Existing comment:
Hunter's Memorial
signed, 20 August 2005
In 1978, the BBC filmed Hunter Thompson at his ranch, Owl Farm in Woody Creek, outside Aspen, Colorado for an Omnibus documentary, Fear and Loathing on the Way to Hollywood. Thompson told the director Nigel Finch of his funeral plans: "There's gonna be a pile of rocks, about a hundred feet tall, then a sort of giant chrome cylinder, conical, sort of round and tapering down to the top, 150 feet tall, hollow inside, with on top of the sort of big arm a fist with a double thumb -- the symbol... Oh yes, it's in the will... After the cremation we put the ashes in a canister and shoot it out of the top of the first over the valley -- about 500 feet up. It explodes and the ashes drift down all over it. That's it. That's my funeral." Steadman put the designs down on paper.
Six months after his death in February 2005, Thompson's dream was realized. 250 friends and family witnessed Hunter's spectacular send-off at Owl Farm. His ashes were indeed shot out of a 153-foot-tall cannon over the valley in a riotous explosion of red, white and blue fireworks. On top of the column was a two-thumbed red fist with a peyote button -- the Gonzo fist. Among the signatories of Steadman's print are Hunter's widow, Anita, his former girlfriend Laila Nabulsi, Bill Murray, and, next to the skull, Johnny Depp. |