A Celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Well, tonight we welcome Anita Thompson here to discuss her new book "The Gonzo Way", a celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Her book pays tribute to Hunter and his many enjoyments and endeavors and without further adieu here is Ms. Thompson. Thanks so much for having me. It's it's really a pleasure and an honor to be here with you guys today. So my favorite I don't if you can hear me or not. Can you hear me okay? Right, thanks. First I want to thank it's Cody's Bookstore in Berkeley. I haven't been in Berkeley in about 15 years. Last time I was here I was a student at UCLA, CALPIRG, I was the Chairperson for a group called CALPIRG; a student group and they send me up here to represent UCLA and we had a lot of fun and we caused some trouble up here. It was fun. Any way I am just I assume that most people here know Hunter S. Thompson and know his work and that's why you are here. So I don't I am not going to get into a long history of Hunter because that is in the "The Gonzo Way". I just want to tell you a little bit about myself and I will read a short portion from the intro to "The Gonzo Way" and then open it up to some questions. And I actually I was born in Fort Collins, Colorado. And I was a student later at UCLA; working for the Sierra Club which is an environmental group started up here as you all probably know and CALPIRG and I was very political and very angry and I was a vegan and I wasn't having a lot of fun, so I took some time off to go ski in Aspen for a semester. And then what happened, I learnt to snowboard and I met Hunter Thompson. So I stayed in Aspen. And I learnt a lot from him. I started working for him in 1999 as his assistant; doing research and just helping him with all sorts of things that he needed and it was a pleasure and I immediately fell in love with him. And I moved in 2000 and we did a lot of work together. Those of you who have followed his work probably know that he wrote more in the last five years of his life than he did in the previous 15 years combined. A lot of that is thanks to George Bush. And I was honored and very happy to be working with him and he he took his work very seriously and had a lot of fun doing it until the very end. And I do talk a lot about that in "The Gonzo Way". And the reason I actually the reason I wrote "The Gonzo Way" is because after Hunter died I got a lot of letters from mainly young readers from around the country and around the world who felt a little lost after Hunter had left and looked to me as if I had some sort of wisdom; which I didn't feel like I had the wisdom but I had the experience living with Hunter and being his companion for five years. And I just I realized what was happening is that many people looked at Hunter's lifestyle as the key to "The Gonzo Way" or as a ticket to ride; that if these readers could drink a bowl Wild Turkey and take a half a bowl of Dexedrine that they too could write like that. And I got boxes of letters of people trying to prove that. So I just I wanted to make sure that particularly young people understood that Hunter's writing didn't come from his lifestyle. It came from years and years and years of practice and dedication to the craft and to being a damn good investigator. And that's a part of what I talk about in here. So I am just going to read the first part. Oh good! And also I know we are competing with Barry Bonds tonight. I don't did anything happen here I am not a big baseball fan, so I don't know what happened yet. Just start? Okay, well I do if we have time and if we are in the mood I will read a short passage from "Hey, Rube" collection of Hunter's column from ESPN where he talks about the new rules for baseball. And it's a short a really good column, so may be we will do that if we have time. But okay, I am just going to read a little bit here and then open it up to questions. And also I like to I see my girlfriend Liz Zaborowska back here. We went to high school together in Switzerland and I haven't seen her in years, so it's so nice to see you Liz. Okay. So the choice I faced after the shock of losing my husband was whether I was going to be crippled by his death or inspired by his life. What, you have in your hands is the manifestation of the effect he had on me. The seven lessons I have been fortunate enough to learn from him and what I am willing to pass on. People often ask me what it was like being married to Hunter S. Thompson. And I reply with his own favorite self description. It was like living with a teenage girl trapped in the body of an elderly dope fiend. Hunter had the energy, the vitality and the curiosity of a young girl. He also had the depth of wisdom at his disposal that came with his age and experience and a keener eye than anyone I have met before or since. Hunter cultivated, carved, sharpened and polished his life like a fine sparkling diamond. This book is about what I learnt from my husband, as I watched him craft his life and observe others crafting theirs. It is not always easy living with Hunter. It was not always living with Hunter. But I bought the ticket and took the ride and I have been still riding the wave and I remain very grateful for those years I spend with him. I was 25 years old when we met and a young 25 at that. Hunter knew it and brought me into the loop and I have never been the same. He turned out to be my best friend and my boss and my teacher all in one. He helped to see my own strengths and weaknesses and taught me to never ever try to be like anybody else, especially Hunter S. Thompson. Perhaps the most important lesson I learned from him was this, play hard, work hard, but always be yourself. If you are one of those who loved Hunter S. Thompson's show for it's decadence, it's crazy debauchery on every level mixed with Wild Turkey, Dunhill's and multitudes of uppers uppers and downers and screamers and laughers and high speed car rides with the top down; hovering on the edge for the adrenalin rush. And if you are one of those people who assume those sorts of things alone will enable you to live the Gonzo Way this book is not for you. If you are one of those people who just needs a few guns and bombs and a loaded pipe of hashish and friendships be damned this book is not for you either. There is a difference between the image in Hunter's works on your bookshelf and his true life style which developed a life of it's own in this skewed public eye. Yes, Hunter's greatest work of art was his own life. And those aforementioned scenarios with all their speeds, substances and forays to the edge were indeed part of his life and certainly interesting. But they were hardly his whole story. And they may not be what you are all about, nor should you strive for them either. Hunter often said that he never advocated drugs, alcohol and craziness as a way of life for anyone else; although they certainly worked for him. But there was so much more to him that not everybody grasped that. So that's basically the premises of my book. And it's geared toward those younger readers and young at heart readers who are a little confused as to the basics of Gonzo. So I am opening up to questions now. If anyone has something you would like to ask me I am open to that