My friend, guitar pickin, band ownin, song writing  journalist and fellow Hunter Thompson freak Noel Davila has unveiled his new website here. Be sure to check it out. Noel is also busy finishing his piece for our HST For Beginners bit so be sure to check back for that. OK, go to his site now and buy his album.

Hunter S. Thompson. Author, journalist and creator of Gonzo Journalism. He has approximately 146 works in 398 publications in 16 languages. He has a huge cult following around the world which continues to grow even after his death in 2005. He counted the likes of Johnny Depp, Senator George McGovern, Ed Bradley, Charlie Rose, Jack Nicholson, Ralph Steadman and many more as his friends.

I was going to write a brief bio about Hunter as a lead-up to this series but in the interest of space saving I thought I’d look for a decent, brief bio on the web, you can find it here.

I was somewhat concerned that the title HST For Beginners would sound a bit patronizing, but the idea of this series is aimed firstly at anyone new to the Hunter S. Thompson world. A plus side is that any seasoned HST campaigners will find the contributors’ views just as interesting. I felt it was important that we heard from some people that knew Hunter, worked with him and socialized with him to a point. It’s also important to get thoughts from some folks who only know Hunter from reading his work, just to get a view from all angles as it were.

For me Hunter Thompson is about the writing. He turned the methods of journalism as we know it on its head, maybe his journalistic methods didn’t catch on but among his fans these methods are the core of his work and the reason for his popularity. Yes there was a crazy side to the man and it is fun to see it included in his work, but it’s important for you as the new fan and us the longtime fans to strike a balance between the antics and the work.

The bottom line is there is more to Hunter S. Thompson than the drug crazed loony he’s made out to be. He was a writer first and his so called loony side was secondary to that. Yes, both sides went hand-in-hand through his life, and he did struggle with trying to keep them separate; and more often than not his Raoul Duke persona smothered what he tried protect which was his writing legacy. I’m not saying ignore his crazy side just don’t let it get in the way of his writing talent and maybe it will go towards doing our bit to keep his literary memory alive.

I have been consulting with David Wills on this series, and we came up with three parts.

1. The separation of Hunter and Raoul.

2 Gonzo Journalism defined by his fans. Should it be emulated?

3. Hunter S. Thompson and his place in American Literature.

Many thanks to David Wills for his help, ideas and fresh eye on this ongoing project. Also huge thanks to all who took the time to write their thoughts for this cause.

Please feel free to leave comments, thoughts or your take on this subject.

So here is Part 1. The separation of Hunter and Raoul. The contributers are as follows.

William McKeen Professor and Chair University of Florida Department of Journalism, author and Hunter Thompson biographer. Hunter had great respect for William and his work.

Simone Corday spent time in Hunter’s storm during his time in San Francisco and is author of 91/2 Years Behind the Green Door (in which Hunter makes regular appearances.)

Wayne Ewing, film maker, producer, director and a friend of Hunter S. Wayne has spent many hours filming Hunter at work and play, not something many can attest to.

David S. Wills, Hunter fan, writer, publisher, teacher, editor, book seller and owner of Beatdom Magazine.

Noel Davila, Hunter fan, musician, journalist and member of the great up and coming band Ophelia.

Ron Mexico, Hunter fan, owner of Totally Gonzo, lecturer, writer, and master of all things Hunter S. Thompson. (Ron’s piece is not here but as soon as he has time he’ll be sending it on.)

Peter W. Knox, Gonzo Beat reporter at Washington College, Peter went to Woody Creek to cover Hunter’s “Blastoff service” for the premier issue of Five magazine . Peter also did his undergraduate thesis on the theme of The American Dream throughout the life and literature of Hunter S. Thompson

Marty.

Duke The Spook by Noel Davila.

Hunter S. Thompson’s motivations for creating Raoul Duke – occasional surrogate writer and alter ego – are greatly varied. What was he trying to hide? Was the fear and loathing that overwhelming? Many questions arise, but there aren’t many clear answers. What is clear, however, is the fact that whenever Duke was included in Hunter’s writing, a work of genius would inevitably ensue. It’s no wonder then, that to this day, Raoul Duke is still listed amongst Rolling Stone’s staff in every issue of the magazine – this nearly 5 years after the good Doctor’s impetuous check-out.

From the first mentions of Duke in Air Force articles in the late 1950s, to his inclusion in Hell’s Angels; from the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, to a decompression chamber in Miami – Raoul Duke has been a constant presence in many of Hunter’s distinctive works. Described occasionally as a “sports writer friend”, Duke and his inescapable, drug-fueled antics have been at the forefront of some of Hunter’s best writing, including the classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Necessity being the mother of invention, Hunter used Duke as a means to break the old rules, and push forward his own form of factual and fictional reporting known as Gonzo journalism.

Raoul Duke was constantly mentioned in the letters of Fear and Loathing in America, and at one point, Hunter entertained the idea of writing ‘The First Fictional Documentary Novel’ titled Hey Rube! The Memoirs of Raoul Duke…. Around 1968 Hunter began research for a book on the American Dream that would eventually become Las Vegas. The idea was that Duke, like Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, would illustrate what Hunter perceived to be the death of the American Dream. Curiously enough, Hunter admitted to his editor at Random House that he was not on drugs while in Las Vegas, but rather used his drug memories to enhance Duke’s reality within the book, and properly document the ‘Savage Journey to the heart of the American Dream’.

Initially used to protect his identity, the name Raoul Duke eventually became an albatross around Hunter’s neck. The Duke myth grew to the point that Hunter was trapped by the persona he’d created: “When I get invited to universities to speak, I’m not sure who they’re inviting, Duke or Thompson…”. His ‘ghost writer’ became a double-edged sword that pushed its creator so far that he was unable, or unwilling, to turn back.

The world Hunter created with Raoul Duke was one of possibility mixed with excess and adventure, which yielded astounding results. Many of Hunter’s readers have lived vicariously through him, and we’ll continue to do so through his writing. Every issue of Rolling Stone magazine – in which the good Doctor’s name is printed at the bottom of the staff list – makes it seem as if Hunter is still among us in one way or another, compelling us with his words, one page at a time.

