” I quipped.

“Haha! You’ll never forget to renew again I bet! Ha-ho-ho!”

Regret The Error lists their favorite media errors and subsequent corrections of 2005. Here are my favorites:

The Denver Daily News would like to offer a sincere apology for a typo in Wednesday’s Town Talk regarding New Jersey’s proposal to ban smoking in automobiles. It was not the author’s intention to call New Jersey ‘Jew Jersey.’

From the Dallas Morning News: Norma Adams-Wade’s June 15 column incorrectly called Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk a socialist. She is a socialite.

From the Guardian: In our G2 cover story about Hunter S Thompson yesterday we mistakenly attributed to Richard Nixon the view that Thompson represented “that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character”. On the contrary, it was what Thompson said of Nixon.

This really ought to be a standard issue in the Bronx!

PARK(ing) is an investigation into reprogramming a typical unit of private vehicular space by leasing a metered parking spot for public recreational activity.

By our calculations, we provided an additional 24,000 square-foot-minutes of public open space that Wednesday afternoon.

I think this shot of Pat and Kerry sums up the good times that were had last weekend.

Pat in the jungle.

What’s that mysterious glow emenating from the thicket?

I was playing with off-camera lighting.

I’m playing with Picasa, new software I downloaded from Google which lets me edit photos and send them directly to this webpage. It kinda rocks.

So here are some photos taken last weekend with my new camera when Pat was visiting.

Photo credit goes to Pat for this one.