Sunday, February 15, 2009

Sick, Sad Book Review: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

While, as much as I did enjoy this book, writing about it is conjuring terrible memories about MLA style and literary criticism. Oh well, I'm armed with gin and boredom, so it might start either getting interesting, or very boring.

What took away from it, as a summary, is a journalist and a lawyer avoid doing their job by trying to scam locals, mess with sraight-o's heads, and do as many drugs as humanly possible (maybe more...). And of course, I loved the whole damn thing.

There's just something about the way that Hunter S. Thompson writes, it just captivates you. No, not captivates. Just HAS you. The same kind of way he would scam a person in the movie, or talk them into being a fake police informant seconds after threatening them with a hunting knife butt naked. Yes, that actually happened.

That's all part of HST's charm with writing. He brings you into his world, by putting you right into his mind. "Stream of Conciousness" kind of writing. That really appeals to me. Kind of like Jack Kerouak, but actually interesting and more coherent.

But, anyway, this is one of those forms of entertainment that makes a person want to go out and do god knows what, and damn the concequences! I have to admit, that the day after finishing this and walking around in the New York, New York Casino, I was overcome by this kind of weirdness that the main character, "Raoul Duke" had. How, it all seems real, but just out of hands reach, its just painted Styrofoam. String Cheese Incident has a song that kind of deals with the same thing... But anyway, in NYNY there are all these shop fronts and apartment doors, but no real entryways. A window for a fake dry cleaners is the first one to really get me. Probably because it had a bunch of signed pictures of famous people, as a normal dry cleaners would hope to have. But the thing was, they werent famous. They were normal and signed with pseudonyms. This freaked me way the hell out.

Why? Well, firstly, there was this old 50's sci-fi movie. In it, these aliens tried to take over peoples lives, but did it quite badly. Like, they would shuffle arround, pushing dust with a broom nowhere. Or, in the "Employee of the Month" picture, it would just be a clip of a family from Time magazine. I damn near lost it. Walking like a giant with diminished capacity in a fake little city full of strangers and tourists, everything made to "look" real. I felt like I was crazy on acid. But I knew I wansn't, and that made it terrible. Even more terrible, I realized that this was the only town where this horrible trip was real. Funny as hell, it was the worst thing I could think of.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Sick Sad World: Las Vegas

Well, I done did it. Published the first issue of my first zine. It was unusually easy. I think it needs to be longer next time, but I'm working with limited faculties here. It is basically a 4 half-page little thing. Just a single page, double sided and folded in half. Far too short.

BUT! I just hope it will give a little insight for people. Maybe they'll look for it next time.
Consider it a preview. Hopes to print it all out sometime this week. Maybe.

Then its time to spread the word! It'll be so in your face, you wont believe it! Any where you sit, look, stand, there it will be! Shops, UNLV, CSN, etc.

Stay tuned for results.