Noel Davila. (From his site) “Singer/songwriter, blogger, music journalist, poet… Noel Dávila sits amongst a breed of artists who find the need to be working on something creative at all times, whether it involves playing an instrument or not. He works as a freelance journalist and provides commercial music and jingles for an array of different projects.” His site is http://www.noeldavila.net/

Hunter and Duke by William McKeen

I was a reporter and anyone who’s worked in that lonely trade knows the frustration. You know a story. You know what needs to be said. You just can’t find anyone to say it.

You can’t make up a quote. Given the rules of journalism, you can’t do that shit. So you struggle and sometimes your story falls short.

However, in Gonzo journalism the rules – such as they are – are quite different.

Raoul Duke began appearing in Hunter S. Thompson’s writing back in the days when he was the sports editor of the Command Courier, the official newspaper of Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. It was the late fifties and when Hunter couldn’t find a bystander or a source or an expert to say what he wanted, he quoted “Raoul Duke.”

Hunter, of course, was Raoul Duke.

Looking back on Hunter’s stories, you see quotes from people Duke and Bloor and Squane, and they are all Hunter Thompson. He invented these people to say the things that needed to be said. It turned parts of his journalism into fiction, but he was fond of reminding his readers that there was often greater truth to be found in fiction.

Raoul Duke has a special place in this pantheon on phantoms. It was the name Hunter plucked from his past to use as his nom de plume when he wrote “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” for Rolling Stone. The work was serialized as the work of Duke in two issues in November 1971. Hard to believe that that magnificent bit of prose is nearly forty years old.

As a young reader, I was confused. Who was this Duke guy and why did he have his messages sent – as reported midway through one of the episodes – care of someone named Hunter S. Thompson?

The confusion continued with regard to Duke and Hunter. Where did one stop and the other begin?

All these years later, we know much more about Hunter and Duke and Las Vegas. Hunter was compulsive about documenting his life, in photographs and on tape. Now that selections from his personal tape recordings have been made available to the public – in a handsome boxed set edition called The Gonzo Tapes – it’s possible to hear his dictated observations and comments as he lives the experience that became “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”

He certainly doesn’t sound like a foaming-at-the-mouth madman running amuck in Las Vegas. If anything, he is the opposite – lucid, inquisitive, thoughtful, observant.
But in the writing, he took himself and amped up the madness lurking in his brain. And that’s when Duke emerged.

What happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas. But Hunter took those events – and his personality – and heightened the reality. He once told me, “I warped a few things. It was an incredible feat of balance more than literature.” When published in book form, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was credited to “Hunter S. Thompson,” not Raoul Duke.

Problem was, readers thought the exaggerated caricature called Raoul Duke was Hunter S. Thompson. Though they shared the same DNA, they were not identical twins.

The Duke caricature followed him the rest of his life. It was a role that the real man could easily adopt and play, pleasing his fans. On signal, he could perform as Duke. But he was not the same without an audience.

And so he was caught in the duality. He had created the Duke character, one of the great literary inventions of his time. It was a brilliant achievement. And it was also a burden. It might have been a trap. If he cast off the Duke persona, would his readers follow him? Or would it be like slitting the throat of the golden goose?

It was a problem he wrestled with, apparently without resolution, until the end of his life.

Copyright William McKeen 2009

William McKeen
Professor and Chair
University of Florida Department of Journalism.
Author of Hunter S. Thompson (1991), Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson (2008)
Highway 61 (2003) Tom Wolfe (1995) Bob Dylan A Biography (1993)
and many more. William’s site is at http://www.williammckeen.com/

Hunter S. Thompson, A “Road Man for the Lords of Karma”–HST

–by Simone Corday

Years before I met Hunter, I fell for his writing. Not only was he the most brilliant, original satirist, he was a sharp observer of how western culture was turning. Beneath Hunter’s satire is a depth, a generosity of spirit, an astute intelligence, that was evident to people who got to know him.

I am still in awe when I read some of his gems, like The Curse of Lono; “Bad Craziness in Palm Beach, I Told Her It Was Wrong,” (about the Roxanne Pulitzer divorce case) from Songs of the Doomed; his shorter pieces like hisSan Francisco Examiner columns in Generation of Swine; stories like “Fear and Loathing in Elko” and—where can I stop? Many of Hunter’s works seem so timely because they highlight the corruption in politics and make some farsighted, rather haunting predictions. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was the first book of his that I read, in grad school, that knocked me out with its outrageous images and its commentary.

Hunter wasn’t born into privilege. Maybe this helped him develop a keen eye for hypocrisy and injustice. His determination to work hard to become a good writer as a young man led him to re-type all of Fitzgerald’s classicThe Great Gatsby to sense the rhythm of the words. Although later he acknowledged getting high as part of his process and life, his original style came from a deep well of talent, developed by persistence and hard work. Hunter had a knack for inventive humor that will never be matched.

I didn’t see Hunter being out-of-control indulging in drugs or booze, but as possessing a clear, penetrating eye for what was actually going on. Of course, I knew him against the backdrop of the O’Farrell Theater, a wild, crazy strip club run by the notorious Mitchell Brothers who did quite a bit of hard-partying on their own. Hunter possessed a genuine curiosity about the people at Mitchell Brothers and the dynamics of the place, and got an advance to write a novel about it. He went out of his way to be kind to me. I am reminded of a line from a review of my book by Henry Jones in San Francisco Magazine: “In what other setting could Hunter Thompson turn out to be the most level-headed character?”

Hunter was a self-made man, a witness to great social change, who became a forceful advocate for independent thought and for challenging corruption. This is why Hunter’s work is still so relevant. So, read Hunter because his words feel and sound so current, and because his writing can lift you with its brilliance, its laughter—or skewer the values of modern culture, often simultaneously. I am fortunate to have crossed paths with—as Hunter called himself–this “road man for the lords of karma.”

Copyright By Simone Corday 2009

Simone Corday is the author of 9 1/2 Years Behind the Green Door, A Memoir: A Mitchell Brothers Stripper Remembers her Lover Artie Mitchell, Hunter S. Thompson, and the Killing That Rocked San Francisco. Simone’s site is at http://www.greendoorbook.com/index.php

Wayne Ewing. Hunter and the Beast.

“He who makes a beast of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man,” Dr. Johnson

This epigram about drinking opens Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It took many years of hanging out with Hunter for me to truly understand Samuel Johnson’s observation. Since I have been called “Hunter’s Boswell” by William McKeen, perhaps it’s only appropriate that I use this quote from Boswell’s subject, Dr. Johnson, to dispel a myth about Dr. Thompson.

