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The Kentucky Derby is decadent and depraved (1970) [pdf]
- eppp 3y agoThe man was certainly an artist with words.
- cyberpunk 3y ago[flagged]
- rootusrootus 3y agoGiven what he had to say about Nixon, I can hardly imagine what his reaction would have been to Trump. I think you may be right about the rifles.
- zabzonk 3y agoyes, he was not a nixon fan, but he did admit that, following a conversation with him, nixon did know something about football.
- boomboomsubban 3y ago"Not a fan" is underselling it, as is obvious in his obituary for Nixon. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1994/07/he-was-a-crook/308699/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1994/07/he-was-...
- taude 3y agoOld classic!
- elijaht 3y agoOne of the articles I read every time I come across it :)
- 0xbadcafebee 3y agoCan you imagine submitting this to a sports magazine today?
- dfxm12 3y agoFYI, this was published to Scanlan's Monthly, which is very much not a sports magazine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanlan%27s_Monthly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanlan%27s_Monthly
- mustacheemperor 3y agoReminds me of What Football Will Look Like in the Future, relatively recently published in SBNation. https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football A multimedia work about space probes becoming sentient in the distant future to watch immortal humans play football across the continental USA seems about as unimaginable as this piece, to me.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- 0xbadcafebee 3y agoFar more likely that you just have false memories. They are very common and can result in a feeling of complete confidence that an event occurred when it never has. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory
- jmclnx 3y ago>Most of them manage to avoid vomitting on their own clothes, but they never miss their shoes." Classic, a very good read. I would never have thought the Kentucky Derby was such a crazy time. I thought it was people sipping Mint Julups watching the race. Seems the race is just a minor distraction to the real action.
- cguess 3y agoOverall the description of the atmosphere holds up to this day too.
- op00to 3y agoThe Preakness is also a total shit show. More so than the Kentucky Derby.
- QuarterReptile 3y agoThat was certainly true of the infield party 10 years ago, the last time I was there. The corporate tents in the infield were a boozy time, but not out of control that I ever saw. I can't speak to the stands outside the track. The musical acts they got were what you would expect, but it's the only time I ever got to watch a concert from backstage.
- op00to 3y agoI am not fancy enough for the corporate tents. :D
- ojbyrne 3y agoI also found the Preakness kind of crazy. Perhaps the most crazy part of it was that it's in a really sketch part of Baltimore (Pimlico), and there's a whole cordon of police from the light rail station to the track making sure that nobody drunkenly gets lost or worse on the way to and from.
- acomjean 3y agoI went to the Preakness once while passing through Baltimore many years ago. That race also has the center of the track full of people. There was talk you could just haul your own cooler to the infield. (And the famous video of people running across port-a-pottys). I was general admission on the grandstand side. Its an fun mix of people. Its sometimes kind of remarkable with a general admission ticket it can be hard to find a vantage point to watch the race.
- rinze 3y agoIf you have a chance, read the selection of HST letters that are published. I've read the first two volumes and can't wait to get my hands on the third one https://www.thriftbooks.com/series/the-fear-and-loathing-letters/39978/ https://www.thriftbooks.com/series/the-fear-and-loathing-let... He was a very prolific letter writer and kept carbon copies of almost everything he sent. This is the one he sent to Anthony Burgess when he was editor of Rolling Stone: https://www.openculture.com/2016/05/hunter-s-thompson-writes-a-blistering-over-the-top-letter-to-anthony-burgess-1973.html https://www.openculture.com/2016/05/hunter-s-thompson-writes...
- davewashere 3y agoI wouldn't count on that third book ever happening. It was first announced in 2005, the same year as his death, and I believe Amazon has had a page for it (with cover art) since at least 2006.
- rinze 3y agoOh, damn, I really thought it was published :-(
- ngai_aku 3y agoGood to hear this! I've had volume 1 sitting by my bed for a few months now but still haven't cracked it open. I'm not really sure why... length, maybe? This might be what I need to start
- fr0sty 3y agoOn the subject of the Derby, this was originally published as "The Kentucky Derby: An Oral History": https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/20/the-kentucky-derby-as-told-by-the-horses https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/20/the-kentucky-d... Such "Oral History" articles were quite popular for a time* and the fist time I encountered this article it still had its original title. I'm sad that it was not retained since the url now gives away the punchline. * https://www.vulture.com/article/an-oral-history-of-disney-the-emperors-new-groove.html https://www.vulture.com/article/an-oral-history-of-disney-th...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- B1FF_PSUVM 3y agoOddly, I've never come across any Ralph Steadman illustrations other than HST pieces. He even seems to exist independently, though.
- WorldMaker 3y agoI once met a band leader that was wild enough to just ask Ralph Steadman to design an album cover and got great illustrations back because apparently Ralph liked the music.
- clsec 3y agoI don't know your age, but as a person born in the 60's his artwork has been a common sight throughout my life.
