Collegiate Times

As college students, it’s not uncommon to have a mental file saved of all your best drunk stories, always ready to divulge in an effort to impress someone at a party or defend oneself from an obtrusive “never have I ever” call out.

Keith Strausbaugh, however, took his inebriated tales to the extreme by boldly publishing an extensive 87-page account of a weeklong spring break excursion in Panama City, Fla., dripping with entertaining sarcasm and debauchery. A graduate of Old Dominion University, Strausbaugh had a rather non-traditional start to his writing career. He declared criminal justice as a major with no apparent knowledge of what he wanted to do with his life. However, after he had his first one-night stand, his career plan changed.

While his epiphany wasn’t exactly to become a male escort, after that experience he truly embraced his passion for entertainment writing. He recounted the details of the night with a few pages of text and e-mailed it out to his close friends. Although the girl probably wouldn’t have appreciated such an explicit account, the reception from taking a fairly common occurrence and infusing it with raunchy details and witty comparisons was enough to encourage Strausbaugh to sally forth.

From this meager beginning, Strausbaugh developed a very particular writing style. He recalls a distinct change in his college essays at the time:

“I thought, what if I just write how I want, with more personality, and see what happens?”

This initiative led to a mission involving seven guys in a Blacksburg apartment armed with a box of Franzia, a pen and some paper. Following a week’s worth of drunken debauchery, the wine was used to ward off the inevitable, earth-shaking hangovers that had been two steps behind them all the way home from Panama City. The pen and paper? That would eventually become Strausbaugh’s first book, “Beer and Loathing in Panama City.”

While the majority of college students have learned to adopt a strict “what happens on spring break, stays on spring break” policy, for one ODU student and six Hokies, their adventures called for the exact opposite: a recount so thorough, so epic it deserved publishing, even at the risk of landing in the hands of every girlfriend, mother and grandma they left behind in Virginia who still maintain a vision of their tame behavior sprinkled with a few wine
coolers.

After that initial night, Strausbaugh spent the remaining weeks at ODU writing, whether in class or on the beach. The only times he took to pause were in order to cure the occasional writer’s block with a quick phone call to ask questions such as, “Phil, when was the sex wheel contest, Wednesday or Thursday?”

Finally developing after lots of hard work, dedication and hazy recaps, “Beer and Loathing” is a complete and honest account of a college student’s rite of passage. It is that familiar mix of beer, beach, sun and liquor that has come to define spring break — a week where inhibitions are traded for cheap cover charges and no one asks twice about a case race at sunrise.

Strausbaugh, not quite a seasoned veteran but at least a survivor, offers the best advice he can to spring break virgins beginning to plan for their own unforgettable adventure with his line, “Rule number one: don’t get arrested; lawyers are more expensive than lap dances.” However, he also doesn’t neglect the essentials: “Oh, and bring your bathing suit. Leave your conscience
at home.”

BOTTOM LINE:

“Beer and Loathing” is littered with compelling descriptions, extensive cultural knowledge and surprising inspiration. Strausbaugh’s writing is boldly intelligent, repulsive yet addictive. It’s a full 87 pages of debauchery to inspire even those with the weakest tolerance to call a few buddies and have a case race.

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“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter S. Thompson
Synopsis: The first experiment in Thompson’s legendary gonzo journalism takes readers on a frantic trip into the one of the world’s most notorious cities.

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