Through original print material from the campaign, photographs and political art, Freak Power chronicles a little known period in Hunter S. Thompson’s life, a period when he wrote prol During the late 1960s, Hunter S. Thompson met artist Thomas W. Benton in Aspen. Instead of Thompson’s Freak Power, politics under Obama’s watch has given way to Freak Out Power. Following his military service, Thompson traveled the world to cover a wide array of topics for numerous magazines and developed an immersive, highly personal style of reporting that would become known as “Gonzo journalism.” He would employ the style in the 1971 book for which he is best known, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which was an immediate and lasting success. “I went to the Democratic Convention as a journalist, and returned a raving beast,” he later wrote. This was not always an easy task. It can be viewed as encompassing a range of disparate groups including hippies, pacifists, politicized radicals, as well as psychedelic and progressive rock fans. Although Thompson would be narrowly defeated in 1970, the police reforms he recommended were taken up in 1976 by a candidate named Dick Kienast. As part of the deal, Thompson promised to run for sheriff the following year – but only if Edwards won. We follow Hunter as he builds his own political movement, which grows from a local sheriff's race to a national media sensation. Liam Neeson says he’s retiring from doing action movies, Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix’s Napoleon film will air on Apple TV+, Chris Evans responds to rumours that he’s returning to the MCU, Cardi B scores her first lead role in comedy ’Assisted Living’, Elizabeth Olsen says it was “very scary” being followed by paparazzi as a child, Kevin Smith finishes first draft of ‘Clerks 3’, calls it a “funny fucking script”. Original Artwork for Sale Can be Found at the Gonzo Gallery. IMDb: 9.9. Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb. That campaign was cast as the culmination of the ‘Freak Power’ movement that was part libertarian and part eco-crusade against those engaged in “land rape.” While writing about his campaign, Thompson introduced the term “fear and loathing” into his reportage, which carried over into his future writings. Freak Power is a fascinating look into the heart of a grassroots political campaign during a violent era in American history, as one man channelled the rage and confusion of a maligned subculture into a surprisingly coherent and subversive political movement. A post shared by Freak Power (@freak_power) on Oct 6, 2020 at 2:26pm PDT Depending on who you ask, the idea of Freak Power stuck. He creates a platform in which he envisions completely reforming the sheriff's office and focusing on … Stitched together from recently unearthed campaign footage and new interviews conducted by directors Daniel Joseph Watkins and Ajax Phillips, the film skilfully captures not just the specifics of what made Aspen in the late ‘60s ripe for political upheaval, but also how loudly the Freak Power campaign still resonates in this foul year of 2020. “The country is more divided now than it was over Vietnam,” he says. © 2021 NME is a member of the media division of BandLab Technologies. He points out that in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed, 94 per cent of police officers live outside the city. We are good people. Freak Power : The Ballot or the Bomb “It’s time in this country for somebody to run on some kind of realistic program rather than to get into this hypocritical gibberish that has characterized politics in this country for I don’t know how long and still does in most parts of it.” Hunter S. Thompson, 1970 A variety of workshops, activities and interactive elements are possible during the exhibition. HD. … The outrage, the hectoring, the constant rhetoric metaphorical “war:” it’s all a … Though he was already becoming a well known writer and public figure in the late 60s, Thompson kept a relatively low profile at home in Woody Creek, just outside of Aspen. 2017. Freak Power: Hunter S. Thompson's Campaign for Sheriff - First Edition - Signed by D.J. With his friends, Thompson helped established the Freak Power movement. The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami Who Started It All. Thompson wrote about his campaign in the article "The Battle of Aspen", published in Rolling Stone magazine no. Not only was he elected Sheriff himself in 1986, he was then re-elected five more times before he retired in 2010. Watkins, Bob Braudis and Joe DiSalvo - Only 50 Available. The world's defining voice in music and pop culture since 1952. Access and exhibition rights to digital video files for the duration of the exhibition. Credit: Press, The story of Freak Power, then, is a rebuke to anyone disillusioned by the idea that participating in our shaky democratic institutions really can make a difference. The answer Thompson came up with was a radical, local political campaign he termed ‘Freak Power’, and a run to be elected Sheriff of Aspen and the surrounding Pitkin County in 1970 under the banner of a six-fingered fist clutching a peyote button. People called us: ‘Dick Dove and his Deputies of Love.’”, As Sheriff, Braudis championed ideas like community policing, which may seem obvious but is far from the norm in America. Film Screenings: Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb will be available to screen at exhibiting institutions (or partner location) during the exhibition and includes footage from the campaign that has never been seen before. Summaries. Not bad for a hippie, beatnik, freak or whatever you want to call him. Back in Aspen, he finds more of the same. The complete exhibition consists of the following materials: 125 framed works including silkscreen posters, original drawings and mixed-media paintings, offset lithographs, reproductions of historical newspaper articles, illustrated documentary photographs and high resolution images for digital display. Original art by Ralph Steadman and Thomas W. Benton combine with Hunter S. Thompson’s writing and political theatre to shed new light on a chapter in history which also resonates today. Hare Krishna! Hunter S. Thompson came home from the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago disgusted yet motivated by what he’d seen: protests violently suppressed, riots, corrupt politicians, and … The cover of the magazine ran the teaser "Freak Power in the Rockies", and the article was later reprinted in The Great Shark Hunt. Freak Power Movement. Hunter S. Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1937. We are authentic Americans. “Making a pedestrian mall sounds so boring, but if you say: ‘We’re ripping up all the pavement and we’re sodding the streets at once’, suddenly it sounds like something exciting that I want to get engaged with.”, Among those drawn in to a political campaign for the first time was Bob Braudis, a young volunteer given the critical job of going around town making sure everyone with long hair had registered to vote. “If Hunter could run for Sheriff,” he points out, “anybody can run for anything!”, Sadly, of course, the current occupant of the White House proves just how horribly true that sentiment really is. English artist and illustrator Ralph Steadman became friends with Hunter S. Thompson in May 1970 and the two corresponded and collaborated regularly on such works as The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Though he lost the battle, his campaign kick-started a political movement in Aspen that ultimately won the war, the reverberations of which still ripple throughout the community today. The ideas were at once radical and eminently sensible, coming from a man who could see how the drug war was driving a wedge between communities and police. As to the actual freak power movement, it makes me w This coffee table book is written by a serious Hunter S. Thompson fan and an Aspen museum curator. The freak scene was originally a component of the bohemian subculture which began in California in the mid-1960s, associated with the hippie movement. The materials will be mounted, framed, prepared for exhibition, and packed for transport by the lender, Mr. Watkins, at his own expense. Freak Power is a fascinating look into the heart of a grassroots political campaign during a violent era in American history, as one man channelled the rage and confusion of a maligned subculture into a surprisingly coherent and subversive political movement. 7,500 square feet (variable) of installation space and 300 linear feet of exhibition material. “This is the real point: that we are not really freaks at all - not in the literal sense - but the twisted realities of the world we are trying to live in have somehow combined to make us feel like freaks. Freak Power is a book and documentary film about Hunter S. Thompson's Campaign for Sheriff. Not democrat. A political activist in Aspen, Colorado. Bernnie Federko TRIBE Member. The message to the less liberal, less intelligent bullies was: ‘You don’t fit in here anymore.’ We replaced them with us. Among other ideas, he proposed introducing a system of community policing, establishing an environmental crime detection office and redefining the role of Sheriff to become an ombudsman who would deal with citizen’s complaints. “That’s because our President is a con man. Sadly, they didn’t quite go as far as Thompson wanted – as well as the aforementioned ripping up and sodding of the city’s streets, he also proposed renaming Aspen ‘Fat City’ to troll developers seeking to profit from the name. And he almost won. Thompson himself would be his de facto campaign manager delivering regular shots of gonzo wisdom. The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami Who Started It All. “He would use this language that was deliberately provocative,” she explains. 50 years on, a new documentary explores what we can learn from his radical movement, It was a billy club to the gut that convinced Hunter S. Thompson it was time to get personally involved in politics. Braudis sees some similarities now with the social divisions that first birthed Freak Power. to exhibit audio or video materials. Some sort of mutant possibly. Director Watkins says that one of the things he hopes the film will do is inspire ordinary people not just to vote, but to run for office themselves. The symbol of a two-thumbed fist with a peyote button represented the so-called "Freak Power" movement, Thompson's self-proclaimed base of support. His cabinet is a cabinet of puppets. Thompson was also disturbed by the environmental destruction he saw happening around him in the Rocky Mountains, so the question he found himself posing half a century ago became one many of us are still asking today: in the face of obvious police brutality and the shadow of ecological disaster, how do we wrest control of power from those too corrupt to care? “He carried all of Hunter’s principles forward,” explains Braudis, who remembers the Sheriff’s Office undergoing a startling transformation. “We realised the only way to affect permanent change was through the ballot.”, Braudis is something of an authority on matters of the ballot. 24 likes. Braudis remembers Thompson putting it succinctly: “Real estate developers spread like piss puddles on a parking lot.”, Although the ‘Fat City’ rebrand sadly never came to be, many of Thompson’s allies – including the lawyer Joe Edwards – were elected to positions which allowed them to prevent what Braudis refers to as “wholesale greedhead development.”, Thompson is best known as a writer and author, and as the founder of the gonzo journalism movement. Credit: Press. Credit: Press, Another central pillar of the Freak Power campaign that took root in Aspen was the idea of actively preventing development to preserve the environment. Before long, the Freak Power movement grew from a local affair and drew major media attention. HD. “Dick Kienast hired me as a baby deputy. He decided then that he had to join the fight for civil rights and needed to start by getting involved with local politics. J. 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