The myth is that there were two Hunter’s – one, the talented writer, and, two, the drunken Raoul Duke, the alter ego he created for Fear and Lathing that began to take over his personality in real life. This myth was first perpetrated by Hunter in the 1978 BBC documentary Fear and Loathing on the Road to Hollywood, and then amplified by Alex Gibney in Gonzo, using clips from the BBC film and an interview with Hunter’s first wife Sandy.

The fact is Hunter was both a heavily drinking drug user and a great writer, just not necessarily at the same time. This pattern began early in life, during his teenage years when he was “the Billy the Kid of Louisville” as he says in my film Breakfast with Hunter. Between robbing liquor stores, he still managed to write some very good prose for his high school literary group – The Athenaeum Society.

Raoul Duke is just an exaggerated extension of Louisville’s Billy the Kid, so named because Hunter truly feared retribution for such admitted excess. For the same reason, he tried to mask the identity of Oscar Acosta – an attorney who risked disbarment – as “Dr. Gonzo” and was shocked when Oscar insisted on having his real name mentioned on the back of the book with the famous picture of them in a casino lounge.

The wild, unexpected success of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas gave Hunter a sense of immunity for his excesses since they were now celebrated in the popular culture and rewarded with further book contracts and magazine assignments. Then the myth began to merge with reality as increasing heavy drinking and drugging kept Hunter from writing. The two habits – writing and intoxication – had always co-existed, but by the late seventies success had lead to more wild turkey than daring insights, and by the end of his life the drugs and the drink had all but killed the writer in him.

The interesting question to me was what compelled the man to make a beast of himself. Johnson’s “pain of being a man.” Was clearly the answer, as Hunter indicates by giving that quote first before all the madness of Vegas. But what is that pain, and how did drinking and drugs lessen it?

What I learned over the years was that the truth is painful, and Hunter had an unnerving ability to see the inner truth in any situation – whether it was the death of the American Dream in the excess of Las Vegas, or the effect of 911 on this country thirty years later. To know that patriotism would be turned into a means of oppression, a reason to kill hundreds of thousands, and trample the constitution was not a pretty vision, yet Hunter saw that almost instantly as the planes hit the towers. Then he wrote about it in his sports column, and kept on drinking until he became the Beast Who Knows No Pain.

Copyright 2009 By Wayne Ewing

Wayne’s site is at http://www.hunterthompsonfilms.com/
You can buy Breakfast with Hunter, When I Die and Free Lisl from Wayne’s site. You’ll also find a wealth of stuff there including videos, reviews, fourms and a lot more. Also go to Wayne’s Vodcast at http://hunterthompsonfilms.com/vodcast/ where you’ll find some great stories and footage of HST.

David S. Wills. Thompson and Duke

In my opinion, the work of Hunter S. Thompson can be divided into two periods – the early work, which focuses largely the author and the world around him; and the late work, which focuses more on politics, whilst featuring Thompson as a protagonist to a certain extent.
In this early period we see Thompson as the roving reporter, working for small newspapers and cutting his teeth as a journalist. I would argue that this period extends from no particular start point, and ends shortly after Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It was with this book that Raoul Duke emerged, yet it is the work prior to it that I think we must study to understand the relationship between Thompson and Duke.
For many, the ‘Vegas book’ is utter fiction. It is the ultimate split between Thompson the man and Duke the beast. It is a development upon the ‘frantic loser’ created in ‘The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved’, which in turn was somewhat of an exaggerated version of the protagonist Thompson became in Hell’s Angels.
However, we can study Thompson’s life and works and weigh together what he said and what he did and uncover the truth behind the myths. It is interesting to read the memoirs of his friends and families, and to compare his own varying accounts, and determine that Duke was neither entirely fantasy nor reality. He lay somewhere between. He was a carefully crafted character Thompson used for journalistic purpose.
Although the name “Raoul Duke” appears sporadically throughout the work of Hunter S. Thompson, I think he was always present. Certainly, if he is to be considered an amped up version of Thompson, he was there since the beginning. It is not hard to see his presence in the mind of the young Thompson we see in The Proud Highway, nor is it a stretch of the imagination to view Paul Kemp as a young Raoul Duke. I believe Duke represents Thompson’s madness and his fantasies. Moreover, he is a literary device.
Tearing Duke from Thompson is something that would take thousands of words to accomplish, but it is something I will instead invite you to do for yourself. Reading his letters, his articles, and the works prior to the formal advent of Duke, I ask you to look for wild exaggerations and ask for what purpose they serve.

Copyright 2009 David S. Wills

A few of David’s sites are as follows–
http://www.beatdom.com/
http://www.cityofrecovery.com/
http://www.daegubooks.com/

Peter W. Knox

I was nursing a sweating beer outside the Woody Creek Tavern on a sunny Saturday afternoon in late August when approached by a reporter for the Denver Post. My favorite writer of all time was to be launched out of a 153 foot double thumbed fist shaped cannon in a few hours and I was nervously feeding the man quotes for about fifteen minutes before he moved on to someone else, leaving me to drown my beer and calm my nerves. The next morning I would scan the paper only to find something I had said, pulled out and displayed across the bottom of the article in large type:

“Fear and Loathing isn’t just a drug-induced nightmare – it’s great writing.”

I was surprised to see it printed so prominently, but not surprised at what the news editor chose to highlight.

The idea that someone could be famous for being stomped by Hell’s Angels, consuming lethal amounts of dangerous drugs, showing up late and too wasted to perform, destroying hotel rooms and skipping out on huge expense tabs, and many more Page-Six worthy exploits isn’t shocking. What’s shocking is that this legend doesn’t play a musical instrument or make blockbuster movies, but instead puts words to print and has a book in the Library of Congress.

What Hendrix could with a guitar, Thompson did with a typewriter and people will always think they will successfully be able to emulate their heroes just by doing the drugs and living the lifestyle those icons perpetuated. But before Thompson showed up staggeringly drunk to cover a 1970 Kentucky Derby for a fledgling magazine, he learned how to write by studying the greats – copying books like The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises in longhand (“to incorporate their rhythms” and see what it felt like to write those words) and giving himself an army-issue journalism education to stay out of prison. He became a writer because he it was his one way out and lucked into finding genuine talent in himself.

