ASPEN, Colo. – If it was not about Hunter Thompson, it should never be said – but at 10:36 last night, a giant red condom was slithered from a 153-foot tower, atop which was a cannon which blasted the world’s wild man into celestial grandeur.
And then at 10:45 p.m., New York time, the wondrous weapon shot his ashes into the heavens, giving the Olympian partygoer one last blast.
And around what some wags were saying, with apologies, was the biggest erection ever seen on that farm, was his rat pack.
One of them, Troy Hooper, remembered the first time he and Thompson, who killed himself in February, spoke about suicide.
“It was the hours after George Bush had been called the winner in last year’s election,” said Troy, the associate editor of the Aspen Daily News.
Hunter had called it and “wasn’t depressed about it or anything like that,” Hooper said.
“But I think he had been heavy into the hash and he had been in a lot of pain for some time. Hunter simply said at one stage, I guess around about 2 in the morning, that he wanted to commit suicide and he wanted to go out with a bang.”
Before the spectacular firing of the cannon, the top of the blaster – shaped like a gonzo fist holding a bud of peyote – was draped by a giant red covering.
It went off amid fireworks in front of a celebrity-packed crowd that included an eclectic mix of the famous and powerful, including Sen. John Kerry, 60-Minutes newsman Ed Bradley and actors Sean Penn and Bill Murray.
Also there was Johnny Depp, who played Thompson in the movie adaptation of his book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” – and who payed for the $2.5 million ash blast ceremony.
The pyrotechnics – red, white and blue fireworks, followed by 30 shells with Hunter’s ashes inside lighting up the sky – are a fitting and spectacular send-off for the gonzo journalist known for his wild ways.
“When he and Johnny Depp were being honored in a ceremony in Louisville, Hunter arrived in a Viet Cong uniform, an Aussie bush hat and swinging a bottle of Kentucky whiskey,” friend David Amram recalled.
But there was another side to Thompson.
“In private, as strange as it sounds, Hunter was like a courtly Southern gentleman from Kentucky. It was a side he was frightened to show, lest the public thought it was an act.”
On hand was former presidential candidate George McGovern, the subject of his book “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72.”
McGovern’s campaign director, Frank Mankiewicz, called the book “the least accurate and most truthful” reflection of the campaign.
That’s vintage Hunter.
The world never knew whether to scold him or celebrate him. Or do both at the same time.
Additional reportingby Troy Hooper