Seeking Gonzo journalism blogs

November 1, 2004 6:48 PM

I've been reading a lot of Hunter S. Thompson lately, and have become addicted to his "Gonzo journalism". Can anyone reccomend any weblogs, online zines or young authors that display that kind of brazen, muckraking writing style?
posted by Jimbob to writing & language (10 comments total)

Harmon Leon is good for some laughs.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:31 PM on November 1, 2004

Chris Locke wrote "Gonzo Marketing", (he also co-wrote the Cluetrain Manifesto, if you remember that) and he used to chanel a bit of Hunter S. Thompson back in the day. But I haven't read his work in a couple years.
posted by gd779 at 7:46 PM on November 1, 2004

For some old-time dawn-of-the-web-as-we-know-it thrills, I highly recommend CyberWire Dispatch, by Brock F-in' Meeks.
posted by britain at 7:54 PM on November 1, 2004

Jesus General
posted by Fupped Duck at 8:07 PM on November 1, 2004

Matt Taibbi. What an asshole that guy is.
posted by inksyndicate at 8:11 PM on November 1, 2004

Our very own stavrosthewonderchicken (one of the aforementioned Chris Locke's favourites) does the rather good Empty Bottle. There are some excellent rants in the 'Politics Chafe My Scrote' section and his travel stories always make me want to jump on a boat/plane/train/bike and head off into the distance yet again.
posted by i_cola at 4:18 AM on November 2, 2004

It's not journalism exactly, but a story about that same sort of journalism is the Transmetropolitan books by Warren Ellis. I think there's.. nine or ten of them. Graphic novels. The first thing I thought of when I picked them up was "Oh, Hunter S. Thompson in the future".

The story is about throwing a lunatic out of office, and the pitfalls of maintaining a vibrant democracy in the age of listlessness and sex androids. Take that as you will.
posted by Hildago at 8:08 AM on November 2, 2004

You could do a lot worse than Tom Wolfe's earlier stuff. He doesn't have HST's drug-fueled craziness, but I guess I consider him to be as much a part of the new journalism movement as HST. PJ O'Rourke, particularly in his earlier Parliment of Whores years, is pretty rad.

It's been awhile since I got engrossed by an author the way HST pulled me into his stories, but Jon Ronson's "Them" was a pretty great, similar work.
posted by ph00dz at 8:20 AM on November 2, 2004

Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour are semi-gonzo, but involve tasty food rather than chatting about football with Nixon.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:11 AM on November 2, 2004

The eXile is great. It's a weekly paper out of Moscow written in english. Mark Ames is the paper's best writer, but sometimes he gets serious about Russian politics and sorely neglects articles about sex with whores.
posted by spork at 2:17 PM on November 2, 2004