Celebrating Gonzo

Wandering through the oversized penthouse of the Night Hotel Wednesday evening for the Gonzo: The Life and Works of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson screening afterparty, I couldn’t keep from wondering if one could have found Thompson here, stabbing away on a typewriter, shuffling through Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated in one of his brilliant altered states. The composure of the scene makes me think otherwise. Thompson reportedly used to request a case of Wild Turkey be waiting for him upon his hotel arrival; I order a glass of champagne

“The edge. There is no honest way to explain it, because the only people who know what it is are the ones who have gone over.” Johnny Depp narrates in the beginning of the definitive documentary by Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney. The screening drew an influential social set including Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter (who also produced the film) Brian Williams, Dominick Dunne, Tom Wolfe, and Meg Ryan. The afterparty boasts a similar assembly, with the luminous Alexandra Kerry chatting up hotelier Vikram Chatwal, and Hunter S. Thompson’s son, Juan Thompson. I’m savoring the elegance of the balmy evening in my favorite Thread Social little black dress, but I’m wishing for some sort of bat country. Coincidentally, Unruly Heirs Kristian Laliberte and Timo Weiland show face to shake things up a bit. Soon there is dancing throughout the maze of rooms, and playful trysts atop the neatly made beds. It’s no edge, nor is it bat country by Dr. Thompson’s standards, but as the Good Doctor wrote in Kingdom of Fear; “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

Pros Dancing

Kristian Laliberte and Timo Weiland

Photos by Patrick McMullan