But for every thousand kids playing guitar in the 60s, only one became Jimi Hendrix just the same ways only one traveling journalist became Hunter S. Thompson. His skills paved the way for the rock-star fame and lifestyle that followed and would eventually overshadow the strong writing that got him there. The difference, however, between those that stay at the top of their game and the one-hit-wonders of the world is the ability to deliver on your skillset. And for a long stretch of time, any editorial staff would gladly suffer the long nights, drug binges, late copy, and temperamental ego that is Hunter S. Thompson because he backed it up doing what no one had ever did before him and no one would manage after him.

Like the introduction of the forward pass in American football, Thompson broke the rules that no one else even thought were there, and ended up changing the game forever.

-Peter W. Knox

Peter’s great site is at http://www.huntersthompsonthesis.com/ There are some great links there to pictures he took while in Woody Creek. Also you can read his undergraduate thesis on Hunter Thompson.

The world of Hunter S. Thompson is an interesting one to say the least. The biggest problem I have found over the years is the notion some folks have about the difference between Hunter the writer and his alter ego Raoul Duke the maniac. I believe a lot of people who are not familiar with Thompson have trouble separating  one from the other; this in turn leads to the misconception that Hunter Thompson was nothing but a crazed loony, when in fact if you focus on his work you’ll see that he was more than the sum of his parts. After all  he has 146 works in 398 publications in over 16 languages, hardly the work of a loony.

With the priceless help of David S. Wills and Ron Mexico (when his eyes are back to 100%) I have decided to put together the Hunter S. Thompson For Beginners series. The aim will be to catch folks new to the HST world and steer them in the direction of his writing talent and away from the crazed loony side of the man. Now before the seasoned campaigners jump down my throat saying you can’t have one without the other, this maybe true for the most part but there is nothing wrong with some focus on his work. All I want is more focus on his body of work and less on his crazier side.

Whats involved?

Part one will be some thoughts from folks that knew Thompson over the years, and folks who know his work. They’ll give some insights into the writer not the myth and some thoughts on the separation of both characters. Below are a few who will be sharing their expertize with us. We are in the process of contacting many more to enlist their help and harvest their expertize.

Wayne Ewing producer, director and cinematographer probably needs no introduction in the HST world. He is the man behind Breakfast with Hunter, When I Die and Free Lisl; Fear and Loathing in Denver. All must sees for any fan of the good Doctor.

William McKeen is the man behind my favorite HST biography, Outlaw Journalist about Hunter Thompson. You can see my review of McKeen’s book and an interview I did with him here. McKeen first met Hunter in the 70s and has written two books about him. He’s one of the folks we can learn something from.

David S. Wills. Scholar, editor, writer, and publisher is currently writing a book about Hunter S. Thompson the man and his relation to Duke the fiend (David’s words) to see one of his many sites just click on his name. I’m looking forward to his insights and thoughts.

Simone Corday. spent time in Hunter’s storm during his time at The Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theater. She’ll give a unique perspective on the ins and outs of the way he operated.

Ron Mexico. Scholar, lecturer and the man behind Totally Gonzo. What he doesn’t know about Hunter’s writing is not worth knowing. Whenever I’m stuck on a HST related question Ron is the go-to-guy.

So hopefully soon we’ll be kicking this series off with some good insights and thoughts.

Richard Gillis, an award winning journalist who writes for – amongst others The Irish Times has a great article in The Times about the marketing ban on cigarette companies. What makes it even better is that he gives the good Doctor a decent mention in the article. Its always good to see Hunter get a mention, it might sound a bit trite but its the small mention like this that help keep Hunter’s memory alive. You can see the article here.

I have been otherwise detained for the last couple of weeks. I’m working on a interesting project, something totally different to what I’m used to. More of which I’ll go into at a later stage. Anyway on checking my site emails I see that I am getting a lot of requests to re-post this… Johnny Depp reading the letters / faxes he and Hunter exchanged during the build up to the filming of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. They are great clips and give a good, all be it small insight into their relationship. Even though Depp was a huge fan of Thompson’s long before they met, he didn’t take any guff when Hunter tried some of his bullying tactics.

Also I’m beginning work on a Rum Diary time line article, to (if we can get the timing right) coinside with the release of The Rum Diary Movie; which will be published in Beat Scene Magazine. meanwhile enjoy the videos…

A friend of mine was talking about Buddhism the other day and it reminded me of Hunter’s story called One Hand Clapping; and his encounter with a Buddhist monk. I thought I’d post it here. It appeared in Happy Birthday Jack Nicholson and Kingdom of Fear. Enjoy.

“I knew a Buddhist once, and I’ve hated myself ever since. The whole thing was a failure. He was a priest of some kind, and he was also extremely rich. They called him a monk and he wore the saffron robes and I hated him because of his arrogance. He thought he knew everything.

One day I was trying to rent a large downtown property from him, and he mocked me. ‘You are dumb’ he said. ‘You are doomed if you stay in this business. The stupid are gobbled up quickly.’ ‘I understand’ I said. ‘I am stupid. I am doomed but I think I know something you don’t.’  He laughed. ‘Nonsense’ he said. ‘You are a fool. You know nothing.’ I nodded respectfully and leaned closer to him, as if to whisper a secret. ‘I know the answer to the greatest riddle of all,’ I said. He chuckled. ‘And what is that?’  he said. ‘And you’d better be right, or I’ll kill you.’

‘I know the sound of one hand clapping,’ I said. ‘I have finally discovered the answer.’     Several other Buddhists in the room laughed out loud, at this point. I know they wanted to humiliate me, and now they had me trapped – because there is no answer to that question. These saffron bastards have been teasing us with it forever. They are amused at our failure to grasp it.

Ho ho, I went into a drastic crouch and hung my left hand low, behind my knee. ‘Lean closer,’ I said to him. ‘I want to answer your high and unanswerable question.’ As he leaned his bright bald head a little closer into my orbit, I suddenly leaped up and bashed him flat on the ear with the palm of my left hand. It was slightly cupped, so as to deliver maximum energy on impact. An isolated package of air is suddenly driven through the Eustachian tube and into the middle brain at quantum speed, causing pain, fear and extreme insult to the tissue.

