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from THE NATION
April 25, 2005

Warren Hinkle’s grand tribute to Hunter S. Thompson defines “Gonzo Journalism” (where the reporter becomes “the active part of the story”) as growing “out of a 1970 assignment I gave Thompson,” for his Rampartsesque Scanlan’s Monthly. Thank God (and Mr. Hinkle) for having the chutzpah and foresight to let Hunter loose on the Kentucky Derby, where he met up with Ralph Steadman. But such editorial prescience –fostering a modern author’s exorcising American hypocrisies—dates back further... Tom Wolfe, in The New Journalism, writes about an assignment that the late David Newman of Esquire gave my father, Terry Southern in 1962: It was the first example I noticed of a form of journalism in which the writer starts out to do a feature assignment (‘Go to Mississippi and see what happens when five hundred pubescent baton twirlers meet in earnest competition’) and ends up writing a curious form of autobiography…. The supposed subject … becomes incidental. Professor William McKeen, Chair of the University of Florida Department of Journalism, and editor of Literary Journalism, (2001), writes; ”In many ways this story [Terry’s ‘Twirling at Ole Miss’] provides a model for Hunter Thompson to follow later in the decade.” Perhaps the term “gonzo journalism” must indeed be reserved for the drugs, guns, politics and iron-in-the-soul agit-prop of HST, and the “New Journalism,” kicked-off by Terry, and carried on by writers such as George Plimpton, Norman Mailer, Gay Talese, John Updike, Truman Capote, Molly Ivins, P.J. O’Rourke, Michael Herr, Mark Singer, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Tom Wolfe, will be reinvented by today’s outraged writers and (more importantly) tomorrow's new media makers. While my father set out to “blast smugness and complacency,” I think HST became that impulse. As the neo-con(job) bandwagon rolls along, the two of them must be shaking their heads with increasing incredulity.

NILE SOUTHERN
Boulder, Colorado

Pass the Popcorn, Senator How John Edwards learned to stop worrying and love Dr. Strangelove By Dana Stevens Slate.msn.com October 8, 2004 Truth Stranger Than 'Strangelove By FRED KAPLAN The New York Times, October 10, 2004 "Dr. Strangelove," Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film about nuclear-war plans run amok, is widely heralded as one of the greatest satires in American political or movie history. For its 40th anniversary, Film Forum is screening a new 35 millimeter print for one week, starting on Friday, and Columbia TriStar is releasing a two-disc special-edition DVD next month. One essential point should emerge from all the hoopla: "Strangelove" is far more than a satire. In its own loopy way, the movie is a remarkably fact-based and specific guide to some of the oddest, most secretive chapters of the Cold War."
Punters Back Cincinnati Kid as Best Gambling Movie September 3, 2004 The Guardian (UK) "The Cincinnati Kid (1965; screenplay by Terry Southern and Ring Lardner, Jr.) has been voted the BEST GAMBLING MOVIE OF ALL TIME by the people who you might think know best—gamblers." Read the complete story here!	Read more about The Cincinnati Kid here!
Dr. Strangelove Included in 'Best Movie Lines of All Time' Entertainment Weekly: June, 2004 "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!" *** * ***
Turner Classic Movies, "The Essentials" April 24-25, 2004 Hosted by director Sydney Pollack, this series examines great films of the century. "Movies that define what it means to be a classic." (Use the slider at the top of The Essentials' home page to find Dr. Strangelove and the slide show about the movie.)