Friday, October 23, 2020

Freak Power Friday

"The only way to cope with the power is not to ignore it, but to get it." 

Afternoon, ladies and gents. Today is Friday October 23rd. It means that today is the day that a New Hunter S. Thompson documentary is being released. This documentary is called Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb. It covers Thompson's attempt to run for sheriff of Aspen, CO in 1970. The parallels of the chaos in America at that time, versus the chaos in today's America, are noteworthy, especially when seen through the lens of HST and his movement, whose logo is a two-thumbed hand holding a peyote button. 

There is a good Instagram account to follow (@freak_power) that has put out a steady diet of content over the last few months that draws the parallels. I was debating putting together a lengthy post on this, but didn't because lazy. But the crux of Thompson's legitimate campaign was on police reform, changing drug laws and land development/the environment. Sound like prescient themes to anybody today? 

The trailer for the documentary is below. It is available on Amazon and Apple. 

10 comments:

T.J. said...

the murder hornets are back

rootsminer said...

My wife hates the sound of murder hornets, so she and my oldest have taken to calling them "mumma hummas". I could point out how that would be misconstrued, but I don't think they'd appreciate it.

zman said...

If you ever find yourself hating your job, imagine being the guy in charge of capturing and tagging murder hornets.

https://komonews.com/news/local/first-giant-murder-hornet-nest-found-in-whatcom-county

Whitney said...

I’m in on that doc, TR. I was never the hugest fan of HST, but the man was certainly an interesting character. I recently read an article in which the author recounted an old story of when he wrote a piece on Thompson (who was his next door neighbor) and wanted to run it by him before it went to print. HST held a knife to the writer’s temple and made him read it aloud. Luckily he was amused and not offended.

TR said...

Fox going with a steady diet of Phish outros for the World Series tonight.

Whitney said...

What’s that about? Tampa vs LA = Phish?

It’s just odd, seeing as the Vermont ballclub got eliminated earlier in the playoffs.

Whitney said...

I saw on social media that Althea was played as the first inning outro. Someone making decisions at Fox Sports has some taste.

TR said...

Fox doing it for football too. Shocking. Can’t believe that is a crucial demographic for them.

Now that we noticed, it will be a Toby Keith party tmrw.

rootsminer said...

He’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way.

Mark said...

Tulane’s powder uniforms are beautiful.