Hayduke Lives!

Eastern Washington University has an inspiring program that brings authors to audiences in Spokane. The 'Get Lit" series encourages people to read and write, last week the speaker was Douglas Peacock - Green Beret, grizzly protector and the inspiration for the Ed Abbey character 'Hayduke'. Ty and yours truly took the drive to the Metropolitan Theater in downtown Spokane to listen to a living legend.
Like most face to face meetings with someone you have heard about, it was a little bit anticlimatic to see the actual Hayduke as a portly, bald, 50ish cat that was not a great public speaker kind of brought reality in. On the other hand it was very interesting and informative. He is a cool guy that has done a lot of interesting things and has a new book that he is trying to sell, hence the appearance. He talked about Ed Abbeys last days and burying him in an illegal grave without a death certificate on pulic lands. Very graphic and emotional. He gave his imput on the current day status of the enviromental movement. (he thought Ed would be disgusted) and took a few cheap shots at George Bush and the Iraq war. The crowd was an interesting mix of scholarly types, aging hippies and young idealists who havent developed their sense of cynicalism that will come with time. He didn't mention the obvious curse of the planet which is of course too many people and not enough space between them. He talked about the grizzlies and Hollywood and the prospect of bringing The Monkey Wrench Gang to the big screen (it is in the works) he said that the part of Hayduke might be played by Collin Ferill and that brought boos from the crowd. He hopes that it will happen and that he will be a consultant because he could use the money - it all comes down to money - even to Hayduke. Case closed, the world is ending.