GonzoToday
  • Pages
    • Front Page
    • Featured content
    • The GonzoToday Interview
    • Commentary
    • Poetry
    • ART
    • News
    • Travel
  • Music
    • Music videos
    • Music Reviews
  • Columns
    • The Publisher Pontificates
    • Greetings from Scranton
    • The Vinyl Vault
  • Fiction
    • Flying Trees Publishing
    • Books
    • Short Stories
    • FAN Fiction
  • Flying Trees Publishing
  • About
    • Our staff
    • About GonzoToday.com
    • Mission Statement
  • Submissions
  • Log In

GonzoFest Louisville Launches Campaign for Hunter S. Thompson Statue

October 27, 2015 Cody S. Decker Front page, GonzoFest, News 0

Tweet

 

Untitled

by Cody S. Decker

PRESS RELEASE:

LOUISVILLE, KY (October 27, 2015) – For the past five years, GonzoFest Louisville has worked to honor and celebrate the life of Louisville’s own Hunter S. Thompson, but the time has come to take things to the next level. GonzoFest Louisville organizers are working to create, fund, and permanently place a life-size bronze statue of Hunter S. Thompson in his hometown of Louisville, KY.

Thousands attended GonzoFest Louisville this past April at the Big Four Bridge Lawn to celebrate Hunter and his legacy. Last Friday, Hunter fans gathered at WorK Architecture + Design to kickoff the fundraising campaign. Now the GonzoFest Louisville team is calling on Hunter fans around the world, especially those in Louisville, KY, to help preserve Hunter’s legacy by making a donation to their gofundme fundraising campaign.

 

Hold on to your hind quarters, folks.  Louisville has bought the ticket and now we are all taking the ride.  Plans have been planned, models have been made and now we’re all here to help take this long overdue honor to the next step.   I once heard a fella say, “You ain’t made it til they make a statue of ya big as you are.”  I didn’t think much of it at the time, he said it while staggering down the mouthwash aisle looking for his next cocktail.  But now I’m starting to kind of see what he was talking about.  Hunter “made it” years ago.  He didn’t need all of this recognition in his hometown to live the life he did and write the words he wrote.  But this seems to bring it all full circle.  He left.  He saw.  He conquered.  And now he comes home.

Hunter S. Thompson did the city of Louisville proud.  Hell, he did the whole state of Kentucky proud.  A bluegrass boy went out and made something of himself.  Some people may not agree with that.  Seeing the fact that he romped and raised hell all over this “dark and bloody ground” until he was forced to leave with a choice of jail or the military but I guaran-damn-tee that they aren’t here. But just in case I’m wrong and one of them slipped through the cracks and is meandering around amongst us, let’s sniff them out.  Let’s pretend to be friends with them, only to gain their trust.  Allow them to buy us a drink and chat about what craft beers they’ve tried this week.  Then we strike.  We back them into a nervous corner and begin to preach the Gonzo Gospel.  It’ll do ’em some good.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way….back to business.

I asked Mr. Dennie Humphrey of The Monkey Wrench for a thought on this whole ordeal and his words were, “Man, it’s just kinda crazy to be a part of something that started as an idea for honoring Hunter in the parking lot of Monkey Wrench but in no time has turned into a movement.  It’s obvious now that keeping Louisville Gonzo has no end or limits.”  Ain’t that the truth?  With GonzoFest growing bigger and better each year, we aren’t only keeping Louisville Gonzo, we’re gaining Gonzo.  Hell, gaining enough to even get the mayor on board with creating a statue of HST and placing it in the city where Gonzo began.

I also touched base with Matt Weir, the hands that are molding this vision into reality.  I asked him for a quote on this project and his response made it clear to me why he is the perfect man for this particular job.  He said, “Creating this sculpture work is a big deal, it’s difficult, my job is not easy. In a way I have to walk in his shoes just to prepare myself to consider what might best recognize Hunter and his works and his legacy. It’s a good fear though, healthy, the kind Hunter spoke about, the kind you have to kill. The only kind worth living for in a way. What I especially appreciate about this project though is that I truly respect Hunter and his life and work. As an artist what I create as an expression of my work is typically not an individual you might recognize, or an individual at all, it’s purpose is different and meaningful, hopefully worth my and your time in addition to all the materials and energy it took to make the damn thing, or experience or whatever it might be. There’s no time left for waste in my opinion. Although, an artist has to waste I’ve found. I suppose we all do now, we all have the brain capacity to make that make sense day in day out. Nevertheless, Hunter is an artwork for me, he’s not a commission, this is my work and I intend to do it the service my work and any great work of art worth existing on this planet deserves.”  There’s a hell of a lot of passion behind this project.

