About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 2011)
JOURNALISM UNDER THE INFLUENCE NEWS FROM THE JUICE BOX SET Here's a tip for anyone entering the creative field—artists, musicians, writers (especially writers)—never play the "influ ences" game. When someone asks you who your "influences" are, what he or she is really asking is: "Whom are you ripping off?" On the other side of it, claiming your influences implies that your work contains enough cre ative DNA that you could claim at least kin ship, if not equivalent brilliance, with people who are much better at this sort of thing than you are. If the question comes up, it's better to be honest. Your "influences" are those art ists whose work jazzed you so much that you had to go out and do something like what they do. In my own work (if you can call this work), there are people who inspired me with their style, their voice and their drive, but calling them my "influences" would be monstrously presump tuous. Case in point: Hunter S. Thompson. Though there are many writers who made me want to write for a living, more than anyone else it was Thompson, in alt his mad glory, who made me want to write like he did: the personal narrative voice, the unbridled wonder and raqe, the way he could tell the story and tell you why the story matters without breaking his stride or showing the seams. Those have been my goats as a journalist since Fear and loathing in Las Vegas first blew my teenaged mind, and yet I wouldn't dream of calling Thompson an influ ence. I'll never go in as deep as he did, never achieve his level of sheer intensity, and I sure as hell will never be that good. In the 40-plus years of Thompson's work as a jou'nalist, from Scanlon's magazine to his final days as a columnist for ESPN, nowhere was he better than in his work for Rolling Stone. Theirs was a partnership made in Counterculture Heaven, an ambi tious magazine seeking to provide a differ ent voice to the drone of Big Media and a writer looking for an outlet that would give him enough editorial breathing room for his wild talent to take the wheel and his gigan tic cojones to ride shotgun. The resulting work elevated the Stone from a semi-slick music rag for hippies and freaks to a viable source for real journalism, and it established Thompson as a war correspondent on the front lines of Ugly America, a postmodern muckraker putting His body on the line to reveal the engine of hypocrisy driving the EstaOlishment machine. Not to say that either Rolling Stone or Thompson changed anything in any material sense, but they did help open the Information Superhighway to alternative vehicles like the one you're read mg right now. #h»le there have been several biographies of Thompson and much repackaging of his work since his suicide seven years ago. this year has brought us the first really important collection of Gonzo: Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson (Simon & Schuster, 2011). Editor and Stone founder Jann Wenner has compiled every article Thompson did for the magazine, and the result is a fascinating look at Thompson's evolution as a writer and as a burgeoning celebrity and counterculture hero. It also clears up some of the myths surrounding Thompson and Wenner's oft- contentious relationship, by way of never- before-published correspondences between the two men, and is an excellent lesson for would-be journalists on how the writer/edi- tor partnership should work. The book is also, and perhaps most importantly, a study of the way American politics has changed and yet stayed depress- ingly the same. While there are other cru cial pieces in the book, most notably Thompson's powerful and groundbreaking piece on the murder of Chicano journalist Ruben Salazar by L.A. riot police, Hunter's bread-and-butter was political reporting from the trenches, from his early cov erage of the Freak Power Party's attempt to get the vote in Aspen, CO to his final work on the 2004 presidential race. In between are all the pieces Thompson wrote in his most productive and most crazed period, the campaign and reelec tion of Richard Nixon in 1972. Most of that work can be found in Thompson's book Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, but there's something to be said for reading the articles that spawned the book; there is a greater sense of the immediacy and urgency of Thompson's grueling work to get the story in and on time, and of Wenner and company's efforts to hammer it into shape. One gets the nagging impression that Wenner's motivations for releasing this book are not entirely simon-pure. The Stone of today is by no means the Stone of yesteryear, and while there is still some vital report ing coming from the magazine, for the most part, competition and entropy have turned it into a glossy and ephemeral parody of itself. Rolling Stone's edge has dulled, and the magazine is now as Establishment as they come—one finds harder-hitting work in The Atlantic Monthly—but once upon a time, Wenner reminds us, his magazine had the meanest and most tenacious of all attack dogs in its kennel. Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone is a must-have for fans of Thompson and students of journalism as it has been and should be practiced. Young writers should know the work of Hunter S. Thompson, and if they find themselves inspired to go rake some muck of their own. so much the better. Just don't call Thompson an "influence"—you'll never live up to that. JohnG Nettles i Earlier in my journalistic career, I worked in a town where, on Christmas Eve, some one would go up in a helicopter and pull a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer across the county. Until I realized this was happening, I thought people were insane to call the newspaper, asking what time Santa would be flying over their houses. I mean, isn't that what the NORAO web site is for? (see www.noradsanta.org). But both the helicopter Santa Claus and NORAD are all too real (did you know, smartphone users, you can track The Fat Man on your phone, too? Yes, there's an app for that). As are my lies to my daughter, each year get ting progressively more complex as I try to explain why a man comes into our house to give us things. In some places, the taking of the cookies and milk would at least count as a misdemeanor, not to mention the breaking and entering charge. So, why do we put on this elaborate display for our kids? I'm sure there's a bit of nostalgia. For exactly what, though, I haven't been able to figure out. My Christmas memories are more wrapped up in trips with the family or specific presents (the My Little Pony Dream Castle!), rather than with The Fat Man him self. He's basically faded into the general trimmings of the holiday season, like the blinking tree lights or those nutcrackers that get trotted out each year. And sure, there are the great photos we get every year—either of kids looking lov ingly into Santa's twinkling eyes, or of the crying, screaming child on a bewildered Santa's lap. In 12 years it will make for great blackmail fodder, and there's always some sweet community event or open house where you an grab a seat with Santa for a photo Athens-Clarke leisure Services has some fun activities coming up, like Santa's Workshop on Dec. 14 (where kids can make some crafts under Santa's watchful eye). Breakfast With Santa on Dec. 17 and the Youth Christmas Party on Dec. 20. The breakfast and the party are great events for parents with preschool- aged kids and younger (See "Miscellany" in this issue for even more fun holiday events, and visit www.athensclarkecounty.com/ leisure for more information on registration and prices). And of course, there's the mall. At the various holiday events, you're never quite sure what, urn, "quality" of Santa you'll get— always nice, but sometimes younger or less bearded than one might expect. But when you visit The Fat Man at the mall, he's usu ally gone through some kind of Santa school and has a real beard. Cherry Hill Photo, the company that provides the Santa service at Georgia Square Mall, actually specializes in assembling an army of "naturally bearded Santas" for malls across the country. For a jolly laugh, check out www.santaclausschool. com, which has been teaching the how-tos of ho-ho-hos since 1937. It even has a dean! I've met these Santa types in the off sea son, and they are some hard-core Santas. One in particular drives around with a sign on his truck offering reindeer boarding. At Georgia Square, Santa will be set up until 6 p.m. Christmas Eve. Be warned that even if you intend simply to visit and have your child sit on his knee, you'll probably end up buying a $30 picture because it's so darn cute. But aside from the photos, why do we perpetuate the myth about this jolly old elf? Is it some weird way to show our power over our kids? Are we exercising their imagina tions? I promised my daughter when she was born that I would be straightforward and honest with her about everything, but now I feel as if I've dug a hole for myself that is already too deep to dig out of. "Oh, just one more Christmas," I tell myself—so when she's five, does that mean I'll be sitting her down and explaining the elaborate ruse about a bearded man who hands out presents? I can already see the follow-up question: "So, what else have you been lying about?" I'll probably end up telling her anyway; I'd '*ther she hear it from me than some kid at school. In all honesty. I did try to explain to her, about a year ago, that Santa wasn't real. H*r response? "Oh, Mommy, you're crazy." Just don't even get me started on the Tooth Fairy. Kristen Morales Kiddiertope^awtagpoie com Kenzie Boadman. 4. laughs with Santa Claus at Urban Sanctuary's recent holiday party The photos of such meetings are great, but the cold, hard truth is tough to face up to Breaking the news about Kris Krmgle 7 Two flying reindeer out of eight 8 FLAGPOLE COM DECEMBER 14. 2011 KRISTEN MORALES
