Taibbi on Hunter S. Thompson

Moving day.  Posting will be sporadic for the next few days—I am not sure how or when my new internet hookup will be operational and I am just crazy tired.

And of course I have signed up to put in a new bathroom right away.  It will be mine and since I am a large man, I intend to have some elbow room.  I want plenty of handholds—I am getting to the age where falls can literally kill you.  But most of all, I want it to be ridiculously easy (even fun) to clean.  I am never going to have servants so if my bathroom is going to be clean, I am going to have to do it myself.  A design problem.  It's what we Producers do.

Meanwhile, here's a link to the Village Voice interview of the guy who, IMHO, is the best writer this country has at the moment.  Not only has he chosen to wade into the most relevant topic going (whether it's a good idea to allow vandals, thieves, and con men have a say in how the nationwide economy is run) but he gets his facts right and makes complexity look easy.

Q&A: Matt Taibbi on the 40th Anniversary of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, Hunter S. Thompson's influence, and Why Barack Obama Isn't a Great Shark

The Rolling Stone writer penned the introduction for the latest edition of the book.
By Eric Sundermann Wednesday, Jun 27 2012

Matt Taibbi, like many journalists, grew up idolizing Hunter S. Thompson. But Taibbi, unlike many journalists, got Hunter S. Thompson's job.

The similarities between the two Rolling Stone scribes do not stop there, even though Taibbi himself argues he's nothing like Thompson. Both made their name pointing out hypocrisies and flaws in the U.S. government. Both thrived (one still is) at a time of turmoil in our country's history. Both even managed to love the same sport, the game of football. And now both have their name on the cover of the same book. Taibbi was given the responsibility of writing a new introduction to the 40th-anniversary edition of one of Thompson's seminal works, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, which releases today.

In his introduction, Taibbi highlights the importance of Thompson's writing, calling him the "most instantly trustworthy" American narrator since Mark Twain, and argues that the book still continues to define the way we think about the dramas of politics. Taibbi stopped by The Village Voice office (where he was a summer intern in 1987) to chat about Thompson's influence, how Thompson lives up to his own cliche, and why Obama would disappoint Thompson, were Thompson still alive.  more