Today is the day iconic gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson's ashes will be fired from a cannon as 250 friends and family members look on from his Owl Farm estate in Woody Creek, Colorado. The send off for the late Thompson was spearheaded by Johnny Depp, who portrayed Thompson in the movie adaptation of Thompson's book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and became a close friend. According to Depp, Thompson's wish was that his remains be fired from a cannon of his own design. Thompson was credited with developing a new form of journalism where the writer made himself the center of the story, an approach later used by other "alternative" journalists who didn't always understand that Thompson's choice had little to do with ego, but more to do with the fact that by fictionalizing things, you can often uncover a deeper, more profound truth.

I like Johnny Depp, and I especially like Johnny Depp when he works with Tim Burton. Actually, his turn as Raoul Duke in Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas wasn't too shabby either. The point is, the man clearly chooses roles he can really throw himself into, but Burton said recently it isn't films like Edward Scissorhands or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that will aid the rising star, but rather Pirates of the Caribbean, which gave Depp a wider audience and a new found admiration in the eyes of movie executives who might have once seen Depp as too weird or too reluctant to be a real celebrity.