The mink staggered sideways and screamed, grasping his head in agony. Then he fell to the floor and cursed me. ‘You swine!’ he croaked. ‘Why did you hit me and burst my eardrum?’ ‘Because that,’ I said, ‘is the sound of one hand clapping. That is the answer to your question. I have the answer now, and you are deaf.’  ’Indeed’ he said. ‘I am deaf, but I am smarter. I am wise in a different way.’ He grinned vacantly and reached out to shake my hand. ‘You are welcome,’ I said. ‘I am after all a doctor.’ “

Muhammad Ali is in town, Ireland that is. He’s here visiting Ennis County Clare to see the home of his great grandfather Abe Grady, who emigrated to Kentucky in the 1860s. Here’s an excerpt from Hunter’s Last Tango in Vegas. It appeared in Rolling Stone #265 May 18 1978.

Posted in Articles Tagged: Hunter S Thompson, Muhammad Ali, Rolling Stone. ]]> http://hstbooks.org/2009/09/01/muhammad-ali-last-tango-in-vegas/feed/ 0 hstbooks http://hstbooks.org/2009/08/30/david-s-wills-beatdom-now/ http://hstbooks.org/2009/08/30/david-s-wills-beatdom-now/#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 16:24:36 +0000 hstbooks http://hstbooks.org/?p=2690 ]]>

There is no doubt about it, there is a serious shortage of publications that peel off the outer layer of whats going on in the World today; and dig a little (or a lot) into what has caused the problems we’re trying to deal with today. Magazines like Scanlans and Ramparts, however short lived gave us a look into the cause rather than the effect.  David Wills has come up with the idea of creating a magazine called Beatdom Now, walking a similar line to the muckraker of old but with a modern twist. He wants your opinions, thoughts and reports on what’s going on in your World. Personally I think it’s a great idea and long overdue. David let me lift the piece below from his site here It will give you a better idea on what he’s looking for. You can contact David at editor@beatdom.com. Also for more of David’s work you can check all his sites, the links are half way down this page on the right. So get writing. Get it off your chest.

Beatdom Now

I want to start a second magazine – a sister publication for Beatdom. This has been a goal of mine for a long time, but Beatdom is a cruel mistress. She demands more attention than I can normally afford, and a second magazine might just kill me… But it might just make me, you and our readers all a little happier… It might just make the world a brighter place.

I want to depart from the world of the Beat Generation and focus on the world around us. Beatdom has always claimed to be a study of the Beat Generation – literary, historical, cultural – but also professed an interest in exploring the world around us through the messages set forth by Ginsberg, Kerouac et al. We’ve published rants and musings on the modern world, and explored the reincarnations of the Beat Generation, through our new fiction and non-fiction.

And Beatdom will continue to do all that. It’s not changing. Issue Five will follow in the style is the first four, and be entirely unaffected by the publication of Beatdom Now.

What I want from Beatdom Now is to take our regular writers and readers, and maybe a little of the style, and simply forget all our heroes. Beatdom is a literary journal. We explore the past. But in Beatdom Now we will take the stylistic teachings, and moral messages, and just be journalists…

That may sound strange, because Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs etc etc were not journalists. In fact, during the heyday of the Beat Generation they weren’t even particularly interested in the politics of the world – they wanted to take refuge and carve out a space for themselves among the madness.

But we are taking style and morals from the Beats, as well as from Hunter S. Thompson and other late twentieth century writers and artists. I want to publish creative non-fiction that is dedicated to the destruction of injustice, and the dissipation of illusions. I want to read the sort of thing you wouldn’t find in all the biased, dumb popular press outlets.

I know Gonzo was a one man genre, and that people look foolish for taking too much inspiration from Thompson’s work, but that needn’t be the case. Take an intelligent look, and write your own report on the world. Forget drink, drugs and parody; remember truth, skill and sledgehammer vitriol.

Let’s change the world with another adventurous assault on the publishing world.

Submissions are now open for Issue One, with no deadline currently given… Find something in this world that makes you sick, and use your words to destroy it.

I asked Joe Petro III if he could help me out with a Ralph Steadman bibliography. My book collection only contains a fraction of Ralph Steadman’s work. So I figured it would be best to get the information from someone who would know. Joe got back to me with this mini biography and full bibliography, it came  from Ralph himself so it is up to date. Ralph’s site is at http://www.ralphsteadman.com/ and Joe Petro’s site is at http://www.joepetro.com/ many thanks to Ralph and Joe for their help with this.

A BIOGRAPHY OF RALPH STEADMAN

Ralph Steadman was born in 1936 and the world turned sour.
He has a healthy contempt for human kind according to his maxim that everyone is guilty of something but some are more guilty than others. In common with many others he believes that absolute freedom is a birthright.
For most of his working life he has strived in his cartoons to affect our ways in the world. In Scar Strangled Banger he states that 25 years ago he burned with a passion to change the world. He imagined that people were reasonable and would change with it. He believed that there were good people and he was certain that there were bad people who would change when they saw the error of their ways.
In his lifetime he hoped he would see peace, harmony, love and prosperity for all, a gentle tolerance of the diversity of opinion and generosity of spirit enough for all to flourish.
He thought that people believed in fair play and given an explanation would make allowances for another’s misdemeanours. He was sure we were through the bad bit and human suffering was a thing of the past, that we would build upon what we had learned and, with time, old sores would heal, old grudges would die and old policies would be revised and changed to accommodate the new enlightenment.
Now he is distraught but he will continue to believe for the sake of hope and our only hope.
He considers Nelson Mandela to be more than the figurehead for Black African freedom. Mandela is also the frail human being we all are, lest people forget and weigh too heavily upon his example for support.

Early years: Son of Lionel Raphael Steadman, a commercial traveller and Gwendoline Rogers. Five children. Lives in Kent.
Military service in Royal Air Force 1954-1956
Early career worked at odd jobs, including trainee manager at F.W. Woolworth, Colwyn Bay, North Wales. Apprentice aircraft engineer with De Havilland Aircraft Company, Broughton, Chester, Cheshire, 1952.
East Ham Technical College 1959-66 and London College of Printing and Graphic Arts 1961-65 (part-time).

