Nonfiction Pizza Party

  Let me say, I am not well studied in the life or work of Hunter S. Thompson.

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This week I'm reading Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story, the new biography of David Foster Wallace, another writer I and probably many who like to sip drinks and talk about books in public don't understand as well as we pretend or wish. This is how legends work: They continue to exist to those who read just enough or watch just enough or happened to attend certain schools, and depending on our moods, we see them as fog or clowns or friends or ourselves.

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I've had a bottle of Gonzo Imperial Porter on the top shelf of my bookcase for weeks, and now it's time to open it and drink it and write about it. (For those new here, I have an affinity for both beer and writing.)The Gonzo is crafted by Flying Dog Brewery in Frederik, MD. Alcohol content: 9.2% (double the average domestic.) Smells a bit like molasses. Right off a bed of ice, smooth with a bitter kick of hops, and then coats the tongue with a syrup-like purpose. On the label, Thompson says, “It never got weird enough for me,” and, “Good people drink good beer.”

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Do good men write good books?

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Thompson once wrote, “Ale has long been the drink of thugs, convicts, rowdies, rakes and other depraved outlaws who thrive on the quick bursts of night-energy that ale brings.”

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In 1969, Thompson became friends with the founder of Flying Dog, which started near the writer's Colorado compound.Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas collaborator Ralph Steadman began illustrating the brewery's labels in 1996, giving the company its distinct look.Thompson and Steadman first worked together to cover the 1970 Kentucky Derby, with Thompson introducing his first-person Gonzo lens and Steadman mad-sketching and trying to keep up. Over 40 years later, the work, “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved,” still feels ballsy and fresh. The essay wants to get your little sister drunk and then tap-dance on her spittle.

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Steadman's illustrations look like a child tried to draw hell. They look beautiful at first, or after a while.

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Here's where I mention Thompson's persona and drinking and drug use and 2005 suicide, and how he didn't just drink. He drank in italics.So a beer utilizing his words should feel fucked up—I've visited a winery that advertised the land's former owner, novelist and tragic alcoholic Grace Metalious, and that got dark quick—but somehow, tonight, this is celebration.--David Bersell