- lamp_book 3y agoHe’s done labels for Flying Dog beer [1], the cover of Anthony Bourdain’s Appetites [2], and the album cover for Huncho Jack [3]. These are just the ones I’ve encountered in the wild - it’s quick to recognize once you’re familiar. [1] https://www.flyingdog.com/ https://www.flyingdog.com/ [2] https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/28925236 https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/28925236 [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huncho_Jack,_Jack_Huncho https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huncho_Jack,_Jack_Huncho
- B1FF_PSUVM 3y agoThanks, the beer ones even borrow the "gonzo" HST trademark ...
- at_a_remove 3y agoWeird, I run into Steadman's artwork everywhere. Closed on Account of Rabies, which consists of famous people reading Poe stories (Diamanda Galas doing "The Black Cat") had his work on the cover.
- Simon_O_Rourke 3y agoThe absolute cream of the American sporting press!
- ngai_aku 3y agoAlways a fun read. I wind up revisiting it every year when the derby comes around (last month). The timing felt random here until I came across the other HN thread discussing Ralph Steadman and beer https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36307276 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36307276 Funny to see how things on the front page all fit together.
- WhyCause 3y ago> I wind up revisiting it every year when the derby comes around As do I. It's tradition at this point.
- motohagiography 3y agoIf someone tried to do poiltical journalism like Hunter S. Thompson today, I'd bet they would probably get hauled in front of congress for a struggle session, a journalistic cashiering from party personalities, and some terrible random luck from the bureaucracy just to make an example. I wonder what changed about the world where the tradition of writers like Thompson, Hitchens, Vidal, Hemmingway, Menken, Bierce, and others with humour and moral courage just aren't a part of mainstream discourse.
- dfxm12 3y agoConservative corporate media moguls like Rupert Murdoch have since mostly consolidated news outlets.
- superb-owl 3y agoI couldn't disagree more! Vice, for one, has basically commodified HST-style journalism. They have a whole show where a guy just tries different drugs [1] And you can find all sorts of heterodox political and cultural takes in both mainstream news and the blogosphere, as well as the huge continuum of media between them. The problem isn't that these writers don't exist anymore (or that they're being somehow silenced by congress). The problem is there's no mainstream culture anymore, and therefore there's no place for counterculture to consolidate. Instead we have a bunch of people shouting different things into voids of various sizes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton%27s_Pharmacopeia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton%27s_Pharmacopeia
- boredumb 3y agoVice doing drugs and writing blogs for young adults is not akin to gonzo journalism.
- snapcaster 3y agoHow is it different? I am a huge Hunter S. Thompson fan but I don't think anything he did was any more important than "writing for young people and doing drugs"
- easytiger 3y agoHST berating the avarice, narcissism & decadence of others - indeed a classic vibes moment in time.
- xsmasher 3y agoAs a friend told me when I missed the point of a story, "that's not the subtext, that's in the actual text."
- weisser 3y agoMy favorite part of this is the introduction of the now-iconic artist Ralph Steadman. > Another problem was his habit of sketching people he met in the various social situations I dragged him into--then giving them the sketches. The results were always unfortunate. I warned him several times about letting the subjects see his foul renderings, but for some perverse reason he kept doing it. Consequently, he was regarded with fear and loathing by nearly everyone who'd seen or even heard about his work. He couldn't understand it. "It's sort of a joke," he kept saying. "Why, in England it's quite normal. People don't take offense. They understand that I'm just putting them on a bit." "Fuck England," I said. "This is Middle America. These people regard what you're doing to them as a brutal, bilious insult. Look what happened last night. I thought my brother was going to tear your head off." Steadman shook his head sadly. "But I liked him. He struck me as a very decent, straightforward sort." "Look, Ralph," I said. "Let's not kid ourselves. That was a very horrible drawing you gave him. It was the face of a monster. It got on his nerves very badly." I shrugged. "Why in hell do you think we left the restaurant so fast?" "I thought it was because of the Mace," he said. "What Mace?" He grinned. "When you shot it at the headwaiter, don't you remember?" "Hell, that was nothing," I said. "I missed him...and we were leaving, anyway." "But it got all over us," he said. "The room was full of that damn gas. Your brother was sneezing was and his wife was crying. My eyes hurt for two hours. I couldn't see to draw when we got back to the motel." "That's right," I said. "The stuff got on her leg, didn't it?" "She was angry," he said. --- Funny to consider that Steadman's visual aesthetic is even more identifiable than Hunter S. Thompson. The influence is everywhere!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dang 3y agoRelated: The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved (1970) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7691019 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7691019 - May 2014 (60 comments)
- ruraljuror 3y agoThe audiobook for this, read by Tim Robbins with music by Bill Frisell, is spectacular.
- ggm 3y agoA distant colleague in work consciously modeled himself on HST, driven I suspect by visual similarities in his build and temperament. It wasn't always very nice. Cynicism can turn nasty very quickly, he had a shallow ego and took as much offense as he caused when contradicted over matters of opinion. I remember asking him to confirm 4-5 lines in the 8th edition kernel sources from his licensed copy and I had to pay him in the form of a bottle of bourbon. He had a sad end. My point is that: you can't bottle it, imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery it's ugly and stupid. That said, E. Jean Carroll's write up suggests HST was (at the end) a very sad, lonely man too. Fear and Loathing is a great book.