O
Octopus Messiah
Guest
If anyone lives in NYC:
Stalking the Bogeyman just opened off-Broadway to rave reviews, based on a the true-life story of David Holthouse who tracked down his childhood rapist with designs on murder.
Days before he put his plan to action his mother found his childhood notebook and destroyed his alibi. So instead, he arranged to meet the bastard and wrote an article on the experience which he later read to a million+ listeners on This American Life. The original story can be found here: http://www.westword.com/2004-05-13/news/stalking-the-bogeyman/
What makes the StB beautiful is that it's not your typical Gladiator revenge story bullshit. It's a story on being stopped on the brink of revenge/nausea/prison by love and reclaiming your humanity in no small part through writing.
Over 20 years ago David was the guy who inspired me to write . We started a college newspaper at UC Santa Cruz that is still going today (the Fish Rap Live). Back then he had a serious death wish and threw himself into every story. Covering the nascent crystal meth scene in Phoenix. Getting chased by the Crips. Tackling shady politicians and later going undercover within the white power movement for the SPLC (one of my proudest moments? I helped shave his head! That was a good party) In my subjective opinion, dude is the best writer you've never heard of and represents one of the last bastions of the gonzo spirit. He is also my best man, best friend and hero. And unlike Sarah Palin, he doesn't need to use his gun to be a true Alaska badass!
I remember sitting in a car with him in Denver in 2002 when the glove box fell open and there was the gun. Big fucking chrome-plated Ruger. I told him I hated the thing and why'd he have to bring it to the gym. He deadpanned, "Did I ever tell you I was raped when I was 8?" I'd known him over a decade by this point but this was the first I'd heard of it and said so. He told me the guy who did it lived just down the road and that he was going to shoot him in the balls, look him in the eye then, "bang-bang, lights out." In shock I told him I didn't think that was such a good idea...
If anyone's interested, he was recently a guest on Litopia After Dark (Bullets on the Brain)
And again, if you live in NY or are passing through, please do go and see the play!
Stalking the Bogeyman just opened off-Broadway to rave reviews, based on a the true-life story of David Holthouse who tracked down his childhood rapist with designs on murder.
Days before he put his plan to action his mother found his childhood notebook and destroyed his alibi. So instead, he arranged to meet the bastard and wrote an article on the experience which he later read to a million+ listeners on This American Life. The original story can be found here: http://www.westword.com/2004-05-13/news/stalking-the-bogeyman/
What makes the StB beautiful is that it's not your typical Gladiator revenge story bullshit. It's a story on being stopped on the brink of revenge/nausea/prison by love and reclaiming your humanity in no small part through writing.
Over 20 years ago David was the guy who inspired me to write . We started a college newspaper at UC Santa Cruz that is still going today (the Fish Rap Live). Back then he had a serious death wish and threw himself into every story. Covering the nascent crystal meth scene in Phoenix. Getting chased by the Crips. Tackling shady politicians and later going undercover within the white power movement for the SPLC (one of my proudest moments? I helped shave his head! That was a good party) In my subjective opinion, dude is the best writer you've never heard of and represents one of the last bastions of the gonzo spirit. He is also my best man, best friend and hero. And unlike Sarah Palin, he doesn't need to use his gun to be a true Alaska badass!
I remember sitting in a car with him in Denver in 2002 when the glove box fell open and there was the gun. Big fucking chrome-plated Ruger. I told him I hated the thing and why'd he have to bring it to the gym. He deadpanned, "Did I ever tell you I was raped when I was 8?" I'd known him over a decade by this point but this was the first I'd heard of it and said so. He told me the guy who did it lived just down the road and that he was going to shoot him in the balls, look him in the eye then, "bang-bang, lights out." In shock I told him I didn't think that was such a good idea...
If anyone's interested, he was recently a guest on Litopia After Dark (Bullets on the Brain)
And again, if you live in NY or are passing through, please do go and see the play!
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. Over the years Holthouse has been this kind of embodiment of 'write what you know' in that he's put himself in, or been subject to, so many intense situations his writing can't help but be compelling. This is another of my faves (ten years b4 Breaking Bad): 