Agent:
Sobel Weber Associates Inc. 146 East 19 Street, New York, NY 10003, USA. Tel. 001 212 420 8585. email: nsobel@sobelweber.com
Phone: 212.420.8585. Fax: 212.505.1017

Written and Illustrated Childrens Books:
The Yellow Flowers. Written by Fiona Saint. Dobson. 1968.
The Little Red Computer. Dobson. Scroll Press. US1969.
Ralph Steadman’s Jelly Book. Dobson 1967. Scroll Press. US.1970.
Flowers for the Moon. Nord Sud Verlag. 1974.
Two Donkeys and the Bridge. Nord Sud Verlag. 1974.
That’s My Dad. Andersen Press. 1986.
No Room to Swing a Cat. Andersen Press. 1989.
Teddy Where are You? Andersen Press. 1994.
Little.Com. Andersen Press. 2000.

Written and Illustrated Books for Adults:
Still Life with Raspberry. Rapp and Whiting. 1969
Dogs Bodies. Abelard and Schuman. 1970.
America. Straight Arrow Books. 1974
Cherrywood Cannon. Paddington Press. 1978.
Sigmund Freud. Paddington Press. Aubier. France.1979.
Republished Flammarion. 2003. Firefly Books Toronto. 2001
No Good Dogs. Putnam. 1982
I Leonardo. Jonathan Cape. Aubier. France.1983
Between the Eyes. Jonathan Cape. 1984.
Treasure Island. Harrap. Harcourt Brace. US. 1985.
Paranoids. Harrap. 1986.
Scar Strangled Banger. Harrap. Harcourt Brace. US.1987.
The Big I Am. Jonathan Cape. Aubier. France. 1988.
Near the Bone. Arrow Books. 1990.
Tales of the Weirrd. Jonathan Cape. 1990.
The Grapes of Ralph. Ebury Press. Harcourt Brace.US. 1992.
Still Life with Bottle. Ebury Press. Harcourt Brace. US. 1994.
Jones of Colorado. Ebury Press. 1995.
The Book of Jones. Harcourt Brace. 1997.
Gonzo the Art. Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Harcourt Brace. US. 1998.
Mildenhall Treasure. Jonathan Cape. Knopf. US.1999.
Doodaaa – The balletic art of Gavin Twinge. Bloomsbury. 2002.
The Joke’s Over. Heinemann (UK), Harcourt (USA), 2006.

Illustrated Books for Chidren and Adults:
Love and Marriage by Daisy and Angela Ashford. Hart Davis. 1965.
Where Love Lies Deepest by Daisy Ashford. Hart Davis. 1966.
Die Falschen Flamingoes by Mischa Damjan. Nord Sud Verlag. 1967.
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Dobson. 1967
The Thoughts of Chairman Harold, compiled by Tariq Ali. Gnome Press. 1967.
The Little Prince and the Tiger Cat by Mischa Damjan. Nord Sud Verlag.1968.
The False Flamingoes by Mischa Damjan. C.N. Potter. 1970.
Born Under a Bad Sign by Tony Palmer. Kimber. 1970.
Midnite by Randolph Stow. Penguin. 1970.
Two Cats in America by Mischa Damjan. Longman Young books. 1970.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter Thompson. Pan Picador. Simon and Schuster. US. 1972.
Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. McGibbon and Kee. 1972.
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail by Hunter Thompson. Allison and Busby. 1975.
The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll. Studio Vista. 1975.
Emergency Mouse by Bernard Stone. Andersen Press. 1978.
Inspector Mouse by Bernard Stone. Andersen Press. 1980.
The Curse of Lono by Hunter Thompson. Simon and Schuster. US. Pan Picador. England.1981.
Treasure Island. Harrap. 1985.
Quasimodo Mouse by Bernard Stone. Andersen Press. 1985.
Animal Farm by George Orwell. Secker and Warburg.1995.
Heart on the Left. Poems by Adrian Mitchell. Bloodaxe. 1997
Who Killed Dylan Thomas? by Adrian Mitchell. Ty Lein Publications, City and County of Swansea, UK. 1998.
The Roald Dahl Treasury. Jonathan Cape. 1997.
The Devil’s Dictionary, Bloomsbury. 2003.

Re-published Books:
The Complete Alice and Hunting of the Snark. Jonathan Cape. 1986.
America. Fantagraphics Books. 1989
Sigmund Freud. Firefly Books. 1997.
Tales of the Weirrd. Firefly Books. 2002.

Limited Edition Books:
The Threshold by Ted Hughes. Steam Press. 1980.
Israel by Ralph Steadman and Alan Sillitoe. 1981.

Group and Indvidual Exhibitions:
Between the Eyes. Royal Festival Hall, London. 1984.
Alice and the Paranoids. Royal Festival Hall, London. 1986.
Visagen und Visionem. Wilhelm Busch Museum, Hanover, Germany. 1987.
The Big I Am. October Gallery, London. 1988.
Who?ME?No! Why?. Tricycle Theatre, London. 1989.
Red Alert. October Gallery, London. October. 1990.
19th Premio Satira Politica. Forte di Marmi, Italy. 1991.
Berlin. Wilhelm Busch Museum, Hanover, Germany. 1992.
The Cutting Edge. Barbican Art Gallery. 1992.
The Grapes of Ralph. Royal Festival Hall, London. 1992.
Print Exhibition. Galerie Kramer, Hamburg, Germany. 1993.
Acid and Ink. Peacock Gallery, Aberdeen, Scotland. 1993.
More Acid and Ink. Aberdeen City Art Gallery, Scotland. 1994.
Writer and Leaders. 1/1 Gallery, Denver, USA. 1995.
National Eisteddfod of Wales. 1995.
13th International Biennial of Humour and Satire in the arts. Gabrovo, Bulgaria. 1997.
The Great Challenge. The Cartoon Art Trust. 1998.
Devious Devices. Croydon Clocktower, UK. 1998.
Selected Works from Alice. Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. 1998
Aria/I Leonardo. Maidstone County Gallery, Kent, UK. 1999.
Animal Farm Touring Exhibition. Kent County Council, UK. 1998-1999.
Royal Mail Millenium Stamps. London, 1999.
International Cartoon Exhibition. Istanbul, Turkey. 1999.
Making a Mark. William Havu Gallery. Denver, USA. 2000.
Chelsea Arts Club Corridor Exhibition, (promised show in Lift Shaft!) London. 2001.
James Gillray and the Art of Cartoon. Tate Britain, London. 2001.
Drawing Breath. Boston Art Institute. 2006.
Satirical London – 300 years of irreverent images, Museum of London, 2006.

