(Note: Due to technical difficulties I wasn’t able to post yesterday’s post and so I’m a day behind. This is the video I was going to put up yesterday and I’ll be back on schedule tomorrow with the Saturday Night post.)
I'm going to start posting a video every Sunday as a way to give myself a little break from daily blogging. Even when I have something from the Contributing Writers pool, it still takes me hours to put it together and post it. But I want to have something to look at, so I thought I'd find an interesting video once a week and just write a little bit about why I chose it.
This week is a video of writer, Hunter Thompson when he was on a promotional tour for his book,"Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs." Hunter Thompson is better known for his book, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," but I've always thought this was his best work and a big inspiration for me as far as interactive journalism goes, which I consider this blog to be.
In the video he's confronted by a member of The Hell's Angels who had soured on him by this time. After about a year of hanging out and riding with the Angel's, Hunter Thompson called out one of the Angels, "Junkie George" for beating his wife. The infamous quote from Thompson to Junkie George is: “Only a punk beats his wife."
I agree with that statement, but find it hard to believe that after a year of being with the Angels that this was the first glimpse of domestic abuse he had witnessed. Hell's Angels President at the time, Ralph "Sonny" Barger has always said that Thompson made the punk remark to purposely get beaten up so he'd have an ending for his book and I tend to think that's the case too. After he got the shit kicked out of him, he had the where-with-all to take a self-portrait of himself which would later be featured in the book.
In this video clip, Hunter Thompson is surprised by a guest appearance of an Angel and it's really an awkward moment. Kind of like when you show up somewhere and ask if you can eat lunch there.
Enjoy the video, have a great Sunday and we'll see you all tomorrow!
Related post: Saturday Morning Beatle Cartoons!