Where to begin? It starts back when I was in middle school at a very impressionable age. My friends and I liked to watch all kinds of movies throughout our summer vacation. We had exhausted our own movie collections and were branching out to my next door neighbor’s library of VHS and DVD’s. This particular neighbor had hundreds of movies and my green eyed personality type told myself that I would amass a collection that my friends would envy.
I started purchasing movies left and right. I can still remember all of the covers of movies in the electronic section of Walmart in my mind. One particular movie cover that stuck out and appealed to my curiousity was Blow. The cover was shiny, and it had Penelope Cruz on it. I didn’t know much about the movie at the time just that it seemed to receive a great amount of praise and that Penelope was a babe. So I took the gamble on purchasing it, which I did often at the point in time as VHS tapes were beginning to fade out and were more cost effective. The movie didn’t disappoint. To this day it still stands out as one of my all time favorites.
But that isn’t the point. The point lies in the fact that Johnny Depp was able to pull all a pair of gold trimmed aviator sunglasses to perfection in the movie. I idolized the look that these glasses represented and needed a pair. I looked for a pair of glasses similar to this for a long time before eventually obtaining some. In my search, I always noticed anyone that had a similar pair. I also noticed a movie cover to a DVD while shopping in target one day that contained a pair.
That movie cover was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I knew nothing about the movie or Hunter S. Thompson at the time. I just knew the cover looked weird and brought back nightmares of Terminator 2 that I had supressed somewhere in my childhood. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, my movie collection and knowledge had really grown and I decided I wanted to try out Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. So I did what every tech savvy kid of our generation did back then, which was go online and find a copy of the movie.
Sitting there watching the movie I kept asking myself “what in the fuck is going on?” I didn’t figure it out. I did figure out that I was glad I didn’t purchase the movie though.
When I was a junior in high school I had an English teacher that made us read a non-fiction piece one semester. The other semester we had the ability to read a fiction piece. A classmate opted to read Fear in Loathing in Las Vegas as his non-fiction piece. I figured I should hop on this bandwagon too since I had already seen the movie. Our instructor also had a rule that whatever we chose to read couldn’t have a movie made after it. My classmate and I had to practically beg and persuade that we hadn’t seen and wouldn’t watch this movie. I am an ethical person though; I did fully intend to read the book. After all, I was hoping the book might actually enlighten me as to “What the fuck is going on?”
I read the book. I figured out what was going on, but I still never figured out “What the fuck.” We had to give a book report in front of the class. Nathan and my reports were completely different from eachother. After we gave the conflicting reports, Mrs. Scarvelli had a look on her face that could only be summed up with three words, “What the fuck.”
When I was a senior in high school, another friend and I decided to hit up the Florida Keys for our Spring Break vacation. Somewhere in Tennessee we stopped at a gas station and believe it or not I found a pair of gold trimmed aviators. Instant purchase. The story of HST and mine relation begins to come full circle. We continued our journey to the Sunshine state.
Our adolescent minds couldn’t fully appreciate it yet, but the Keys were full of everlasting beauty that we are still envious of today. At the time I was more fascinated with the idea of being in a location so remote from everything else. We were in Key West trying to find a parking spot, sitting at a red light when we look over and see a little league baseball game being played. Shad looks over at me and says “Can you believe people actualy live down here?” That’s when I knew that one day I would live in the Florida Keys.
I choose to attend college at the University of Louisville. The winters were too cold for my blood and the idea of moving back to Florida (and hopefully one day the Keys) started to grow in my head. Every day that my bones shivered my desire to one day live in the Keys grew exponentially. I became obsessed with this idea. I also became obsessed with the history of the Keys, the culture and its citizens.
By the final semesters of my college career Facebook and other social media outlets had grown to outrageous proportions that consumed our everyday lifes. There are groups, fan pages and polls galore. So much that my mind can no longer comprehend everything that is going on within the internet.
Simultaneously, as my everlonging departure from Kentucky grew nearer, my ability to stop and smell the roses started to grow. I had made it a passion to sight see as much in the state of Kentucky as I possibly could. Then one day, while browsing the Facebook, an interest group poped up mentioning the idea of a Kentucky version of Mount Rushmore. The interest group had a poll for the faces to appear on the side of the mountain. I made my selections and cast my vote.
Afterwards, I consulted with a friend who voiced his opinion for Hunter S. Thompson’s appeareance. “Why, that’s just tacky.” I retorted. After all, HST is famous for doing copious amounts of drugs and spitting in the face of authority. Why should we represent that in the spirit of Kentucky?
…Wait. He’s from Kentucky? From Louisville actually, my friend enlightens me. OK, so I am a little more interested now. Open new browser. Wikipedia.org. Press Enter. Hunter S. Thompson. Enter.
So apperently there is a piece that HST became famous for known as “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved.” I am a little more interested now. Check the sources at the bottom of the page and what do you know? There is a link to the text of the article. Twenty minutes later my mind is convinced on the man’s credibility as an author and his argument for being placed upon the Kentucky version of Mount Rushmore.
It just so happens that at about this time The Rum Diary, HST’s other novel is about to be released as a major motion picture starring Johnny Depp. I find it interesting that Johhny Depp, will be cast the role of the protagonist of HST’s other novel. I also am intrigued by the idea of the Caribbean setting of the novel as the dream goal of living in Key West has yet to leave me. I purchase the book and read. My appreciation level continues to grow.
In the book store a few months later, I stumble upon a discounted coffee table book entitled “Gonzo.” I quickly skim the pages to see that it is a photo acount of HST’s life. Its only 10 bucks so I pick it up. Later when I get home I read it cover to cover. It begins by informing me that Johnny Depp, the man who has become one of my favorite actors in some of my favorite flick over the years, is actually a close friend of Thompson’s.
I continue flipping pages. There are many different sections for the many different places Thompson had lived such as Louisville. I continue flipping. Key West. Holy fucking shit. This man lived in Key West too. How did I not know this? My dream home. The place I’ve wanted to live ever since I was there in March of 2006 and my best friend looked me in the eyes of my gold trimmed aviator sunglasses, the glasses that I happened to be wearing in homage to Depp’s attire in the likes of Blow and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and asked me “Can you believe people actually live here?”
I was sold on Hunter S. Thompson at this point. Everything involving Thompson seemed to come full circle. The months since that moment, I have continued reading anything HST I can get my hands and his life only seems to continue to be more and more interesting. I am quite confident when I say Thompson is indeed the world’s most interesting man.
Kentucky Fried Bucket List 