The jig is up!  Louisville’s outlaw native son is claiming his home turf once again.

The statue was commissioned as the result of a series of suggestions written by Kentucky poet Ron Whitehead on how Louisville should honor Hunter S. Thompson. Matthew Weir, a Louisville native and master sculptor, was commissioned to create the statue.

“The statue of author and Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson distills the life and popular identity of the man to the writer’s visionary self,” says sculptor Matt Weir.

“In particular, I have determined Hunter’s iconic campaign defeat for Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado as the visual fulcrum on which to depict and balance Hunter’s complex and contentious identity,” says Weir.

For more information visit GonzoFest Louisville’s website or email gonzofestlou@gmail.com.

To make a donation to the statue, visit www.gofundme.com/HuntersStatueLou.

 

Related

Previous

Snoop Dogg Performed in Austin and Sadly We Didn’t Smoke Weed Together

Next

Minus Money/Broke

SUBSCRIBE TO GONZOTODAY.COM

SEARCH OUR ARCHIVES

Support GonzoToday.com by buying our books... thanks!

or purchase directly through Amazon.com

Music video vibe

“Blackbird” by Sir Paul McCartney

Featured Content

  • 5 Irish Beers That Are Better Than Guinness This Saint Patty’s Day

    March 17, 2023 0
  • Put Warren Zevon in the HOF NOW

    March 6, 2023 0
  • The News Mainstream Media Doesn’t Want You to See

    March 6, 2023 0
  • An Early Parade

    March 6, 2023 0
  • Grammys 2023 Brings Out the Best in Journalism

    February 12, 2023 0
  • A Trip Through Ocean City

    January 29, 2023 0
  • Martin Luther King Jr Died Twice

    January 19, 2023 0
  • So, about Sierra Drummond’s new song “Signs”

    December 14, 2022 0
  • Death of The Killer: Jerry Lee Lewis

    October 30, 2022 0
  • amethyst crystals

    A Sparkling Amethyst Tour in Uruguay

    September 15, 2022 0
  • Traveling Light in a Heavy World

    Todo esta muy tranquilo en Uruguay

    September 8, 2022 0
  • We Need More Gays

    August 8, 2022 0
  • Chapter 1 from The Community Garden … more than tomatoes are dying

    July 21, 2022 0
  • Corrupt

    July 18, 2022 0
  • Armageddon

    Glory to the Heroes

    July 14, 2022 0
  • Remembering Ryan Leone: Author, Filmmaker, and My Friend

    July 13, 2022 0
  • Don’t Run Again, Joe – Greetings from Scranton

    July 6, 2022 0
  • The Relevance of Elvis

    June 29, 2022 0
  • Knock Out Racism 

    June 27, 2022 0
  • Gonzo News Update – Sunday, June 26, 2020

    June 27, 2022 0

Hunter S. Thompson 1937-2005

Art
  • ART | How to paint like Ralph STEADman

    September 19, 2017 0
  • The Great Red Shark by Joey Feldman

    July 7, 2017 0
  • “People’s Fears” by Joey Feldman

    November 15, 2016 0

SUBSCRIBE TO GONZOTODAY.COM

Shorts
  • My Encounter with Hunter

    December 21, 2017 0
  • Drug Run | Chapters 1-10

    November 15, 2017 0
  • God’s Grace: An Abortion Story

    September 2, 2015 0
Music
  • Celebrating a Half Century of the Music of Frank Zappa

    June 5, 2017 0
  • Album Review: The Damn Truth’s Devilish Folk

    April 10, 2017 0
  • The Doors First Album and Mary Werbelow: 50 Years on

    December 30, 2016 0
Read more from our writers
The GonzoToday Interview
  • An Interview with Heathcote Williams

    July 7, 2017 0
  • A Quick Talk with Benicio Del Toro

    April 22, 2016 0
  • CIA Whistleblower John C. Kiriakou: the Gonzo Today Interview

    April 2, 2015 0

Copyright © 2023 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.