Awards and Honours:
Francis Williams Book Illustration Award for Alice in Wonderland. 1973.
Designers and Art Directors Association Gold Award for outstanding contribution to Illustration. 1977.
Merit Award and Illustrator of the Year from American Institute of Graphic Arts. 1979.
W.H. Smith Award for the best book for five years for I Leonardo. 1987.
BBC Design Award for postage stamps. 1987.
Italian Critica in Erba Award for That’s My Dad. 1987.
Black Humour Award, France. 1986.
XIX Premio Satira Politica, Forte dei Marmi, Italy. 1991.
The Vlag em Wimpel Award from the Collective Promotion of the Dutch Book for the best illustrated children’s book, Quasimodo Mouse. 1992.
The KIAD (Kent Institute of Art and Design) Fellowship Award. 1993.
Honorary D. Litt. at University of Kent. 1995.

Theatre Design:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Everyman. Liverpool. 1974
Dancing to Paint (on the art of Picasso). Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.1986
Gulliver’s Travels. Theatre Clwyd, Wales. 1996.
Tricycle Theatre (Foyer Installations). 1987
The Crucible. Royal Opera House, London. 1999.

Television:
The Hanging Garden Centres of Kent. (Writer, director and star). TVS. 1990.
Harry Enfield’s Guide to the Opera (opening credits). Channel 4. 1993.
Men Behaving Badly, USA (titles). 1996.
The Beast Bites Back (writer and presenter).
Leviathan (titles and film shorts). BBC2. 1998-99.

Commercial:
Oddbins, Sony.

Libretto:
Plague and the Moonflower, an eco-opera for the 90s. Exeter Festival, 1989.
Love Underground. Norwich Festival. 1998

Contributions to newspapers:
The Observer. The Guardian. The Telegraph. The Independent. New York Times. LA Times.

Contributions to magazines:
Punch. Private Eye. The Radio Times. Scanlans. Rolling Stone. Esquire. GQ. The New Yorker. L.A. Times. The New Statesman.

CDs:
Plague and the Moonflower. Altus Records.
I Like It. Songbooks. EMI.

Limited Edition Prints and Posters:
see: http://ralphsteadman.com

The magazines we get today like Time or Newsweek although have a history they are largely mainstream. They give us the usual lo-down on what is going on in the world but not much more.  Peter Richardson sheds some light on how it used be done with his book about Ramparts magazine A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America.

Ramparts was founded by Edward M. Keating in 1962 with a focus on catholic matters. I use the phrase “catholic matters” but maybe a description from books introduction might give you a better idea of what Ramparts was about. It described itself as a “forum for the mature American Catholic” focusing on “those positive principles of Hellenic-Christian tradition which have shaped and sustained our civilization for the past two thousand years” It Sounds pretty staunch doesn’t it? But it wasn’t long before the magazine took a sharp turn to the left; it became a radical muckraker that by all accounts turned the art of journalism on its head and gave it a good shake.

I first heard of Ramparts through Scanlans magazine and their common denominator Warren Hinckle; and because of my huge interest in Scanlans I was delighted to get a peek at A Bomb in Every Issue so soon.

So what about it? Well after reading the book I’ve realized that magazines like Ramparts and Scanlans for that matter deserve some consideration for their contribution to a new, no nonsense style of journalism and gutsy political reporting.  Publications with guile are thin on the ground these days.

Richardson gives a detailed account of the 13 year life of Ramparts and its most contentious stories. I had heard of Ramparts but never knew much about it’s history, but after reading A Bomb in Every issue I found just how important Ramparts was in the progression of journalism; and reporting issues that some folks would have preferred were buried. For example, it was the first to publish a conspiracy theory surrounding the assassination of JFK. Another point of interest was it’s publication of Che Guevara’s diaries. It also boasted a long list of contributors including Cesar Chavez, Norman Mailer, Noam Chomsky and many more.

The Hunter S. Thompson connection with Ramparts and of course Warren Hinckle is as you’d expect an entertaining one, as Richardson told me “The HST material in the book is brief but memorable: a fantastical visit to the Ramparts office, where Hinckle’s pet monkey got into his pills; the Chicago lunacy in 1968; and the Ramparts Wall Posters, an idea HST lifted for his campaign in Colorado.” The HST material in the book is small and not a huge selling point (nor was it intended to be) but it doesn’t need it, there’s plenty of other material to make this book stand on its own.

The bottom line is this. For anyone who’s interested in journalism and it’s transformation over the years; this book is a must read. It shows us the mettlesome attitude Ramparts had in its approach to spreading news, popular or not. As a fan of journalism I hope this book does well and reaches future writers of any ilk. It will bring to the fore a type of journalism that sadly is not as prominent as it should be in this day and age.

MF.. How did the writing of this book come about?

PR..I suppose it started when I was researching my previous book, a biography of Carey McWilliams. Your readers might remember him as the Nation editor who put HST onto the Hell’s Angels story. Some of McWilliams’s younger colleagues at The Nation also wrote for Ramparts. One was Gene Marine, who lives here in Berkeley. I interviewed him for the McWilliams book, and later I heard him give a talk on the history of KPFA, the first listener-supported American radio station. KPFA is also here in Berkeley, and Gene started working there in 1950, the year after it was founded. And while he was talking about his experience there, I realized I was aware of at least two books on the history of KPFA, but I had never come across a book on Ramparts magazine. After Gene’s talk, I surveyed the people in the room to see if they knew of any. They didn’t, so I decided to get to work.

Once I got into it, I discovered that I had a personal stake in the story, even though Ramparts folded for good when I was a teenager. I was born in Berkeley three years before Ramparts was founded, and as I began to consider the magazine’s influence, I realized that we born into the same social world. More important, it helped shape that world. So I started to see my research on the magazine as a kind of reconstruction of that milieu. In that sense, I had a personal interest in the story that was quite direct.

MF.. I have to say I am a big fan of the Ramparts / Scanlans style of reporting. From what I can see there is nothing like it around now. Do you think some day that the “muckraking” ilk will catch on and more importantly survive?

PR.. That’s a great question, one that many people here are asking now that U.S. newspapers are in big trouble. There are a few bright spots. One is the kind of reporting that Lowell Bergman and others are doing at Frontline, a PBS documentary series. Lowell was a Ramparts fan and contributor. He also co-founded the Center for Investigative Reporting and teaches journalism at Berkeley. He would say, I think, that Ramparts-style reporting can happen, but that it will be more collaborative. Essentially, investigative reporters at places like CIR and Pro Publica will discover stories and then push them out across media platforms: print, radio, television, etc.

Another bright spot, or perhaps a flicker at this point, is the prospect that bloggers will step into the breach. I just returned from Netroots Nation, the annual conference of political bloggers. Esther Kaplan of the Nation Institute ran a session on muckraking–how to obtain court documents, corporate disclosures, tax filings, etc. The room was packed with people eager to learn those skills.

Will those bloggers replace the political reporters at the Washington Post? I’m not sure, but don’t forget, when Ramparts came along, the staff was mostly a bunch of people in their 20s, far from the centers of power, who didn’t have much experience in journalism. But like these bloggers, they were smart and spirited and willing to note that the emperor had no clothes when the corporate media couldn’t quite bring themselves to say that out loud. When I asked Warren Hinckle why Ramparts was so successful, he said, “Probably because the rest of the press was so shitty.” So you never know where that muckraking energy and talent will come from.

MF.. You probably did lots of interesting interviews during your research for this project, who was the most interesting person you interviewed? I’m guessing Hinckle even though it only lasted an hour.

PR.. Yes, my conversation with Warren was fun. A lot of these folks are fascinating and have led extraordinary lives, so it’s hard to pick out one person. But I conclude the book with descriptions of my interviews with David Horowitz, Robert Scheer, and Warren, partly because they were three of the most important figures in the magazine’s history, and partly because those interviews illustrated the stark contrasts in their personal styles. David was serious, punctual, confessional. He frequently checked his BlackBerry for messages from his wife while we chatted over lunch near Malibu. Bob was harder to catch but open-handed, voluble, and generous with his time once I planted myself in his Berkeley living room.

My journalist friends laughed when I told them I couldn’t run down Warren. One friend finally told me that he could have a half dozen bartenders call him when Warren entered their establishments. Then he would call me, and I could rush over there. I finally caught up with Warren at a book show in Los Angeles: or rather, at the convention center bar. Of the three guys, he seemed the least interested in posterity, but he was willing to chat and enjoy an adult beverage or two before we toddled back to the exhibit hall.

By the way, I had similar difficulty lining up an interview with HST while I was working on the McWilliams book. His son Juan finally emailed me some advice, which included hourly calls starting at midnight. But I never did get through.

MF.. The book seems to be pretty well balanced. Is there much that didn’t make it into the book that you’d have liked to have there?

PR.. Yes, I tried to sort through the evidence and offer an evenhanded account of what was a very tumultuous experience. For that, I was praised (privately) by some folks who probably can’t agree on very much at this point. That was gratifying. I didn’t withhold much aside from a few uncorroborated stories. In some cases, I included tall tales but clearly labeled them as such. I did that because in some ways, the legends are “truer than true.” That is, they say something true about the magazine and the people even if the facts are wrong. HST fans will know what I mean, I think, and I wanted to give readers a taste of that.

MF..I’d like to know your opinion on how politics is reported today compared to the Ramparts era. Is the media too soft on the subject?

PR..I think the corporate media is, yes. I’m concerned about the future of journalism but agree with many critics that the mainstream media has brought many of its problems on itself. For example, Big Media missed what are arguably the two biggest stories of the last decade–the deceptively packaged invasion of Iraq and the housing bubble–by a mile. When the mainstream media missed the Vietnam story in the 1960s, Ramparts stepped in and forced them to pick up their game.

What’s needed for vibrant investigative journalism, I think, is a media ecology that includes savvy fringe outfits and larger news organizations that those smaller outlets can play off each other. That’s what Ramparts did with the New York Times, to each organization’s benefit. But the larger outlets don’t have to be newspapers.

MF.. You have got some high praise from Douglas Brinkley amongst others, that must feel good.

PR..Yes, that was a pleasant surprise. I ingested all the HST letters, which Doug edited, so I thought he might be interested in this book. Adam Hochschild and Richard Parker, who co-founded Mother Jones along with Paul Jacobs, also contributed blurbs. Ditto for Lowell Bergman, who rarely blurbs books, I gather. Eve Pell and Todd Gitlin, both of whom wrote for and about Ramparts, also helped out. So I was very lucky in that department.

Adam and Jann Wenner, by the way, were very generous with their time. Both worked at Ramparts, and both founded magazines that extended its work. Jann became aware of HST while he was working at Ramparts, and of course Hinckle first paired HST with Ralph Steadman at Scanlan’s, the magazine he published after he left Ramparts. So I think it’s fair to say that without Ramparts, we might not have gotten Gonzo journalism.

MF.. I’d like you to share some thoughts on Hunter Thompson’s work. Whats your favorite HST book? And some thoughts on Gonzo Journalism if you don’t mind.

PR..I teach Hell’s Angels in my class at San Francisco State University. The students really like it, and it offers a unique take on the theme of that course, which focuses on utopian and dystopian representations of California culture. I got a huge kick out of HST’s edited letters, which I relished as much as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. Weirdly, the letters might be my favorite body of HST work, though of course they would be negligible without his other achievements.

It took enormous discipline to restrict my discussions of HST in this book and the previous one on McWilliams. Once you let HST into the story, it’s hard to prevent him from dominating it. Time and again, I found myself scouring his books and letters when I probably should have been reading something else.

I’m also a big fan of the books and films about HST. I guess I would pick out Outlaw Journalist and Gonzo, both the Alex Gibney film and the oral biography by Jann Wenner and Corey Seymour. If there weren’t so many excellent works about HST already out there, I might be tempted to add to that literature. Not that there won’t be more contributions in the future, I’m sure.

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Peter’s site is at http://peterrichardson.blogspot.com/ there is a lot of interesting reading there. Also you can buy the book at amazon.com. Many thanks to Peter for taking the time to answer my questions.

–© Martin Flynn hstbooks 2009.